Acaden Lewis did a little bit of everything to lift Villanova to a 92-89 overtime victory over Xavier in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
Lewis had 21 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and four steals, including one that sealed the win in the final seconds of the game. Villanova (21-5, 12-3 Big East) improved to 7-1 on the road in the Big East.
“I think we’re just built for [overtime],” Lewis told reporters. “We’ve been on the road. We’ve had seven road wins after this game. So I think we’ve been through the fire. We’ve been in some far games. We played the first game of the year [against] BYU in Las Vegas. It was with no other games around. So, we’re used to it at this point. We’re growing up in front of everybody’s eyes. And I think we’re getting really good on the road for that reason.”
Lewis is averaging 12.7 points and leads the Wildcats in assists (5.3).
Duke Brennan had 10 points and 13 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season. He is two double-doubles shy of tying Michael Bradley’s single-season program record.
In overtime, Villanova outscored Xavier, 11-8, and outrebounded the Musketeers, 5-4. Lewis and Bryce Lindsay had nine of the 11 points.
Bench lifts Villanova
Xavier (13-12, 5-9) opened the game on an 11-2 run that forced Villanova coach Kevin Willard to call a timeout. Willard took out Matt Hodge, Brennan, and Lindsay. He replaced them with Devin Askew, Malachi Palmer, and Braden Pierce.
Villanova quickly spun off a 17-7 run over the next six minutes to take a lead. It spun into a 28-13 run.
Askew scored back-to-back three-pointers during the run.
“Coming into the game, we didn’t get any stops,” Lewis told reporters. “Starting five was out there, kind of, lackadaisical. They were running the speed of the game kind of got to us. And we didn’t really respond. Chris [Jeffrey] came in, Dev [Askew] came in, a bunch of guys came in and just changed the whole game. Got more stops, got us in the rhythm. And then going back in and help guys that start to get into a rhythm as well. And I think [the starters] just kept that same pressure.”
Duke Brennan, shown during a game on Feb. 10, had his 12th double-double of the season against Xavier on Tuesday.
Lindsay shows improvement
After scoring double digits in 13 of his first 14 games of the season, Lindsay has struggled. He went from averaging 16.9 points over the first 14 games to just 6.4 over the last 10.
Against Xavier, Lindsay finished with 15 points, shooting 5-for-11 from the field and 4-for-8 from beyond the arc. It was his fourth double-digit performance in the last 11 games.
“There’s a reason he started,” Willard told reporters. “I have tremendous confidence in Bryce, and he’s been putting the work in. He’s just been in a little bit of a slump, and it’s good to see him get out of it.”
Lewis echoed Willard’s thoughts on Lindsay’s performance.
“That’s great to see,” Lewis told reporters. “I’m proud of [Lindsay]. It’s not easy to go through big slumps like this when you’re playing on national TV. And everyone expects so much out of you. So for him to just keep his head down, stick to it, and keep working … I mean, that’s what happened.”
Villanova returns home after two road games to face No. 5 UConn at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday (5:30 p.m., TruTV/TNT). UConn won 75-67 in overtime on Jan. 24 in Storrs, Conn.
The last time Villanova hosted UConn, it upset the No. 9 Huskies, 68-66, on Jan. 8, 2025.
A millionaire’s private island filled with luxury goods, gourmet food, and fine wine seems like a reality a million miles from yours, so what can Philadelphia-area parents learn from the Epstein files?
Plenty.
There are people like Jeffrey Epstein everywhere. He just had a bigger field.
Epstein started small. In her memoir Nobody’s Girl, the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, abused and trafficked by Epstein starting at age 16, describes how Epstein told her that as a teacher, he traded sex for grades. Alumni of New York’s elite Dalton School have described inappropriate conduct toward girls. Yet he was dismissed from the school simply for “poor performance.”
Back in the 1970s, when Epstein taught, sex abuse prevention programs were primarily directed at kids. Teaching kids to recognize “good touch/bad touch” would have done nothing for teenage girls, likely targeted for their insecurity, for whom attention from a cute, popular new teacher felt like affection and status. Today, the most effective school-based sex abuse prevention programs involve the entire school helping faculty and staff recognize and respond to inappropriate behavior. Policies explicitly identify acceptable and unacceptable behaviors around issues from touching to communicating with students outside of school. Ongoing prevention programs empower everyone to act if they see a breach. Parents are included as partners to reinforce healthy messages at home. One great example is Safety STARS — Enough Abuse.
What are the lessons for parents? I can count at least four:
1. Learn what sexual abuse prevention program is offered in your school or district and participate in the parent component. Confirm that it follows best practices, such as requiring a code of conduct for faculty, staff, and students, and commitment from administration to continuous monitoring of adherence to the policies.
Almost 20 years ago, Epstein was convicted of trafficking children for sex but escaped serious punishment in a now widely criticized plea deal. Defense attorneys at the time used the phrase “underage women” to soften how his acts against children sounded. I urge parents and all adults to more accurately call his crimes “child rape.” This helps challenge the social norm that it is somehow acceptable to have sex with minors who may be dressed up to appear older than they truly are.
