Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Blog

  • Wawa’s ‘secret sauce’ | Morning Newsletter

    Wawa’s ‘secret sauce’ | Morning Newsletter

    It’s Saturday.

    Snow is a near certainty this weekend, with a winter storm watch starting early Sunday for the Philly area. Coastal flooding is possible at the Shore. Resident weather expert Tony Wood (or “AccuTony,” as we like to call him) has the forecast details.

    Philly runs on Wawa. What endears people to the store? Scroll along for a deep dive into how hometown fans fuel the beloved chain’s success, and our staffers’ takes on its food quality over the years.

    Plus, we’re talking about a battle of the beer festivals brewing in Philadelphia, a new all-day cafe dosing drinks with controversial psychoactive plants, and our report card for this week in news.

    — Paola Pérez (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    What you should know today

    Quality check

    Loyal customers in the Philadelphia area love Wawa. But as the chain grows, its expansion has tested the brand. With shifting menus and quality, how does it keep people coming back? To find out, consumer reporter Erin McCarthy spoke to the experts about Wawa’s “secret sauce” and how it set a national standard for success in the convenience store industry.

    And for a dose of hometown critical analysis, Inquirer editor Evan Weiss polled features columnist Stephanie Farr, programming editor Tommy Rowan, and deputy food editor Jenn Ladd. They sound off on Wawa’s transforming food quality, and whether or not it’s changed too much, for better or for worse.

    Got thoughts, opinions, or other ideas for topics we should debate? Send in your suggestions here.

    One viewpoint

    In this week’s Shackamaxon, Inquirer columnist Daniel Pearson gets into the numbers of the state of crime, public transit, and the economy in Philadelphia.

    “Homicides are down, SEPTA ridership is up, and the city’s job growth proves unsurprising,” Pearson writes.

    Get Pearson’s perspective on where these and other metrics stand.

    📍 Find the location

    Every Saturday, we’ll show you a photo taken in the Philly area, and you drop a pin where you think it was taken. Closer to the location results in a better score. This week is all about Lunar New Year of the Horse. Good luck!

    Think you know where this lion is grazing? Our weekly game puts your knowledge of Philly’s streets to the test. Check your answer.

    🧩 Unscramble the anagram

    Hint: A new streaming series that tells the story of America through the lens of Philadelphia

    INUIT SPUR

    Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.

    Cheers to Kate Vengraitis, who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Chris Rabb. The state representative from Northwest Philadelphia said he will not seek reelection while he runs in the Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District.

    We were there

    La Scala (top) in Milan, Italy, and Philadelphia’s Academy of Music (bottom).

    Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, better known as La Scala, is one of the world’s most famous opera houses in the world. It’s a popular stop for Winter Olympics spectators when they’re not at a sporting venue.

    If it looks familiar, it’s no coincidence. Philadelphia’s Academy of Music was designed after La Scala.

    My colleague Ellen Dunkel, who is in Milan covering the Olympics, takes us with her to the theater that inspired our own.

    Somewhere on the internet in Philly

    Have you seen these brightly colored apartment buildings in North Philadelphia? It sure seems like SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward relocated from Bikini Bottom.

    While we’re talking colors, check out this stunning Eagles green painting of the Ben Franklin Bridge. One Reddit user said it “should be the Pantone color of the year.”

    And watch out, Bella Vista: A new driver is hitting these ruff roads. Could he be with the “Philadelphia Barking Authority”?

    👋🏽 Have a good day, OK? I’ll catch up with you again tomorrow.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • Can the return of Eagles OLs Lane Johnson and Landon Dickerson save Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts?

    Can the return of Eagles OLs Lane Johnson and Landon Dickerson save Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts?

    You never know how Jeffrey Lurie sees his team, but, after two Super Bowl trips and two post-Super Bowl disasters, it feels more than ever like there’s a one-year window in which Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts can save their jobs in Philadelphia.

    Their chances got a lot better Thursday.

    That’s when The Inquirer reported that right tackle Lane Johnson, arguably the greatest Eagle ever and inarguably the greatest Eagles offensive lineman, would return for a 14th season. The Birds are 110-57-1 with Johnson, 18-27 without. He’s the only Eagle on either offense or defense to start in both of their Super Bowl wins. Johnson considered retirement after missing the last seven games with a foot injury and after offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland resigned.

    Eagles star tackle Lane Johnson will return to team in 2026

    Thursday also was when both The Inquirer and former Eagles TV reporter Derrick Gunn reported that left guard Landon Dickerson, whose body has endured multiple injuries beginning in college, will return for a sixth season. Before this season, Dickerson was voted onto the three previous Pro Bowl teams.

    There has been a lot of noise since the Eagles’ season ended a month ago: A.J. Brown’s dissatisfaction; the firing of offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo; the tortuous pursuit of his replacement, who turned out to be little-known Sean Mannion; and the possibility of losing defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to retirement.

    None of those issues mattered as much as the possible loss of Johnson and Dickerson.

    Marcus Hayes: All this talk about trading A.J. Brown is madness. Anyway, you’re talking about trading the wrong Eagle.

    Replacing either of them would have been difficult.

    Replacing both would have been catastrophic.

    That’s because Hurts has shown little capacity for success in the NFL unless he plays behind an elite offensive line. When the Eagles went to Super Bowls after the 2022 and 2024 seasons, the offensive lines were elite and stable. They were markedly less so in 2023 and 2025, seasons in which the Eagles lost their first playoff game.

    Not coincidentally, Sirianni’s offenses have flourished when Johnson, Dickerson, & Co. have been healthy and wisely utilized, relying on a turnover-averse run-first attack.

    Eagles guard Landon Dickerson blocks Detroit Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes.

    When healthy, Johnson and Dickerson, both athletic freaks, are voracious run-blockers.

    An ancillary benefit of Johnson returning relates to the departure of Stoutland. “Stout” is the only offensive line coach Johnson has ever had in the NFL; for that matter, that’s true of every other Eagles starter.

    But no other Eagles lineman has either the base of knowledge or capacity to impart that knowledge on teammates like Johnson. He founded and runs an annual offensive line offseason camp every summer in Texas called OL Masterminds.

    Almost every lineman that has ever played with him testifies that Johnson has, at some point, acted as a sort of assistant coach when Stoutland or his offensive line assistants weren’t fully able to get their message across.

    More than anything, Johnson brings a level of intensity and professionalism to every game and practice that few others in the NFL can match. It is why he is great, and that sort of greatness is contagious. Certainly, Dickerson has benefited.

    So, their return not only could save the 2026 season, but it also could extend the Philadelphia shelf-life of both coach and quarterback.

    Granted, there are contingents of fans and pundits who would rather that either one or both leave the employ of Lurie sooner than later, and so this development on the offensive line might not be met with unrestrained joy.

    But one never should be thankless for news that is, on the whole, good for their own self-interests.

  • A tale of two festivals: Philly Bierfest wants NYC-rooted Philly Beer Fest to stop confusing customers

    A tale of two festivals: Philly Bierfest wants NYC-rooted Philly Beer Fest to stop confusing customers

    A battle of the beer festivals is brewing in Philadelphia, and it’s set to come to a head next weekend, when Philly Bierfest and Philly Beer Fest — two completely unrelated beer festivals with names that are homophones — take place on the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 28.

