Things about the Philadelphia Area that I appreciate and/or like

1. KYW 1060. Local 24-hour AM news with that reassuring clic-clic-clic omnipresent in the background. What local kid didn't grow up listening to that KYW jingle every snowy morning, just waiting for their number to be read off?

2. One Liberty Place and it's next-door baby brother. As far as skyscrapers go, I think that they beat anything up in New York.

3. The fact that up until the late 80's, William Penn was the tallest thing in the city.

4. City Hall is butt-ugly. It's not helped by the fact that it's perpetually encased in scaffolding. A little eyesore, big emphasis on a historical figure, always in need of repair, people love it anyway...yep, that's Philly.

5. Real rivers. At school, the Santa Fe River just doesn't cut it. The Delaware might be a little toxic, the Schuylkill has a name which is utterly baffling to non-natives, and in here on the Jersey side, the Cooper is kind of dinky. But I still like rivers.

6. The museums. They're all very expensive. Both my parents have lived in DC and I think always are doing the Smithsonian comparison. On the other hand, we've got a lot. Some are famous in their own right (the art museum, ignoring Rocky). Some are unique and true gems of Philly (the Franklin, the Mutter in all its creepy weirdness).

7. No city's sports teams suck quite as much as consistently as ours do. And yet, our fans are far more rabid than most places'.

8. Proximity to other cities. From the Philly area, New York and DC are pretty easy day trips - definite weekends, if you want to go broke. You can get up to Boston in a day, to Baltimore in less than that. If you feel an odd compulsion to go to the midwest, you can do that - Cleaveland's a day away, Chicago less than two. Really, every important city other than Miami and LA are within a day's drive (and that's important using my little East-coast-centric POV).

9. Dear god we pollute a lot. Not a good thing, but I must respect that.

10. The Philly authorities simulatneously hosted the X-games a few years ago and also pissed off every skater in the country.

11. Tons of newspapers in the area, ranging from major metro ones (Philadelphia Inquirer) to awesome alt-weeklies (PW), to fairly less-respectable locals (Courier Post). I like newspapers.

12. The Pennsauken Mart, it's incredibly creepy shabbiness (I wouldn't go in there alone if you payed me to do so), and the fact that so many people are getting all worked up about it's "future".