dogs: Philadelphia Metropolis

Reading the City

By Samantha Kirk» My father, a Navy veteran and contented suburban Maryland home-dweller, has trouble understanding why I love the city. When I talk about the row house I'm moving into in North Philadelphia, with its bathroom window offering an unobstructed view of the neighbor's bedroom, its crumbling drywall, its nightly chorus of stray cats, he waxes poetic about the Jeffersonian virtues of the countryside and the joys of homesteading. He knows I love the wilderness and the country; so why, he asks, have I spent most of my adult life seeking out the experience of the city? It's true that I am quite the nature lover. I hike, I climb rocks, I garden; plant identification is one of my hobbies. Being able to read a forest or meadow by the leaf shapes hidden within it is a wonderful thing. Much, in fact, like walking down a city (Comments)

TastyKakes and Tofu

Best of VoxPop» My foray into veganism started in September when I sat down to watch Oprah reruns and put off looking for a job. Alicia Silverstone was on promoting her new book about eating like a vegan called The Kind Diet, and I sat up and listened to what she had to say. After a summer of drinking, eating mostly slices of pepperoni pizza and cheesesteaks and bar hopping down the shore, any book with the word Diet in it made me pay attention because of the 10 pounds I had gainedaround the hip and ass region. When I thought "diet guru," the name Alicia Silverstone didn't exactly leap mind. I related her (Comments)

My Philadelphia: Lawndale

Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods and Metropolis is celebrating that fundamental Philly trait with six essays by some of our best writers about the places where they live. We also have collected work by local photographers, who live to shoot the city -- warts and all. Look for them at the end of each essay. My Philadelphia opens with Elizabeth McGinley writing about Lawndale, her adopted neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia. (Comments)

My Philadelphia: West Philly

By S.G. Grant» We continue our series of Cover Stories on Philadelphia neighborhoods with S.G. Grant's essay about West Philadelphia. It's not the buildings and the businesses that attracts her, but the people -- in all their varied forms, colors and origins. Read on for Grant's census of modern West Philadelphia (Comments)

Like Father, Like Daughter

By Kat Richter» When I moved back home upon completing my masters degree, I began to worry that I was turning into my mother. We look alike, we dress alike (thanks to her seemingly endless supply of clothes-I-like-better-than-mine) and people mistake us for sisters all the time. It's not that I don't like my mom- she and my dad are both the youngest in their families so I usually tell people they're "52 going on 25"--but still, distancing oneself from one's parents is a rite of passage. Lately, however, I realized it's not my mom that I should be worried about. It's my dad. My dad is obsessed with dogs and enjoys few things more than striking up random conversations with complete strangers. This can make for rather awkward evenings out with my parents. (Comments)