    This isn’t a coincidence, according to some members of Pennsylvania’s beer scene who claim the New York City-based organizers of the two-year-old Philly Beer Fest are deliberately trying to capitalize on the good name of Bierfest, a long-standing event with deep local roots.

    “It’s a very pointed move,” said Meredith Megan Rebar, the founder of Home Brewed Events, which plans major food and drink festivals in the Philly region. “They’re just doing this intentionally to mess with the event that’s been around longer.”

    The 2024 Philly Bierfest, held at the German Society of Pennsylvania at 611 Spring Garden St. The event spans two buildings and includes a food hall, beer classes, and burlesque performances, among other things.

    Philly Bierfest was created in 2013 by Northern Liberties-based nonprofit the German Society of Pennsylvania and Marnie Old, a local wine author and longtime freelance columnist for The Inquirer. It began as a way to honor the state’s rich tradition of brewing German-style beers, such as pilsners, kölsches, and lagers. With a deep bench of Pennsylvania- and Germany-based brewers — there are 45 pouring at this year’s event — the festival sells out each year, and was named one of the best beer festivals in the U.S. by USA Today in 2023. The event’s proceeds have gone to the Philly Roller Derby and Brewers of PA since its inception.

    Philly Beer Fest, on the other hand, is hosted by by Craft Hospitality, a national events company headquartered in New York City that organizes beverage festivals across the U.S., including the Philadelphia Zoo’s Summer Ale Festival. Craft Hospitality launched Philly Beer Fest at the 23rd Street Armory in 2024. Just over 30 Philadelphia-area beverage makers are featured this year, and proceeds partially benefit the Trauma Survivors Foundation.

    In 2024 and 2025, Craft Hospitality scheduled Beer Fest on the weekends immediately before and after Bierfest, which has been held on the last Saturday of February for 13 years (save for a pandemic-induced disruption).

    A Manayunk brewery closes, and a downtown Philly brewer will replace it

    This year’s identical scheduling hasn’t necessarily hurt Bierfest, Old said, noting that tickets sold out this week. But it has caused some headaches. Bierfest’s barbecue vendor accidentally showed up to the wrong venue for a site visit, and Old has spent a great deal of time confirming with vendors that they’re signed up for the right event. In past years, Old has heard from some disappointed Beer Fest attendees who showed up to their event expecting it to be the German-themed Bierfest.

    The nonprofit-run festival tried to get ahead of any confusion this year. Prior to Bierfest selling out, it had a pop-up on its website that read: “Friends don’t let friends get the wrong tickets. Share this link to ensure pals get tickets to the original, authentic Philly Bierfest and not the other similarly named event.”

    Old isn’t sure if the warnings entirely worked.

    “We don’t hear from anyone who got tickets to the wrong festival until after our event,” she said. “I don’t know what their intention is because I’m not on their team, but misleading [the consumer] does seem to be the end effect.”

    Craft Hospitality denies scheduling Beer Fest for Feb. 28 as a way to undercut its preexisting competitor. In a statement, the company attributed the scheduling snafu to the event being held at a National Guard facility, which limits scheduling.

    “Event dates are determined based on venue availability and planning logistics, and are often set by contract approximately 12 months in advance,” the statement read. “Philadelphia has an incredibly active event calendar — this year especially with the World Cup … Overlap between events is not uncommon.”

    The owners of Surfside, Philly’s homegrown canned cocktail heavyweight, are suing Anheuser-Busch

    ‘It just feels predatory to me’

    This isn’t the first time Craft Hospitality’s Beer Fest has been accused of riding Bierfest’s coattails.

    After a Craft Hospitality employee emailed Ploughman Cider owner Ben Wenk in Nov. 2023 to gauge interest in vending at the first Philly Beer Fest — then scheduled for Feb. 17, 2024 — Wenk said his cidery would boycott all future Craft Hospitality events over what he felt was the company’s “intentional and malicious” attempt to deceive.

    Scheduling a beer festival with an identical-sounding name just a week before its established competitor, Wenk said, went too far.

    “Our people and our brand won’t be devoting any further resources towards an organization such as yours that is so brazenly and transparently willing to act in such a predatory way towards an established event like Philly Bierfest, who, by our estimation, have done nothing to deserve it,” Wenk emailed the Craft Hospitality employee in February 2024.

    Another Craft Hospitality employee replied to Wenk days later. “No one else has ever mentioned this other beer fest to me personally. Brands have just signed up fairly easily but I do see the conflict you’re pointing out. I will be looking into this,” they wrote.

    Reservation scalpers are headed for Philly. Can restaurants clap back?

    No one followed up with him, Wenk said, and Craft Hospitality didn’t respond to questions about this interaction.

    “Why is this New York events company coming down here to Philadelphia and thinking they can get one over on us?” Wenk said. “It just feels predatory to me.”

    Ploughman Ciders, of Adams County, Pa., is boycotting Philly Beer Fest and all other Craft Hospitality events.

    Bierfest co-creator Old had also directly flagged issues to Sam Gelin, Craft Hospitality’s founder. Shortly after both beer festivals wrapped in 2024, Old learned Craft Hospitality had scheduled its 2025 Beer Fest on the same day as Bierfest. When she asked Gelin if he would consider moving his event out of concern that it would confuse customers and vendors, Old recalled that Gelin said it would be “desirable” for the events to share the date. Still, Gelin obliged. Philly Beer Fest 2025 took place one week after Bierfest.

    “After that conversation and then for this year, I didn’t think I needed to follow up with them. I assumed that they would continue choosing a different date,” Old said.

    We tried a cocktail bar’s new Philly-themed menu, from the HitchBOT to the Crum Bum

    When she learned in September that this year’s Beer Fest was once again set for same exact date as Bierfest, Old figured it wasn’t worth reaching out to Gelin again.

    “If you’re renting your venue, it’s too late to change by that point. Six months is cutting it too close to make any changes,” she said. “And it was clear to me at that stage that [Craft Hospitality] saw having [its] event on the same date as ours as a benefit.”

    Craft Hospitality did not respond to questions about whether its founder had been contacted by Old. “Philly Beer Fest is not affiliated with Philly Bierfest,” they said in their statement. “They are separate events with different producers, different names, different socials, different formats, different pricing, different breweries, different cultural focuses, different venues, and overall different experiences.”

    Festivals with different aims

    The different vibes are part of the problem, according to Rebar, the festival organizer who specializes beer festivals.

    Bierfest typically draws “real beer enthusiasts,” who are there to drink but also to deepen their understanding of German brewing techniques and beer culture. The festival’s format includes beer seminars, a food hall showcasing traditional German eats by local makers, a German Masskrugstemmen (stein-holding) strength competition, and performances from Bavarian folk dancers.

    An attendee at the 2024 Philly Bierfest, which has been held on the last weekend of February since its inception in 2023.

    Beer Fest, said Rebar, is for people who want to party. The festival is a hodgepodge of beer, hard seltzer, and spiked tea purveyors compared to Bierfest’s lineup of respected German beermakers and Pennsylvania brewers making traditional German beer styles.

    “There’s no educational standards to it. It’s just a generic festival, and it’s not [organized] by anybody local,” said Rebar, who attended the first Beer Fest in 2024. “Philly Bierfest has been around for so long, has a really good representation, and has a very clear mission.”

