Yep. That’s part of the regular view at 249-269 Lancaster Avenue in Malvern, East Whiteland. This week it’s a dumped mattress and some other stuff a couple of weeks ago. It was bags of trash, just sitting in the middle of their property. As in somebody dumped trash, it wasn’t collected there. A lot were white kitchen trash bags.
The property is rotting. It looks like hell. Why should residence and anyone that drives by look at new slumlord city there? And what about the businesses nearby? Don’t they deserve better?
I seem to remember that when the property sold around 2019, we knew that the buildings were going to be torn down and at first we were told a Lidl Market was going there.
Lidl went elsewhere. Then there was this whole thing about putting apartments there. East Whiteland Township did not want that and I don’t remember what happened but the apartments didn’t happen (thank goodness.)
So every once in a while, you hear a little rumor but mostly it just sits in rots and becomes a trash dump.
I took some moody photos in 2020 because I wanted to record the vintageness of both locations.
I don’t know about my readers, but I am of the opinion that these developers and property owners shouldn’t just be allowed to let locations rot because they can’t get their own way. Can you agree on that? I mean, if you want another example, look at one of my favorites, the farmhouse at Clews and Strawbridge with boats in front of it half of the time, right?
Would it be too much to ask if they would tidy up their properties while they are pending whatever is going to happen? And is there other stuff going on with that property that people need to know about?
Would the property owner like to look at this if it was sitting on his front lawn or whatever?
Historical Gladwyne Photo belonging to Lower Merion Historical Society.
Yasswyne? Really?
Gladwyne, is kind of a special to me. Circa 1975 was my introduction, and it was magical. Sledding on crazy hills off of Monk Road and Rose Glen. Free range kid wandering from the historic village through to the haunted feeling sanatorium buildings of the once “Gladwyne Colony”. Halloween and sleepovers and birthday parties with my friend whose dad went to high school together. The Gladwyne Library and its wonderful stacks and things like the plant sale. (And the cookbook fundraiser- I still have a copy!)
And the horses. Gladwyne then was still an equestrian hub. Sledding and carriaging with Mr. Gwinn. Leaning how to ride. Watching pony club. I didn’t belong to that I was not good enough.
The old village. It was just so nice. One of my friends was related literally to founding fathers of the village. Tree lined streets and marvelous old houses from so many eras. Whimsical Victorians. Charming Bungalows. And even 18th and early 19th century houses, mostly frame.
I realized this morning that the Gladwyne I stumbled upon as a kid was actually reminiscent of parts of Chester County I love so much. And to that end, sprucing up the village is not a bad idea, but this mass appropriation of buildings in the center as well as talks of tearing things down including one of the houses near the library I guess that was purchased? My opinion is a HELL NO.
It’s hell no to Peddlers Village-lite complete with all those absurd picnic tables scattered about the village that will not in my opinion be maintained long term. It’s hell no to making it a faux tourist attraction bringing lots of traffic to little streets with barely enough parking for residents.
Look I felt something was up in the fall, when I went digging into who supposedly was doing this, and that was not when any of us knew a big contributor to the destruction of the White House and the East Wing and the McMansioning of the people’s house.
I remember when I first started nosing around about this Gladwyne thing people on the Main Line were really odd with their reactions and I even had my comments taken down in places. And literally what I was sharing was who bought the place and was on the deed records with Montgomery County. That was before anyone even knew Yass was involved. But now I wonder what Gladwyne’s new commissioner knew and when?
And I remember when I figured out who these Bryn Mawr people were without knowing that anyone else was involved, I had reservations. Mostly because they just seemed like they were about themselves.
So they live over on Rock Creek Road and I knew a lot of people growing up and into adulthood that lived on that winding road and it had cool houses and beautiful trees and gardens, still does. So they restored their house and reinvented it and that’s their right but I remember looking at it thinking it’s really brown and it’s not quite here but I could appreciate some of the design elements.
But the Historic Village of Gladwyne, and it is a historic district, turned into some odd thing that it’s not? That’s not worth the renovation of the older buildings in my humble opinion thank goodness I don’t live there. 
But I had no idea the scope of this project until I saw the website and some of what the people who want to do this were posting:
To follow are four screenshots from their public website below. Go onto their website and read every word.
It’s Gladwyne Village as in the Village of because literally that’s what it is. Then I noticed that they magically weren’t doing a zoom of the meeting and when you don’t want to record a meeting that always set up red flags in my head. If you’ve got nothing to hide on a project, you put it out there for the world to see, including the meetings don’t you?
