We went to brunch at the Desmond Hotel in Malvern. We used to go there years ago. They had a fabulous brunch back then and the hotel has been for sale for a year, and it’s clean and it’s still wonderful staff (they have always had really nice staff.)
But although the place was clean and fresh, it was kind of a pedestrian brunch and I expected better.
Now, maybe that’s my fault for going with the brunch on display instead of ordering right off of the menu, but the eggs were cold, the French toast was barely lukewarm, the bacon and sausage were cold, the salad dressings were too processed and pedestrian, the pork loin they served at their meat station should’ve been wonderful, but my husband had it and it was dry and I didn’t even go near the turkey because you could see that that was dry.
They had these shrimp that had been roasted in some kind of a chili sauce and they were actually delicious.
The salad bar had some nice fresh options, but again the salad dressings were over processed and just blah — for example the balsamic vinaigrette was so over emulsified it kind of gelatinous and it was a mixture of being really sweet and too salty so in other words, it’s a super processed dressing. I suggested they add plain old oil and vinegar for people as an option. The fruit salad wasn’t anything to write home about as it was very institutional.
I ended up having a salad because when I had first gotten my plate, I wanted breakfast food and because it was cold, it kind of lost its luster so I got something else.
The pastries looked good, but I suspect again more institutional quality versus a pastry chef in the kitchen.
Now the prefixe buffet was like $29 a person which is I guess modest, but for charging close to 30 bucks per person they should’ve had more attention to detail to the food. And again, it’s really a shame because they really have nice staff.
The hotel is for sale and has been for a while so I don’t see them realistically putting more into it except they really should because it might be a better return on investment.
We used to go there for years for brunch and it was fabulous and it’s just a shame that it’s not the way it was.
And again, they are taking the time for presentation, etc. but the taste and things like basic food temperature and taste just aren’t there.
They had a young kid running the omelette station, and he kind of knew what he was doing. I was watching him, but he was very chintzy about what he was putting in the omelettes. I mean, nobody wants an omelette that’s so over-stuffed that it falls all over a person when you’re eating it, but still you need enough cheese, for example, to make it do that little gooey thing when you cut into it.
But if this is their food these days, I wonder how many weddings they are actually booking because they talk a lot about their wedding business and brunch something that should kind of be a no-brainer.
Once upon a time until but a year or so ago that was this cute stone rancher, (or maybe it was just stone faced rancher) for sale in Tredyffrin.
I remember the listing because I had a friend that was interested in it and then all of a sudden it was off the market. At that point in time it had been a little overpriced, but it was a super cute house. However, it’s drawback to my friend, (which is why they hesitated) was the location. Old State Road and Contention Lane.
Sorry not sorry, it’s odd right there. When I first went back there years ago to photograph a historic property near there for a house tour, it just felt kind of cut off, like a place people only occasionally pass through. And a little isolated.
We all know it now that this was the location of where nurse, mom, friend, sister and wife Megan Nieberle was murdered in cold blood by Steve Jahn.
Slightly off of the beaten path, highway adjacent. Yet some interesting houses. Modest and historic and older developments.
But this rancher? Cute and on a generous corner lot. It’s sold at a sort of bargain basement price only to be knocked down.
It’s quite a big house. With oddly small windows.
What’s happening is quite interesting at 809 Contention Lane (UPI 43-5Q-9) in my opinion.
Tredyffrin has NOTHING online easily found except a note from a 3/24/26 EAC meeting mentioning issues of equipment within 5-10 feet of stream in the floodplain and a request for code enforcement to go out. Has code enforcement gone out? What was the result?
How was this approved? Was this truly by right? Why doesn’t it seem like Tredyffrin doesn’t put their land development plans online?
It just seems really big considering what used to be there.
Went to White Horse Farm in Willistown yesterday to pick up an order. We are part of their Butcher & Cream Club and have been for about a year now.
It’s nice to know your farmer and literally know where everything is coming from. This is a spectacular property in Willistown. You can’t just wander up the driveway, we were invited as we were picking up an order.