2. For decades, social scientists have distinguished a pedophile — someone primarily attracted to prepubescent children — from ephebophiles, people attracted to older adolescents and teens. Either way, acting on such attractions is a crime against children.
Adults who target older youth may be more subtle in how they approach their targets, and that’s why parents should monitor all their teens’ relationships with adults, both virtual and in real life. A 17-year-old may look grown, and may balk at this supervision. But their brain still has nearly a decade before it can consistently make mature decisions.
Adolescence is a time of deep insecurity, when teens are highly sensitive to others’ opinions. As Giuffre noted in her memoir, people like Epstein are adept at “reading a room.” They can intuit what a vulnerable teen needs, and offer it, exacting their price later.
3. Even as maturing teens pull away, parents must work harder to stay connected and know what is happening in their teens’ lives. Set special times — driving to school can be ideal — to ask questions that require more than a yes-no answer. Take the time to learn the names of their friends, teachers, and coaches, so they know you’re really interested. Leave a surprise note on their bed telling them you’re proud of something they did. Teens need steady validation of their worth — not only for achievements, but simply for who they are. Keeping their self-esteem “cup” as full as possible is an important protective factor.
Predators are master manipulators. They can patiently work their way into an adolescent’s confidence, shoring up fragile self-esteem. That’s why it’s so critical for parents to be their children’s consistent support. Predators don’t just live on private islands and roam the world in private jets; they can run the social hierarchy as the “alpha” in a high school, or orchestrate hazing in a college fraternity or sorority.
4. Use the Epstein news as a moment to remind kids what a bully really is: someone who repeatedly uses their power to hurt, scare, or control a more vulnerable person. It is also a crucial chance to talk about sexual health and safety. Explain how youth of any age can be vulnerable to exploitation, and be explicit that sex should never be traded for anything.
A colleague raising teens put it starkly when I asked how she was handling the Epstein stories: “Kids are watching how we handle this as adults, and they are not impressed.” The children of this attorney are likely not the only ones who wonder why Epstein went so lightly punished, or why our culture seems to condone sexualized images of teens.
Ask your children what they’ve read and heard, what they think it means, and listen. Then share your thoughts and values. All adults can show the young people in our lives that we can do better — by talking openly about abuse, bullying, harmful media messages and whatever else is troubling our children. We can show them that we stand behind them and will advocate for safer policies in schools and communities.
Janet Rosenzweig MS, PhD, MPA is author of the book “The Sex-Wise Parent,” a senior policy analyst at The Institute for Human Services, and a member of the board of directors of The National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.
Republicans think patients should be shopping for better healthcare prices. The party has long pushed to give patients money and let consumers do the work of reducing costs. After some GOP lawmakers closed out 2025 advocating to fund health savings accounts, President Donald Trump introduced his Great Healthcare Plan, which calls for, among other policies, requiring providers and insurers to post their prices “in their place of business.”
The idea echoes a policy implemented during his first term, when Trump suggested that requiring hospitals to post their charges online could ease one of the most common gripes about the healthcare system — the lack of upfront prices. To anyone who’s gotten a bill three months after treatment only to find mysterious charges, the idea seemed intuitive.
“You’re able to go online and compare all of the hospitals and the doctors and the prices,” Trump said in 2019 at an event unveiling the price transparency policy.
But amid low compliance and other struggles in implementing the policy since it took effect in 2021, the available price data is sparse and often confusing. And instead of patients shopping for medical services, it’s mostly health systems and insurers using the little data there is, turning it into fodder for negotiations that determine what medical professionals and facilities get paid for what services.
“We use the transparency data,” said Eric Hoag, an executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, noting that the insurer wants to make sure providers aren’t being paid substantially different rates. It’s “to make sure that we are competitive, or, you know, more than competitive against other health plans.”
Not all hospitals have fallen in line with the price transparency rules, and many were slow to do so. A study conducted in the policy’s first 10 months found only about a third of facilities had complied with the regulations. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notified 27 hospitals from June 2022 to May 2025 that they would be fined for lack of compliance with the rules.
The struggles to make healthcare prices available have prompted more federal action since Trump’s first effort. President Joe Biden took his own thwack at the dilemma, by requiring increased data standardization and toughening compliance criteria. And in early 2025, working to fulfill his promises to lower health costs, Trump tried again, signing a new executive order urging his administration to fine hospitals and doctors for failing to post their prices. CMS followed up with a regulation intended to up the fines and increase the level of detail required within the pricing data.
So far, “there’s no evidence that patients use this information,” said Zack Cooper, a health economist at Yale University.
In 2021, Cooper co-authored a paper based on data from a large commercial insurer. The researchers found that, on average, patients who need an MRI pass six lower-priced imaging providers on the way from their homes to an appointment for a scan. That’s because they follow their physician’s advice about where to receive care, the study showed.
Executives and researchers interviewed by KFF Health News also didn’t think opening the data would change prices in a big way. Research shows that transparency policies can have mixed effects on prices, with one 2024 study of a New York initiative finding a marginal increase in billed charges.
The policy results thus far seem to put a damper on long-held hopes, particularly from the GOP, that providing more price transparency would incentivize patients to find the best deal on their imaging or knee replacements.
