I have lost count of how many times I have written about the Joseph Price House in Exton at 401 Clover Mill Rd, Exton, PA 19341 on the corner of S. Whitford Road. It has been on my mind because of the weather lately. Especially with all of the flooding and downed trees around S. Whitford Road.
So here’s the house….continuing to rot. I last wrote about it in October, 2023.
I wish some newspaper writer or TV reporter would take a break from murders, Trump, snow, etc. and focus on the serious lack of preservation by some property owners in Southeastern PA with regard to historic structures like this house, which is recognized as a historic asset by the federal government as well.
It’s her birthday and she would like you to support her financially? I will start once again by saying I have no problem supporting farmers and agriculture non-profits. I don’t care what the races, creeds, or colors are of farmers. I am not going to be somewhat ignorant in perception about that like Ms. Jawn makes people feel for essentially not looking like her. And yes I said that out loud because it’s not right. And yes I can indeed express that. Expressing how what I see put out there makes me feel is just that: saying how someone or something makes me feel. Nothing more, nothing less.
So we will start with the entities in the Jawn Universe.
Soooo. Viva Tea Leaf? Website is gone.
I can tell you again I tried the lavender infused honey which was not the greatest honey with a sprig of lavender in the top of the jar. It was in an basket of things I won in a silent auction that the West Chester Food Co-Op had provided. It was ick enough that I threw it out. (It was the only thing that I tossed out from that basket, incidentally. ) This was well before I even heard of anything Jawn.
The store address is now someone else’s business, a masseuse. So this also means it is not the location of Farmer Jawn Greenery any longer, nor should it be the legal address of her non-profit which is still showing incomplete information on the PA Charity website, right?
What little farm in Germantown? (I found that DiBruno’s still has the lavender honey on their website. And it’s $13.99 for 4.5 ounces of we do not actually know where everything comes from. ) One of the more beneficial things about organic honey is buying local honey because it helps with things like allergies because the bees are helping you build up your immunity from eco systems in your area. So whose honey is it?
Updates include it looks like Farmer Jawn Foods was created this past October of 2023. I have no issue with that except for the address. What will be interesting is if it will be disclosed where food is from since the organic of it all for farming at Westtown is still a couple of years out for her. Of course, it makes you wonder how much rent is being paid, what the rent is, that is being paid and all sorts of other things because that’s a big chunk of land correct?
This leads us to the CSA. To a lot of people, the prices are going to be expensive, but honestly that’s kind of what CSA cost these days. The price range puts the Farmer Jawn CSA subscription costs, towards the higher end, but not the highest out there.
What I would like to see is where exactly food is coming from because I have been part of CSA’s before. And I still get farm share boxes weekly, and when I get them, they tell me who the producers are. As in what farms. And I think that is especially important because if you love farmers and you’re involved in a business model like this, you want to help those farmers and their vegetables in your CSA boxes is a big part of their marketing and yours.
But I like to know where things are coming from. I want to know what other farms are participating when I personally invest in a CSA or farm share. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. Just like I don’t think it’s too much to ask at this point that she post her form 990s if they exist as a nonprofit people need to see those things because otherwise then you just wonder where the money’s going. I don’t give anything to nonprofits where I can’t look up a form 990.
Hopefully, this will be a better year than the first “season“ at the old Farmer Pete’s which left a lot to be desired. And part of what left a lot to be desired was the pricing, and the fact that all the advertised open hours they advertised they weren’t actually open.
OK go ahead haters. I am ready for my scarlet B for bitchy blogger. If that’s what some of you think because I wrote this post, I can’t really help you. But it’s something I continue to wonder about and I’m not asking or saying anything wrong.
Caveat emptor.
Enjoy the sunshine today. It is cold and a little slippery in spots, however.
Honestly….you just can’t make this stuff up if you tried. The latest tempest in a misplaced sense of entitlement teapot in Willistown Township, Chester County is because the township is essentially calling for resident decorum at township meetings. Basic Roberts Rules of Order, truthfully.
Shock and horrors, the overly entitled meeting savages are being told that people have to act like grown-ups. You would think someone was being put in a pillory wearing a scarlet letter. It’s hysterical.
“We are not most places.” That, dear readers, sums it all up. Utter misplaced sense of entitlement and we are all peasants by comparison.
So now we know the natives are restless once again in Willistown Township.
I had to laugh when I started to read this commentary above because this is kind of the way a lot of municipalities operate. And the reason this is happening in Willistown is because sometimes the residents are so incredibly rude when they are speaking.
I completely understand being passionate about something, but you have these people in Willistown that literally monopolize the meetings and have misplaced sense of entitlement.
And in the same vein, they are horribly rude to the manager and other staff at the meeting as well as the supervisors.
Now, I totally get being terse addressing elected officials as some of them can just make you crazy, but they take it to a whole new level.
And some of the former main sewer rats, whom you thought would sort of calm down after the sewer sale was yanked, still monopolize every meeting and they don’t just speak once or twice they go on and on, and on a lot of the time. They interrupt, they interject, they act like they run that township, and they do not. Whatever points they’re trying to make get lost in translation every meeting and if you’re watching the meeting you just sit there thinking it would be more fun sticking needles in your eye.
At some point towards the end of 2023 they were incredibly vile to the new township manager. I forget which meeting it was, but it was on a recording and it was just terrible so this is a Roberts Rules of Order they reap what they sow.
I will tell you what bothers me honestly is the fact that Willistown is in temporary meeting spaces for I don’t know what reason – I guess they’re having work done on the township building – and they’re not going to be recording meetings or offering Zoom. I find that in particular a problem and truly anti-sunshine, because there is so much technology out there today that they could indeed at least record the meeting and put it up on YouTube or something. Especially because they are in schools and most schools have recording equipment right?
I just can’t even with East Goshen. I just don’t want to believe they’re turning into one of those townships,that need constant watching yet here we are aren’t we ?
It’s dumb stuff from the procedurally wonky, to being utterly miserable to residents, to wondering what the else they are up to? The meeting this week was quite the revelation. I don’t want to say this new combo chair and vice chair are skirting the phrase “power trip,” but are they?
Oh East Goshen, really? The term is not abstaining, it’s recusal. If you are going to recuse yourself from something, then you don’t continue to run the meeting you get your rump off of the dais and you leave the room until that item is finished. Good Lord, from claiming 100% transparency and inclusiveness at this meeting to this, they all should’ve been given Roberts Rules of Order for a New Year’s gift.
Madame Chair shouldn’t wish to be a little bit preggers here politically, correct?
⬆️ This snippet above is yet another interesting snippet from the most recent East Goshen Township meeting. This is a public meeting so people can record off of recordings and while watching. You kind of have to if sunshine is becoming an issue because things just disappear or then you can’t hear them or something right?
My favorite part about this comes at the end when that ever so delightfully charming vice chair basically says they have to kind of defund their police. Why not cut other areas? There are lots of things with budgets, correct? I mean what is really wrong with the finances in East Goshen Township that they don’t want to pay their police force to protect and serve? It doesn’t seem like the police force is asking for anything outrageous does it? Or did I miss something?
⬆️ Once again see above. This is a very curious business with East Goshen and are they literally trying to get rid of incumbent Township volunteers of the registered Democrat persuasion by changing up how they appoint people to boards? And the magical sudden appearance of people interested for one committee in particular when other committees can’t dig up a dead body to serve? Really?
And in particular wait for the end and listen to the vice chair, essentially kind of threatening or maybe it’s just harassing harangue a resident who has served East Goshen Township for years? Talk about conduct unbecoming in a public official. That guy should resign, or maybe stand at the end of his driveway and hand out plastic bags all day?
Yes I am totally serious here about resigning. And he might not like my opinion, but I am entitled to it under the United States Constitution that he likes to believe in so much.
Threatening either overtly or perceived threatening is not a good look especially with a female resident/sitting committee member during a meeting with “come to the township in person and we’ll go at it” is something this township needs to take seriously, don’t you think? Vice Chair Jon Hertzog should realize that you can’t speak to any resident this way, and does he have an issue with women in particular? Need sensitivity tracing much?
East Goshen seems to be, well, delaminating. I actually feel sorry for the three newest supervisors.
Now, so people don’t go all hooting and hollering about me sharing snippets and not the whole video from East Goshen, at bottom their meeting and it’s entirety as posted by them on YouTube.
And for goodness sake stop saying “Zoom Room.” It’s cringey. Every time Madame Chair says that I keep waiting for a disco ball to drop or something.
Oh, I suppose that I should apologize in advance to downsizing McMansion dwellers, except to me, it kind of seems like a first world problem that they wish to downsize but they wish to find a condo with huge square footage which of course in turn begs the question are they downsizing or are they just McMansion style swapping?
I think you undoubtedly know already how I feel about some of the quotes in this article. And may I just say that the “design“ of this monstrosity has the appeal of looking at old squishy turnips, well actually the crates they go to market in, because once again it’s another bunch of boxes supposedly passing as exciting design architecture.
However I am also saying thank you to the Inquirer and reporter Jesse Bunch for a comprehensive article because frankly the local paper seems to cover nothing much. They might as well just bury Main Line Media News.
by Jesse Bunch Published Jan. 10, 2024, 11:59 a.m. ET
Google views of the area in Wayne under scrutiny.