This. Finally. People all over now understand what the residents of Mt. Pleasant have been dealing with for YEARS.
Anyway, my cup runneth over in gratitude for Philadelphia regional media digging in to what has been going on for far too long in this historic old neighborhood in Tredyffrin. It is gratifying to know that they care about people in the region enough to hang out and talk with these people for a while because basically no one else has.
Perhaps somewhere up above Miss Mazie Hall and her pal Margaret Collins are smiling? I mean developers could tear down Mazie’s house, but neither predatory developers nor animal house college students have a right to destroy this neighborhood. It isthat simple.
So Tredyffrin Township, it’s time to get off your collective asses and stop ignoring this neighborhood because everyone knows if this was an expensive McMansion district you’d be hopping to PDQ. Yes I am in fact saying that if this wasn’t a historically black neighborhood, this problem would have been dealt with years ago. And by the way, the McMansionette dwellers in the new big huge town houses are not happy with this issue either.
And Villanova University, walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk.
Courtesy of those amazing East Whiteland residents protesting data centers
Welllllpppp…the litigation trains have left contemplation station. Residents have filed against East Whiteland Township. The topic? DATA CENTER planned for Swedesford.
Can’t say I am surprised but I bet the township is. Wake up over there on Conestoga Road in the township building. It’s never too late to do the right thing for residents is it? Mebbe Captain Green Fig can move the data center to his back yard in Willistown?
Sarcastically yours while telling East Whiteland I told them so. I told them this was a bad plan…..around 2018 for the first time….and continually since….
Has a rainbow come to Mount Pleasant in Tredyffrin? Not sure exactly, but a mighty fine centerpiece article from The Philadelphia Inquirer has arrived.
I am so happy for the very beleaguered residents of this small historic neighborhood. I am honestly really happy that a bona fide reporter listened to what the residence had to say and wrote about it fairly.
See Tredyffrin? Told ya.
See Villanova University? Others do care about Mount Pleasant, even if your off-campus students and student rental slumlords there do not and just out of curiosity how many of those student rental landlords are alumni?
Yes there is a paywall but I actually know someone who subscribed today just so they could read this article. Tredyffrin’s inactive chickens are coming home to roost in Mt. Pleasant with this article. A reporter, the photographer to look into what has been even documented on social media.
This is a large article and I hope the message has been received that it is time to stop offering lip service, and deal with this.
As for Tredyffrin Supervisor Carlotta Johnson-Pugh who was quoted? She really shouldn’t dance. She should just say what the residents tell her: if this wasn’t a historically black neighborhood, people would care more. THAT is the truth and reality.
I don’t know where half of these Tredyffrin Supervisors were years ago when the original student housing ordinance was coming in to play, but I remember quite clearly how much it took them just to get around to doing an ordinance. It was somewhat disgraceful it took so long. And maybe the police department only has a certain number of calls on the books for the school year 2025 to 2026, but I have to ask were all of the calls investigated? Are the residents taken seriously?
📌 “When the parents aren’t getting on them, the college is not getting on them, the police are not getting on them, and then you got the neighbors, and all we can do is make a little fuss, but there’s not a lot we can do,”📌
This is a centerpiece article IMHO. The curtain has been lifted beyond a curtain raiser. Tredyffrin’s zoning officer is lazy at a minimum and could be doing more.
Allow one more (brief) quote from the Inquirer article today from Villanova University:
📌“Students are subject to the University’s Code of Student Conduct whether they are on- or off-campus, and the University follows up on all reports it receives from local municipalities,” the spokesperson said in a statement.📌
Ok good to know based upon this familiar email. I say familiar because I’ve been told people have received variations on the same theme:
Now to be fair, in the past I have found Villanova’s security folks helpful to residents to the best of their ability. But heavier lifting needs to come from Villanova University decision makers. I think they promised to be better during that meeting last year with residents once they acquired Cabrini?