These aspirations have been unfulfilled for a few reasons, researchers and industry insiders say. Some patients simply don’t compare services. But unlike with apples — a Honeycrisp and a Red Delicious are easy to line up side by side — medical services are hard to compare.
For one thing, it’s not as simple as one price for one medical stay. Two babies might be delivered by the same obstetrician, for example, but the mothers could be charged very different amounts. One patient might be given medications to speed up contractions; another might not. Or one might need an emergency cesarean section — one of many cases in medicine in which obtaining the service simply isn’t a choice.
And the data often is presented in a way that’s not useful for patients, sometimes buried in spreadsheets and requiring a deep knowledge of billing codes. In computing these costs, hospitals make “detailed assumptions about how to apply complex contracting terms and assess historic data to create a reasonable value for an expected allowed amount,” the American Hospital Association told the Trump administration in July 2025 amid efforts to boost transparency.
Costs vary because hospitals’ contracts with insurers vary, said Jamie Cleverley, president of Cleverley and Associates, which works with healthcare providers to help them understand the financial impacts of changing contract terms. The cost for a patient with one health plan may be very different than the cost for the next patient with another plan.
The fact that hospital prices might be confusing for patients is a consequence of the lack of standardization in contracts and presentation, Cleverley said. “They’re not being nefarious.”
“Until we kind of align as an industry, there’s going to continue to be this variation in terms of how people look at the data and the utility of it,” he said.
Instead of aiding shoppers, the federally mandated data has become the foundation for negotiations — or sometimes lawsuits — over the proper level of compensation.
The top use for the pricing data for healthcare providers and payers, such as insurers, is “to use that in their contract negotiations,” said Marcus Dorstel, an executive at price transparency startup Turquoise Health.
Turquoise Health assembles price data by grouping codes for services together using machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence. It is just one example in a cottage industry of startups offering insights into prices. And, online, the startups’ advertisements hawking their wares often focus on hospitals and their periodic jousts with insurers. Turquoise has payers and providers as clients, Dorstel said.
“I think nine times out of 10 you will hear them say that the price transparency data is a vital piece of the contract negotiation now,” he said.
Of course, prices aren’t the only variable that negotiations hinge on. Hoag said Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota also considers quality of care, rates of unnecessary treatments, and other factors. And sometimes negotiators feel as if they have to keep up with their peers — claiming a need for more revenue to match competitors’ salaries, for example.
Hoag said doctors and other providers often look at the data from comparable health systems and say, “‘I need to be paid more.’”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
The sports memorabilia world can be transactional, but Carl Henderson navigated it with warmth and integrity.
Henderson opened Carl’s Cards in 1995, and it has since become a staple in the Havertown community. He was a lifelong fan of the area’s sports teams, and that passion showed in his work.
Carl’s Cards has something for everyone — and his daughter, Lauren Henderson-Pignetti, is determined to keep it that way.
On the morning of Jan. 31, Carl Henderson died unexpectedly in his sleep. He was 69 when he passed. He was a beloved figure at his shop and beyond.
About 400 people gathered together during a memorial service last week in Bryn Mawr. Former Phillies pitcher Dickie Noles read a passage from the Old Testament. Members of the Broad Street Bullies sat among the crowd.
His shop looks a little different now. There’s sympathy cards pinned along the walls and a sign sits in the front window to commemorate the longtime owner. But the character remains the same.
Henderson-Pignetti sees Carl’s Cards as a way to honor her late father, because, “He spent 31 years building this place. He would have wanted everything to stay the way it was.”
Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm is eligible for free agency after the season.
Rob Thomson hasn’t settled on the order but wants Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper to bat in the first inning.
Alec Bohm was the Phillies’ most frequent cleanup hitter over the last two seasons and is the leading candidate to reprise the role in his last year before free agency. He said that his game was “down last year,” but is confident that his ability to “put the ball in play” will be an asset in the cleanup spot.
And José Alvarado is starting to ramp up after an 80-game suspension and a forearm injury limited him to 28 appearances last season.
What we’re …
🤼 Preparing: Major League Wrestling will return to Philadelphia to host two nights of action at the 2300 Arena this summer.
The NFL world will descend on Indianapolis again next week for the NFL Scouting Combine.
Next week, 319 college football prospects will descend on Indianapolis for the annual NFL scouting combine. The Eagles’ needs are well-known, but how do they match up with the available talent in this draft?
Here is how we’re ranking the combine position groups from strongest to weakest — and how they could help the Eagles address some roster needs.
Red-hot Travis Konecny has made it clear that the Flyers still believe they can push and make the playoffs with 26 games remaining.
After 11 days, the Flyers were back on the ice Tuesday in Voorhees. The common theme: the playoffs are still within reach.
With 26 games left on the schedule, and just five until the trade deadline, time is ticking on the season. Will the Flyers be buyers, sellers, or somewhere in between? A lot will be determined by their first five games.
Carver Engineering and Science head boys’ basketball coach Dustin Hardy-Moore (left) talks with his players outside courtroom 275 on Tuesday.