    Craft Hospitality did not respond to questions about whether it would provide refunds to attendees who showed up thinking they were at Bierfest and are dissatisfied with their experience.

    And while Rebar concedes that it would’ve been difficult for Craft Hospitality to reschedule given the impact on vendors, she said the winter months are typically slow for beer-industry events.

    Philly bars open past 2 a.m.? A new push for late-night bars amid FIFA World Cup

    “There’s plenty of other weekends in January, February, [and] March when there’s not a lot going on,” Rebar said.

    Not everyone views the festivals as being in competition. Currently three local breweries are participating in both festivals: Norristown’s Von C Brewing, Broad Street Brewing in Bristol, and Triple Bottom Brewing in Spring Garden.

    Old said she didn’t force any vendors to choose between the two events. “I hate to put my vendors in an awkward situation … We do not have a problem with anyone being registered for both.”

    Triple Bottom Brewing is one three breweries participating in both Philly Bierfest and Philly Beer Fest on Feb, 28, 2026.

    Triple Bottom Brewing co-owner Tess Hart has found a silver lining to the fest-on-fest drama. The six-year-old brewery has repeatedly participated in both festivals. The dual events kick off Triple Bottom’s 16-week brewer apprenticeship program for individuals impacted by the justice system and housing insecurity, she said.

    This year’s 10-person cohort started last week, Hart said, and they’ll be staffing both festivals concurrently. The challenge, she thinks, will be rewarding.

    “We’ll be stretched a little thin on Saturday,” Hart said. “But this will be a good opportunity to get them out of the taproom and really well-practiced about talking about beer in a high-volume situation. For us, that’s a big benefit.”

  • Megan Keller’s golden goal for Team USA should go down as one of the biggest moments in Olympic history

    Megan Keller’s golden goal for Team USA should go down as one of the biggest moments in Olympic history

    When they eventually install microcameras into the corneas of our eyes, we’ll still be watching this hockey highlight.

    This was Kerri Strug vaulting on one leg in 1996. Bob Beamon shattering the long jump in Mexico City in 1968. Sid the Kid in 2010, only much, much cooler.

    It was more than historic. It was iconic.

    In overtime of the gold-medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Team USA defenseman Megan Keller deked Canadian defender Claire Thompson and left her in the dust, flailing with her stick.

    Keller then beat goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens with a backhand to the short side.

    It was a golden goal worthy of the name.

    It should live as one of the great Olympic moments of all time. It should live as one of the great sporting moments of all time.

    Hayes: Tanking NBA teams should lose their lottery slot as ‘The Process’ leaves its rancid legacy

    It’s hard to compare this Olympic moment with Romania’s Nadia Comăneci, who scored gymnastics’ first perfect 10 in 1976 at the age of 14. It’s not really the same as Usain “Lightning” Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who broke Michael Johnson’s world record in the 200 meters in 2008 or Michael Phelps, who, at those same Beijing Games, swam his way to eight golds; their moments were parts of aggregations. And it certainly lacks the social significance of Black sprinter Jesse Owens, who won a then-record four golds in 1936 in front of host Adolf Hitler.

    Jamaica’s Usain Bolt celebrates as he wins the men’s 200-meter final with a world record during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

    I was there for Bolt and Phelps. All of those moments took your breath away the way only great moments in sport leave you breathless.

    None was quite as magical as Keller’s golden goal.

    Sidney Crosby did something similar for Canada in 2010, and he did it against Team USA, and I was there for that, too. But Crosby’s goal was simpler: He carried the puck in, had a weak shot deflected away, got it back, went to the boards, passed to teammate Jarome Iginla, skated away from suddenly inattentive defenseman Brian Rafalski, got the pass back from Iginla, and snapped a shot past goaltender Ryan Miller.

    Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and film legend Donald Sutherland, both great Canadians, were sitting right behind me. They’d probably disagree with my assertion here.

    Sid’s was a great play.

    Keller’s was better.

    Keller’s goal isn’t quite the same event as Team USA’s upset of the Soviets in 1980. That was a true underdog story, mostly U.S. college kids playing an elite set of professionals who’d won the last four golds. It might be the biggest upset in sports history — but it wasn’t an overtime game, or even a gold-medal game, and there was no defining, game-ending moment like Keller’s.

    Pity poor Thompson, but not too much. She’d been a hero in China with 11 assists and two goals, an Olympic record for defensemen, when the Canadians won the gold in 2022.

    There are plenty of caveats surrounding what should be the play of the year. None of them of Keller’s making.

    Megan Keller celebrates after scoring one of the best golden goals you will ever see in hockey.

    Crosby scored his goal in a four-on-four setting, but overtime rules were changed ahead of the 2022 Olympics to make it three-on-three.

    The teams in 2010 were more evenly matched, while the U.S. team in Milan, Italy, was heavily favored, having outscored opponents, 31-1, in a 6-0 run that included a 5-0 win over Canada in the preliminary round. However, Canada’s strategy and execution Thursday had the reigning champs holding onto a 1-0 lead before American captain Hilary Knight tied the game with 2 minutes, 4 seconds left in regulation.

    Hayes: ll this talk about trading A.J. Brown is madness. Anyway, you’re talking about trading the wrong Eagle.

    Finally, no teams besides Canada (five) and the U.S. (three) have won a gold medal, and they have met in the gold-medal game seven of the eight times it has been played. To date, it is not a sport in which the field offers the titans much resistance.

    This should not diminish the moment. Keller and her teammates can only beat opponents they meet.

    This golden goal is one of the best plays you will ever see.

    In fact, as a spontaneous athletic maneuver of incomparable audacity and breathtaking skill, seizing the biggest moment in a player’s life, I struggle to find its equal.

  • Reflecting on the top 10 moments of Julius Erving’s career as he reaches 76 years old

    Reflecting on the top 10 moments of Julius Erving’s career as he reaches 76 years old

    Julius Erving, an all-time 76ers great whose No. 6 is retired by the franchise, will celebrate his 76th birthday on Sunday.

    As the basketball legend marks a milestone, here’s a look back at the 10 best moments of Erving’s career with the Sixers:

    The Doctor is in

    The Sixers acquired Erving from the New York Nets at the start of the 1976-77 NBA season, the first season after the league’s merger with the American Basketball Association was completed. The ABA’s Nets, one of four teams incorporated into the league, were forced to move on from Erving in order to pay the fees associated with entering the NBA.

    The Sixers paid the Nets $3 million to acquire Erving, who was already a three-time ABA MVP by the time he joined the Sixers. The forward was also a season removed from winning the 1976 ABA dunk contest with a legendary leap from the free throw line.

    All-Star MVP

    Erving got off to a good start in his first NBA season with the Sixers, averaging 19.9 points before the All-Star break in 1976-77. But that season’s All-Star Game in Milwaukee was a point of arrival for the former face of the ABA.

    Erving scored 30 points and nabbed 12 rebounds in 30 minutes, earning the game’s Most Valuable Player trophy despite the East losing to the West, 125-124. Erving, who was named an All-Star in each of his 18 ABA and NBA seasons, won the NBA’s All-Star MVP again in 1983.

    Finals slam

    Erving led the Sixers to the NBA Finals in his first season with the team, averaging 21.6 points and 8.5 rebounds in 1976-77. One of the high-flyer’s most memorable dunks came in Game 6 of the Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers. In the second quarter, Erving dribbled through three Trail Blazer defenders, leapt toward the rim and threw down a right-handed jam over the outstretched arms of Bill Walton.