And now, it seems, historic Gladwyne has Jeff Yass.
The richest man in Pennsylvania, and his wife, Janine, have partnered with a younger husband-and-wife development/design team to both turn back the clock on Gladwyne village AND propel it into the next century.
The partnership spent millions over the last several months to buy or lease key properties in the heart of historic Gladwyne: the former Gladwyne Market, Gladwyne Village Shoppes (which house the beloved pharmacy and Homeroom luncheonette), Gladwyne Post Office, the former longtime OMG Salon building and, as of Dec. 31, a private home in the Village….The designated face of the partnership, Andre Golsorkhi revealed the quartet’s vision….At the outset, Golsorkhi (below) emphasized that his investor/development group is 100-percent local and, believe it or not, was NOT doing this to make money….The first resident who spoke felt blindsided….Another speaker feared the conformity of a Gladwyne Square. “It’s going to end up looking like Nantucket, she said. “This presentation makes me even more nervous about what you guys are doing …You’re saying Gladwyne needs branding… it’s gonna be a certain architecture that you think is important when you’re destroying a quirky Walter Durham house… I like communities that are organic and grow up in different ways. We have other buildings in Gladwyne that are just as important for the community that are not owned by Mr. Yass. I just wonder what the end game is. There’s always a price for this.”….Architect Ed Lewis (below), a 60-year Gladwyne resident told Golsorkhi that he “started the historic district in my living room with a meeting of neighbors concerned about overdevelopment.”
My photo
Read the entire Savvy article. It is very long and gives a lot of detail and thank you Caroline for what you do.
OK, I’m going to be 62 years old this year so why mince words? I think this plan is bullshit. This is about someone’s sanitizing and reinventing a place that first and foremost is a historic district.
I have no problems with people restoring things, but this isn’t about restoring. This is about changing history. And it’s not really the history of the people who bought the buildings.
To these four individuals, this is about making money. It’s not necessarily so all realistic, and I am allowed to have that opinion.
Again, I have no problem with someone fixing up old buildings and creating an adaptive reuses. But when you start to want to add parking lots and a random nouveau village green with lots of picnic tables that never existed within the history or framework of this village, it stops being about preservation and switches to just being about profit, doesn’t it?
Now I will agree the Walter Durham buildings that comprise the pharmacy, etc. are awkward. I’m really familiar with them. My mother was a realtor with a real estate office that was in the lower level years ago and for all the years that I banked at PNC, my branch was Gladwyne because they were the nicest people. And Gladwyne Pharmacy was our first pharmacy out here when we moved here and I still used to use them here and there until I moved to Chester county because I wanted to support them because they were independent like Parvins in Bryn Mawr.
I also have to admit when the Union League club took over the Guard House, I wondered what the future held for Gladwyne because that was a big change. But I didn’t anticipate this. And I have to say that The Union League respects the village. They have done a fine job with the place, although I do miss the ability to just go in there on a Friday or Saturday because I don’t belong to the Union League. I have been there for dinner several times since it reopened as part of the club and I love it and why do I love it because it’s still retains what we knew as its history. Even down to some of the dishes that were signature to Albert Breuers.
Found this on Wikipedia and I can’t find my photos and I have tons of The Guard House somewhere 
I know change will happen, but the change doesn’t have to be this drastic and it shouldn’t be. These people have the money to restore what they bought in the village of Gladwyne without making it look like Disney or a more expensive Peddler’s Village with insufficient parking.
I did dig out some of my photos of Gladwyne and why is still so special to me. And a lot of that includes things like the Memorial Day Parade. or walking down the little streets in the village and hearing the ghosts of my childhood passed and it’s a simple as knowing who lived where and things we explored St. John Vianney was our parish. Our first vet was Gladwyne vet. And the library. That library is still my favorite library anywhere. I won a Martha Stewart cookbook years ago as an adult in a raffle, I used to bury myself in corners as a kid and read, and I loved the plant sale. And I have a copy of their cookbook they used as a fundraiser. They could’ve had more than one cookbook over time, but I have the original one. and at one point in time, one of their librarians was actually a princess.
Yes a princess. She died in 2005 and her name was Maria de Pasquale. She was a friend of my parents along with her husband, Joe, who was one of the famous DePasquale brothers of the Philadelphia Orchestra and my friend’s aunt. She was a descendent of Napoleon‘s first wife, Josephine and Czar Nicholas I. She was born Maria Madgelena, Duchess von Leuchtenberg in Nice, France, daughter of Duke Serge Nicolaievitch and Duchess Anna. She renounced her title somewhere around 1949 to marry Joe.