Carver Engineering & Science’s buzzer-beating attempt to overturn a ban from the Public League boys’ basketball playoffs was swatted away on Tuesday.
A judge denied the team’s plea for an emergency injunction to stop Tuesday night’s semifinal game between Constitution High School and Imhotep Charter. This comes after the Engineers were disqualified from the Public League playoffs following a skirmish in the quarterfinals with Constitution. The student athletes of E&S are “disappointed” in the decision.
Sports snapshot
Members of Archbishop Carroll celebrate after beating Archbishop Wood in the Catholic League girls’ basketball semifinals at Villanova on Monday.
Sister duo: Alexis and Kayla Eberz combined for 36 points and guided Archbishop Carroll back to the Palestra for their third straight Catholic League appearance.
Sweet redemption: The Patriots will face Cardinal O’Hara in the PCL final, after the Lions beat Neumann Goretti, behind Megan Rullo’s 22 points.
Ready to battle: Villanova women are riding a six-game winning streak into its showdown against top-ranked UConn. How have the Wildcats been preparing?
🧠 Trivia time answer
Who was the last Sixer to win the MVP award in the NBA All-Star Game?
A) Allen Iverson in 2005.
What you’re saying about Phillies’ outfield
We asked: How will the Phillies’ outfield stack up to last year’s version? Among your responses:
Let’s see now! The Phillies just let the best centerfielder they’ve had since the Flyin’ Hawaiian just walk away. To top that off they also let one of best pitchers in baseball just walk away. Just to prove they’ve totally lost their mind, why not just cut the right fielder and give him a $19,250,000 bonus? The Mets got better. The Braves got better. The Marlins got better. The Nationals got better and our fightins got worse. — Ronald R.
Why the Phillies would risk a World Series run with such a questionable outfield is beyond amazing to me. I like Marsh alot but he has proven that he seriously struggles against lefties. I love giving young players a chance but with this team’s roster and playoff expectations this seems to be a tremendous amount of pressure to put on Crawford. And Garcia … I’m sorry but I just can’t get excited about a .227 batting average. Letting Bader go is baffling considering the expectations for this team. I believe there will be an outfield shakeup early in the season unless Phillies Management is quietly trying to rebuild the team and is willing to miss the playoffs. Letting Ranger Suarez go as well as Bader makes me suspicious this is the case. — Bob A.
Three question marks! Marsh did rebound in 2025 but was platooned. Crawford is a rookie and Garcia is a low risk, high potential project. Otto Kemp (one of the best names in baseball!), if healthy, could provide much needed punch to the offense – but can he field?? — Bob C.
Brandon Marsh warms-up during spring training workouts on Feb. 12.
Lots of questions re the outfield. Can Ott handle the role of right handed hitting left fielder? Can Crawford hit MLB pitching and cover CF as well as Bader who never should have been let go. And although Garcia will be an improvement over Nick, will he be good enough to carry this group. We will certainly not be seeing Delahanty, Thompson, & Hamilton out there, nor Burrell, Victorino, and Werth, but let’s hope for the best. Guarded optimism at best. — Everett S.
Adolis Garcia is a career .237 hitter, averaging 30 HRs and 97 RBIs for his 7-year career.That is not substantially different than who he replaces, Castellanos, except for his superior defense.Crawford has more upside than Bader and Rojas in center field.Combined, they offer more offensive and defensive potential than last year’s outfield.With that upgrade, and an improved bullpen, the Phillies should be a stronger contender in 2026. — John W.
We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Alex Coffey, Scott Lauber, Lochlahn March, Devin Jackson, Matt Breen, Jackie Spiegel, Ariel Simpson, Gabriela Carroll, Ellen Dunkel, Brooke Ackerman, and Katie Lewis.
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.
As always, thanks for reading. Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. Kerith will catch back up with you in Thursday’s newsletter. — Bella
On the morning of Jan. 31, a few hours after Carl Henderson died unexpectedly in his sleep, his daughter, Lauren Henderson-Pignetti, drove to her late father’s sports cards and collectibles shop.
She opened it up like she would any other Saturday. Sometimes, kids stopped in with their parents on the back end of trips to the grocery store. Or while they were driving home from basketball practice or piano lessons.
Being there — just like her father had for 31 years — seemed like the right thing to do. So, the younger Henderson stayed at Carl’s Cards in Havertown from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., until the last customer left.
Carl Henderson at his Havertown store in 2018.
The shop owner was 69 when he passed. His family announced the news on Sunday, and received an overwhelming response; thousands of messages from children and adults and even a few local pro athletes.
By Monday morning, bouquets of flowers were wedged between the doors. Customers started sending sympathy cards. Some showed up in person to express their support.
A memorial service held last week, in Bryn Mawr, drew about 400 people. Former Phillies pitcher Dickie Noles read a passage from the Old Testament. Members of the Broad Street Bullies sat among the crowd.
His shop looks a little different now. Those sympathy cards are pinned along the walls. A sign commemorating the longtime owner sits in its front window.
Condolences and tributes have poured into Carl’s Cards, including some from area sports figures.