    Despite an NBA playoff career-high 40-point outing from Erving, Walton’s Blazers won Game 6, 109-107, to claim the 1977 NBA championship.

    Baseline scoop

    Walton wasn’t the only Hall of Fame center Erving antagonized in the NBA Finals. His iconic “baseline scoop” move against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980 Finals was a crafty way of getting around the shot-blocking ability of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

    In the fourth quarter of Game 4, Erving drove to the right side of the basket, leapt while underneath the backboard and tossed an underhanded shot that hit the left side of the backboard and rolled in.

    “I didn’t realize how long I had been in the air, but I knew I didn’t have any legs left and I didn’t have any hang time left, so I fell on the floor,” Erving said to ESPN in 2019. “Just another move.”

    The scoop was two Erving’s 23 points scored in Game 4, helping the Sixers to a 105-102 victory that evened the series at two games apiece. The Lakers won the series, 4-2.

    Most Valuable Doctor

    Erving won his lone NBA MVP award in the 1980-81 season. At the time, Erving was the second Sixer to win the league’s top individual honor alongside Wilt Chamberlain.

    Erving finished top-five in MVP voting five times as a Sixer, but the three-time ABA MVP only won the award once after the merger. Erving averaged 24.6 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists in the 1980-81 season. He led the Sixers to a 62-20 regular season record, tied for the NBA’s best with the Celtics. The Sixers lost the 1981 Eastern Conference finals to Boston, which would go on to win the title that season.

    Rock the baby

    Another iconic Erving dunk, the “rock the baby” slam, came against the Lakers at the Spectrum in January 1983. Erving picked up a loose ball along the sideline just past center court, drove toward the rim and cradled the ball with his right hand before bringing it up to the rim for a dunk over Michael Cooper.

    “I wanted this dunk to live on forever and to prove that people could fly,” Erving said to Sports Illustrated in 2023 on the slam’s 40th anniversary.

    The Sixers held on for a two point win in overtime against the Lakers in what turned out to be a preview of the 1983 Finals.

    Four, five, four

    Moses Malone was the Sixer that predicted a full sweep of the 1983 Playoffs — “four, four, four” — after the team earned the top seed with a 65-17 regular season record, but Erving helped his center’s postseason prediction (almost) come true as the Sixers marched to the third championship in franchise history.

    Erving and the Sixers were 12-1 in the playoffs, including a sweep of the defending champion Lakers in the 1983 Finals. The Sixers’ only loss was to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals. Erving averaged 18.4 points in the Sixers’ 13 playoff games, including a 21-point, six-assist performance to complete a sweep of the Lakers in Game 4.

    At the time, the Sixers were the only team to complete a postseason with one loss. The 2001 Lakers and 2017 Warriors are the only teams since to take only one loss in the postseason.

    Downing Dallas

    Erving sank two game-winning shots at the horn during the final stretch of the 1985-86 regular season, which was his penultimate NBA season. The first shot came in Dallas on Feb. 28, 1986.

    With two seconds remaining in a tie game, Erving inbounded the ball from the sideline to Maurice Cheeks. Cheeks passed it back to Erving, who launched a heave from beyond half court. The shot went in, and the Sixers won, 123-120.

    Beating Boston

    Erving’s next game winner came a little more than a month after his heroics in Dallas. Erving’s Sixers were down two to Larry Bird’s Celtics at the Spectrum on April 6, 1986.

    The Sixers fouled Bird with seven seconds remaining, sending the league’s best free throw shooter to the line with a chance to make Boston’s lead four. Bird missed both, leaving the door open for the Sixers to win the game, 95-94, on an Erving three-pointer as time expired.

    Jersey retirement

    After the Sixers’ opening game of the 1986-87 season, Erving announced he would retire at the end of the season. In total, Erving played 11 seasons for the Sixers and averaged 22 points over 836 games with the team.

    At the time of his retirement, Erving was the third-leading scorer in Sixers history, though he has since been passed by Allen Iverson. Erving is still the franchise’s all-time leader in blocked shots with 1,293 rejections in a Sixers uniform. The franchise retired his No. 6 jersey on April 18, 1988, in a ceremony at the Spectrum.

    Erving also had his No. 32 retired by the Nets in honor of his ABA career, making him one of 16 players in NBA history to have their jersey retired by multiple franchises. Erving was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

  • Father Judge’s Derrick Morton-Rivera is chasing his dream just like his mother

    Father Judge’s Derrick Morton-Rivera is chasing his dream just like his mother

    Ashley Morton stopped posting the hours on the door of her Mayfair boutique. There’s no point, she said. It’s impossible for the business owner to hold consistent opening times when her son is one of Philadelphia’s best high school basketball players. There always seems to be a game or tournament for the mom to attend.

    “My customers say, ‘Is the store going to be open?’ I say, ‘Sorry, we got a game’,” Morton said. “So we just do pickups now. People can order online and schedule a pickup. It just became too much.”

    That’s the price you pay when your son — Father Judge’s Derrick Morton-Rivera — is a win away from a second straight Catholic League boys’ basketball title.

    How Andre Noble, a Boston native, became an all-time Philadelphia high school coach: ‘He got immersed into it’

    “I’m just going to wait until everything is completely finished,” Morton said. “Then we’ll open back up.”

    The mom opened Ashley’s Kloset 12 years ago after a dress she made with a Wal-Mart sewing machine and a $2 piece of fabric from Jo-Mar received attention on social media. Morton was self taught — “I went on a wing and a prayer,” she said — and figured it out. She had enough of her job at a men’s suit store and decided to do her own thing. So her mom helped her launch the business in Olney before it moved to Mayfair.

    “My mom said, ‘We’re going to get you a store,’” Morton said. “Mind you, I don’t have any money. My mom doesn’t have any money. I’m like, ‘How are we going to get a store?’ Don’t you know she came up with that money and found me a store.”

    She put a basketball net in the back of her store for her son, who seemed destined to be a hooper ever since he dribbled a ball when he was just 10 months old.

    Derrick Morton-Rivera and his mother, Ashley, after his first ever basketball game.

    “My mom dropped the spaghetti,” Morton said. “She was cooking ground beef and she was like, ‘Oh my god.’ He was bouncing the ball before he could even walk. You know how they have that little wobble? The ball was bouncing while he was off and then once it stopped bouncing, he fell.”

    The son is signed to play at Temple and showed why on Wednesday night when he willed Judge back from an early 16-point deficit against Archbishop Wood in the semifinals. He scored 27 points and had the 9,000 fans at the Palestra in the palm of his hand.

    Morton was not trying to shape a basketball player when she opened her store. But she did show her son everyday the hard work that comes with chasing a dream. Perhaps that prepared him to chase his own.

    “My mom is always working,” said Morton-Rivera. “The only time she really takes off is to see me play. Knowing how hard she works, makes me work even harder.”

    Derrick Morton-Rivera, who will try Sunday to win a second straight Catholic League title, is signed to play at Temple.

    The Potato State

    Customers asked Morton about her shop’s hours in the summer and she said she had to first check the AAU schedule.

    “I don’t have a schedule,” she said. “I just have his. This is going to be the first summer without it. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.”