I don’t even know where to start with this. I remember when I heard this development might be happening. Everybody told me I was crazy something like that would never be proposed.
Yet here we are.
I think I’ll start with the Radnor planning commission member, who spoke. His name is MJ Frumin. He spoke about the empty storefronts, and the need for Radnor to embrace change. With all due respect to Michael Frumin, that’s not going to fix your empty storefronts. Look no further than Ardmore. Ardmore had to have all this development and at night it’s often dead even with all those restaurants and new apartments/condos and one of the problems with all of that development there is there is no freaking parking. Ardmore is so urban and dirty every time I’m there. It breaks my heart. And I say that as someone who still has friends with businesses there.
The empty storefronts exist in Wayne in part because of the landlords who set the rents. Store fronts also sit empty because there is a serious lack of workforce housing available, which means million dollar condos aren’t going to attract people who need workforce housing and those are the people that staff these stores and restaurants. So people don’t open businesses and often close businesses. It sometimes seems like commercial landlords have forgotten how to attract businesses as well as retain them. There are also general economic factors at work as well.
I watched the meeting replay, and a lot of the residents spoke from the heart and I know for a lot of them it’s not easy to stand up and speak in public. There was one lady in particular, who was very succinct and spot on. I don’t know her but her name was Eileen Stoveld and she said very nicely what a lot of us are thinking. She remarked how hideous the design was, and that there was no real green space, and their idea of a courtyard was a joke. She also commented on the lack of setback. And she was reading my mind about the Ardmore buildings because if you’ve been following me as a blogger at all for years, I’ve said how hideous and grotesque I think the new construction is on Lancaster Avenue and just off of it, like Cricket Avenue. Of course, this speaker had me at garden designer, which is what she does.
I was speaking to someone yesterday about this who asked me if I could try and find something nice about this project. And I told them honestly as it currently stands, I could not. It’s a very unattractive design and it’s that Lego looking flat roofed what is supposed to be architecture today that you see everywhere. These designs are all variations on a theme and they do not fit into their surroundings at all. They look institutional – another Wayne example? The condos behind the Land Rover dealership which has the charm of a mental institution aesthetically.
Further into the point, this is an awful lot of units for that corner planned for Bellevue and Lancaster. It’s a place where there are known stormwater issues, sewer issues, parking and traffic issues . If you look at the plans or concept of this developer, it looks like it’s a really wide street it’s not it’s like all those plans we used to look at in Lower Merion for Ardmore that looked like Valhalla in the middle of a green field. Instead, they were poorly designed bad architectural concepts being shoehorned in and around Lancaster Avenue and side streets.
These designs aren’t working. So I’m guessing that they make it cheaper for the developer to build? This project, for Wayne is another one without sufficient setbacks. And a lack of human scale. there are the immediate neighbors, and the neighbors further out that need to be considered here. If development is going to occur even in an overlay district, it should fit with what’s there. This doesn’t fit. It doesn’t have to be the samey same architecture of the past, but what is so difficult about building some thing that has real panache and style and doesn’t look super urban in a suburban setting? I mean, don’t people want actual green space and gardens? Gardens and gardening are good for you and no developer seems to want anyone to garden anymore.
I had to laugh when the residents were referring to the traffic study in their comments. It took me back to when my favorite former lower Merion. Commissioner Lew Gould said with regard to traffic studies that get what you pay for or something along those lines (I am paraphrasing.) I remember a traffic study they did in my old neighborhood in Haverford in Lower Merion Township for a townhouse development that no one wanted.
Anyway, they did this traffic study in August when everyone was away before the schools came back, and colleges also weren’t back. So this traffic study done for this Wayne proposal was apparently done before the AT&T workers returned to their offices full-time post Covid. And it came out at that meeting that like they literally just all returned in 2024? Are you kidding me? For real?
So not only does this design need to be improved and scaled down, they need actual comprehensive and real study of real traffic, real parking issues, stormwater management, sewer issues, etc. otherwise, as it stands, this literally is lipstick on a pig, and it’s another Jabba the Hutt project.
Other things to be considered is the sheer amount of development that seems to be coming at almost the same time. And then there is some development like the stuff on the Hamilton estate etc. that is in process. That’s a lot in a small area.
Now you had people from the business association get up and talk, and didn’t I read that the current president of the business association is attached to this project because of other relationships anyway? And you’re telling me that he doesn’t have enough business sense to realize that a rush to a lot of unwelcome development is not going to solve the business district woes?