A lot of schools in this country have directories on file for where all of their off-campus students are residing correct? Why can’t Villanova do this? I think I’ve been asking this for like over 20 years haven’t I? Why can’t they have a better grip on where these kids are living and how they are behaving vis à vis their policies they have in place for their students in general?
You know when you talk to these residents, they understand the college students want to have fun because a lot of them were college students once upon a time. However, these are literally animal houses that Mount Pleasant has been dealing with for far too long. And there needs to be palpable culpability on the part of the property owners who are renting these houses, perhaps?
I think this is a big stay tuned thing because I think this is a story that’s going to keep growing until the problems are solved in Tredyffrin like in Mount Pleasant.
Oh Honey Brook Township Liberty Biberty mush mouth Steve-O 🤣 is at it again (must’ve lost his binky and needs attention) and he really shouldn’t give up his day job, but nobody’s really sure what it is right now because he’s doing all this stuff again, right??
It’s all of the same lame arguments that they tried to apply to Valerie Shultz before she beat the pants off of him (frightening mental visual BTW) in the fall election as a Republican.
There is even a pathetic attempt to resurrect the kids are unsafe issue because Scott Stilson as a Republican committeeman asked a school if they would consider being a polling location because the polling location that serves their precinct is outgrown for the most part. That’s common and happens all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania every year and all across the country, and it doesn’t mean the kids aren’t safe. That is a fear mongering lie, and it’s like the other lies.
You know it’s all being spread thicker than pig manure on a cornfield out there because they are THAT desperate.
And then when blather hoodie wants to talk about his close personal friend, Gary McEwan who’s been on the school board for how many decades at this point (is it like 33 years?) and involved in politics for how many decades at this point like his dad before him and that’s a reason for term limits is it not?
And then Steve mentions John Burdy the toady (his wife is Laura Burdy the toady who is a supervisor and isn’t it all so cozy?) who is running for Republican committeeman who is also just a yes man warm body for the status quo on the Twin Valley School Board along with Sally Dee Gee’s son Baby Nicky (or maybe he still wants to go by his sock puppet account on Facebook called Jack Wilson?) who is a college student, so they want to set him up not only on the school board where he’s just a warm body to say yes to whatever the school board president wants, but then they can set him up to keep the political control going of Tammy Hall in the cornfield in Honey Brook, right?
People, is time for change in Honey Brook and this is a small but important opportunity to keep that mission going.
Be the change you want and don’t vote for any of these people. I mean, come on they’re even slashing political signs and destroying them, which is something that they swear they don’t do right? And then there’s the whole question of debate, this time they asked for it and now apparently they’re not doing it?
Be the change. End Tammany Hall style politics in Honey Brook.
PS to address one of drama hoodie’s erroneous claims of last week was insinuating that there was something wrong with the Honey Brook Township Manager leaving? No state secret, just MONEY…
Dude, you lost in NOVEMBER, 2025 so what are you running for today? And what’s with the regurgitation of lawn chair spectaculars? This is very odd obsessive behavior is it not?
Yes, back to Honey Brook Township. Back to the land of the thug politics cabal getting more desperate by the day. So desperate that one of them did this:
Good Afternoon,
This e-mail is intended for DC Mike Hepner. I am writing to you as a member of the Honey Brook community. I am not a Lion, but have a couple of friends who are and there is a continued level of online harassment/trademark infringement by an online blogger who is friends with someone who quit the Lions in Honey Brook a couple years ago.
This person has since been elected as a Honey Brook Township Supervisor and her friend, the blogger, continuously creates disgusting online images (including trademarked images) and “tags” the local Lions club, both during the election last year and as we speak.
I felt this needed attention from more than just the local club, on a district level. Although there is freedom of speech, I have attached a photo posted yesterday that shows obvious trademark infringement.
I am available for any questions you may have and hope you can obtain information to take this harassment down from social media.
Thanks,
Steven Jones
Can we get real? And before that, note although I was under no obligation to redact his information (address, phone, email) it was done anyway, so he cannot say he was doxxed (another issue and definition they struggle with.)
