Memorial Day at the Museum

Today I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's an impressive looking building that you've probably seen before - those are the steps Rocky ran up. I didn't run up them because I was wearing things but I did have to walk up. Apparently the building's famous for the movie even among the locals so they put up a statue.

It's an enormous museum with quite a few famous paintings (Monets, Renoirs, a couple of van Goghs) but it was laid out a bit strangely with paintings, statues and antique furniture all together in a room without anything tying them together.

Olde Philadelphia

Today I went to the American Philosophical Society to use their library. It was a bit stricter than archives I had used before. After I introduced myself as a PACHS fellow they asked for two forms of ID and had me create a username and password for a library user account then gave me a magnetic card to hang around my neck for the day, so I could beep open the doors. Once in the reading room, books had to be requested electronically. But one librarian was very nice and, when I told him that my research intersected with Ben Franklin's stay in France he relished the opportunity to wax lyrical about Franklin's dalliances with aristocratic French ladies. It must be true, I saw for myself in his correspondence that they all addressed him as "Papa". He's very well thought of in Philadelphia too. That statue on the building is Franklin as a Roman and there's a life-sized statue of him seated on a bench at UPenn as well as busts everywhere.

I also went to the mint (because it is closed weekends). I don't have any photos of that to post because taking photos is banned, they even threaten to prosecute any caught trying! Actually, this didn't surprise me so much because a couple of days ago I heard someone discussing how it's illegal to have images of US currency. She was complaining that she tried to scan a dollar bill to use on a poster or something but Photoshop refused to abet her! The mint wasn't that interesting and you couldn't see much happening in the machines but it was free.

Another thing you see in that part of town is horse-drawn carriages. Unlike New York, there's no Central Park so I figure they must be doing historical tours of the buildings etc. (that would explain why some of the female drivers are dressed up like Betsy Ross). Last time I was there I noticed someone holding a sign in protest against the carriage rides, it said something about it being an archaic and cruel practice to make animals pull vehicles. But there was someone else holding another sign explaining that these horses had been rescued from slaughter (it didn't explain why they were destined for slaughter in the first place). I wished I had Cindy with me so she could tell them that sending horses to an abattoir is not a waste if they end up on her plate!

Fringe Benefits

Tonight the CHF took all the fellows out to dinner. Actually, I'm not a CHF fellow yet but they were generous enough to shout the PACHS fellows too. (The other PACHS fellow compared this to treating step-children well, which raises interesting questions about her childhood.)

We went to a nice Italian restaurant in the old part of town, Penn's Landing. The set menu had four courses and one of the choices for the main was saltimbocca, so it wasn't hard for me to choose. But I overheard some of the others muttering about the veal option; for some reason many Americans think that it's less humane to eat animals when they're young. Actually, when I gave it a little thought, I realised that it's probably been a few years since I've eaten veal because I never see it in the supermarket or on menus (we don't really go to Italian restaurants and pubs here don't sell schnitzels). I guess that makes it rarer than lamb even!

The other good thing about the dinner was that wine was included. In America it's pretty common for diners to offer bottomless cups of coffee and fast food places to have free refills on fountain soft-drinks but this was the first time I'd heard of a restaurant offering bottomless glasses of wine! Just like at a diner, the waitresses came around topping up our glasses whenever the level dropped.

South Philly

Today I caught the bus (for the first time; it takes the same tokens as the subway, so it was easy) to the "Italian Market" district of South Philly. I've started going to a French table here to keep up my speaking skills and this week they met in a little café run by an eccentric Frenchman. This café reminded me a little of the Runcible Spoon, it's decorated very eccelectically with French and international posters and the toilet has photos all over the walls. Worse, it's under the stairs, which means you run the risk of hitting your head if you get too close.

While I was in that part of town I managed to cross something off my Philly to-do list - a Philly cheesesteak from Pat's Steaks. The queue went right around the block but it only took about 20 mins or so. The sandwich itself was ok but not great; it was a bit like a roast beef roll from an Australian carvery but without any real gravy. I got it with provolone cheese and "peppers" but it didn't add all that much to the taste, I think they're meant to be just bland and meaty. Apparently there's an ongoing rivalry between Pat's and Geno's across the street so when I got to the French group I asked some locals their opinion. Instead of telling me to go to one or the other, three of them rattled off a list of a dozen other places all over Philadelphia where you can get better cheesesteaks.

And, being in the Italian quarter, I was lucky enough to find an Italian grocer that stocked chinotto, one of the things I miss living in Bloomington.

Philanthropy

American Universities rely on philanthropy more than Australian ones. In Australia there's plenty of named scholarships and prizes as well as a few named chairs. At IU there's tons of named professorships and a number of "schools" (more like faculties) that are named after generous donors, e.g. the Kelley School of Business, the Maurer School of Law, and John Cougar Mellencamp donated enough money for a pavilion.

For some reason many of the donations come from "the class of..." At IU there's a few stone gateways and the like with years written on them but here at the University of Pennsylvania (an Ivy League university) the alumni can afford to buy nicer things. In the library there's a very plush reading room with slate-topped desks, reading lamps, a grandfather clock, sofas, armchairs and ottomans; all donated by the class of 1937 on their 50th reunion. And the class of 1920 donated a "commons", which seems to be a building with a food court and open spaces.

But it's funny the little things that get donated. Today when I was taking a leak I looked up and, instead of an ad, a little silver plaque saying:

The relief you are now experiencing is made possible by a gift from Michael Zinman.

I didn't have a camera on me but apparently someone else did:

The City of Brotherly Love

Yesterday I left Bloomington and came to Philadelphia. I'll be here for 3 months this summer on fellowships from the Philadelphia Area Centre for the History of Science and the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

It was planes, trains and automobiles yesterday: car to Indianapolis, plane to Philadelphia, a train downtown, then a metro. We were a bit rushed getting from IHOP to the airport. I rushed to check my bags, there was a bit of a delay getting to security and after I passed the metal detector I was randomly selected for an extra scan. Then they had to search my bag because a stack of papers in there was thick enough to stop the x-rays, while in there the guy got suspicious of my tin of teabags and decided to swab it to test for explosives. But, naturally, the plane didn't board on time so I had 10 min to spare.

I'm staying in a share-house on the west side of town, near the University of Pennsylvania. It's very close to metro, which will be convenient when I need to go into the city for the CHF. It must be a very multi-cultural neighbourhood because even the normal mainstream supermarket stocks lots more exotic food than in Bloomington, especially West Indian and Middle-Eastern food.

Today I took a walk around the UPenn campus. It's like a cross between Sydney Uni and UTS, it has busy roads running through, lots of private shops etc. But there is some parkland interspersed. In one park I saw a guy had brought his own hammock and strung it between two trees so he could lie back and read his Kindle. And there's another university, Drexel, just across the road. No wonder they call it university city.