So yes, my childhood librarian was once a princess. And she was tough. You didn’t have your books over to you returned them on time. but she always had books to recommend, even to kids. She also spoke five languages. and I remember being in the library one time when her inner princess came out because she was annoyed with someone on the phone.
I found her fascinating. So these are the little things that make up the history of Gladwyne that creating some artificial version of a Nouveau Gladwyne will never capture.
Of course, I bet they don’t know about things like in the early 2000s when the pharmacist went to jail.
Or all the contretemps over the years with a now deceased member of a founding family of Gladwyne who at one time owned a lot of the things in the village. He’s long deceased now and could be so cranky.
Or the whole controversy over the Gladwyne lunch years ago or Barker Mill or Oddfellows.
Now, of course, the 19035 has become known in recent years as being the home of shall we say Main Line grifters, correct ? And the McMansion ridiculousness?
And we can’t forget about all of the controversy surrounding what will be the redevelopment I guess eventually of the Dorrance estate on Monk Road. Course I was also on that property as a kid and it’s nothing sort of spectacular even if the old apple orchard no longer exists.
And I remember when the estate on Waverley Road was sold to become Waverly Heights. And there were other surrounding properties that got fed into it and when I was a kid, there were lots of horses with swishy tails hoping for a pat at the fence or maybe an apple. The Junkin Estate.
The Gladwyne I grew up with was always a mixed bag originally it had been like mills and farmers and people with grand estates who owned lots of horses. It was very much like parts of Chester County, including Willistown.
Or my one friend‘s house across the street from St. John Vianney which was sold and bulldozed and it had the nicest pool. It was the best house. In its place? A McMansion so big I don’t even say you can. I don’t even know how you can say they have green space or a garden. Of course Lower Merion planning really didn’t say much about that. Did they? and that will be a definite hurdle here because that planning department is so pro-development, along with the fact that the new commissioners, including the one for Gladwyne have not been there long enough to understand the place. And that even includes River Road.
Again, I know, change happens, but here it shouldn’t be so drastic. It should truly be keeping the history in mind and the current plans in my opinion do not.
I saw this earlier today and literally started to cry. This is my friend Lisa’s business. I started out as a customer years ago when I met Lisa at one of the first Clover Markets in Ardmore all of those years ago. Literally we met in 2010 and became friends, I am not jut a customer. And I am a happy customer.
Lisa the owner is a wonderful warm hearted person who would give someone a hand up if they needed help. She has a rare generosity of spirit that someone or several someones has decimated. I think there should be a special place in hell for people like that.
Even Martha Stewart has been to her store. She has a great eye and a wonderful mix of new, vintage, and antiques. And this is a very historic property and fabulous adaptive reuse.
In case people can’t read her message via my screenshot, here it is in her words:
Dear Friends.
I am sorry. I need to close the store for a bit. I have tried so HARD the last couple of months to try to keep it together. In almost 30 yrs of doing what I ABSOLUTELY LOVE to save, we had a very bad robbery. They pulled in the back driveway with a van, and uhaul. I don’t understand how, but they managed to override the system. They had at it. The basement, attics, backyard, shop, and my office. Let alone a constant supply out of my vehicle, and trailer. I believe this was over time, LOADS of vtg xmas, art work, costume, jewerly, primatives, salvage, garden, paper, glass, minitures, mirrors etc.. many collections and memories in boxes.
I IMMEDIATELY shut our social media down, and was trying to work through the trauma. It HURTS so bad. I watched it go through auctions, area consignments shops, in the antique shops as well as marketplace. I feel so LOST, betrayed, and mentally EXHAUSTED. We work so HARD at being a small business, let alone save 2 old houses over 200 yrs old. It is so SAD we live in this kind of world.
Take pictures, do inventory it will save u in the long run. Don’t keep keys out, let alone how you store your valuables. Keep your guard up. DON’T think it WON’T happen to you.
I CAN’T THANK my family and friends, state police ENOUGH for helping me work through this. Esp. my husband Spencer. Quite tough loosing the bits and pieces of your life’s work. I know the man upstairs has a plan. I TRUST him. I look forward to being, and feeling our happy place again. “Three floors, have fun. ”
I thought it was bad enough when the losers stole her hydrangeas outside a few years ago. But this? This is like someone raped her. This is her business, livelihood, dreams, hopes, hard work.
This is the kind of crap stuff that is a joy sucker. What she sells can’t be magically replaced like it is an Amazon warehouse.
