American Chop Suey

As always, the What is dedicated to presenting you with colorful ideas for everyday life. Many of our ideas are food-related, because we love food. Learning how to cook for yourself now that you no longer have your mom or your meal plan to provide your meals can seem like a daunting task. We at the What are here to show you that cooking can be fun, easy, and rewarding by offering up recipes like this from our personal cookbooks. As is the case with most of our recipe-based ideas, this one is simple and delicious, just like us.

American Chop Suey

Recently I found myself lamenting that my cooking skills were limited to summertime meals and I began looking for different recipes to try out to expand my culinary horizons. Then I had American Chop Suey. This delectable dish, popular in the Northeastern section of the country, has always been a favorite of mine, yet for some reason, I had forgotten about it. The meal is incredibly simple to put together, and you likely already have everything you need to make it.

PRIMER - A Different Kind of Date Night

Click on the image above to see Patrick's latest article with Primer Magazine! For the Philadelphians, here are a few links to accompany the article:

Franklin Square - Great for mini-golf or just walking around
North Bowl - Lounge and lanes for a fun evening in NoLibs
Philadelphia Weekly - A handy guide to local events
Koresh Dance Company - Professional dance lessons
Brokeass Gourmet - Delicious recipes
The What's Recipes - Recipes from the What

Kicking Off December, Philly Style

With Thanksgiving looming just around the corner, many are excited about their plans for the weekend. Whether it be partying on Wednesday night, pigging out on Thursday, or shopping on Friday, everyone seems to be abuzz over the long weekend's events. However, in Philadelphia, there is much more to be excited about for the following weekend.

To begin with, there's Wednesday. Aside from kicking off the month of December, Wednesday also provides the opportunity to visit the Please Touch Museum on the cheap. Please Touch offers its First Wednesday deal of lowering the admission price for visitors over the age of one to just $2 between five and seven at night. It's fun for the family and easy on the wallet, a good way to start December.

The following evening may not be a family event, but is very fun and well worth the trip to South Street. On the first Thursday of every month one can catch Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound at the Tritone at 15th and South. You will be blown away by the amount of people at the bar, and even more blown away when you realize half of them are in the band. Swing by the Tritone on first Thursdays to enjoy fried pickles and the South Philly Special (Pa can of PBR and a shot of whiskey for three bucks) while enjoying the swinging jazz grooves of Zankel and his warriors.

If you are not familiar with what comes next, shame on you! On the first Friday of each month, several art galleries in Old City open their doors between 5 and 9PM for free. You can peruse the galleries, purchase original art, and mingle with an eclectic crowd. There are dozens of galleries to choose from, with most of them falling between Vine and Market Streets to the North and South and Front and Third Streets to the East and West. Plus, you will be right around the corner from fantastic restaurants like Positano Coast, the Race Street Cafe, and Q BBQ and Tequila.

The grand finale of this fun-filled extended weekend happens to be the unofficial kick off of the holiday season in Philadelphia. Elfreth's Alley presents its annual Deck the Alley celebration. In addition to the carolers and tours of many of the Alley's historic homes, this year the pot has been sweetened. Edward A. Mauger, author of Philadelphia Then and Now will be on hand signing copies of his book. Furthermore, a special deluxe package is being offered. For $135, you will get your ticket to Deck the Alley, a carriage ride through Old City and Society Hill to the Physick House, where refreshments will be served. From there, you will enjoy a meal at the legendary City Tavern. Remember, this is one of only two times this year that the residents of Elfreth's Alley will open their private, historic homes to the public, and tickets have been selling fast!

As we at the What have mentioned before, it is hard to rival the Philadelphia holiday season. The weekend following Thanksgiving is just the tip of the iceberg, as the City of Brotherly Love will be sure to keep you busy and full of holiday cheer for several weeks to come.

For more information:
First Wednesday at the Please Touch Museum
Tritone Events Schedule
First Friday
Deck the Alley

Weekly Top Five - 18.Nov.10

In  High Fidelity, the characters compare their top fives in a variety of categories. Being big fans of both the film and novel, we here at the What bring you our Weekly Top Five, a feature focused on five fantastic things that you should become familiar with.

Harry Potter Random Facts

 

 In honor of the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being released at midnight, The What decided to dig deep and pull up some interesting things that you may not have known about the Boy Who Lived and his story. J.K. Rowling's series is one of the most detailed, well-written and intricate stories ever told, and these are just a few of the reasons why.

5. Harry Potter is 30 - That's right, the Boy Who Lived is now a man. Harry's date of birth is 31.Jul.1980, meaning he just celebrated his thirtieth birthday earlier this summer. That means that the happenings of the epilogue to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not happen for another six years. Also, this puts the events of the Deathly Hallows in the 1996-97 school year.

4. There's science behind the magic - Many Harry Potter readers wish that the magical world they read about was real, when in many ways it is. A good portion of the book's lore has its roots in science. For instance, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded over a thousand years ago. Each founder not only had an animal to represent them, but an element as well. Gryffindor (lion/fire), Slytherin (serpent/water), Hufflepuff (badger/earth), and Ravenclaw (raven/air). Furthermore, the Philosopher's Stone refers to alchemy. Alchemy is the ancient study of the transformation of metals, and shares a root word with chemistry and algebra.