This has nothing as in ZERO to do with the Lion’s Club in Honey Brook and he isn’t a Lion’s Club member, yet he feels compelled to to write to the Lion’s Club to tattle? Like he is defending their honor from a made up situation in his head? Is it not more probable that they wish to use this group to their own twisted gain? They always try to drag all of these people into their games, don’t they? I mean come on, they even try to do this nonsense with the Chester County Republican Party do they not? Now it’s the Lion’s Club, last fall it was the Honey Brook Community Library, the fire company, Chester County Republicans, a minority County Commissioner, and I think even a food pantry? Why do they constantly deflect from the fact that these twisted up inside people are the actual problems, not everyone else? I mean shouldn’t they have simply more respect for these organizations and people instead of trying to drag them into their twisted sandbox of immaturity?
They have also not only tried to disparage and harass Valarie Shultz and others, but me, and literally anyonewho stands up to them. Do they think people don’t know? Do they think people don’t know their constant tattletale harangue tour? It’s what they do isn’t it? Bullying and intimidation?
(That includes mailing things to me when I did not provide them with an address during the election. That was done merely to try to intimidate me, to try to send a message they could get to me but did they? It was Priority Mail, so there is tracking, and to be honest, when you receive things like that, you can go to the US Postal Inspectors who do take thing like that seriously, yes?)
All of these people in his circle have made themselves public figures vis à vis their social media presence which includes public posts. You know, that pesky little globe?
These people are also public figures as elected officials and/or politicians and appointed officials, which makes them fair game. They have been mocked in response to their public behavior, correct?
Anything ever obtained about them that they don’t like on social media has been in the public purview. They posted it publicly and people picked it up.
They also are recorded at public meetings that anyone in the world can see. That includes Mr. Jones’ outbursts at public meetings. One example below.
Here’s a snippet from his handler:
What is his end game here? He puts things out publicly not just on Facebook, but now on YouTube. If his things weren’t public, no one would see them, and anyone can comment on things that are public.
Then also recently another stunning email sent from an outgoing elected Republican committeewoman, Deb Elmer. I found out courtesy of this:
So yesss…the email was sent out while disclosing the information on hundreds of residents. That is akin to a data breach. Oh and here is the email:
Dear Fellow Honey Brook Township Resident,
As a resident of Honey Brook Township and a Republican Committee member in HBT2, Precinct 301, I am writing to strongly support John Burdy and Gary R. McEwen candidacy for Precinct 300 committee member in the May 19, 2026 primary election.
I have known both men for many years and have closely followed their service on the Twin Valley School Board. They have consistently demonstrated strong leadership, sound judgment, and a clear commitment to serving our community with integrity.
Just as important as supporting strong candidates is being honest about the facts and ensuring accountability within our own process. My concern is maintaining fair and consistent standards within our party’s expectations.
Under our local area bylaws, committee members pledge to support only the endorsed republican candidate in all public spheres and limit their political activity to advancing the election of the endorsed candidate.
Based on firsthand involvement in HBT1, Precinct 300, concerns arose regarding adherence to conduct standards following the primary certification. During this period, Scott Stilson supported Valerie Shultz while still active, as a committee member, his exact resignation date is unclear. Lorraine Louie, who remains a committee member, also openly supported Shultz, who appeared on the general election ballot as a Democrat despite being registered as a Republican. This conduct raises questions regarding compliance with applicable party bylaws and standards.
Support included, among other actions, appearing at her Harmony Days table, posting on Facebook, and coordinating a debate. A standard process for a debate or meet-and-greet is to coordinate with the endorsed Republican candidate to ensure fair representation. Public Facebook posts suggest this standard was not followed.
Following formal complaints, supported by documentation I helped provide, party leadership ultimately directed Scott Stilson to step down. He did temporarily.
John Burdy and Gary R. McEwen have demonstrated that they respect both the role and responsibility of serving this community. I strongly encourage voters to consider their proven leadership and commitment when making their decision.
Sincerely,
Debbie Elmer
Gosh she colors the truth so well, yes? (Also spell check is everything.)
Here is a little more from Acid Aunty:
So then there is another bit of amusement. They are running Supervisor Sal’s son for Republican committeeman. They list him as a college student and yet he is on the school board. As is the other guy they are running for Republican committeeman (https://www.tvsd.org/page/school-board). It’s just so obvious what they are doing – shore it all up and try to keep control because they don’t like chinks in the walls of Tammany Hall in the corn field do they? And the current Twin Valley School School Board President? How long has he been on the school board? Since around 2001 right? Makes an interesting case for term limits in a very problematic school district that straddles two counties, yes? And the chair of the school board who is a committeeman is also on the Honey Brook Township Planning Commission?
It’s just so cozy in Honey Brook Township, yes?
So back to the Supervisor’s son being put up for committeeman ok? Why is that? I think that it is about control of the township by the cabal and I can have that opinion. I also have the opinion it is to groom him to be a supervisor candidate since the last choice, Steve Jones, didn’t work out so well, yes? But if they are running one supervisor’s son (Nick son of Sally DeeGee) are they also running his close personal sock puppet Jack Wilson?
And when you are talking about cozy in Honey Brook politics, one also must consider John Burdy listed in that letter as running for committeeman and why? Well his wifey is the other supervisor, Laura Burdy. You can see her sour puss on meetings, can’t you? And Burdy’s lineage is interesting because his late father who passed in 2007 was a secretary and administrator of neighboring Caernarvon Township in Berks County. Think Morgantown. Now someone will scream from the rafters because I mentioned that, but it’s simply part of the local political history, right? Caernarvon Township and Honey Brook Township have I always thought a close-ish relationship here and there over the years and share a school district, right?
This township is politically messy. It’s why I started writing about it. That and they were targeting Valerie Shultz, who is an actual friend of mine, hoping she would go away and not run for supervisor. Well she made it, which is a threat and the meetings have all been some degree of a circus as a result. And interestingly enough the most recent development is the township manager Warren Obenski is leaving so I guess he won’t be doing Sally DeeGee’s requested police and corruption taskforce thingys? There were supposed to be two of this – they came up at the February 11 meeting and they keep trying to pin this on Valerie Shultz who abstained as she felt it was not a kosher vote, correct? Wonder where he is going? His wife is the chair of the Uwchlan Supervisors isn’t she?
And hey whatever happened to that poor woman who fell and got banged up at the Honey Brook Township building on election night 2025 when a certain candidate’s signage seemed to be blocking the light? Why don’t they talk about that?
But back to the odd politician behavior, ok? So one of the most dangerous kinds of politicians are the ones who didn’t get elected, correct? He bubbaficates regularly and there are outbursts at meetings and wow the behavior is concerning isn’t t? His constant public posts still about how Valerie Shultz is a Democrat (she isn’t, we all know this except for the thug politics cabal in Honey Brook Township), etc. Or attempts to get at me or talk smack ablout me…and then he gets all upset if his targets respond with humor, facts and political lampoons? And then he revs up his stuff on his candidate page now renamed with the same types of posts as before? His posts are PUBLIC so no one is breaking any rules sharing screenshots:
Harassed? Umm no, we aren’t the ones doing the harassing, but we have responded to the word salads on occasion.
So what is his obsessive end game here? He puts things out publicly not just on Facebook, but now on YouTube. If his things weren’t public, no one would see them, and anyone can comment on things that are public, so what is the dealio?
It’s not a pattern of continued anything, and in my opinion the fact is that this all started this up again after Valarie was sworn in and that exhibits dangerously obsessive behavior. And as Valarie can point out this wasn’t just directed towards her when he started up again but me, and others. See this:
When he posts publicly like he does and they do, it’s fair game. He doesn’t seem to understand that whole concept of the little globe in the post, none of them do.