What I am asking of readers, especially fellow antique and vintage dealers is keep an eye out. Be wary of too good to be true and unknowns wanting to peddle things like she describes. If you are a dealer be aware, this could happen to you.
Lisa will rebuild and we will all support her. I firmly believe there is a special place in hell for people who do things like this to wonderful people and small businesses.
It’s hardly into the new year and already it’s kind of depressing. It’s 4 January, and our president essentially performed an act of war without congressional approval. In the wee hours, as in early Saturday morning, the US struck Venezuela and removed the president and his wife to New York. Maduro is in New York because U.S. special forces captured him in this raid in Caracas and they have brought him and his wife to face federal charges dating from 2020, including drug trafficking , weapons charges, and “narco-terrorism.”
This article in an online journal called “The Conversation” is well worth reading on this:
It might be too much to ask all of the armchair warriors and foreign diplomacy and constitutional and congressional scholars on Facebook to actually READ something versus just jumping on the Internet tar and feather bandwagon.
I felt obligated to shut down comments on posts on my blog’s Facebook page. I do that to bring the temperature down because it is the correct and responsible thing to do. I am not practicing censorship because it’s MY page. If people don’t like that, that is on them. It’s not their personal platform which maybe is something they don’t get. It’s only censorship if they can’t ever speak their opinion at all. What I am saying is they need to take their flame war elsewhere.
When I post something without the ability for people to leave comments, it means keep your cray cray to yourself and your page. Do not private message me. I have been receiving rather vile as well as idiotic private messages.
And FYI The Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed by President James Monroe in 1823, was NOT necessarily designed for this Venezuela’s it all. It’s also not the Roosevelt Corollary (as in Teddy’s era) or Cold War as used by Kennedy and then Reagan. This is most definitely yes still a controversial aspect of US foreign policy and should not be part of the toys used by a greedy grabby never served in the military man baby.
Donroe or Monroe, I am not debating it or having my private messages polluted with nonsense- by all means people discuss it on their own personal Facebook pages but I do not have to ride the crazy train.
A friend of mine quipped that the Epstein files must be pretty bad and intelligent beings do need to question the timing, yes? But even if Maduro being removed is possibly a good thing for the Venezualan people are there other motivations at play here including but not limited to oil and mineral rights?
The 4th day of a new year we need to contemplate where we are going. It’s frightening in my opinion. And it’s frightening what people don’t want to see and that includes our elected officials in Washington D.C.
So now this afternoon there are protests supposedly happening about Venezuela? Protests are getting to be like fireworks. So many and does that make their value dissipate?
A friend of mine wrote today:
As a daughter of a Vietnam Vet who I lost in 2025 after his post-war life battle from Agent Orange…this is a horrible time to have 13 & 18 year old boys. I wish my dad was here to tell me it will be ok.
Another wrote:
I just explained to my boys what a military draft means.
Someone else I know said:
I had a ton of people calling me a Trump apologist when I said no war in Gaza and now people are calling me a liberal for saying no war in Venezuela. Some of us actually are anti-war and pro-rule of law!
There have been people who had arguments against my opinion which weren’t quite polite but not overly rude that I didn’t remove (or them) but it was about obviously I was never part of an EMS or lost a family member to drugs. No I fortunately never lost a family member to drugs, but lost a friend and two women I know have had drugs make them widows. I have had plenty of friends who have been on EMS crews for years and NOT one has spoken up all drug overdoses are stamped “Made in Venezuela.”
I think we live in a very different world today, so much so I honestly don’t trust that peaceful protests will remain as such. Sadly, No Kings in West Chester proved me right.
I will never say that people shouldn’t stand up for what they feel at the core of their being, but we live in a world that doesn’t necessarily respect that, at least in this country.
Dachau 2026
And then there are the tones of World War II Europe that seem to hum in the background. I have a friend in Poland now on a trip who sent me two photos that stopped me cold.
Auschwitz 2026
Do you know the meaning of the verbiage over the gates? It is “Hard Work is Freedom.”
These first concentration camps were at first prisons for the intellectuals, professors, journalists, etc. Poland has done a great job of preserving Auschwitz. The buildings there were carefully constructed and made of stone and bricks. So they still stand. That’s where Mengele conducted his eugenics experiments. Down the road from Auschwitz are other places like Birkenau, which was put up quickly essentially just to kill people. Only the chimneys remain.
Why do people choose not to remember and even respect the ghosts of World Wars past? When people stopped paying attention to World War I, World War II happened. If we continue to ignore the lessons of the past or try to rewrite history, the past could actually repeat itself.