But the character remains the same — and Henderson-Pignetti is determined to keep it that way. Carl’s Cards has something for everyone. Kids can fish through the dollar bin for unexpected treasures. Right above it, collectors can purchase a limited edition Bryce Harper-signed bat more than 1,000 times that price.
There are more run-of-the-mill items, like signed helmets and jerseys, but also packs of Pope Leo XIV trading cards, and a rectangular piece of wood cut from the old Spectrum court.
The sports memorabilia world can be transactional, if not cold, but Henderson navigated it with warmth and integrity. He frequently donated money and autographed items to charity.
He liked to say he knew his clientele — and they weren’t always big spenders.
The shop owner cared just as much about the 10- or 11-year-old student with only a few dollars in their pocket. Or those who had no money to spend at all, but just wanted to vent about Philadelphia sports.
“He didn’t care if you were buying something,” said Henderson-Pignetti. “It was almost like a version of a bar where you stop in and talk to a bartender.
“You can buy something, [but] you don’t have to. You can just stop in and talk. It wasn’t always about the dollar.”
Lauren Henderson-Pignetti has taken on the responsibility of maintaining her father’s life’s work.
The store has been open since Henderson passed. For now, it’ll stay on its previous schedule.
Henderson-Pignetti sees this as a way of honoring her late father, who would’ve wanted Carl’s Cards to stay alive, no matter what.
“We made the decision to keep everything rolling the way he would have,” she said. “He spent 31 years building this place. He would have wanted everything to stay the way it was.”
A family atmosphere
When Henderson opened Carl’s Cards in 1995, his family thought he was out of his mind. He’d left a stable, corporate job working for Ryerson Steel, and had a wife and young daughter to support.
But Henderson loved collecting, and was ready for a change. So, he signed a three-year lease for a small property on Darby Road.
By 1998, he’d outgrown it, moving to a bigger location across the street from The Haverford Skatium. In 2010, he outgrew his budding collection yet again, moving Carl’s Cards to its current home on West Eagle Road.
These shops were where Henderson-Pignetti spent her childhood. She watched as her father welcomed world-class athletes for autograph signings, and put them at ease in a way bigger card shops couldn’t.
Julius Erving was among the local sports dignitaries who were made to felt comfortable by Carl Henderson (right).
There were no strangers at Carl’s Cards. He was always running the show, with his wife, Sue, selling tickets. As Lauren got older, she began to help out too, mainly with social media and website management.
“It’s not like one of those big card shows where you’re sort of forced in and forced back out again,” Henderson-Pignetti said. “It’s very much a family atmosphere. So, I think a lot of players really enjoyed that.”
Henderson’s theory was that when athletes were more relaxed, they were able to show their authentic selves. This proved true time and time again. Carl’s Cards hosted everyone from Allen Iverson to Jimmy Rollins to A.J. Brown.
Many of these athletes returned for more signings. Some, like Eagles offensive tackle Fred Johnson, even reached out after Henderson’s passing. Others, like Julius Erving, treated the store owner like an age-old friend.
An appearance by Erving had long been on Carl’s bucket list. Like many kids growing up in Philadelphia in the 1970s, Henderson idolized Dr. J. He owned Converse sneakers — just like the Sixers forward — and played varsity basketball at John Bartram High School.
Not much enthralled Henderson, but the idea of sharing a room with one of the best athletes of his generation did. They booked the signing for Dec. 21. After it was done, Erving hung around and talked to the store owner.
At one point, he heard some employees poking fun. He joined in.
“Dr. J was like, ‘Man, they even talk to the boss like that!’” Henderson-Pignetti recalled. “And my dad was like, ‘Do you hear that, guys? I’m the boss here.’
“It was just a really fun, sort of banter conversation. It was just nice.”
While autograph signings were part of the job, they were not the whole job. Henderson wanted his shop to be just as accessible for young kids.
Carl Henderson was a lifelong fan of the area’s sports teams, and that passion showed in his work.
In addition to the dollar bin, he made sure to stock the shelves with affordable card packs. He brought in a gumball machine and added $25 mystery memorabilia boxes.
But above all, he was an uplifting presence in their lives, in a way that Henderson-Pignetti wasn’t even aware. After her father died, she heard from all sorts of kids.
One of them, 12-year-old Owen Papson, crafted a handmade letter.
“I just heard the news,” he wrote. “I am so sorry. We will miss Carl so much. Your store will always be my favorite.”
Inside, he taped a signed Harold Carmichael Topps card with an inscription above: “Hopefully this will help.”
More stories came pouring in on Facebook. One, in particular, stuck with her. It was from a longtime customer who used to frequent Carl’s Cards in the early 2000s.
Lauren Henderson-Pignetti (right, with John O’ Brien) has been touched by the outpouring over her father’s death.
He explained that at the time, his parents were going through a divorce. Henderson was a stable presence when he needed one. He’d ride his bike to the store and was greeted with a smile every time.
“I had no idea,” said Henderson-Pignetti. “To think that something so simple as my dad just being in his place of business … for this kid [it] meant more to him than I think he probably even realized.”
‘A gift from God’
Last September, Henderson-Pignetti quit her role as director of development at the Humane Society in Reading. She loved working there, but was ready for something different, similar to her father when he left Ryerson Steel.
