The Bibliothecary

Who the hell is this guy?Here are some links about the Philadelphia Poe, as well as the Poe War.  

The piece that started the war in which I claim Poe for Philly: We're Taking Poe Back

The Emmy Award winning short film on Poe's time in Philadelphia

NPR reported on the Poe War: Philadelphia, Baltimore Battle Over Edgar Allan Poe

The New York Times article on the Poe War: Baltimore has Poe; Philadelphia Wants Him

At the Free Library of Philadelphia, the gloves came off for the Great Poe Debate

The Philly Poe House at 7th & Spring Garden Sts.

The Philadelphia Gothic Exhibit at the Library Company of Philadelphia

My talk at the Library Co about Poe and Philadelphia Gothic (scroll down to find it)

My piece from a few years ago about Philly porno-gothic novelist and friend of Poe, George Lippard

If you want to read Poe's works, the best place on the web is the Baltimore Poe Society's site

And there are lots more links on the left sidebar.  

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!Your Philadelphia column should be 700-800 words on any topic concerning Philadelphia.  You could focus on an issue or a current news event.  You could just tell a story about a particular Philadelphian or yourself.  As long as it's a relevant issue to a contemporary newspaper reader. 

Remember, don't go overboard on arguing a position on an issue.  We're telling stories here.  The relevance to the big picture should lie underneath your story.  Here's Pete Hamill from the introduction to Pete Dexter's collection of columns, Paper Trails:

The local columnist writes for the guy beside him in the subway car or the bus, the woman in front of him on the line at a supermarket, the teacher crossing the schoolyard.  Such columns are built on a sense of place, a feel for the local (not the parochial), and the belief that the best stories might lie right around the corner. (p. xii)

And here's Christopher Morley from his column, "Sauntering":

I love to annotate the phenomena of the city.  I can be as solitary in a city street as ever Thoreau was in Walden. . . And as one walks and speculates among all this visible panorama, beating one's brains to catch some passing snapshots of it, watching, listening, imagining, the whole hullabaloo becomes extraordinarily precious.  The great faulty hodge-podge of the city, its very pavements and house-corners, becomes vividly dear.  One longs to clutch the whole meaning in some sudden embrace--to utter some testament of affection that will speak plain truth.

Tell me your stories.  Annotate the phenomena of Philly.

In honor of National Punctuation Day (September 24) and it's Punctuation Bake-Off Competition, you'll be doing a little baking of your own.  For your fourth Scribbler, please write 250 words on food (eating, cooking, anything involving food) and include the following punctuation ingredients:

Blend in 20-30 commas

Fold in at least 4 semi-colons

Add a dash of at least 2 colons

Top with at least 3-5 apostrophes

Bake at 250 words

You must use all of your punctuation correctly.  For help, consult Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots & Leaves or use the National Punctuation Day website (just click on each punctuation icon for usage rules and examples).  You can find further resources here.

And here's a little help from the old Electric Company's musical Punctuation Brothers (I wonder what instrument they'd play for the semi-colon?):

For Essay 2, you'll be writing a Philadelphia newspaper column.  I'd like you to try to get the personalDexter during his time in Philly tone and style of a local columnist.  We'll be looking at columnists from the past, Pete Dexter and Christopher Morley and one from the present of your own choosing. 

When finished, the assignment will be 700-800 words long.  But to begin, I'd like you to write the first 100-200 words, the introduction or opening of your column.  This means you'll have to decide what you're going to write about first.  An encounter on the street, an issue that affects Philadelphia. 

But remember, we're going to try to relate the issue to everyday life.  I don't want a position piece, in which you debate the merits or shortcomings of an issue.  Think about how Pete Dexter described his encounter with the hungry boy outside a Church's Chicken.  Dexter told a story and did not directly talk about homelessness, hunger, begging.  That's the approach I want you to take. 

Also, I don't want a typical sports column about how a team is playing.  But you can write about an issue related to sports.  For example, a description of tailgaters at an Eagles game or even just a group of friends watching a game would be fair game for a column.  Even a piece on the fans' attitudes to Michael Vick.  But you can't just write about a player or team's performance.  The piece needs to have a human narrative element.  Again, think of the Dexter piece.  Imagine him writing a column about kids playing a game of football or stickball in the street.  Maybe one of them is wearing a Vick or a McNabb jersey.  This could be a column about the innocence of sports and how it is sullied by hero worship or a superstar athlete fallen from grace.  But you wouldn't directly write about the pros and cons of that issue.  Just let the story take hold of you.

You all have your own stories to tell.  So let's hear them.

To find a contemporary columnist, here are the Inquirer's Metro columnists:

Karen Heller

Daniel Rubin

Annette John-Hall

Monica Yant Kinney

and here are a couple Daily News columnists:

Ronnie Polaneczky

Elmer Smith

There are other local columnists, as well.  Remember to pick one that does what we're doing, tells a story about a local person or community issue. 

Digging by Seamus Heaney

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.

 - from Death of a Naturalist (1966)

Seamus Heaney's poem, "Digging," is an extended metaphor for the author's own writing.  In it he reminisces about the manual labor of both his father and grandfather, cutting peat from the turf in Ireland, and his own "digging" that he does with his pen in his poems. 

For Scribbler 3, I'd like you to find a metaphor for writing in your own life and write 250 words (in prose) on it.  Choose an everyday activity like washing the dishes or doing the laundry.  Maybe playing a particular game with your child.  Or perhaps an activity you do for your job.  Anything at all.  Write in detail about the activity and then at the end show how it works as a metaphor for your own writing. 

Here's an excellent piece about Heaney by Adam Kirsch: "Seamus Heaney, Digging with the Pen."  And you can listen to Heaney reading more of his poetry at The Poetry Archive.  And here's a montage video of Heaney reciting the poem: