I am feeling bitchy today. Or it’s a suffering fools gladly kind of week. And I am SURE that this person will be pitching a fit but when you insist on using a circa 2005 email list there are more people that you think you get your massive latest email of it’s too long, too busy, and how MANY did you offend with the appalling and utterly crass subject line “Reach the Richest Local Moms.”
It’s not privileged information and it’s another who self- brands as a “public figure.”
And any middle schooler with a tablet can build a website. And this email? Lordy lordy social media stalker much? Are you close personal friends with Madonna too? I just CAN’T with things like:
1) I know the local social media channels and specific people to follow in and around your respective business to interact with to help build awareness–and a sales pipeline for your small business. I know exactly who they are on instagram and what I can do in one day, one week, one month for local audience build out would take you years to figure out. You do not have time for that.2) I have personal relationships with THOUSANDS of regional women across the burbs via my vibrant Instagram channels. I interact and support them daily on Instagram. Know their birthdays, wedding anniversaries, last 3 vacations, nicknames for their dogs and the 3 yoga studios they work out at. Oh…and I know they minored in art history at Penn and that they love the martinis at Nectar. Do you know and study your followers? You don’t have to be on the same level as I do–but you should. And with me by my side, we can authentically get to know and support them together. Your customers/members don’t want to be a number on Instagram. They want you to be their friend–and they expect interaction, presence and support from you.
Well hello barfatunity, right? And audience? OMG I know a fake doctor with a penchant for public figureisms and a yen for bathroom/bedroom cruise photos you should hang with, right?
And “tribe”? Who tribe and is a tribe of one really a tribe?
I am sure there are still plenty of people who do not know any better, but yikeys. And no, not available to host on Christmas Eve. And I guess the boudoir photos with your iPhone didn’t pan out? I know I know they say social media not selfish media but what is social media the way you use it? Elegant? Original? Narcissistic? They’ve never learned the value of least said, soonest mended….and shorter emails. Just when people have forgotten the last oddness, they always pop up with fresh. And the one website has not seen an update since when? 2017? 2018? And media placement means placement not on their own channels, doesn’t it?
Also the FIRST, original and best Main Line Restaurant Week was one that was the brainchild of another publicist and a partnership back then with Main Line Media News.
Cheer up there is always a market for demented ether bunnies, right?
Keeping it real for decades over here. I don’t and won’t pretend to be all things top all people.
File under things that I don’t normally do but so many people actually DO do: clicked on an Instagram ad and got scammed. Two small amounts – one charge $9.95 and a second charge for $9.85.
I looked at the ad without my glasses on, and I will admit I was tired. But I have been seeing this ad over and over again, and I thought it was legitimate. I never tried Goop products by Gwyneth Paltrow, and I thought essentially what I was looking at was a sample box and I thought well that’s a great way to try the products.
Only when I hit the submit button, after clicking through, I realized that it wasn’t going to the company known as Goop.
As I was frantically looking up the number to call to block the transactions, my bank texted me to let me know that these were suspect charges on my credit card. Next, I replied quickly enough to the first text they sent for the first transaction which I think was $9.85 but I didn’t reply quickly enough to the second text which was $9.95.
By this point, I had my glasses on and I called my credit card company’s fraud department. They acted immediately, but I am without my card probably for a few days. I then spent two hours of my life that I will never get back getting everything done. Part of the problem is you no longer get US customer service for the majority of credit card and bank customer service. And I had very nice people with a VoIP line that wasn’t great and a slight language barrier.
I had to get through a couple of people to get them to understand that I was able to quickly grab a couple of screenshots and I wanted to send it to them so they knew what the fake company was.
Now look, I realize (as my husband also pointed out) that most of the time they don’t really care about any of that because as quickly as these companies are set up and shut down, they are just set up again. But I am a former compliance officer, so I think it’s important to follow through on these things and it’s my money most importantly. Sorry not sorry I am not giving any shekels to scammers if possible. And I found the fake website that while on Instagram was cloaked to look like the Goop website.
And yes, I am going to tell you who the credit card was with. It’s with Wells Fargo. I have had that card forever, since I worked for their predecessor, Wachovia/First Union. They have always had excellent credit card services. And they were great today, but I did have a slight language barrier and the additional issue with their VoIP line not being terrific. I realize the companies are trying to cut costs by having call centers in other countries, but there’s something to be said about being able to converse in a stressful situation with someone who literally speaks your language, and not only your language, but perhaps even your regional dialect.
Now I also sent screenshots and everything to Gwyneth Paltrow‘s company Goop, not that I expect them to respond or give a damn, but I hope they do.
I am not someone who gets taken in by these things, and this one was clever enough and quick enough that it almost got me. So I’m just letting you my readers know about my experience so especially if you see this ad or something similar pop up, you know either to report it or just scroll past.
The Township Manager of East Goshen Township was kind enough to send me this letter today. It shows clearly that EcoShield has been booted from another municipality out here in Chester County.
Below are prior media and video stories.
Apparently, we all need pest control to handle the pest control people. 
It’s really sad but a lot of businesses, even local ones are getting hacked on Facebook.
Facebook tries to talk a good game but they really suck at protecting accounts. This latest hack is of the Flying Pig Saloon. The last one I knew of recently was Sugartown Strawberries.
It’s sad to say that the Flying Pig Saloon‘s Facebook page has literally been taken over by flying pigs objectifying women.
Please take a moment to report this page now to help a local business. Hopefully they will be able to retrieve their page or shortly start a new one.
You would think with all that money Zuckerberg has made with this platform that he would be able to protect our accounts and small business accounts and users in general better. But hey, they’re all obsessed with AI data rewriting our posts and hovering over every word we say.
Again, not criticizing a local business but I am criticizing Facebook.
Yes, sports fans, I’m back in Mount Pleasant again, which is in the panhandle of Tredyffrin. With this part of Chester County, there is the often opportunistic retelling of the story of Mazie Hall that Tredyffrin loves to trot out when convenient, but the rest of the time? Mount Pleasant might as well be in Uzbekistan, right?
But seriously, I have to ask if emergency vehicles in an actual real and true emergency get around quickly and safely given the way the streets are being used as per these photos from today?
So this latest this is more of what only can be described as predatory development. The old and historic Mount Pleasant is disappearing more every day and Tredyffrin does not care. A wee bit of Mount Pleasant is in Upper Merion and they don’t care either do they?
So this new development they’re parking stuff all over only not on their property, so does the construction company have permission from the township to block up the streets and stuff and if they did wouldn’t you think some supervisor or township official would give a courtesy notice to some of the residents of Mount Pleasant in Tredyffrin? I know for a fact, they know how to reach quite a few of them. And they can always post it on the township website couldn’t they?
I don’t know who’s at fault here but once again, Tredyffrin seems to be doing Mount Pleasant dirty and is everyone OK with that? Maybe it’s time for a new manager who doesn’t seem to do things the old Radnor way?
Dirty deed done dirt cheap much?
A special shout out to the spirits of our founding fathers, for allowing me my opinion courtesy of the First Amendment.
Postscript: I guess the fire chief reads my blog so a genuine THANK YOU a for him checking it out. Here’s hoping that he has the construction 🚧 people move their crap.
I stumbled upon this. From what I can tell Malvern Borough released information on employees, former employees, police or someone Malvern Borough was using did?
The Borough Council meetings don’t seem to have comprehensive recordings so I can’t view them for myself. But apparently they have been a free for all full of explosive behavior and George Carlin’s 7 dirty curse words.
I spoke to Bill Rettew. He doesn’t actually decide what stories run. His editor does. And The Daily Local is an eviscerated newspaper owned by a hedge fund which doesn’t really give a crap about any of the papers they own. So whomever CMR Concerned Malvern Residents are, maybe try NOT acting like a bunch of loons. There is other media in the area other than the Daily Local. Go to investigative reporters at 3/6/10/29 but be advised even if reporters talk to you, their is zero guarantee that their producers or station manager will let them run with the story. Same with The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine as far as the editors go and what the writers can do.
And whatever this is, actually it does seem ugly and although I am being pretty fair with this post, I will undoubtedly get hate messages and comments. To which I say STFU y’all wanted this out there didn’t you?
The sad thing is these people raising the alarm on this are NOT wrong. They aren’t. These leaks can be as bad as hackers stealing data. If this truly happened, no matter how brief the exposure was, these people should be offered year of Experian or LifeLock monitoring.
Do I believe anyone’s lives are at risk? Honestly no, but if some of those people are law enforcement I am also not qualified to comment either way.
If this incident really happened, Malvern Borough should own it. They should publicly state what happened, what they did, and what any consequences might be or should be. Maybe it was no harm, no foul in the end. But there should be public answers to this, I do agree with that 100%.
But CNR Concerned Malvern Residents need to know how to behave. They are lucky they haven’t been ejected from meetings, or maybe they have. Who knows. But what they are trying to say is getting lost in bad behavior. In the end if they don’t hone their message all people will remember is they screamed at public meetings.
Maybe it is also time for Malvern Borough to be more sunshine friendly and record their meetings and load them on YouTube. Any 5th grader can show them how.
I can’t comment on whether or not the Malvern Borough Manager should be removed and any of the Borough Council or the Mayor. Again, given the lack of transparency as far as zero found meeting recordings and other things makes it hard to decide in an educated and informed matter.
And whomever it was on Borough Council who basically said they had never heard of the F.O.P. or whatever, I only have this to say: COME ON MAN. SO DUMB.
I would say it’s only a matter of time before the woman doing the pointy finger in face yelling at Philadelphia Eagles legend and his lovely wife is really and truly outed.
Yes I am talking about the woman doing her best bad Bravo Real Housewife imitation and yelling on a street making a scene thing at Jason and Kylie Kelce in Margate.
I don’t know who the woman is and I’m not even a huge Eagles fan not because I don’t like the Eagles just because I don’t watch much football and never have, but if I saw Jason Kelce and his wife on a street I’m not going to hail them like a freaking cab and then scream when I am ignored. I mean, for goodness sake that also makes a beach community and all of us look bad. He’s someone who worked hard for a Philadelphia sports team and she’s a local girl from the Main Line. Narberth to be precise which makes her a “Narb.”
This reminds me of when I was a summer beach tagger in Avalon a million summers ago. There were plenty of Phillies and Flyers and Eagles who went to the beach there with their families. We all knew who they were, but they were there for a vacation with their families, or their friends like everyone else. And as the beach taggers, we would see them probably the most often. And we just said hi to them to them like we said hi to everybody else. You just didn’t make a big deal out of the fact that they were there, because these people are entitled to have lives.
Also one summer every time they were breaking from filming in New York there was the cast of a soap opera now defunct called Loving that you would see out in Stone Harbor at night. There was one place in particular I remember in Stone Harbor at the time that had an inside outside bar that backed up to the bay and I can’t remember what the name of it is now, but we used to see them there all of the time. We just let them be.
And I know people get all freaky deaky when they see celebrities and sports figures but I think it’s just one of those things that when you see celebrities and or sports figures, just let them be. They’re not on display like an animal in the zoo and they don’t owe us anything, and we actually owe them respect.
I’m guessing that woman was possibly in her cups as they say, and should be really embarrassed. I mean she should be sending like apology flowers, or apology chocolates, or an apology fruit basket, a she’s sorry card, or how about making a public apology, saying she is sorry she acted like an asshole?
There’s literally no excuse for that behavior. And it’s not the good old days where you could say you were just beach buzzed and get away with it. It’s the age of social media and sure enough boom she’s an Internet star and it’s not going away.