I am not being an alarmist or conspiracy theorist. The markers exist and if we aren’t careful as a society and country, things our parents and grandparents never wanted us to experience may be come our new normal.
Now who will read this post? When it’s lots of words, that is debatable. We live in a world where people don’t read or research a thing. They read it on Facebook or TikTok so it must be true.
Look I wish we didn’t have to look at history, but we must. If we don’t look at history, even ugly inconvenient, horrible history we may be doomed to repeat it.
I am still tired of how people do not respect that sometimes there is no dialogue to be had when people merely want a break from the social media nonsense of others. We live in a world where everyone seems to think whomever gets all the toys, wins. That is unrealistic and unsustainable.
I think I am growing less patient with the craziness and hysteria on social media. People are such sheeple. And they have zero respect for boundaries of anyone.
Today’s world is a study of past is prologue as well as past is present. I don’t know that that’s a good thing.
The word of the year should be grateful. Not the misused, overused version of faux Christianism found on social media, but the feeling at the core of your being inside your truth.
This post from the Pennsylvania SPCA had the following verbiage on Facebook :
Her name is Tangi.
Yesterday, she was found outside our shelter, sealed inside a taped-up box in the freezing morning air.
When we opened it, scared eyes looked up at us. She was shaking and so stressed that she was hypersalivating, clearly overwhelmed by everything around her. And yet, the moment a hand reached toward her, she leaned in, gentle and searching for comfort despite everything she had been through.
Throughout the day, during medical testing, behavioral exams, and every check we needed to do, Tangi just wanted to be near someone. She followed staff closely, rested her head against anyone who knelt beside her, and cried when she was left alone. All she wanted was to feel safe.
We are incredibly grateful someone spotted that box when they did. It was less than 30 degrees outside when she was abandoned. We truly sympathize with the circumstances her previous owner may have been facing, but we also want everyone, including pets, to remain safe. If you ever need help with a pet, please reach out to us, or any shelter or rescue in the area. And if you must surrender an animal urgently, please come inside and speak with someone.
Tangi is currently on a stray hold in case an owner comes forward. If no one does, she will be made available for adoption, and we know she’ll steal hearts quickly.
For now, she is safe, and so, so loved.
⬇️ to see Tangi.
I would like to know what in the hell is wrong with people? You’ve all these people in all these stupid social media groups wanting to get their Joey and Jill a puppy for Christmas. Well half of those puppies will end up in rescue after Christmas and I’ve said it before that’s how I got one of my best dogs. He was a Christmas puppy years ago who held no interest after a couple of months.
Then you have these people that are just dumping puppies. Case in point is a puppy that was posted to Ludwig‘s Corner Veterinary Hospital.
The post was updated to say no owner was NOT located and the dog is probably going into an already overcrowded rescue system.
Who dumps a puppy at Christmas?
Who tapes a dog up in a box and leaves it in bitter cold weather outside a shelter, where the box was almost missed?
And then they’re all the dogs that Main Line Animal Rescue has been posting that seemed to have been dumped in Lancaster City and other parts of Lancaster County.
I just can’t with this. It’s bad enough when dogs end up in rescue because their humans die and there’s no one to take them, but I just don’t understand people dumping their dogs.
Dogs give us unconditional love and so much joy. And people irresponsibly get dogs and then they just dump them.
It’s not just around here or PA in general. It’s like an epidemic all over the country. Our animal companions, much like human beings are not just disposable.
And then there are the people who assume if something happens to them, that certain people in their families or in their lives in general will take their pets. You can’t assume that you need to have a conversation.
All of these rescues are short on funds and often supplies. So if you want to do something meaningful this Christmas, don’t just shove a cute puppy under the Christmas tree that your kids may or may not really want. Adopt a rescue instead and meet your furever friend that way.
I’m sorry but human beings in 2025 have shown themselves in a lot of cases to just be assholes , whether it’s politics or pets.
Sometimes by luck and happenstance you get invited to something really, really special – it’s the season of giving, and I never ask people to give to anything, but it would be really cool if you considered this:
I ended up here literally just by luck. The hostess of this private holiday friendraiser invited me to come, and I offered to donate photos to the cause.
This is something which literally touched my heart.
The backstory: Back in 2016, Lee Lee Jones was your average student home for Christmas. She was a graduate student at The University of Pennsylvania where she was working towards a graduate degree in social work. A lifelong rider, she was enjoying a December ride when the horse she was riding spooked and threw her. Although wearing a riding helmet she was still knocked unconscious.
