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Vigil tonight for Kingsessing shooting victims

Posted on 15 August 2013 by Mike Lyons

Here is a chance tonight to stand with your neighbors against violence in the neighborhoods.url

The Kingsessing Fifth Division Community of Neighbors is organizing a vigil at 6:30 p.m. at 1100 S. Divinity St., the site of multiple shootings earlier this week and last week. Here is a message from the organization:

“Violence has peaked its head once more as young men in our community are the victims of senseless violence. Come out on Thursday August 15, 2013 as we pray for peace in our streets. Come be with your neighbors, community leaders, and elected officials. We want to encourage our community that we still have work to do. Bring a balloon with you as we will release for peace.”

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Night at Penn Museum: popular kids’ sleepover program returns this fall

Posted on 15 August 2013 by WPL

Editor’s Note: West Philly Local contributor and West Philly resident Jen Horner and her son checked on Penn Museum’s 40 Winks with the Sphinx sleepover program a few months ago, but we didn’t get a chance to run the story about their experience because all subsequent sleepovers in the spring/summer were quickly sold out. As tickets for the Fall 2013 – Summer 2014 of 40 Winks with the Sphinx season go on sale today, we are publishing this story now.

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Photos by Jen Horner.

It’s funny: Ben Stiller has been very helpful to scientific institutions in their quest to reach young minds and generate new revenue streams. The 2006 movie Night at the Museum is not the only inspiration for overnight kids’ programs – the Franklin Institute has been doing it for years – but I did feel my life imitating art when I took a late night flashlight tour through the mummy chambers of the Penn Museum with my ten-year-old son. “Forty Winks with the Sphinx” is a popular monthly program for kids age 6-12, and while it plays on the premise of the movie, the grandeur of the museum and the enthusiasm of the staff override all residual cheesiness.

We found plenty to like about Forty Winks. From 5:30 until the first scheduled event of at 6:45 we had the run of the museum. Staff and security were on site, and as a bonus, things were set up for the next night’s crazy-lavish wedding. (There were gigantic crystal chandeliers and velvet drapes all over the Egyptian gallery). My son and I had fun following the scavenger hunt booklet. At 6:45, we convened in the auditorium for a short orientation followed by a live “game show” wherein kids examined artifacts from the museum and guessed what they were used for. This moved briskly but lasted long enough for most kids to get a chance on stage.

40winks3From 7:45 on, we were free to try four activities, eat dinner (we packed it ourselves), roam the museum, or actually watch the movie Night at the Museum. Of the lessons, we liked the cuneiform best – it’s the ancient Sumerian writing method of pressing patterns into clay. I cannot describe the satisfaction we felt when the instructor looked at my son’s finished clay tablet and read his name out loud! Where else could you meet a person literate in ancient Sumerian? We also learned some Egyptian hieroglyphics, and we had a chance to (respectfully) examine a real Peruvian mummy. Yoga was too crowded so we skipped it.

The best part of the night was the Expedition at 10. Everyone has to bring their own flashlight because they really do turn out the lights. Things were organized so that small groups moved through key exhibits without spoiling the illusion of being alone with the mummies in a vast, dark museum. I must say, the guides – mostly Penn graduate students – were very charming and smart, and good at talking with flashlights in their faces. There is a lot of truly cool stuff in the museum, plus my son met a fellow Angry Birds fan. By 11:30-ish, after negotiating the crowded restrooms, we ended up back in the Sphinx room for lights out.  Continue Reading

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Meet local police officers tonight in Clark Park

Posted on 15 August 2013 by WPL

The monthly community meeting with 18th District police officers, which usually takes place at the Calvary Center at 48th and Baltimore, will be held in Clark Park (43rd and Baltimore) tonight, beginning at 6 p.m. As always, Lt. Brian McBride and Sgt. Ron Washington of the University City Division of the Philadelphia 18th Police District will be there to answer your questions and hear your concerns and discuss crime in the area and other neighborhood issues.