Thank you @wttwpodcast for sharing with all of us
Like some of my blogging friends, I have also heard who the Screaming Margate Mimi was. My thoughts are simple: if she was a real grown up woman with actual chutzpah, she should truly issue a public apology at a minimum, and say she is sorry.
And again, I’m not saying this because I am a huge Eagles fan or anything else. I just think it’s wrong and I think that if people have a real versus imagined on the Internet celebrity status, they should be able to go out where they live once in a while without obnoxious things happening. I am sure that Screaming Margate Mimi thought she would get hits on her Instagram or something if she got a photo.
According to PhillyChitChat there is also supposedly some video floating around that I have not seen of the woman then banging on Jason Kelce’s vehicle?
The Mayor of Margate, New Jersey apologized for her behavior, so why can’t she just woman up and apologize herself ? She can’t hide from it, she’s a viral video,
I also don’t know what would Taylor Swift do? This would make a great song, though, wouldn’t it?
So I have once again grown tired of the ugliness directed at me for sharing important things that I have learned when I learn them.
I may be many things, but a liar has never been among those things.
Things that I do know is we live in a world where people want pink fuzzy bunnies and unicorns farting rainbows while (for example) kids are suffering.
And then there are people who don’t want to feel uncomfortable when I question the motives of people I feel are not up to anything good. Or if I mock ridiculous politicians. Or whatever the topic may be.
And we’re going to talk about bullying in the schools because it’s not just one school district. It’s across the board. Bullying is a pervasive issue in our society, especially with kids. And every time bullying is discussed, adults can’t handle it. It’s like if they pretend bullying doesn’t exist, if they say it doesn’t exist, it’s just a fantasy , but how’s that pretzel logic working out for these people?
I myself was bullied in elementary school. And the girl who did it actually broke the corner of my front tooth. The corner of that tooth is still broken and I’m 60 years old. it’s been filed down, so it’s not noticeable to most people, but I always know it’s there and how and why it happened. It happened because I said no to a bully and they retaliated. But I’m glad I said no to that bully. No regrets.
After that day in elementary school, I did learn to stand on my own two feet. It wasn’t the only example of bullying I would experience before I reached high school. I also experienced it in the middle school or as we called it, junior high school.
At that point I was a new kid. And because I was the new kid and I hadn’t gone to elementary school with all these people I was immediately bad. Some of those girls were truly miserable.
It was quite the learning curve. I had never been in a public school since kindergarten. These miserable little bitches were 100% part of the reason my parents sent me to Shipley and took me out of the esteemed Lower Merion School District. The esteemed Lower Merion School District couldn’t admit that there were bullying issues. Except I witnessed it and experienced it. And so did friends that I still have to this day.
I did end up getting the last laugh later in high school, however. You see, one of the boys the mean girls worshipped was a neighbor. We were actually friends which sort of made them crazy because it put me finally in a hand’s off zone. It killed them to be nice to me and I admit I enjoyed that. It was briefly my own John Hughes movie life moment, although my experiences predated his movies, which is probably why so many of us identified with them and many became cult classics.
I saw kids bullied even sadly at Shipley back then. And kids had to learn how to take care of themselves because no one else was going to do it for us. I had learned to handle myself at that point so well I personally wasn’t bullied at Shipley, there were those who did try to make my life uncomfortable for just being myself. At that point, I had honestly learned that I didn’t care that their issues were their issues, not mine. It’s why I avoided particular cliques and sort of floated in between groups within my class. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee and all that.
So guess what? I do know what it’s like from personal experience after being bullied in these preteen and early teen years. And again online as an adult for being a blogger. And I am still standing.
I will stand up for what’s right when it comes to these issues with bullying as well as my right to write in general. And I have decided for the time being to remove the post I wrote about what happened in a certain school district recently. Young teen/pre-teen kids don’t just wake up and kill themselves. But I am being bullied online by purported adults for talking about it and I have had quite enough of their bullshit for one day. One of my favorite aspects of the bullshit are the adults who want to know why the obituary doesn’t mention bullying or suicide? Do they hear their ridiculous stupidity?
