🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <46o8k2$2oc@netnews.upenn.edu>,
Michael Ernst <mernst@force.stwing.upenn.edu> wrote:
>NEWS 79713 (news79713@aol.com) wrote:
>: First prize is a week in Philadelphia.  Second prize is two weeks in
>: Philadelphia.
>
>As a Southern Californian who goes to school in Philadelphia, let me add
>two words of advice to those contemplating visiting the birth place of 
>our nation - Don't come.
>
	When these wonderful examples of sophomoric humor began to grace
this newsgroup regarding Philadelphia, I resisted the impulse to hit
the 'reply' key and set things straight. I figured that the moronic
humor would run its course, and that would be the end of it.
	Well, it hasn't and I'm really sick of the groundless Philadelphia
bashing that's taking place here. I was born and raised in northwest
Philadelphia. I lived there for 17 years before moving to west Philadelphia
to attend school at Drexel University, which is across the street from
the University of Pennsylvania (more or less).
	And now I'm in northern California for graduate school and I miss
Philadelphia for various reasons that you goobers probably couldn't
appreciate:
	o Waking up early on a Sunday morning and heading down to Penn's
Landing to enjoy the breeze coming off the water.
	o Independence Square, and the feud between the two Benjamin
Franklins.
	o The used book store at 5th and South Sts.
	o Pat's. Or even Billy-Bob's. Why is the concept of a "cheesesteak"
so alien to people on the west coast? Or at least the concept of a
properly done cheesesteak?
	o Driving frantically up and down the Roosevelt Expressway trying
to pick up people that lived in Northeast Philly.
	o Having a conversation with someone standing in the same line
as you for no reason whatsoever.
	o Homeless people that are really homeless, and not some punk
15 year old who thinks it's cool to live on the street and hassle people
for spare change for beer.
	o That movie theater in back of the Bourse Bldg.
	o Having days off from school for, *gasp*, snow. And not just a
dusting of snow, but two feet that traps you in your apartment for a week
and shuts down the whole eastern seaboard.

	And I could go on for another three pages. But I have class, and
I suspect that goobers who can't appreciate the charm of a large 200+ year
old city won't appreciate it even if I sit here and explain it to them.
	But know this: if I was a CS major, instead of an EE,
or at least had some knowledge of common algorithms, I'd be at the
Berkeley ACM competition tomorrow, programming by the sweat of my brow
in the desperate hope of making the local team, and going to Philly for
nationals, if for no other reason than to show out-of-towners how to
have a good time.


					Yours truly,


					Rob Blasi
-- 
--
    Robert S. Blasi, II			| "Be wiser than other people, if you 
    Drexel University, B.S.E.E. '95	|    can, but do not tell them so."
    Grad. student, Berkeley, Robotics	|            --Lord Chesterfield