In the moment, her decision was based on a gut feeling, but now she can see the bigger picture. Last fall, Henderson-Pignetti started working full-time at Carl’s Cards.
On Thursdays, her father would give her run of the shop; how to properly open and close, how to track sales, how website orders are mailed out, and other intricacies of the job.
“It was a gift from God, basically, because it allowed me to just absorb even more information from him,” she said. “I kind of look back on that as a weird sort of intuition type of thing. If I hadn’t left my job, that wouldn’t have happened.”
Lauren Henderson Pignetti says her goal is to keep Carl’s Cards & Collectibles up and running after her father’s passing.
The goal, for now, is to keep the shop open. Some days are easier than others. Sue is sick and unable to work. Coworkers, and even customers, have helped pick up shifts when Henderson-Pignetti needs some space.
It can be emotionally exhausting at times. But she’s going to see it through.
“The plan is to not have anything change,” she said. “He would want me to step right into this role. I have no doubt about that. So that’s what I’m going to do, for as long as I possibly can.”
The best way to understand Bryce Harper is to think about all the things he can’t say.
He can’t say that Alec Bohm is a seven-hole hitter at best. He can’t say that Adolis García is much closer to Nick Castellanos than he is a legitimate four- or five-hole hitter. He can’t say that J.T. Realmuto isn’t the guy he was three years ago. He can’t say that he’d swing at fewer pitches out of the zone if he had more confidence that the guys behind him would get the job done.
Given all of those things, Harper also can’t say that Dave Dombrowski has not been an elite personnel boss for at least a couple of years. He can’t say that Dombrowski’s lack of eliteness is chiefly to blame for the Phillies’ run-scoring struggles. Harper can’t say that he was much closer to the hitter the Phillies needed in 2025 than Dombrowski was to being the roster-constructor they needed.
To throw shade at Dombrowski would be to implicitly throw shade at teammates whose “underperformance” is mostly a function of Dombrowski needing them to be something they aren’t.
Harper could have gone deeper. He could have said that the Phillies lost to the Dodgers last season because Dombrowski cobbled together a playoff roster that didn’t allow Rob Thomson to pinch-run for Castellanos. He could have said that the Phillies have finished the last three seasons one reliever short. That they lost to the Diamondbacks in 2023 because Gregory Soto, Craig Kimbrel, and Orion Kerkering were pitching in roles where the Phillies should have had a prime high-leverage arm.
Harper could have pointed to Austin Hays, to Whit Merrifield, to Max Kepler, to David Robertson. He could have asked why he, or we, should have any faith in the decisions to sign García or trade away Matt Strahm when those decisions were made by the same man who made all the previous ones.
But Harper didn’t say those things. He couldn’t say those things. Instead, he said things that could lead one to conclude that he is a little too sensitive, a little too close to the prima donna archetype, a man in possession of emotions triggered by even the faintest whiff of criticism.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski at BayCare Ballpark last week.
When Dombrowski raised the question of whether Harper would ever be the elite player he’d once been, Harper could have raised a question of his own:
Who are you to talk, suit?
Instead, he said things like this:
“It was kind of wild, the whole situation,” Harper said Sunday when he arrived at spring training. “I think the big thing for me was, when we first met with this organization, it was, ‘Hey, we’re always going to keep things in-house, and we expect you to do the same thing.’ When that didn’t happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit. I don’t know. It’s part of it, I guess. It’s kind of a wild situation, you know, that even happening.”
It only makes sense in conjunction with the other things we heard from Harper and his camp. In October, in an interview with MLB.com, agent Scott Boras pointed to the number of pitches Harper saw in the zone (43%, fewest out of 532 qualifying players). On Sunday, Harper riffed on that theme, pointing out the paltry production the Phillies got out of the lineup spot directly behind his usual place in the three-hole.
Look at last season’s Mount Rushmore of hitters and you’ll see the source of Harper’s frustration.
One of the common bonds for Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Cal Raleigh was the talent that followed them in the batting order.
Hitting behind Judge were Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm, and Giancarlo Stanton. Each of those players finished the season with at least 24 home runs and an .813 OPS.
Ohtani’s supporting cast needs no introduction. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are both former MVPs. Will Smith has been an All-Star in three straight seasons.
Raleigh was most often followed directly by Julio Rodriguez, Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suárez, and Jorge Polanco. Three of those players finished 2025 with at least 26 home runs.
Each of those three superstars — the three leading vote-getters on AL and NL MVP ballots — were followed in the batting order by at least three players who finished the season with at least 20 home runs. Compare that to Harper, who usually had two players behind him with more than 12 home runs, neither of whom is on the roster this season (Kepler 18, Castellanos 17).
If anything, Harper was underselling the situation when he met with the media Sunday in Clearwater. The two-time MVP limited his focus to the Phillies’ struggles in the cleanup spot, where they ranked 20th in the majors in OPS last season.
“I think the four spot has a huge impact,” Harper said. “I think the numbers in the four spot weren’t very good last year for our whole team. I think whoever’s in that four spot is going to have a big job to do, depending on who’s hitting three or who’s hitting two.”