This particular school district has been talked about with bullying and other issues for years. Posts show up on social media and disappear. Hell, I knew a kid once who was pulled out of that school for home schooling / cyber schooling because of the bullying.
This district is also hardly the only school district to be spoken about regarding bullying. In fact, almost every school district and a host of private schools have dealt with bullying in this region. Or should I quantify that and say the kids have experienced bullying but the schools and school districts have not dealt with the bullying?
Anti-bullying campaigns exist, but school districts mostly pay them lip service. And then, of course, there is the other issue of when you look into the bullying and bullies, you see what’s lacking in their home lives . Bullies are often subjected to bullying/abuse things in their own homes, and nobody wants that coming to light do they?
And I think that’s at the core of bullying issues isn’t it? The kids want our help, they want our protection, but that would mean the adults would have to look at some uncomfortable hard truths.
And then, when a lot of these parents talk about bullying in schools, they turn around and bully fellow adults online over stupidity. Or over more modern topics that make them uncomfortable, although it has no personal bearing on their lives. Yes, I’m talking about things like gender identity, sexuality choices, politics, and books that freak them out.
I’m tired of these limited people who think their voice is more important than anyone else’s. I’m also tired of these limited people attacking me because I couldn’t possibly say any of this out loud.
I speak my truth and will continue to.
If you don’t like my opinions, I can’t help you. That’s your issue, not mine. No one is forcing you to read this blog.
But don’t tell me among other things that bullying is not real. It is.
400 Leopard Road. It’s on the corner of Sugartown Road and Leopard Road. There are a lot of houses around here that I love and this has always been one of my favorites. I think it was part of an estate I just can’t remember which one but it’s all in that general vicinity where Tarleton is and everything else.
If this house probably didn’t have close to 2 foot stone walls, it probably wouldn’t still be standing.
This old Redfin listing shows you what it looked like when it was for sale a few years ago:
I know work was being done on it but I just have to ask. Was this an accident? I’m not a fire expert, but it sure makes you wonder given how horrible the flames were shown on TV, right?
I was by this house quite recently on my way to Penn Medicine in Radnor for a medical appointment and I saw a coming soon sign that showed up on one of the reports. I looked up the realtor and they’re out of Delaware, which is a little far afield for the Main Line. With all the really good realtors to choose from on the main line, I am surprised that guy would be listing a property like this.  except now, I’m guessing this guy is out a listing 
I can tell you that if this house didn’t have almost 2 foot thick stone walls, it wouldn’t be standing today. But I hope this is actually investigated and not just swept under the carpet, because Easttown tends to sweep things under the carpet that they find uncomfortable.
This was such an incredibly interesting, and I think beautiful house. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but I love this house I have always loved driving by it, and I hope it rises from the ashes.
Sign me wondering if where there is smoke there is fire and not just a house fire? I think this is suspicious as hell.
If anyone has photos from today, feel free to message my blog’s Facebook page. I am also interested in publishing the history of this, so if any of you history, buffs, have old photos of this property, and can tell me what estate it was part of or its history I would also be appreciative.
3:00 PM 5/4/24 Update from Elizabeth Gaul who grew up in the house:
My family lived in Breeze Hill from 1963-1984. We are saddened by the news of this devastating fire and hope it will be feasible to salvage it. It was a truly wonderful place to grow up.
A correction, if I may, regarding its history. Our late mother, who taught history at AIS Lower School for 30+ years, would want the record straight:
No enslaved persons ever hid in the house. It was built several years post-Civil War so that would be impossible.
The staircase in question is a back stairway, which was a fairly typical feature for a larger home of this period. Not at all hidden, although part of it was blocked off to create a linen cupboard. We used it regularly. The third floor attic also had another entrance to it off the main staircase.