Let’s talk about the business district for a few minutes. First you have the obvious which are the rents that merchants can’t afford because a lot of times merchants will get expensive rate but not inexpensive the first couple of years of their lease and then there’s a jump. I know this happens in Wayne in particular because I’ve known people who have had businesses there in the who left because of that. Next there is the parking situation. I used to love to go to Wayne to visit some of the businesses and for dinner or lunch, and I miss doing that and have since I moved to Chester County. But much like Ardmore, and Bryn Mawr there is insufficient parking and it’s a giant pain in the ass to park.
And then in Wayne, one of the things I find the most egregious on N. Wayne Ave., are the people that pull into the handicapped spots who aren’t handicapped and at a bad angle. So even if there was a good space available to park, you can’t park because you can’t fit into a should be free spot because the person next to you is a space hog.
And Wayne is chock full of selfish parkers. I mean, there is parking enforcement with Radnor Township but the only thing they care about our tickets they don’t really seem to do much about how people are parked.
Wayne is one of the greatest downtowns in the area, and it deserves support. But it deserves support from the right kinds of projects, and I just fail to comprehend how the business association doesn’t get that?
The other problem with this project other than its lack of design and it’s gargantuan size and scale, are the price points. And as I mentioned already in this post, they don’t have workforce housing anymore in Radnor Township. And affordable housing is also limited and I don’t mean subsidized housing by that statement either. I mean stuff that is just affordable to regular people, the people who seem to be getting shoved out of Radnor just like they have been shoved out of lower Merion for years.
I have very little faith in Radnor Township doing the right thing here. I predict as is the case with most everything else that it will get a rubberstamp and a bunch of commissioners who will look the other way, and that includes Jack Larkin, whom residents seem to be perplexed by these days. They seem to all be saying that they feel like commissioner Larkin has checked out? I am interested in the fact that he hasn’t updated his bio on Radnor Township website is he like ashamed of whom he is working for now?
My other problem in general with the Radnor Township board of commissioners is some of them might be perfectly nice people, but a lot of them haven’t lived here long enough, nor do they know the backstory or history of the township they serve. And by history, I also mean social and political history not just literal history. The township manager should know better because he can’t have forgotten how he came to be in Radnor in the first place, right?
And this overlay district they’re talking about in Wayne. The Wayne Business Overlay District is something I have been concerned with since the initial concept, and basically it was because of what I had seen in Ardmore. In theory, a lot of these overlays seem like a great idea but sometimes they’re too airy fairy and pie in the sky and then when they are practically implemented, you see the problems and then you can’t do anything about it.
Monday night a roomful of Wayne business and property owners and other interested parties attended a public hearing about the township’s proposed zoning and subdivision changes to downtown Wayne.
The ordinances for the Wayne Business Overlay District, a 70-acre area in downtown Wayne, have been in the works since last year and are a technical follow-up to the township’s more conceptual document, the Wayne Master Plan.
In short, crafters of the plan and ordinances predict that the new zoning and subdivision regulations will create a better “sense of place” and a more connected, pedestrian-friendly downtown, and will control the inevitable redevelopment in the popular town center….”We’re fortunate to have people who want to come into downtown Wayne and spend millions of dollars… We just need rules and regulations on how we want it to be done,” said Third Ward commissioner Bill Spingler Tuesday.
But during this public process the understandable questions are surfacing – how can the public really know how the new regulations will manifest themselves? How will ideas on paper translate into real life?
Some of the commissioners said on Monday that they have been getting an earful on the zoning ordinance’s definition of “redevelopment,” which is essentially a proposed expansion to an existing building that adds gross floor area of at least 25 percent of the building’s footprint or area.
That 25 percent would trigger “redevelopment” (and thus all of the regulations therein).
Why 25 percent, is what the commissioners wanted to know from the ordinances’ presenters.
The percentage was based on research, and on what they thought constituted a substantial change. They also pointed out that many, if not most, of the properties in downtown Wayne could technically not be added onto by that percentage – they don’t have the land and they wouldn’t have the parking to allow it.
There had to be a “trigger” for redevelopment, said committee member Mac McCoy.
At the public hearing, there were discussions over general ideas in the plans and over specific properties by their owners, who have a great interest in the ordinances’ effect on them.
At the beginning of the hearing, the township planner Matthew Baumann told the commissioners that the ordinances had been heartily approved by some staff members of the Delaware County Planning Department.
“I’m proud of this,” said Baumann, who wrote the ordinances. “This shows we’re leading the way in smart growth… we’re leaders now and people are going to follow us.”
Anyone who knows me will tell you smart growth to me is utter catch phrase bulltwaddle. I think this project as it stands is bulltwaddle. I feel sorry for the residents.
There, I said it out loud, much like I questioned this overlay district years ago. I thought it would create problems and here we are.