    She traveled with her son to basketball tournaments throughout the country, crossing off states she never dreamed of visiting.

    “What’s the Potato State? Idaho,” she said. “It was the most boring place ever. Even their downtown was a ghost town. But we can say we’ve been to Idaho, you know what I mean?”

    In a Public League hoops debacle between E&S and Constitution, the adults squander a chance to be leaders

    Morton poured everything into her son, even the hours of her own shop. She had help, too. If Morton works late, her mother stops by to cook dinner and do the laundry.

    “She even washes my clothes,” Morton said as it took a village to raise a basketball star.

    Morton designs and sews all of her own women’s clothing in the ALM Collection, specializing in plus sizes and fashion for taller women. She does enough online orders — the shop ships around the world, she said — that she can close the doors to watch basketball.

    Something that started on a whim has grown into a full-time operation. The mom willed her dream into existence.

    “I remember one time he was like, ‘Mom, all you do is work.’ And I started crying,” Morton said. “Because he doesn’t know what I’m working for. Every time he turned the light on, the light came on. Anything he asked for, I was able to provide. He’s like, ‘Alls I see is the back of your head because you’re just sewing all the time.’ I said, ‘Mir, you have to understand.’ Now, I think he gets it.”

    Derrick Morton-Rivera’s mom owns a boutique in Mayfair, Ashley’s Kloset.

    ‘Mom, just calm down’

    The crowd at the Palestra roared as Judge mounted its comeback on Wednesday. And the fans will be even louder on Sunday when Judge plays Neumann Goretti. But Morton-Rivera, whose father, D.J. Rivera, won a Catholic League title at Neumann Goretti, plays like he can’t hear anything. He handles the frenzy of a sold-out arena the same way he does when Chick-fil-A forgets his sauce.

    “I’m like, ‘They forgot the sauce,’” Morton said. “And he’s like, ‘Mom, just calm down. Relax. Ask her for it.’ He calms me down. He inspires me to have patience, be humble, and just breathe.”

    The kid who watched his mom spend hours behind the sewing machine seems just as fixated on the basketball court. He followed his dad to gyms as a kid and always found time to work on his shot.

    Judge’s coaches organized a practice Friday afternoon but that wasn’t enough for Morton-Rivera, who stayed in the gym with a few teammates for another 90 minutes. Like mom, he’s always working.

    “It’s just about ‘How bad do you want it?,’” he said. “We have a lot of guys on our team who want it. Even if they’re tired, they’ll stay after practice to get their shots up. Those are the little things that show when the game starts.”

    His mom signed him up to play when he was 3 years old as he was tall enough to play with the 6-year-old kids at the Lawncrest Rec Center. They told the parents to make sure their kids came with a drink. So Morton sent her son with a Capri Sun pouch.

    “We didn’t know,” she said.

    The Big Picture: High school hoops, Phillies spring training, and the best Philly sports photos of the week

    The mom figured it out. It was the start of her son’s basketball journey, one that felt so rapid as he started to dunk as a teenager and played in the Potato State. And now he has a residency at The Palestra with a college scholarship secured.

    “My sister was like, ‘Ash, that’s really your son,’” Morton said. “And I say, ‘Yes, it is.’ It’s just been so amazing. I’m so proud of him.”

    Judge’s basketball season could extend another month if it marches deep into the state playoffs. Until it’s finished, Morton’s business will be online only.

    “I’m getting my inventory ready to be fully stocked,” Morton said.

  • ‘Don’t uproot our education,’ Pennypacker fourth graders plead as their school faces closure

    ‘Don’t uproot our education,’ Pennypacker fourth graders plead as their school faces closure

    For nearly a century, the Samuel Pennypacker School has survived — a three-story brick anchor of the West Oak Lane neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia.

    Now it faces the threat of extinction.

    The Philadelphia School District says the school’s building score is “unsatisfactory” and modernizing it would cost more than $30 million. District officials are calling for shuttering Pennypacker following the 2026-27 school year, funneling its students to nearby Franklin S. Edmonds or Anna B. Day schools — part of a citywide proposal to close 20 district schools.

    The recommendation, district officials say, is no reflection of the “incredible teachers, community, [and] students” at Pennypacker. Rather, it is an attempt by the district to optimize resources and equity for students.

    Like many district schools, Pennypacker, which serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade, is aging and outdated, having opened in 1930. At just over 300 students, it is among the city’s smaller schools — and operating at about 64% of building capacity.

    Yet, it is those same qualities — its size and longevity — that represent some of its greatest strengths, say those in the school community who are not happy about the proposed closure.

    It’s a school, they say, that is more than the sum of its aging parts.

    On the school’s walls are pocks of chipped paint, yes, but also the colorful detritus of a small but vibrant student population: a poster composed of tiny handprints in honor of Black History Month; a “Blizzard of Positivity” — handwritten messages reading “Smile” and “Hugs” and “Help your friends when they fall.”

    It’s where Wonika Archer’s children enrolled soon after the family emigrated from Guyana — the first school they had ever known.

    “A lot of firsts,” Archer said. “Their first friends, their first teachers outside of their parents.”

    It’s where, since 1992, Andreas Roberts’ youth drill team has been allowed to practice. The team, which includes some Pennypacker students, recently participated in its first competition and won first place.

    “Pennypacker has been very, very useful to us,” he said. “We have nowhere else to practice for the kids.”

    Philly parents are worried and shocked over the proposed school closings across the city.

    It’s where Christine Thorne put her kids through school, her son and her daughter, and where her grandchildren now go. Around the school, they call her “Grandmama.”

    “I feel as if my household is being destroyed,” she said recently.

    For students, news of the imminent closure has been no less jarring.

    When Janelle Pearson’s fourth-grade students learned recently that their school was poised to be shuttered under the district’s plan, they took it as a grim reflection on themselves.

    “It makes them feel like, ‘What did we do wrong that they want to close our school?’” said Pearson, who has taught at Pennypacker for about a decade. “That’s the part that tugs at your heart.”

    Unwilling to go down without a fight, the fourth graders resolved to do what they could. Soon, a poster took shape, in marker and crayon, a series of pleas addressed to Philadelphia Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.

    “Pennypacker is our home.”

    “Don’t uproot our education.”

    “Our neighborhood depends on this school!”

    The poster was presented to district officials earlier this month at a community meeting held in the school’s wood-seated auditorium.

    At that meeting, representatives from the district did their best to explain the reasoning for the proposed closures. They presented a tidy PowerPoint and talked of student retention and program alignment, of building capacity and neighborhood vulnerability scores.

    It stood in stark contrast to the parents and teachers and staffers who, one by one, held a microphone and spoke of love and family and community, of teachers and staffers who routinely went above and beyond to make their children feel safe. To make them feel special.

    “It’s not just about a building,” said Richard Levy, a onetime Pennypacker teacher who now works at St. Joseph’s University. “The challenges here aren’t reasons to close the school — they’re reasons to strengthen it.”

    Whether their appeals might affect the district’s decision remains to be seen. Other schools in the district slated for closure have mounted efforts of their own, and, despite a recent grilling by City Council members, it seems all but certain that several schools will ultimately shutter.

    A school board vote on the district’s proposal is expected later this winter.