As the story continues, allow me to share part of the story from her namesake fund page on the Main Line Health website:
She was airlifted to the Level 1 Trauma Center at Christiana Medical Center, where she was rushed into emergency surgery. Due to significant brain swelling, doctors removed part of her skull. Lee Lee barely survived the night and remained in a coma for 7½ weeks. She was diagnosed with Diffuse Axonal Injury, a severe traumatic brain injury.
During her time in the ICU at Christiana, Lee Lee faced numerous complications, including pneumonia, MRSA, severe respiratory distress syndrome, and neuro storming. Once stabilized, she was transferred to Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital in an emergent state—non-verbal, almost completely paralyzed, and only able to open her eyes slightly.
Over her nine-month inpatient stay at Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital and continued outpatient therapy over the past eight years, Lee Lee has made remarkable progress. She relearned how to swallow, walk, and perform daily activities. Thanks to the dedicated and experienced team at BMRH, Lee Lee has regained significant independence.
Not all families can endure the financial responsibility which comes with these treatments and stays, hence the fund. There is such a need for these endowments because in my humble opinion the medical community has not lost their compassion but health insurance companies kind of have. For all of the money insurance companies make in this country, they really need to realize that they can have more generosity at times. Maybe some health insurance executives will see my post and donate to this endowment fund, for example?
When I was growing up I devoured the books about Jill Kinmont and she was incredibly inspirational to many of us, but because she died in 2012, a lot of people have forgotten about her. Jill Kinmont Booth was a was an American alpine ski racer and schoolteacher. Her life story was turned into two major Hollywood movies The Other Side of the Mountain and its sequel The Other Side of the Mountain Part 2.
Obviously, Jill Kinmont was well into adulthood when we learned about her as kids through the movies in the 1970s. Through the movies we learned that Jill in 1955 was the reigning national champion in the slalom, and a top hopeful for a medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics, a year away. As an 18 year she suffered a near-fatal skiing accident that resulted in paralysis from the shoulders down. She fought her way back with rehab, very primitive compared to what patients have today. She eventually graduated from college, married had a long career as an educator, first in Washington State and then in California. She was also an artist. She lived as a quadriplegic for more than 50 years. That doesn’t make her story Lee Lee’s story, but it reminded me of young women who overcome great obstacles after accidents to continue their lives.
Lee Lee Jones is a remarkable young woman and I also find her incredibly special and inspirational. Just as I find her friends, family, and support system. I was honored to meet her, her family, one of her nurses, friends, and her former boyfriend, now an adult with his own family. His name is Kareem Rosser and he is another major part of this story, and a driving force behind this endowment becoming a success at Bryn Mawr Rehab. He is doing this out of love. Love still for Lee Lee and her family with whom he remains incredibly close. He also does this out of an amazing ability and desire to pay things forward.
Kareem began his life in one of Philadelphia’s toughest and baddest neighborhoods. It was in West Philadelphia and known as “the bottom.” I actually know where this is because once upon a time when I was barely 21, I got not one but two flat tires there on my way home with a friend late one night. We had been dancing at the. Pagano’s and been to the then Chestnut Cabaret. It was the era before cell phones and a Philadelphia cop just happened to drive by and would not leave us until a tow truck arrived. I remember we said to him in our young invincibleness that we would be fine on our own and the cop said to us no we might not, this was “the bottom.”
When Kareem was 8, he discovered a stable full of horses in Fairmount Park. Chamounix Stables. Through Work to Ride he learned to ride and play polo. Eventually he earned a scholarship to Valley Forge Military Academy. In 2011 he led his Work to Ride team to a National Interscholastic Polo Championship. Next in In 2015, he led Colorado State University to a collegiate National Championship.
Kareem is on the board of Work to Ride and is an Executive Vice President today of Work to Ride , and has led development efforts there since 2018. This non profit completed an amazing state of the art barn renovation project not so long ago. He is also the co-founder of the Philadelphia Polo Classic.
Kareem was Lee Lee’s boyfriend at the time of her accident. They were in love and then life had a plot twist.
Kareem is still close and devoted to Lee Lee and her family. This shows how the power of love is so integral to life itself, and how it grows and changes yet remains a constant.
Kareem is also a best selling author. He was also one of the nicest people I have met in a while.
Compassionate and honest and eloquent. Listening to him speak was just wonderful. Hearing about Lee Lee through his eyes and how her accident affected him and her friends and family.