Residents are also invited to meet police officers who work in the neighborhood during a public Police Roll Call at the park. Last month Cedar Park residents got a chance to meet and greet 18th District police officers at the public outdoor roll call (see photo below).

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Photo by Algernong Allen.

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Residents jump out windows to escape fire at an apartment building at 48th and Trinity; two people hurt

Posted on 14 August 2013 by WPL

UPDATE 3 (8/15/13): NBC10 reports that the cause of the fire at the New Horizons building at 48th and Trinity was arson. Fire brigades previously responded to the building for other suspicious fires, about five in the past year and two in the past month, according to neighbors.

UPDATE 2 (11:00 p.m.) We have received the following update from the Red Cross:

“Residents living on the affected 2nd floor will be provided lodging by the management company. Residents on other floors are allowed back into their homes, but anyone who decides not to stay, because of the lack of doors, will be assisted by the Red Cross with a place to stay. Responders on the scene are now determining how many people are choosing not to stay in their units.”

The Red Cross was assisting 28 people displaced by tonight’s fire with snacks, water, and blankets. The primary issue is that many apartments don’t have doors on them. Red Paw Relief members assisted with 11 cats and one rat.

UPDATE (9:30 p.m.): Red Paw Relief was on the scene to assist residents with their pets. Residents are waiting outside to learn whether they will be allowed back in the building tonight or put in a hotel by the building management.

A fire that broke out this evening at the New Horizons apartment building located on the 1000 block of 48th Street forced residents to jump out windows in an effort to escape the blaze. The fire reportedly started on the second floor of the building around 6:15 p.m. and some apartments sustained smoke damage.

Witnesses saw some residents jumping out windows in the back of the building. One of the people who jumped, a woman, was taken to the hospital with back pain, according to CBS Philly. Another person was taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation. The fire is currently under investigation.

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Twitter photo by Annamarya Scaccia.

 

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Café Renata gets a new look

Posted on 14 August 2013 by Mike Lyons

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Many of our readers expressed concern about Cafe Renata at 43rd and Locust being closed last week. So here’s what happened – Renata owners, Katie and Yasser, were doing a little facelift and also installed a new counter. Katie said that they moved the bar out of the center of the room and Yasser, actually, built the new bar and a bunch of tables himself with recycled pieces of wood. After the remodeling the cafe space for seating has increased by about 30%. The new counter and long table were made from salvaged trees and Yasser did the finishing work.

“We couldn’t have done it without the West Philly Tool Library. I think we borrowed a zillion different thingamajigs from them for this project,” said Katie in an email.

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Guitar offered to a good home

Posted on 14 August 2013 by Mike Lyons

Editor’s Note: This week we received a classified ad from neighbor Jena Laske, who was looking for a musician to take ownership of her father’s prized 12-string. We asked Jena to tell us more. She sent the note below.

Hi West Philly Folks,

dadI’m giving away my father’s 12 string Yamaha guitar. Just to let you know a little bit about my dad, his name was Thomas. He had a mass of curly red hair. When he was a teenager, he was quite a heartthrob and played and sang at small town bars around the Adirondack mountains where my grandparents had a cabin on Seventh Lake. He was only 22 when I was born and I have memories sitting on the floor as a youngster listening to him sing Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name” and an old folk song, “Froggy Went a ‘Courtin’.

I remember going with my Dad to pick out this guitar. It came with a case that was bright red and furry inside. Unfortunately, the stitches rotted a few years back and I left the case on 49th and Cedar for someone else to refurbish – so the guitar does not have a case.

My father died from cancer at 30 around 1979 or ’80. Although I have wanted to play his Yamaha for a long time, I just never learned to do it well.  I would like to offer this guitar to someone who really loves to play. It still resonates well, although there are slight issues with the neck which make the strings tight and hard to hold down.

If you are interested, please write me a short essay about why you want this guitar. You agree never to sell it, but to pass it on to a musician should you decide to part with it someday.

As my father would say, Sat Nam

Jena

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