Wayne is charming as a downtown with cute residential side streets. It doesn’t need to be overly urbanized by flat roofed monstrosities that are a joint project between Mike Brady and Fred Flintstone. Learn from Ardmore’s mistakes. Learn from us out here in Chester County who are also the recipients of similar bad architecture.
And similar bad architecture is the crux of it. It’s all the same style everywhere. It’s not like any of these developers try to fit in or be inspired by what is already there. Does that make me more of a traditionalist as someone suggested recently? No. It means I appreciate a good design when I see it and when is the last time we saw a good design anywhere ? Or even an original one?
Wayne is not Center City Philadelphia, nor should it be.
Do you give a damn about communities and their local papers?
That is the subject of an email sent to the “publisher” of our local and regional newspapers just now. To econdra@21st-centurymedia.com
Here’s the email:
To whom it may concern:
From Main Line Media News to the Daily Local and beyond we have to ask if you give a damn about our communities and local newspapers?
Most news is not covered because you don’t provide resources as in financial to actually hire reporters, keep them, etc.
Hedge funds shouldn’t own our media outlets, yet they do.
Are you just driving our papers into the ground for good or is it just convenient to keep them on life support to show a loss on some hedge fund’s balance sheet?
Why were all of these local papers purchased and assembled under MNG Enterprises, Digital First Media or Media News Group or whatever you’re calling yourselves under Alden Global Capital if you didn’t intend to have any newspapers survive?
I have never thought that this was a business, decision, or merely a predatory profit seeking enterprise, or even good old fashioned corporate raiders. I have always felt that this was personal, like a newspaper wronged this hedge fund someone once upon a time, and is that closer to the truth?
I have always wondered what the real impetus was for all of this and why someone would want to destroy so many local and regional newspapers?
I get the face of journalism has changed, but the need for it in local communities has increased. You are doing harm to local communities all over Southeastern PA and beyond. And to the future of journalism.
The editor you have serving our local papers doesn’t seem to get what is important to our communities or what areas the papers actually serve. Maybe they are overwhelmed or just burnt out? After all, you have local papers which once had multiple reporters and editors and associate editors and now papers often have one maybe two reporters and no more newsrooms really.If you’re going to continue to own newspapers, why not try to run them the right way?
Thanks for your time.
This is the literally only person I could get an email address for having to do with our newspapers above the local editor. That one in Norristown or something. She has no power, she’s just a worker bee. It’s very odd to have an utterly unapproachable local editor, truthfully.
Of course one the ones I would really like to email is William Dean Singleton:
Also it would be nice to talk to Alden Global Capital the hedge fund that owns them all:
Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith.[2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman.[2][3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers.[4][5] The company added more newspapers to its portfolio in May 2021 when it purchased Tribune Publishing and became the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States.[6][7][8][9]
The company operates its media holdings through Digital First Media(DFM), which it acquired in 2010 after DMG’s parent company, MediaNews Group, declared bankruptcy.[10] With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in late May 2021, Alden is collectively the second-largest owner of newspapers in the United States, as calculated by average daily print circulation, second only to Gannett.[11]
In November 2021, Alden Global Capital made an offer to purchase Lee Enterprises for $24 a share in cash, or about $141 million.[12] Lee owns daily newspapers in 77 markets in 26 states, and about 350 weekly and specialty publications.[13]
Alden has a reputation for sharply cutting costs by reducing the number of journalists working on its newspapers.[16][17] In March 2018, Margaret Sullivan, the media columnist for The Washington Post, called Alden “one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism”[18] and Vanity Fairdubbed Alden the “grim reaper of American newspapers.”[19]
These people have eviscerated our local papers. They have removed our local and regional news voices. They have removed our voices by association.
So probably sending this email will do absolutely no good. But maybe if lots of people sent emails it would do some good? Or at least attract other media, who might write about these vultures, eviscerating and disemboweling and swallowing whole our local and regional newspapers, and even some bigger ones.
These people are destroying the future of journalism. And as much as people want to complain about their local papers, we need them. So Alden, this post is for you.
During the storm on Tuesday, we lost power. And when we had lost power, I had used the PECO app to report the outage.
Then the power came back on, and the system wouldn’t let me report that the power was back on. And at that point Tuesday night there were so many people calling PECO that they kept hanging up on customers – I should be specific, not live people the auto system.
Needless to say, this was all very frustrating. So yesterday, Wednesday, I kept calling PECO until I got a live person to change the status because I was afraid repair crews would be dispatched.
About 50 minutes ago now three trucks rolled into my street. Out of state linemen from Riggs Distler out of Connecticut.
I went rushing outside and asked them if they were here for us. Then I told them, I spent an hour on the phone yesterday to make sure this didn’t happen.