    Until then, those at Pennypacker are holding tight to the possibility of an eleventh-hour reprieve for the longtime neighborhood institution.

    “I’m hoping there’s a chance,” Archer said. “I’m so hopeful.”

  • What to watch Saturday at the Olympics: A Delco native goes for a medal

    What to watch Saturday at the Olympics: A Delco native goes for a medal

    There haven’t been any giant “DELCO” flags in the stands at the Olympics, at least as far as we’ve been able to tell from home. But there is a Broomall native, Taylor Anderson-Heide, going for a bronze medal in women’s curling for the United States on Saturday.

    The U.S. lost to Switzerland in the semifinals on Friday, in a match that was tightly contested throughout. You have to tip your broom to the outstanding shot by Swiss veteran Alina Pätz, a six-time world champion, that clinched the win.

    So the Americans are playing Canada for bronze, adding another chapter to their long rivalry. Unfortunately, most of it is live just on Peacock, but USA Network will pick up coverage at 9:30 a.m.

    Saturday is the last full day of Olympics action, but some other major Americans will be going for gold. We start in women’s bobsled, where the two-woman event has its last two runs.

    Everyone loves Olympic curling — and some people even think it looks easy. Our reporter learned how hard it really is.

    Americans Kaillie Humphries and Jasmine Jones were in third after Friday’s first two runs. Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill were in fifth, while monobob champion Elana Meyers Taylor and Jadin O’Brien were in 12th.

    NBC has the first run live at 1 p.m. and the second run live at 3:05 p.m.

    Kaillie Humphries and Jasmine Jones starting one of their bobsled runs in the first rounds on Friday.

    Then there’s speedskating’s mass start, with Jordan Stolz in the men’s event going for his fourth medal in Milan. It’s an unusual 6,400-meter distance, 16 laps of the oval, and Stolz has admitted it’s “more like a bonus” for him. But it’s certainly a show, because as the name implies, it gets very crowded.

    Instead of the usual two skaters on the track, the mass start has a lot of them all at once. The top eight finishers in each semifinal advance to the final. Coverage of the finals starts at 9 a.m. on USA Network, then moves to NBC at 10 a.m. when the network comes on air for the day.

    The Flyers’ Travis Sanheim learned hard work growing up on a grain farm in small-town Canada. It helped make him an Olympian.

    Saturday’s Olympic TV schedule

    As a general rule, our schedules include all live broadcasts on TV, but not tape-delayed broadcasts on cable channels. We’ll let you know what’s on NBC’s broadcasts, whether live or not.

    NBC

    • 10 a.m.: Speedskating — Men’s and women’s mass start finals
    • 11:30 a.m.: Cross-country skiing — Men’s 50km (tape-delayed)
    • 1 p.m.: Bobsled — Two-woman third run
    • 1:30 p.m.: Freestyle skiing — Women’s halfpipe final
    • 2:55 p.m.: Figure skating — Gala
    • 3:15 p.m.: Bobsled — Two-woman final run
    • 3:50 p.m.: Back to the figure skating gala
    • 4:30 p.m.: Freestyle skiing — Mixed team aerials (delayed)
    • 5:15 p.m.: Bobsled — Four-man first and second runs (delayed)
    • 8 p.m.: Prime time highlights including bobsled, freestyle skiing, speed skating, and figure skating
    • 11:30 p.m.: Late night highlights including bobsled, speed skating, and freestyle skiing

    USA Network

    • 4 a.m.: Bobsled — Four-man, first run
    • 4:45 a.m.: Freestyle skiing — Mixed team aerials final
    • 6:10 a.m.: Cross-country skiing — Men’s 50km
    • 7:30 a.m.: Ski mountaineering — Mixed relay final
    • 8:15 a.m.: Biathlon — Women’s 12.5km mass start
    • 9 a.m.: Speedskating — Men’s and women’s mass start finals
    • 9:30 a.m.: Curling — United States vs. Canada women’s bronze medal game (joined in progress)
    • 2:40 p.m.: Ice hockey — Finland vs. Slovakia men’s bronze medal game

    CNBC

    • 1:05 p.m.: Curling — Switzerland vs. Norway bronze medal game

    How to watch the Olympics on TV and stream online

    NBC’s TV coverage will have live events from noon to 5 p.m. Philadelphia time on weekdays and starting in the mornings on the weekends. There’s a six-hour time difference between Italy and here. The traditional prime-time coverage will have highlights of the day and storytelling features.

    As far as the TV channels, the Olympics are airing on NBC, USA, CNBC, and NBCSN. Spanish coverage can be found on Telemundo and Universo.

    NBCSN is carrying the Gold Zone whip-around show that was so popular during the Summer Olympics in 2024, with hosts including Scott Hanson of NFL RedZone. It used to be just on Peacock, NBC’s online streaming service, but now is on TV, too.

    Every event is available to stream live on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. You’ll have to log in with your pay-TV provider, whether cable, satellite, or streaming platforms including YouTube TV, FuboTV, and Sling TV.

    On Peacock, the events are on the platform’s premium subscription tier, which starts at $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year.

    Here is the full event schedule for the entire Olympics, and here are live scores and results.

  • Documenting the President’s House saga

    Documenting the President’s House saga

    The brief confrontation came this week in front of the empty frames where visitors had been taping informal signs to fill the void where the original panels hung at the President’s House, after President Donald Trump’s administration removed the slavery exhibits last month.

    Signs and notes placed by visitors at the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park.

    Glenn Bergman and his wife Dianne Manning were just arriving at the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition’s annual Presidents’ Day observance. They had earlier attended the weekly ICE vigil a few blocks away. Bystanders yelled at the woman to stop as she declared it was her “First Amendment right” while tearing off the notes.

    Bergman stepped in to block her, saying later, he “had to do something.” After a few seconds everyone stepped away, accusing her of “littering.”

    She grabbed the papers off the ground and left abruptly, shouting “George Washington made this country great… for white people.”

    The entire interaction lasted less than three minutes — and unfolded right on the other side of the wall from where the main advocacy organization leading the fight to protect the President’s House was gathered.

    The Avenging the Ancestors Coalition holds their annual Presidents’ Day observance at the President’s House Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. The empty frame in the foreground held a panel about slavery that was removed.

    As the week of Presidents’ Day ends, I’m moving that presidential apostrophe back a letter and remembering my time photographing at the President’s House.

    It is almost a year since our current President signed Executive Order #14253, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” on Mar. 27, 2025.

    In addition to requiring the Secretary of the Interior to develop a plan to improve Independence National Historical Park in preparation for our 250th birthday, he directed National Park Service staff to identify language and historical depictions that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

    Flowering trees by Independence Hall in spring, 2025.

    In May, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order that signs be posted in all National Park asking employees and visitors to report any negative information.

    A sign and QR code located in Independence National Historical Park inviting the public to submit feedback on repairs, improvements, and content that is “negative about either past or living Americans.”

    In July, President Donald Trump’s administration started taking steps to review or remove materials key to understanding the history of race in America.

    But it didn’t happen until last month.

    I was on another assignment nearby when the newspaper received a tip workers were on the site “with tape measures.”

    They weren’t talking to our reporter, already on the site, when I arrived to find park service workers indeed examining the panels. So I just assumed if they would be dismantling the exhibits it would happen in the middle of the night — like when the statue of former Mayor Frank Rizzo was “disappeared” and his Italian Market mural was erased under cover of darkness in 2020.

