Zipping Around Philadelphia

We spent some time over two days knocking off some more items on our Philadelphia list. Even thought its slogan is “the City of Brotherly Love,” the quote below about Philly made me laugh, it’s definitely true. Anyway, here’s a few random items from around or relating to Philly.

Philadelphia fans would boo funerals, an Easter egg hunt, a parade of armless war vets and the Liberty Bell.
Bo Belinsky, American Baseball Player

Art on the Streets

*Benjamin Franklin, Craftsman (or Young Ben Franklin)*, Joseph Brown, 1981.

*Three Discs, One Lacking*, Alexander Calder, circa 1968. This Calder is the grandson of the Alexander Calder who did all the sculptures at City Hall.

Eatin’ and Drinkin’

We went to the Franklin Fountain to get “egg creams,” which were described as “a fizzy, chocolate drink.” I like chocolate, and “cream” implied rich goodness to me. However, it turns out that it was a rather weak blend of seltzer, milk, and chocolate syrup, not very exciting at all.

This, my friends, is a Pumpple Cake, which we got from its creator, the Flying Monkey Bakery. Called the “dessert equivalent of a turducken,” it’s a chocolate cake layer with a pumpkin pie baked inside, layered with a vanilla cake with an apple pie baked inside. It’s all held together with buttercream frosting. It was not as exciting as we’d hoped, to be honest.

The Mütter Museum

Doug and I both have had the Mütter Museum on our radar for a while now. In anticipation of going, we listened to an audiobook about Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter (1811 – 1859), which was a very interesting look at a man with endless curiosity. He worked tirelessly to help people whose lives were truly suffering, from deformities to badly healed burns to out-of-control tumors.

He had a collection of medical oddities, some of which can be viewed at the Mutter Museum (alas, no pictures are allowed). Honestly, the museum borders on freak show, with distorted skeletons and specimen jars full of tumors and misshaped organs. The museum fully acknowledges its borderline status, but it still felt a bit much. One of the items on display, for instance, is a tumor removed from President Grover Cleveland; there’s a sign justifying it due to the “historical and political significance” of it. Really? Come on. Of course, Doug added it to his list of Presidential Sites, I think just so he could immediately check it as “visited.”