Well it happened. PECO didn’t update all of their systems so a really nice crew of linemen just hung out on my street for 40+ minutes while PECO figured it out.
I even called all my neighbors while the guys were there to make sure that everyone had power.
Ironically, I said to PECO yesterday that they need to figure something out with their app programming so that, even if you are a guest on their app, you can go back with proper identifying information to let them know if a power outage has been resolved before they know. The customer service person said “oh good idea.”
These guys were so incredibly nice. I offered to make them coffee but they all had enough coffee. We stood there for 40 minutes and they told me about the areas they were from in Connecticut and what liked about Chester County.
They were headed to Glen Mills in Delaware County next. And at 12:28 today, PECO sent us a text, saying the power outage was restored, even though it was restored Tuesday night.
Come on PECO. That was embarrassing. There are so many people who need their power restored, and this crew of able-bodied super nice linemen sat here waiting for you to dispatch them to people that needed help because you hadn’t updated your system properly.
I hope everyone out there is getting their power restored.
Yes, we are a sauce house, not a gravy house. I call it sauce, my father called it sauce. However, my great aunts who used to live at 1128 Ritner St. many moons ago called it sauce and gravy.
I don’t like storms like we had yesterday. The power of water and wind is a scary combination so I made tomato sauce and meatballs.
Stand aside, Susan Noles from The Golden Bachelor I like mine better. I will add a disclaimer that, although I’ve written it down, the recipe still might need tweaking. But I think it’s pretty good, or good enough to share.
Meatballs
One package meatloaf mix (each package is a little over a pound. Maybe 1 lbs. 4 oz.)
1 small onion, diced
6-8 slices of stale sandwich bread crumbed up.
1/3 c or more grated cheese (eyeball it)
1 egg
Salt and pepper, dried oregano, dried basil, garlic powder
Maybe 1/3 cup buttermilk
I start with letting the breadcrumbs just sit out there a while that I have created from stale bread. That way they dry out a little bit. I might do that while I’m starting my sauce.
So I take a big mixing bowl and that’s what I put the bread/breadcrumbs in.
If I don’t have enough stale bread to make the meatballs with, I use Panko bread crumbs and eyeball it. After you make meatballs a while, you can tell by the way it feels when you’re mixing it together if it needs more moisture or more bread crumbs.
To the breadcrumbs, I add the onion, the herbs, some salt and pepper, a liberal amount of garlic powder, and the grated cheese. I like a greater cheese that is a Parmesan and Romano blend, and if I can get the grated cheese blends that are more than two cheeses I get those.
And this is grated cheese not shredded cheese. It’s the stuff that feels almost dry. I make the distinction because I told somebody verbally how I made meatballs one time and they didn’t like the way they turned out because they used shredded cheese and shredded cheese doesn’t work.
Next I add the package of meatloaf mix and mix it together thoroughly.
After the meat mix is incorporated into the breadcrumb mixture, I next add one raw egg. I just crack it right in on top. Some people like to mix the egg up before they add it, it’s your choice.
Finally, I add the buttermilk. Everything should be moist but hold together nicely when you make little balls and I don’t make big meatballs. I make meatballs that are not bite-size but you can cut them in half with a fork and each meatball is essentially two bites so they’re about an inch and a half raw and round.
Meanwhile, and I should’ve said this earlier, I have preheated an oven to 350° F.
I have one of my sheet pans because it does have a lip, lined with nonstick aluminum foil. I roll out all my Meatballs, one by one and lined them up on the baking sheet on the foil. Then I throw them into my preheated oven and I would say about 35 minutes and they’re good to go into the sauce. I don’t completely cook them through in the oven but I need to make sure that the meatballs are crispy and firm on the outside. Then they finish cooking in the sauce, but they don’t fall apart.
I guess I should tell you how to make the sauce, right? I will start by saying I love the Mutti brand tomato products. I discovered them a few years ago and use them whenever possible.
The Sauce
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz can purée or 1 24 oz jar Mutti Passata
1 hot pepper – I like a Fresno pepper for this or a Serrano (seeded and minced)
2 onions chopped (I use one red and one yellow onion)
6 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 chopped carrot
1 bunch flat leaf Italian parsley chopped
Dried oregano Basil Salt and pepper
1 Bay leaf
Sauté the pepper, carrot, the onions and garlic in extra virgin olive oil with salt to taste. When the onions are translucent or cooked down even further next you add your tomatoes you let everything come together over a slow and steady flame and then you add the parsley, and finally 1 Bay leaf.
Tomato sauce is really easy you don’t have to over complicate it. In other sources depending on what I’m doing I will add sweet peppers chopped up I like red and orange and yellow. I don’t add green. I don’t really like sweet green peppers except for stuffed peppers. Other times I add mushrooms.