One of the things I liked about listening to Kareem speak with his openness. He wove the tail of his life and how it intersected with Lee Lee’s. And the small world of it all, one of his closest friends is the son of an old neighbor.
Now is the season of giving I am going to share a video of the speakers I recorded during this event so you can learn more about this fund and you can also go to Bryn Mawr Rehab’s site :
If you have it in your hearts, this holiday season before your end, please consider even a small donation. I think if you’ve ever known anyone who’s had a traumatic brain injury, you will be interested in supporting this fund.
Developer Eli Kahn at 12/1/25 Tredyffrin Supervisors Meeting
So this is an interesting one at the end of the supervisors’ meeting last evening, Tredyffrin Township’s bumbling and inefficient zoning officer (I am entitled to my opinion and I’m being understated because I don’t understand why she has a job, but I digress) pops up rather nervously to announce to the supervisors that are developer was there with essentially a problem.
What was the problem? Something to do with the sewer and how his workforce housing project was essentially being potentially charged too much if it goes forward the way it is for sewer capacity they’re not going to use, right?
Here is the recording of that portion of the meeting:
I don’t understand how it was just sort of popped on the agenda like this do you? I’m not saying he shouldn’t be heard because he should be heard, and this is a developer whose projects I am not generally speaking fond of, but when you listen to this meeting snippet, do you really think he’s wrong? I actually don’t. (Shocker, right?)
This project was introduced at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025:
So this is a trend we’ve seen being proposed in other municipalities and not just by this developer. It’s all about redeveloping these old commercial properties and these office buildings that have become obsolete whales and making them into living units, and in some cases, schools?
So I have to ask are we potentially replacing one problem with another problem? To be clear l, I’m not saying I’m against workforce housing if it actually happens. But I also look at these plans for this housing and so many of the units are these little itty-bitty things so what about workforce housing for families?
But I’m not going off on that tangent today that’s just something I think about. We definitely need affordable housing for all stages of life, but do we really need more apartments? I keep asking that question.
So the reason Eli Kahn went to Tredyffrin has to do with sewer. And sewer capacity and what he is paying for. It’s an interesting conversation. Listen to the video. So he’s telling the supervisors that they have problems in their sewer fee structures I guess? Basically he’s saying it’s not a one-size-fits-all?
I find it interesting, just like I find it. Interesting how it all kind of got plopped at the end of this meeting.
What is it with sewer fees and sewer capacity and municipalities out here so you have the thing that West Goshen Sunshine uncovered that’s on her Facebook page about fees paying health insurance bills of supervisors?
And then, of course, we have West Whiteland Township, trying to do the right thing for residents being sued by the Exton Mall developer and why? If there isn’t really sewer capacity, how should they be able to build as much? I don’t understand. it’s not like that’s the only problem on that site is there? Not enough parking correct? Too many houses for the area because of the density already existing correct?
Thanksgiving. It’s one of those holidays where we always want it to be like a Hallmark Movie only if we’re real, sometimes it’s not.
When I think of awkward Thanksgiving meals, I think of the time I went to my friend’s family celebration at Merion Cricket Club. Now I will admit going out for Thanksgiving to a restaurant or a club is weird for me. I like cooking Thanksgiving dinner. But this one year I was a singleton so I went to this particular celebration.
Now this was old Merion before all the updating on the decorating. It looked really pretty. The dining room was still the old dining room. We were in the room next to the dining room on the other side of the hall. I got seated next to an overly friendly older relative. As in mid to late 70s. Let’s just call it and “oh grandpa please moment.”
We’ve all had awkward moments, but trust me, nothing worse than being seated at a holiday meal next to a uncomfortably friendly relative of the one who invited you and you have to sit there politely with a smile plastered on your face wishing that this old dude would just stop. It was so awful I was embarrassed for him.
Then there are the miscellaneous memories of Thanksgiving growing up. One time at the old Greenhouse restaurant in Radnor. They cooked your group your own turkey and you took the leftovers home. They served your party family style. That was the year we had more house guests than room to fit them in the dining room.
When I was really little I remember Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle’s house up in Northeast Philadelphia. Both of my mother’s parents were alive back then. It was crowded but alive and fun, which was definitely not the feeling one got at my late father’s sister’s house. Those were the obligatory not so much fun and lots of frosty pretense Thanksgivings where the toilet seat in the powder room was as chilly as the lack of heat in the house and the personality of my father’s family who hosted.