    I made a few photos then left to edit and upload, only to get a text, “it’s happening now.”

    It was awkward as the workers asked me to “give us a break,” while I hovered around — not right on top of them — watching every move. I replied we were both doing our jobs.

    Bolts are removed from Interpretive panels as the exhibits are taken off the walls in Independence National Historical Park Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.

    It wasn’t long before other news media arrived, and I continued to document the entire removal. I was joined by photographer Elizabeth Robertson who made a photo from our newsroom overlooking the site. Later that evening, I returned to a much quieter scene.

    The President’s House Historical Park Jan. 22, 2026, after all historical exhibits were removed. The site, a reconstructed “ghost” structure titled “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” (2010), serves as a memorial to the nine people George Washington enslaved there during the founding of America.

    That wasn’t the end of it. Protests continued…

    Historical interpreter Michael Carver talks with visitors while he and other members of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides host “History Matters” offering “Free Talks with Tour Guides” Jan. 24, 2026 at the President’s House site two days after more than a dozen educational displays about slavery were removed from the site.

    … and the City of Philadelphia sued the National Park Service and Department of Interior. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe inspected the removed panels in storage for herself, visited the President’s House site, then ordered the federal government “restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026,” which is the day before the exhibits were removed.

    Trump administration officials appealed her ruling calling it “unnecessary judicial intervention” and on Presidents’ Day, when Glenn Bergman and Dianne Manning of Mt. Airy were attending the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition rally, Judge Rufe issued an injunction that required the federal agencies to restore the interpretive panels.

    So we all waited to see what happened next. The “what’s next?” was two days later the federal judge, citing the agencies’ “failure to comply” set a deadline of 5 p.m. Friday.

    A spokesperson for the White House defended their inaction saying removal of the exhibits is not final because the Department of the Interior is “engaged in an ongoing review of our nation’s American history exhibits in accordance with the President’s executive order to eliminate corrosive ideology, restore sanity, and reinstate the truth.”

    A cleaded up and power-washed President’s House site the day after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the President’s House in January.

    Upon hearing the news I thought, “Friday is my day off. I will just have to read what my excellent reporting colleagues Fallon Roth, Maggie Prosser, and Abraham Gutman write about it. And live vicariously through the photos by whichever of my photo co-workers gets the assignment.“

    I just couldn’t stay away, so I returned to the site early Thursday morning, just to “babysit.”

    After about 30 minutes and only seeing two visitors, a park service worker arrived with a 5-gallon Lowe’s plastic blue bucket ($4.95, lid sold separately) and another, plain white plastic pail full of rags. More prep work for Friday, my day off, I figured.

    When he returned with a six-foot Little Giant ladder ($255.99, King Kombo), I asked “so you’re not just doing more cleaning, right?”

    I alerted my newsdesk, and spent the next six hours there.

    Philadelphia Inquirer staff photographer Tom Gralish edits his news photos at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park Thursday, Feb, 19, 2026 as park service workers restore the slavery exhibits that were removed in January. Gralish had met and talked with the NPS employee earlier in the morning before other news media arrived at the site, and hadn’t noticed a panel would be going back up later where he was sitting. “You’re okay,” the worker said, “you were here first.”

    Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:

    February 16, 2026: What came first? The dirty snowpacked berm of frozen slush or the graffiti?
    February 9, 2026: Walking through a corrugated metal culvert called the “Duck Tunnel,” a pedestrian navigates the passageway under the SEPTA tracks on the Swarthmore College campus.
    February 2, 2026: A light-as-air Elmo balloon rolls along a sidewalk in Haddonfield, propelled by the wind as Sunday’s heavy snow starts to turn to ice and sleet.
    January 26, 2026: The President’s House in Independence National Historical Park hours Jan, 22, after all historical exhibits were removed following President Trump’s Executive Order last March that the content at national parks that “inappropriately disparage” the U.S. be reviewed. The site, a reconstructed “ghost” structure titled “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” (2010), serves as a memorial to the nine people George Washington enslaved there during the founding of America.
    January 19, 2026: A low-in-the-sky winter sun is behind the triangular pediment of the “front door” of the open-air President’s House installation in Independence National Historical Park. The reconstructed “ghost” structure with partial walls and windows of the Georgian home known in the 18th century as 190 High St. is officially titled, “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” (2010). It is designed to give visitors a sense of the house where the first two presidents of the United States, George Washington and John Adams, served their terms of office. The commemorative site designed by Emanuel Kelly, with Kelly/Maiello Architects, pays homage to nine enslaved people of African descent who were part of the Washington household with videos scripted by Lorene Cary and directed by Louis Massiah.
    Deepika Iyer holds her niece Ira Samudra aloft in a Rockyesque pose, while her parents photograph their 8 month-old daughter, in front of the famous movie prop at the top of the steps at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Iyer lives in Philadelphia and is hosting a visit by her mother Vijayalakshmi Ramachandran (partially hidden); brother Gautham Ramachandran; and her sister-in-law Janani Gautham who all live in Bangalore, India.
    January 5, 2026: Parade marshals trail behind the musicians of the Greater Kensington String Band heading to their #9 position start in the Mummers Parade. Spray paint by comic wenches earlier in the day left “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers” shadows on the pavement of Market Street. This year marked the 125th anniversary of Philly’s iconic New Year’s Day celebration.
    Dec. 29, 2025: Canada geese at sunrise in Evans Pond in Haddonfield, during the week of the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere.
    December 22, 2025: SEPTA trolley operator Victoria Daniels approaches the end of the Center City Tunnel, heading toward the 40th Street trolley portal after a tour to update the news media on overhead wire repairs in the closed tunnel due to unexpected issues from new slider parts.
    December 15, 2025: A historical interpreter waits at the parking garage elevators headed not to a December crossing of the Delaware River, but an event at the National Constitution Center. General George Washington was on his way to an unveiling of the U.S. Mint’s new 2026 coins for the Semiquincentennial,
    December 8, 2025: The Benjamin Franklin Bridge and pedestrians on the Delaware River Trail are reflected in mirrored spheres of the “Weaver’s Knot: Sheet Bend” public artwork on Columbus Boulevard. The site-specific stainless steel piece located between the Cherry Street and Race Street Piers was commissioned by the City’s Public Art Office and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation and created and installed in 2022 by the design and fabrication group Ball-Nogues Studio. The name recalls a history that dominated the region for hundreds of years. “Weaver’s knot” derives from use in textile mills and the “Sheet bend” or “sheet knot” was used on sailing vessels for bending ropes to sails.
    November 29, 2025: t’s ginkgo time in our region again when the distinctive fan-shaped leaves turn yellow and then, on one day, lose all their leaves at the same time laying a carpet on city streets and sidewalks. A squirrel leaps over leaves in the 18th Century Garden in Independence National Historical Park Nov. 25, 2025. The ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is considered a living fossil as it’s the only surviving species of a group of trees that existed before dinosaurs. Genetically, it has remained unchanged over the past 200 million years. William Hamilton, owner the Woodlands in SW Phila (no relation to Alexander Hamilton) brought the first ginkgo trees to North America in 1785.
    November 24, 2025: The old waiting room at 30th Street Station that most people only pass through on their way to the restrooms has been spiffed up with benches – and a Christmas tree. It was placed there this year in front of the 30-foot frieze, “The Spirit of Transportation” while the lobby of Amtrak’s $550 million station restoration is underway. The 1895 relief sculpture by Karl Bitter was originally hung in the Broad Street Station by City Hall, but was moved in 1933. It depicts travel from ancient to modern and even futuristic times.
    November 17, 2025: Students on a field trip from the Christian Academy in Brookhaven, Delaware County, pose for a group photo in front of the Liberty Bell in Independence National Historical Park on Thursday. The trip was planned weeks earlier, before they knew it would be on the day park buildings were reopening after the government shutdown ended. “We got so lucky,” a teacher said. Then corrected herself. “It’s because we prayed for it.”

    » SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column.

  • Has Wawa’s food changed too much?

    Has Wawa’s food changed too much?

    This week’s question is… Has Wawa’s food changed too much?

    Stephanie Farr, Features Columnist

    In my 19 years here I’ve found Wawa has remained a consistent standard in my life, both in terms of quality and in terms of how often I eat it. I don’t think anyone would argue it’s the best food in a very foodie town but it’s never let me down.

    Tommy Rowan, Programming Editor

    Wawa lost something when they took out the meat slicers and stopped having bread delivered. In the early 2000s, at least to me, the sandwiches tasted fresher. It still had the spirit of a deli. Now it’s just like Subway. Which, hey, fine in a pinch. But I’m not going out of my way to stop anymore.

    Jenn Ladd, Deputy Food Editor

    As a Montco native, Wawa was a big part of my teenage years. Like most kids in this area, I thought of it as sort of a third space in high school — have many fond memories of sitting in or around my car or a friend’s car in Wawa parking lots in Flourtown, Wynnewood, Ocean City, etc. — and then when I went to college in Baltimore, that tether remained. I’d drive 25 minutes each way from the northern edge of Baltimore City to a Wawa in like Parkville, Maryland or something. I’d get gas, coffee, and a breaded chicken sandwich or the protein snack pack (grapes, cheese, crackers). Often, I’d round up the other Philly-area kids and we’d all go together at like 11 p.m. on a weeknight. It was a ritual.

    All of that is to say, I once held deep-seated affection for Wawa.

    The Wawa at the corner of 34th and Market Street near Drexel University will be closing in Philadelphia, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.

    But it has lost that spot in the past three or four years.

    I used to commence each long-distance road trip with a Wawa breakfast hoagie — the scrambled eggs used to be so rich, you really didn’t need cheese because they were that good and plentiful; the sausage was really flavorful; the portion so abundant, you could drive for hours without feeling the need for a snack. The last time I got a breakfast sandwich from Wawa, I gotta tell you, it was sad.

    I was sad.

    Stephanie Farr

    A road trip still doesn’t start for me until I get a Wawa Sizzli — croissant, egg, turkey sausage, and cheese — and I’ve never been disappointed. That being said, I recently got a breakfast sandwich at the flagship Wawa at 6th and Market and that one came with scrambled eggs and it was a mess! I much prefer the egg mold.

    What has gone downhill for you guys?

    Workers assemble breakfast Sizzlis during the grand opening Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 of the very first Wawa in Central Pennsylvania – solid Sheetz territory – in the Dauphin County borough of Middletown.

    Jenn Ladd

    I’ve noticed the portions have gotten kinda puny for the custom-ordered stuff, which was my jam for years. And now I think you’re better off with the grab-and-go things — the Sizzlis.

    I think Wawa putting so much focus on the “Super Wawa” format and then constantly “innovating” with the food menu has really been its downfall. Like, just keep it simple.

    Tommy Rowan

    I still think about the old Buffalo Blue Breaded Chicken Sandwich. It was a robust and crispy chicken patty. And it was slathered in that bright orange buffalo-blue cheese sauce that brought the heat AND the tang. It was unmistakable and worth the price of admission. And it came on a fresh kaiser roll, to boot.

    They have introduced new lines of chicken sandwiches in recent years, but they’re not the same.

    Jenn Ladd

    God I used to love those chicken sandwiches. They had my heart over a hoagie almost every time.

    Sherly D’Alfonso (correct spelling) wraps a Turkey, Provolone, Tomato and Lettuce Hoagie. She and two others are assembling 300 hoagies during their time making hoagies. Wawa Welcome America Hoagie Day on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. Photograph taken at the Wawa at Chestnut St. at 6th in Center City Philadelphia.

    Stephanie Farr

    I’ve actually never tried one of their chicken sandwiches, but I am mad they took the spicy cherry pepper relish off the menu. That is a GOAT hoagie topping.

    Personally, I like Wawa’s soups, particularly the chicken noodle and tomato bisque. I’m sure they come out of a bag, but they taste pretty good and it’s not something you find at similar places, like Sheetz.

    Jenn Ladd

    [shudder at the thought of bagged soup]

    Stephanie Farr

    As I assumed you would, foodie. lol. It doesn’t bother me, but my standards are pretty low.

    Evan Weiss, Deputy Features Editor

    If you all could tell Wawa to change two things back, what would they be?

    Stephanie Farr

    Just give me back my spicy cherry pepper relish for the love of all that is holy please! Also, they better never get rid of the garlic aioli. Get that on a hoagie and bring it into a public place and everyone will ask you what smells so good (it’s happened to me in the newsroom!).

    Tommy Rowan

    Bring back the slicers and the fresh bread. It would make a huge difference.

    Jenn Ladd

    I’d have them remember their roots as opposed to coming up with novelties and/or trying to compete with other convenience store chains on selection (see Wawa pizza, a repeated failure). They used to have great sandwiches and snacks. I’ll forever cherish the memory of a boss in Baltimore putting a Wawa pretzel on my desk because she had been in the Philly area earlier in the day. It was like a little love note from home. They’ve gotten too corporate, so I basically just treat it like a gas station now.

    Science Leadership Academy eleventh grader Marcos Rufino gets another piece of Wawa cheese pizza at the school in Philadelphia on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023.

    Stephanie Farr

    I was talking to someone about Wawa last week, after covering the first Sheetz opening in Montco, and they said while Sheetz may have more food offerings, Wawa will still remain supreme in the Philly region because: “We’re loyal and it has nothing to do with quality.”

    Honestly, I think that’s one of the reasons I love Philly so much. Tommy and Jenn, are you bucking that trend, have you forsaken your Wawa loyalty?

    Jenn Ladd

    I don’t believe in blind allegiance.

    But also, I don’t think we should just keep giving money to an entity that doesn’t seem to be minding the quality of what it’s putting out to customers.

    Just because we are fond of it.

    Stephanie Farr

    So I take it you’re not a Phillies or Flyers fan either?

    Jenn Ladd

    Ahahaha well I’m not giving them any money, that’s true.

    Tommy Rowan

    Hahaha I will always have a special place in my heart for Wawa. And I hope it comes back around. I’m going to be thinking of that chicken sandwich for the rest of the week now.

    Jenn Ladd

    I won’t even get into how Wawa has betrayed Philadelphia proper, but that’s another reason I’m loathe to be blindly loyal to them.

    I’d love for Wawa to make a quality comeback too, truth be told, but I don’t know that I’d realize that without this conversation.

    Have a question of your own? Or an opinion? Email us.