3. Birthdays and holidays hold much importance - As for birthdays, Harry, Ron, and Hermione each have a wand that refers to when they were born. Their wand cores almost serve as gemstones, but using the Celtic Tree Calendar instead. As for holidays, Christmas played a major part in each novel, save the last, and other holidays held significance as well. Fred and George Weasley were appropriately born on April Fool's Day and on a sadder note, Voldemort murdered James and Lily Potter on Halloween. And about that fateful Halloween night, the Potters were not in their thirties, as shown in the first film, they were both only 21 when they were killed.

2. Family and relationships are key - Throughout this epic tale, family has always been of the utmost importance. Voldemort became what he was based on his lack of a family and later orphaned Harry, creating his nemesis. It was clearly stressed throughout all seven books that it was his mother's love that gave Harry the protection against Voldemort. Even once the books were finished, Rowling kept going, mapping out the relationships of the surviving characters, which can be seen here.

1. The entire arc has been planned from day one - While there certainly are minor aspects of later novels that may not have been planned from the get go, the major plot line of the Harry Potter story was set in stone from the first book. One good example of this is Nearly Headless Nick's offhand mention of the Gray Lady being Ravenclaw's ghost in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She would not be mentioned again until page 613 of the Deathly Hallows. Another key moment in book one has Harry thinking to himself that he couldn't help but think that somehow Professor Snape could read minds, which, in a way, is true as Snape is a master of Legilimency and Occlumency.

The Lazy Journalism of Attacking Philadelphia Fans

Only in the world of sports journalism can one constantly rehash a tired issue mired with more opinion than fact, more hyperbole than actual reporting, and still remain employed. Such is the case with the constant lambasting of Philadelphia sports fans. Ladies and gentlemen of the sports media, enough is enough. It is time to move on and start using your time and your employer's money to actually cover the contests you are paid to cover, not reeditorialize a dead issue. And here are a few reasons why.

Philadelphia is not your scapegoat

Rooting for the Birds at the Linc.

Incidents involving unruly spectators at sporting events are not limited to one place, nor are they prevalent in one place more than others. New York, Chicago, and Detroit all have just as many, if not more, incidents as Philadelphia. In fact, throughout the baseball, hockey, and football seasons commentators ignore any negative behavior on the part of every other city's fans, from vulgar chants to items being thrown to the field, but their camera operators are quick to seek out Philly fans looking angry so the commentators can make an offhand remark about how terrible they are.

Your immaturity is (or should be) tarnishing your reputation
I, a Philadelphian and a die-hard sports fan, love Washington DC. It's a beautiful city with a fantastic Metro. I subscribed to the Post through email and am a rabid supporter of their MLS team, DC United. However, my Post subscription was quickly canceled once Mike Wise likened the women and children attending Flyers' games to security at a Megadeth concert. Wise, who was suspended earlier this year for a fake tweet about Ben Roethlisberger, received no such punishment for blatantly insulting women and children who did nothing but go to a hockey game to root for their team. Wise is certainly not the only so-called journalist guilty of such actions, as just as recently as last week Eagles fans were labeled as idiots on Yahoo Sports. There is no place for name-calling in journalism, it's unnecessary and embarrassing.

What really happened?

Celebrating the 2008 World Series win.

More often than not, what is reported is far from what actually happened. When Michael Irvin took a big hit and went down, yes, people cheered. However, once those of us in the stands realized he was hurt, we quieted down. In fact, in the section right above the hit (where I was sitting), we were gathered around a radio trying to hear from the announcers if he was going to be alright and clapped as he was taken from the field. A similar situation happened just last week at the game against the Colts. Wide receiver Austin Collie was hit and moments later, a flag hit the ground. In every single stadium in this country I have ever been to, the moment a penalty is called everyone's attention turns immediately to the big screen for a replay. On that day, the replay showed that the hit was legal, thus drawing boos from the crowd, who had yet to notice Collie was still ground. Once their attention returned to the field, they quieted down and clapped respectfully as Collie was taken from the field.

Philadelphians are not the problem
Take a look back over incidents that happened at Philadelphia sporting events over the past several years. From fools running onto the field to fights to drunken buffoons inducing vomiting, these people all have two things in common. One, they are an embarrassment to our fans, teams, and city. Two, they're not from Philadelphia. I know this is nitpicking, but as someone from Philadelphia who has also lived in the suburbs, I can tell you there are differences between the fans. The true Philadelphians are the fans who, if they can afford it, go to a game and stay to the bitter end, even when losing 42-0 in the snow on Monday Night Football. They're the fans who are among the most passionate and knowledgeable followers of any sport organizations. The people who cause the majority of the problems and bring embarrassment and shame are more often than not the people who buy season tickets because they can, go to games to party and not to root for the team, and either leave or cause trouble when things are not going their way.

I hope that journalists and commentators begin to cover Philadelphia sports more objectively. I've been to Philly sporting events supporting the home team as well as vehemently rooting against Philly in certain sports while decked out in the other teams' colors. In either circumstance, I have never had an issue with any other fan, and more often than not, I see fans from out of town chatting amiably with the Philadelphia fans sitting by them, discussing everything from sports, sightseeing in the city, and how wonderful cheesesteaks can be.

So yes, Philadelphia fans are passionate. And yes, we will cheer our athletes when they win for us and boo them when they lose, but we'll also be the first to defend them from outside attacks. Philadelphia is a beautiful city with a wonderfully diverse and incredibly welcoming population, and it deserves much better than what it has received from the biased world of sports journalism.