Civic Life

• Garden Court Community Association general meeting • 7 p.m. • Community College of Philadelphia West Regional Center (4725 Chestnut St.)

The main item on the agenda is a discussion about “aging in place” – how to assist senior members of the community to stay in their homes. Several guest speakers will be on hand to talk about everything from housing plans to simple repair and maintenance assistance.

Arts and Music

• Luis Bravo’s Forever Tango • Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (3680 Walnut St.) • 7:30 p.m. • Tickets: $38-$58.

For tango lovers, or even tango likers. This show features all the extravagance that is tango and Argentina.

• Flat Mary Road/Charles Latham/Sour Mash • Green Line Cafe (4426 Locust St.) • 7 p.m. • Cover: $5-$10 sliding scale • All ages.

• Camerata Philadelphia • University City Series at West Catholic Conservatory Recital Hall and Auditorium (4501 Chestnut St.) • 8 p.m. • Tickets: $20 general admission, $10 students/seniors.

The orchestra will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quintet in E-flat for Horn & Strings, K. 407, Dmitri Shostakovich Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a, Franz Joseph Haydn Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major, Op. 101, Hob. VIIb:2.

Food and Drink

• Malt Enthusiast Lew Bryson • Pennsylvania Breweries update book signing • Dock Street Brewery (701 South 50th St.) • 7 p.m. • Free

The beer and whiskey man will be signing updated copies of his literary beer tour of the Commonwealth. Dock Street and Four Worlds Bakery will also debut a new bread, Dock Street Beer Bread, which will be available for tasting during the signing.

Diners and pedestrians at the McDonald’s at 40th and Walnut Streets felt the wrath of PETA first-hand at lunchtime today when a pink stretch Hummer limo unloaded a small chanting, dancing troupe of little people dressed as chickens (and one had a mustache) at the restaurant to protest suppliers’ treatment of chickens.

Each of the four performers chanted, “Cluck you McDonald’s, I’m not a nugget” while other protesters held up signs. One even did a robot dance to the loud music coming from a boom box sitting on the sidewalk. Similar protests have been done in New York, including one at a McDonald’s on Times Square.

Cindy Miller was kind enough to pass along  about 10 photographs from various time periods. We will post them occasionally. If you want them all, write editor [at] westphillylocal.com.

The Spruce Hill Community Association recently hung the receipts for voting in their precinct in organization’s front window at 257 South 45th St. Voters in West Philadelphia went overwhelmingly for Democrats Joe Sestak and Dan Onorato for U.S. Senate and Pennsylvania governor respectively. Both men lost, of course, in the November 2 election.

Construction of the new playground at Alexander Wilson Elementary School (1300 South 46th), a project that has been years in the making, began today.
A member of the construction crew that was beginning to assemble the playground equipment said that phase would be done by Friday, “if all goes well.” Another crew will then lay down a rubber ground surface.
The playground has been near the top of the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) wish list for many years and became a reality after a $50,000 grant from the Hamels Foundation, the charitable organization run by Phillies Pitcher Cole Hamels and his wife Heidi. The grant was the Foundation’s largest made to a Philadelphia public school this year. Mary Goldman of the SHCA’s Youth and Education Committee was instrumental in arranging the funding for the playground. Community members from the school and a variety of organizations have been raising funds for the playground for about 20 years.
The 183-square-foot facility will provide 21 activities and will be able to accommodate about 70 children at a time.


Teddy is a tabby (striped) kitty, long, with white paws and nose, about 12 lbs. His right ear is notched at the tip. He has no collar. He is an indoor-outdoor kitty who has lived on the 4500 block of Regent (between Chester and Kingsessing) since April ’09. He hasn’t been seen since Saturday (Nov. 13) afternoon. He is very friendly, fixed and microchipped, and up to date on his vaccines. He roams between the park and 46th, Chester & Kingsessing. His owner fears he may have been injured.

If you think you have seen him since Nov. 13, please call Barbara at 215-386-6461.