Bryce Harper fist-bumps Phillies teammates Sunday ahead of the team’s workout in Clearwater, Fla.
But the issues behind Harper — and/or Kyle Schwarber, depending on the configuration — are deeper than the next-man-up. As we saw last season, pitchers are more than willing to pitch around two hitters when those hitters are Harper and Schwarber, especially when the guys behind them allow for an extended period of exhalation. Lineup protection is a cumulative thing.
We saw that in 2022, didn’t we? A big reason the Phillies thrived with Schwarber leading off and Harper batting third was the presence of Rhys Hoskins (30 homers, .794 OPS) and Realmuto (22 homers, .820 OPS) behind them. Even in 2023, they had some combination of Castellanos (29 homers, .788 OPS), Realmuto (20 homers, .762 OPS), and Bohm (10 homers, .765 OPS).
Boras and Harper have zeroed in on the number of pitches he sees out of the zone. It’s part of the story, no doubt. Over the last three seasons, he has seen a lower percentage of pitches in the zone than any previous three-year stretch of his career. When he was NL MVP in 2021, he saw a career-high 46.7% of pitches in the zone.
At the same time, Harper was pretty darn good in 2023, when he saw 41.2% of pitches in the zone, the second-lowest of his career, according to FanGraphs. Just as important is what Harper chooses to do with the pitches he sees.
Last year, his chase rate was 36%. In 2021, it was 25.5%. But he wasn’t necessarily chasing more pitches. His swing percentage on pitches in the zone was 78.3%, up from 72.1% in 2021.
Protection is a mindset as much as it is an externality. The more protected a hitter feels, the more comfortable he is waiting for his pitch rather than trying to do too much. Pitchers won’t necessarily approach Harper differently if they feel more danger from the hitters behind him. But Harper will absolutely feel more comfortable taking whatever pitchers give him.
The Phillies acknowledged as much with their openness about their failed pursuit of Bo Bichette. Dombrowski knows what the Phillies need. They need what they had in 2021 and 2022 in prime Hoskins and prime Realmuto (and company).
They will need to get lucky to have it this season. Their decision-making will need to be filtered through this context. Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford, the trade deadline. Bohm and García will get the first chances. Dombrowski’s future as the bossman will be determined by how they perform, and then by what happens if they don’t.
The Villanova women’s basketball team has many reasons to feel confident entering the final three games of the regular season.
The Wildcats (21-5, 14-3 Big East) are riding a six-game winning streak and have a solid grasp on second place in the Big East standings. During last week’s road trips, they took care of Xavier on Wednesday, 78-38, and Creighton on Sunday, 74-64.
And back on its home floor on Wednesday night, Villanova will face No. 1 Connecticut for the second time this season (7 p.m., Peacock).
The Huskies (27-0, 16-0), coached by Norristown-raised Geno Auriemma, continue to loom over the conference and the nation. For Villanova coach Denise Dillon, Wednesday’s matchup will be a chance for the team to show how it has progressed this season. Most of all, it will be a mental test for the Wildcats as much as a competitive one against the nation’s top program.
“I always say, ‘If you want to be the best, you got to play the best,’” Dillon said. “And we have them here in our conference in UConn. … With UConn, there is no room for error. You have to be sharp, focused, and ready to battle.”
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up near Philadelphia, brings an undefeated team into Finneran Pavilion on Wednesday.
Seeking improvement
The last time the top two teams in the Big East faced off, the Huskies sent the Wildcats home with a 99-50 loss on Jan. 15. According to Dillon, the humbling defeat was a dent in the team’s confidence. An upset loss to St. John’s followed two games later, forcing the team to reevaluate its standards.
“[The team] didn’t like how they handled [the loss to UConn],” Dillon said. “They didn’t like how the game went for us and didn’t even like how we responded thereafter. We got some wins after, but we weren’t playing very good basketball, and we weren’t where we needed to be. So I think that lesson was certainly felt and learned, and now here’s another opportunity to see how much we have grown.”
Dillon also was pleased with the team’s mental composure in its most recent win at Creighton. Despite trailing by three at halftime, Villanova’s offense surged in the second half for a double-digit win. Sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe led the way with 21 points, and freshman guard Kennedy Henry had 17.
“It was a huge win for us,” Dillon said. “The first half was a little shaky because it was three-point game, and in that second half, we settled in, played our game, and took care of business. … I think Jasmine did a great job in the second half of just directing, of settling in the team, and making plays for others.”
Bascoe’s leadership will continue anchoring the team on Wednesday night. Dillon also has high expectations for Henry, who led Villanova with 12 points at UConn.
“Kennedy’s a stat-filler,” Dillon said. “She’s doing it on both ends of the floor. I think she impacts the game immensely. She’s smart enough to know that [UConn is aware] what she did the first time, so they’re going to do what they can to counter it. And that’s the beauty of the game, you want to find different ways that you can impact, and I know Kennedy is going to be on point to do that.”
Villanova guard Kennedy Henry (22) was the team’s leading scorer in the first matchup vs. UConn.