There were plenty of super joyful Thanksgivings growing up. I have memories of ones in Philadelphia and hysterical laughing over how long was that god damned turkey going to take? Being with family friends in Summit, NJ and Bethesda, MD and more. A kaleidoscope of happy memories and voices of those now gone I can still see in my head, especially memories of Mrs. C in her kitchen. And the eventuality of my sister and I hosting Thanksgiving feasts.
Then there were the purgatory years for me. Many moons ago, I was in a different and looking back, a honestly difficult and terrible relationship. I would have to make the trek with someone who shall not be named because they don’t deserve it up to parts much further west.
The holidays including Thanksgivings I liked because that sister-in-law of this person and her mom set a beautiful table and made such an effort over every guest.
The holidays, including Thanksgiving at his sister’s were another story.
First of all, let’s talk about the ugly brown crockery plates that always showed up as “good china.” Maybe I am being a snob, but somehow I really don’t want to eat dinner on plates that seem to be the color of dirt do you? and then there was the fact that the turkey was served in the cheap tinfoil container it went into the oven with. And these were the holidays where everybody stood around with the superiority of misfits and malcontents, and basically criticized anyone who wasn’t there, sort of defeating the point of the holiday, right?
The other thing about those purgatory years were the car rides. Essentially a lot of each ride coming and going I was yelled at in a closed space. It was abusive. And I wasn’t answering back. I just sat there, hoping it would stop….for almost a decade. Abuse towards women takes all forms and they all matter, don’t they? To this day, I have I think a form of PTSD from this and a definite aversion to loud, bullying mansplaining.
And during those years I worked really hard to just participate, contributing food, etc. it was always wasted on those people, but I did get a chance to work on my recipes so it wasn’t all bad and the dogs were nice, as well as the kids at the time. From those years, I had the takeaway of what I did not want the rest of my life to look like.
Like I keep saying, I actually like cooking Thanksgiving. Sometimes I think it’s just to have turkey sandwiches the day after.
I know people don’t like preparing for Thanksgiving because of the work. And yes, it is work, but happy faces around the table enjoying the meal are worth it. but that doesn’t mean we’re all getting our Hallmark families for the holidays. So we make the best of it some years. As humans we are flawed, even the mean-spirited, whom it’s hard to give grace to. But hey, they wake up the next day as miserable as they were on Thanksgiving and that’s its own kind of penance.
Thanksgiving is historically a day where it is not about one upsmanship and pretense. It’s about being thankful and grateful.
It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessings of the harvest. It began as a day of giving, thanks between the original residents of this country, the Native Americans, and the immigrants, reaching these shores for a better way of life and certain freedoms.
Now it is still supposed to be that, only we seem to be evolving into a country that doesn’t represent what the Pilgrims and founding fathers intended. We seem to have become what they left Europe over and fought a revolution for?
How do we get back to the goodness in this country? I am not saying goodness doesn’t exist, it just seems to be in hiding, doesn’t it?
I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t expect it to be perfect, just enjoy the people you are with and the once a year deliciousness (hopefully) of the dinner. Support local businesses on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
Try to be kind to one and other and pray for a day when we wake up to the current being an American nightmare.
My dinner won’t cook itself sadly, so Happy Thanksgiving and signing off.
xo,
Carla
(for those who still do not think I am a real person and I play records backwards for hidden messages.)
PAOLI, Pa. (WPVI) — A Main Line contractor is the focus of an Action News investigation.
He is accused of taking money, not finishing jobs, and using alleged stolen funds. But his victims say he is still able to drive around in pricey cars.
The contractor’s name is Mike Monaghan. He’s catered to those with money on the Main Line. His alleged victims say he played the part, but when it came time to build and finish projects, he didn’t deliver….
PAOLI, Pa. (WPVI) — A Main Line contractor is the focus of an Action News investigation.
He is accused of taking money, not finishing jobs, and using alleged stolen funds. But his victims say he is still able to drive around in pricey cars.
The contractor’s name is Mike Monaghan. He’s catered to those with money on the Main Line. His alleged victims say he played the part, but when it came time to build and finish projects, he didn’t deliver…..Investigative reporter Chad Pradelli went to Monaghan’s Paoli home to get answers and hear his side of the story.
Listen to the video that I have embedded above to get the whole gist of it. But oh my goodness what a scammer he sure seems to be right?
Please note I haven’t been able to look him up on the state website because apparently the Attorney General Dave Sunday’s website for looking up contractors etc is still down and how is that? Lack of functionality was reported by Brett Sholtis is The Philadelphia Inquirer on November 1, and it’ still spins and spins?