Often times with my sauce, if it’s not just meatballs, I will start with browning the meat. Sausage, pork or lamb, sometimes beef. I will brown in salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Then I will pull the meat out and blot grease by putting it on plate lined with paper towels. Then I will go on with the sauce, adding the meat back in the end.
Anyway, back to this sauce. After the onions and garlic and pepper and carrot were cooked a bit and the onion translucent, first I add the tomatoes, then the passata or purée, then the tomato paste.
I cook over a low flame, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes. Next I check for salt. I don’t like things too salty.
Then I add the chopped parsley, stir that in, and when the meatballs come out of the oven after they have rested 10 minutes, I add the meatballs to the sauce and everything sits on a very low flame for a couple of hours. You have to stir every 20 minutes or so because you don’t want it to stick.
I should tell you that you can double this recipe. And if your grocery store doesn’t have meatloaf mix, you can do a combination of ground beef, pork and lamb or ground beef, pork and veal.
Prepare your favorite pasta and I suggest putting the sauce on the pasta and mixing it in one bowl and putting another bowl with the meatballs so people can have as many or as few meatballs as they choose.
You can serve with a salad, as well as a nice crusty loaf of bread if you choose.
My response was honestly no because I try not to follow what this person does because I just think sometimes it’s a little too left of center for my brain.
But, alas, here we are and now none of us can see it. Apparently this has been flying around the Internet and social media locally.
I will state for the record that I have zero problem with what they call “boudoir photography.” I know make up artists who have done it as a partnership with photographers etc. But this? You’re going to potentially pay this woman to take a picture of your naked ass with her iPhone?
Ummmm 🤨?
To me, this is a hard pass because this is the same person who charges for “photo shoots” going around the public parks to do photo sessions with her cell phone with people. Boudoir photography is also something that has been done for a while, so why would you choose this person to begin with versus a professional photographer?
Photography is an art form. I am a digital photographer but I am not a professional photographer. I am good but I will never say I am a professional photographer, because I’m not. I have done plenty of private events and occasional head shots, mostly for people I know. I have also had my photography used occasionally over the years to various publications regionally and nationally, and even some people who were using them for books or blowing them up for wall art as was the case of a photo I took almost 10 years ago of Malvern Train Station.
My photo taken for the Ardmore initiative and it became the cover of this magazine May, 2009.
But I’m not using my cell phone. I’m using a real, grown-up camera.
I used to second a rather talented wedding photographer. I actually apprenticed with her so to speak. She saw photos I took just as a hobby and said to me one time many many years ago that I could actually do this, so she trained me and she’s a professional photographer. A photographer who went to art school. I won’t misrepresent myself. I am a digital photographer. In that vein, I humbly swear that I will not take a photo of your bare ass! 🤣
I will note I thought of photographs along this vein before my breast cancer surgery years ago and then after with the scars and I just never did it. I only point that out so that you understand that I don’t have an aversion to nude or partially nude photography, essentially. It’s all about who does it and if you’re going to do it, use a professional that you can trust. In a setting where you are comfortable.
I took this photo years ago from a hot air balloon shaped like an American flag in Chester County on the anniversary of 9/11
So this new age where often random people call themselves a “photographer” on social media bothers me because a lot of these people aren’t actual trained photographers, and I think that’s very unfair to the photographers that actually are real and trained.
But if you’re going to get down to the brass tacks of actual boudoir photography, it is an art form. It’s not photos taken with somebody’s cell phone. However, I’m wondering if they can be combined with a Main Line Easter Bunny photo shoot?
Yes, this is the same person who years ago why don’t you to buy dinner for her family on Christmas Eve if you were a local restaurant, etc. etc. and when I have bought this person up in the past based upon their public posts as a public figure I’ve gotten some messages from them. When you post publicly as part of your “business model”, public comments are part of the deal. When you also post as a “public figure” public comments are part of the deal.
People are going to do their hustle, who are technically sort of gig workers or self-employed. But I can still say this kind of gives off Eau de Creepy. If this person was a legitimate photographer, maybe I would not find it so giggle worthy. But as long as these are photos taken with someone’s cell phone or iPhone, it’s kind of like capturing the moment as an upskirter IMHO. Or just a waste of good lingerie and make up.
So whatevs’ I guess this is the evolution of this person from publicity on Christmas Eve to photo shoots with her cell phone to the energizer bunny with a flat Hal faced Easter bunny costume. That’s their jam. However, the budding boudoir photography career does make me throw up a little in my mouth. And I am allowed to have that opinion, as to many others who have seen the same posts. I mean people are talking about it.
If you are going to do this, leave it to the professionals….not low budget. Besides, how do you know your photos wouldn’t be used on their social media platforms as advertising?
