• Though the recession has forced the city to stop funding the Parade’s prize money, the event, like 10 other parades throughout the year, is still publicly subsidized in the sense that Philly picks up the policing tab. The mayor’s office estimates the cost this year at $188,000, not including extra officers assigned to the “Two Street” after-party.

    Policing a parade (or “Two Street” or a Phillies game or Saturday night in Old City) is not a “subsidy”. It’s policing. It’s the city’s job. The parade could happen without the police and the police are here regardless of the parade.

    And really: the parade has been going on for 112 years. At this point, it should be built in to the police budget that every New Year’s Day there are going to be extra drunk jerks that need to be dealt with.

  • Sooner or later, every tasting menu in the world will be exactly the same, made up of One-World Modernist Fare cooked in industrial-size sous-vide machines out of a central commissary on Mars.

    —[20 Things Everyone Thinks About the Food World (But Nobody Will Say) FirstWeFeast.com](http://firstwefeast.com/eat/20-things-everyone-thinks-about-the-food-world-but-nobody-will-say/s/the-food-world-is-on-some-illuminati-shit-and-rene-redzepi-is-pulling-the-strings/)

  • In the ’90s, I was struck with a band called Skinny Puppy. All their vocals were destroyed with distortion. When Julian Casablancas of the Strokes was looking for a vocal sound, I showed him this sound like nuclear devastation. He said “That’s terrible. Can you just give me a sound like worn bluejeans?”

    —Who Made That? (Rat Distortion Pedal)

  • I’m surprised Jill Stein only swung two votes in my little nine-block division! 

    But what I really want to know is, who are the other three Libertarians?