It’s a case of perpetual sour grapes. Valerie Schultz is a Republican who beat him and she was written in on the Democrat ballot, but that will never make her a Democrat or me the Tooth Fairy, yes? I seem to recall Jones got a small number of write ins on the Democrat ballot as well, but not enough to beat her to be truly cross filed, correct?
This is all about him and them. Not the Honey Brook Library, food banks, first responders, fire companies, or the Lion’s Club. Every time they don’t like what someone says, they try to deflect to something that isn’t actually reality and why is that? If they deflect, they distract, kind of like not talking about Jeffrey Epstein in Washington, yes?
This is why people want different and better for Honey Brook Township and even that school district out there. The obsessive hoodie and his handler and the rest of them would have you think it’s all unicorns farting rainbows and fuzzy bunnies. It’s not. It’s a beautiful place that people are trying to make better. And that includes breaking the grip of politics as usual. They don’t get that his and others’ odd and often angry behavior flies directly in the face of the “nothing to see here” they so desperately want.
My opinions are cheerfully supplied by my First Amendment Rights.
This isn’t going to be a long post. These are my thoughts based on a conversation I had with a friend in another part of Southeastern PA, who isn’t being targeted by data centers, but happen to be at a meeting talking about other things where data centers came up.
So in Maine and Ohio with regard to data centers, officials are starting to ask companies to have like a security bond – not escrow – with the purpose to cover potential issues – pollution that affects humans and livestock – cover issues with energy/utilities, decommissioning buildings etc.
As of May 2026, both Maine and Ohio have moved to implement rigorous financial and environmental “guardrails” for large-scale data centers.
Legislators in these states are shifting away from simple escrow accounts toward security bonds and comprehensive accountability frameworks to address potential negative impacts on residents, livestock, local infrastructure, etc.
We’re talking about (in Maine) accountability councils/ committees, resource protection (which includes things about noise pollution, discharge of warm contaminated water into waterways which WILL affect livestock and humans and wildlife and potentially domestic pets, water shortages), utility safeguards (energy costs and straining energy grids).
In Ohio (maybe Wisconsin too?) also the things mentioned above about security and infrastructure bonds. These bonds cover all sorts of things like if a data center becomes decommissioned and land use things around these data centers. Also measures about pollution and the reason these things are coming out in these states is to protect residents from having to clean up after data center developers essentially.
Now this is why you’re seeing in some of these states that these developers are walking away because they’re realizing it’s going to be too expensive for them to do what they want isn’t it?
Also in pending (?) legislation in Kentucky (HB 593), Colorado (SB 26-102), and elsewhere aims to ensure that data centers pay for their own energy. As in all of their own energy it seems?
As of April 2026, in addition, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and Virginia are considering or have filed statewide moratoriums or strict regulations. Now realize in Pennsylvania that there has been similar legislation, but none of it has teeth does it? It’s all still aimed to cater to the data center industry isn’t it? And why is that? Two words: Josh Shapiro.
I think data centers will very well be Josh Shapiro‘s political Waterloo. He will undoubtedly get reelected as governor because Marg Simpson, err Stacey Garrity just isn’t going to beat him. but I have to wonder if this will keep our governor from his loftier political aspirations in the end? 
So why aren’t we doing it here now? I know it was bought up at one of the East Whiteland meetings by the Supervisors Chair Scott Lambert that he wanted some kind of financial measures in place to cover some of these things and the data center developers lawyers basically were like no are you crazy but was he crazy? Because this is what’s being proposed in other states isn’t it?
Some of my biggest concerns and some of these municipalities, including East Whiteland is elected officials don’t realize that they can say no, but do they have the courage to do so? You will get responses like along the lines of they have to do what counsel instructions them, but do they really? These elected officials were elected to represent the people. Therefore, all of these other people, lawyers and township staff included work for them and the residents, don’t they?
It’s finding the courage to say no.
Sorry, not sorry but my humble opinion (which I am allowed to have) is we don’t need these in our communities. Developers want them in our communities and all they are is the new apartment building, the new condo complex, the new kind of warehouse. It’s about their profit and nothing to do with us. F ‘em.
