Philadelphia Ten Best/Ten Worst

In my continuing efforts to cultivate a meme...

Top Ten Best Things About Philadelphia

1. The Bike Stop! The Bike Stop is a good old fashioned leatherbar, as in, a place where men in leather meet, drink beer, smoke cigars, and talk.

2. Uh... Umm... The Liberty Bell! And, y'know, history stuff.

3. Rittenhouse Square is one of the best city parks I know of. A beautiful place to smoke a cigar.

4. I. Goldbergs! They've kept me in boots since I was in high school. It's a great place. I always wished that NYC had an I. Goldbergs, but they totally don't.

5. There are so many great restaurants that a boy has no problem finding a good place to go with his Sir for dinner.

6. There are two museums of medical abnormalities in Philadelphia. Many cities get by without any at all, but Philadelphia seems to see the need for two of them. And, there's Eastern Penitentiary. And the Barnes Collection. And at the Rodin museum, you'll find the largest collection of Rodin's work outside of France.

7. You can smoke there.

8. I mentioned the Liberty Bell, right?

9. Black Cat cigars would be one! Although, I'm liking the Cigar Parlor in Doylestown a lot more.

10. Love them cheesesteaks!


Well that was like pulling teeth from chickens.

Somethin tells me that this part might be a little bit easier.

Ten Worst Things About Philadelphia

1. The City of the Sidelong Glances. There's this weird thing in Philadelphia. Maybe because most of the men hail from smaller towns in the burbs. But the rule seems to be Never Ever Let Him Know You're Into Him. The whole Woof Phenomenon? It hasn't happened in Philadelphia yet. And probably never will. It seems that there's just way too much to risk in making your desires known. Better to spend a couple of decades watching him out of the corner of your eye than to walk over and offer to buy him a beer.

2. There is nowhere to have brunch in Philadelphia. What the fuck is up with that?

3. The Noah's Arc phenomenon. There are, for example, two Bear groups in Philadelphia. There were two ACT UP chapters (before that became cool). Philadelphia gives birth astride the grave. (Great image, huh? It's Yeats.) Got a good idea? There's gonna be somebody there to decide that they're gonna set up a rival operation. Back in 1989, the Baron wondered why there was no Pride parade in Philadelphia. So he took it upon himself to start one. He got a permit, put up handmade signs all over the city, got some local bar owners to foot some of the bills, and it was a great day. The next year, he decided to make it more of a community thing. He convened a committee to help him organize the second Pride parade. At the second meeting, they threw the Baron off the committee. What's up with that?

4. The city itself is pretty much a hole. Most of the men you'd want to meet live in the farflung suburbs. So if you want to hook up, you're looking at a drive of an hour and a half.

5. Parking used to be easy. No more.

6. Philadelphia is 90 miles south of New York City. Most everybody with any aspirations or sense of self worth gets the hell out of there and heads up the Jersey Turnpike. The men left behind resent this, and so, if it happens in NYC, they don't want to see it in Philadelphia. Weird weird weird weird.

7. Most of the men have this odd rabbity look to them. Don't get that.

8. All the guys are like 24 years old. Seriously.

9. Not a lot of tourist leathermen coming through town, since there's not a lot of reason to go there. So there's not much in the way of variety.

10. There's no place to buy leather.

Oh. And Philly teams always choke.

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