IMHO this is not about empowering anyone, this is a way to make money so why not just be honest?
Xmas Eve Dinner + Flat Hal – faced Ether Bunny + Cell Phone Photo Shoots Venmo OK + Cell Phone Boudoir Photo Shoots? Damn…. so not my jam…
So I wrote about this yesterday, right? I didn’t originate the news about the National Park Service and William Penn in his Philadelphia pocket park at 2nd and Walnut off of Samson Walk. It was international news after a few hours yesterday which made me notice. William Penn being discussed by British newspapers will do that.
Well about half an hour ago I noticed an update on the NBC10 app and apparently the hair brained stupid idea, plan, or proposal is now revoked and of course the I-95 Superman known as Governor Josh Shapiro is taking credit for swooping in to save the day?
Groan….politics….
IMHO the people did this with instant public outrage, not the Governor who is using this as political capital to feather his own political nest. I mean Governor you are everywhere these days so what is it you are interested in? A US Senate Seat? A Presidential bid? Sorry not sorry something has to be cooking, right? So while he’s at it, how about those pipeline issues, Governor darling?
The National Park Service (NPS) has withdrawn the review of a renovation plan that included the removal of the statue of William Penn from the site of his former Philadelphia home.
The NPS asked for input on the future for the park, located near the intersection of 2nd and Walnut Streets off Sansom Walk in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood, and they certainly received it — at least online.
By 6:30 p.m. Monday night, the NPS said the public comment period was closed.
“The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned,” the NPS said in a statement.
…In a statement on the plan, the NPS said the goal of the proposed renovations were intended to create “a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.”
After the proposal was withdrawn the NPS said:
“The National Park Service (NPS) remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal reviews, the park looks forward to engaging in a robust public process to consider options for refurbishing the park in the coming years.”
The park is located on the site of Penn’s former home, it is also named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia.
The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982, notes the NPS in the statement….The withdrawn proposal called for the William Penn statue and Slate Roof house model at the park to be removed and not reinstalled.
Yeah, Super Josh did all of this, right? Public outrage at the National Park Service’s latest bit of stupidity and political pandering and a complete disregard of the actual history of William Penn had nothing to do with it? The fact that it is a Presidential election year has nothing to do with it either ? (Somewhere Dana Carvey is reviving Church Lady and isn’t that special.)
PHILADELPHIA — Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period. The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned.
The National Park Service (NPS) remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal reviews, the park looks forward to engaging in a robust public process to consider options for refurbishing the park in the coming years.
The park is located on the site of William Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982.
Updates on the project may be found on the park’s website at www.nps.gov/INDE.
Now let’s do remember that this park is barely a park and more of a rather dated 1980s concrete jungle masquerading as a park and has been since it was created . So making it more of a green space and honoring nature which is so part of Native American culture and history is not a bad plan, but William Penn and his slate house replica and his legacy should remain on the site that was his home in Philadelphia.
Also and once again people are in an uproar over William Penn because he owned slaves. At Pennsbury Manor. Quaker Charles Thomson, the most famous inhabitant of historic Harriton House in Bryn Mawr , Irish-born patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence owned slaves before he freed them. Thomson prepared the Journals of the Continental Congress, and his and John Hancock’s names were the only two to appear on the first printing of the United States Declaration of Independence. He designed the Great Seal of the US too. So should he be removed from history too?
My point is some Philadelphia Quakers did own slaves and some known as “fighting Quakers” also fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and even WWI and WWII. Those are historical facts.
Slavery is wrong in today’s world, it wasn’t wrong quite yet in that world many centuries ago. It is an inconvenient truth yet part of the history that made this country. You can’t cancel all of our founding fathers and US history, nor should you. It was a different time. People and culture was different. Society was different. I say that as someone who has the genealogy of discriminated against people in my DNA. And there are plenty of people also descended from indentured servants as well as slaves.
Again, our history is our history. Covering it up and/or removing it means we could be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Being open to all segments of history gives us the opportunity to learn so yes that should include Native American and history of other indigenous peoples (like the Inuit tribes) and slavery and black history along with everything else. They are all pieces of the crazy quilt of American history.
We can’t pretend bad things didn’t happen and we shouldn’t. But history doesn’t exist for the convenient bits, it exists for ALL of it, including William Penn.
Face it before there was George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson, or John Adams or Paul Revere or Betsy Ross or Prince Hall or Louis Glapion or George Middleton or Absalom Jones or Richard Allen, there was William Penn.
History has a place in our lives. We live in Pennsylvania. We fight to see pieces of land that were William Penn land grants saved, we need to save him too. There would be no Pennsylvania without William Penn.