*Photo is of Breeze Hill from Sugartown Road, circa 1900. Note the windmill, which served to pump water from the spring house to the main house. When we lived there, that water still supplied the house, but via electric pump.
4:00 PM Update: thanks to realtor Tracy Pulos we have the history of the house – also note, this would be somebody far more appropriate than the guy on the sign to have sold his house:
Here is a history of this property which was given to me by a past owner. The address was 1226 Sugartown Rd. for many years, vs. 400 Leopard Rd. (address was changed to the side street vs. main street within the past 10 years.)
This lovely, historic Easttown Township residence was constructed by Joseph W. Sharp for his younger sister, Rachel, in 1864-1865, right at the end of the Civil War. Born in 1828 in Philadelphia, Sharp was the eldest son of Joseph Sharp and Hannah Lindsay. A successful Quaker wool merchant, the elder Mr. Sharp purchased approximately 250acres in Easttown prior to his untimely deathin 1848. In the absence of will disposing of his assets, the Easttown property was split equally among his four children, Joseph W., Rachel and two younger sons. As theeldest, Joseph W. also inherited his father’s business. Over the next few years, Joseph purchased the other three portions of his father’s original holdings from his three siblings, paying them, according to historical records, fair market value for their property. As both Joseph and Rachel were unmarried at this time, Rachel residedwith Joseph and was the mistress of his household. By 1857,Joseph had attained considerable success andconstructed an imposing Victorian country estate “Hawthorne,” which has been restored andis located at 521 Leopard Road in Berwyn, just down the street from Breeze Hill. Joseph went on to become a leaderin Berwyn, contributing tothe establishment of numerous civic organizations and was one of the founders of the Berwyn National Bank. He was thefirst gentleman to commute from Berwyn into Philadelphia each dayutilizing the newly-constructed “Main Line” train, and was a partner in what is now Hajoca Corporation, an earlyleader in the nascent indoor plumbing industry. In 1865, Joseph married Sidney Serrill Bunting. Oral family history indicates that Sidney and Rachel did not get along well, so Joseph commenced the construction of Breeze Hill (so named for its location and the presence of a refreshing breeze during this non-air conditioned era) for Rachel some time before his wedding. As the home wason theSharp family property, it didnot receive a separate deed at the timeof construction, but is shown on Pennsylvania Railroad maps dating to 1873. Already on the property was a two-story stone spring house, the top floor of which was occupied by tenant farmers on the estate. It is believed that this structure was built in 1837 and the spring provided a supply of clean water for the main house. The four car garage/carriage house was originallyconstructed as a barn, alsobefore 1865; careful examination of the walls inside show signs of stalls and a ladder to the full, second floor which was surely originally used as a hayloft. Local historical records indicate that Leopard Road was a well-travelled path on the Underground Railroad. Previous owners of Breeze Hill found evidence of a hidden stairway in a second-floor bedroom that led to a third floor space inaccessible by any other means, which lends credence to that fact that the property was a stop for slaves fleeing the South. Rachel Sharp and other family members lived at Breeze Hill until 1888. When Joseph Sharp’s eldest daughter, Mary Bunting Sharp, married William Morris of Villanova in 1888, the young couple moved into Breeze Hill, where they lived until 1942. Joseph Sharp and his wife subdivided Breeze Hill from their larger property and deeded it to their daughter for “$1 and her natural love and affection” in 1901, when it became legal for a married woman to own property in her own name in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (Either Mary’s parents were trying to keep the property in the Sharp family or didnot particularly like their son-in-law– who knows?) Since the departure of the Sharp family, numerous owners have made changes and improvements to Breeze Hill to bring it to its current condition as a thoroughly charming modern family home. It retains the large deep windowsills created by the 18” solid stone walls, 5 fireplaces, beautiful moldings and vintage touches that bespeak its historic origins, but boasts a cook’s kitchen, five bathrooms, an enormous light-filled family room and great flow for entertaining
