Oh hi, Philadelphia. We’re back! There’s a lot of stuff to get to today — as well as some stragglers from Philly Internet History Week, which we hope you all enjoyed — but before we do, as we were doing some summer reading over the weekend, we came across this bit, which we just had to share:

[... He] just couldn’t believe Philly. He couldn’t believe what he and his Yardie crew could get away with. Once you were out of the downtown and the white districts you could more or less fire at will. [He] used to get his crew to wind down their windows on their work wagon and then they would just blast away, peppering the old brown buildings with 9mm rounds.
But mostly the hardware was just for show. The Yardies had such a bad reputation in Philly that they really didn’t have to do anyone much. So, it was like running any retail concern anywhere: stock control, margins, management problems. [He] got bored and then started to do things he shouldn’t. He still didn’t touch the product — he knew better than to do that — but he did worse.

– Will Self, “The Rock Of Crack As Big As The Ritz,” 1995

All of which is to say, same as it ever was, Philly. Just don’t get bored. Summer’s behind you, and we aim to set it off right this fall. And the hardware, of course, is just for show. We’re glad to be back.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 10:12 am.