Stopping Strong
The Huskies are led by 6-foot-2 sophomore forward Sarah Strong, who averages 19.2 points and 7.5 rebounds. Strong dropped 24 points in the January matchup.
Strong has been a force for the Huskies against Big East and national opponents, leading the conference in scoring and field-goal percentage. Alongside Strong, the Huskies are stacked with versatile players, including second-leading scorer Azzi Fudd (17.8 points per game) and assists leader KK Arnold (4.6 assists per game).
UConn forward Sarah Strong (21), driving against Villanova’s Denae Carter on Jan. 15, is the Big East’s leading scorer.
“It’s a big task when all [of UConn’s] players are a threat, an option out on the floor,” Dillon said. “[Strong] is getting a touch every possession, so it’s just recognizing where her spots are, where she wants to get these looks, and trying to force her to catch a little bit farther out. So it’s not just a clean shot or burying us in the paint, just being more active with where those looks are coming.”
While Villanova will aim to limit Strong’s shooting, generating offense against UConn’s signature full-court press also will be a challenge. UConn allows just 50.5 points per game, the lowest average in the nation.
The U.S. men’s hockey team’s quest for its first Olympic gold medal in nearly five decades continues Wednesday, highlighting Day 12 of NBC’s coverage of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Team USA will take on Sweden beginning at 3:10 p.m. live on NBC. The winner will move on to Friday’s semifinals.
Maybe the sixth time’s the charm for the U.S. In the five previous Olympics games featuring NHL players, Team USA has won just two silver medals — 2002 in Salt Lake City, and 2010 in Vancouver.
Against Sweden, the U.S. is 0-2 with NHL players, with losses in 1998 in Nagano, Japan and 2006 in Torino, Italy.
Ice hockey has been played at the Olympics since 1920. In 25 games, the U.S. has won Olympic gold in men’s ice hockey just twice — 1960 Squaw Valley in California and 1980’s “Do you believe in miracles?” victory over the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Auston Matthews and Team USA went a perfect 3-0 during the group stage, defeating Denmark, Latvia, and Germany. Canada, featuring Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim, was the only other country to post a perfect 3-0 record during the group state.
Here’s Wednesday’s full men’s hockey quarterfinals schedule:
6:10 a.m.: Slovakia vs. Germany (Peacock)
10:40 a.m.: Canada vs. Czechia (USA Network)
12:10 p.m.: Finland vs. Switzerland (Peacock)
3:10 p.m.: U.S. vs. Sweden (NBC)
Other events to watch Wednesday:
The U.S. men’s curling team will take on Great Britain in the final round-robin game for both countries beginning at 8:30 a.m. (USA Network). Ten countries are competing, and just the top four move on to the semifinals. Team USA enters Wednesday’s game in fourth place (full standings here).
American skiers Kaila Kuhn and Winter Vinecki will compete in women’s aerials live beginning at 5:30 a.m. (USA Network). They will be followed by U.S. snowboarder Red Gerard competing for gold in the men’s slopestyle final at 6:30 a.m. on USA Network.
Wednesday’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 they’re live or not.
NBC
Noon: Biathlon — Women’s 4×6 kilometer relay (tape-delayed)
12:45 p.m.: Cross-country skiing — Men’s and women’s team sprint finals (tape-delayed)
7:55 a.m.: Snowboarding — Women’s slalom final run
8:30 a.m.: Men’s curling — U.S. vs. Great Britain
8:45 a.m.: Biathlon — Women’s 4×6 kilometer relay
10:40 a.m.: Men’s hockey — Canada vs. Czechia, quarterfinal
2:15 p.m.: Short track — Women’s relay and men’s 500 meter finals
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.
Students streamed out the front doors of William T. Tilden Middle School on a recent Friday afternoon, past the “Welcome to Tiger Country” sign at the corner. As they shouted to friends and threw snowballs to celebrate the weekend, they were dwarfed by the massive brick school building behind them.
That building, which spans half a city block in Southwest Philadelphia, is a primary reason the Philadelphia School District has proposed closing Tilden alongside19 other schools.
Capable of holding roughly 1,400 students, Tilden had only 266 enrolled last year, the district said. That means it is at just 18.5% capacity — the second-lowest of all the schools tapped to close, according to an Inquirer analysis. While enrollment in the school district overall has increased in the last four years, it has declined at Tilden, with just 24 students in this year’s fifth-grade class, district data shows.
The district has rated Tilden’s building as “poor” when it comes to being safe and accessible, meeting environmental standards, and having modern technology. Tilden is also one of six middle schools that Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. has proposed closing in an effort to shift the district’s focus to the K-8 model.
Unlike some of the otherschools on the chopping block, the Tilden community so far has not mounted an organized fight against its closure as the school board prepares to vote this winter on Watlington’s recommendations. Just a dozen employees and residents showed up to an in-person meeting on a frigid Saturday morning earlier this month to discuss the school’s possible closure, according to Chalkbeat Philadelphia, and about 30 attended a virtual meeting about Tilden a few days later. There is no online petition to keep it open, as there are for manyother schools slated for closure.
Students who were set to graduate before the proposed changes would take effect said in interviews outside the school that they did not care much about the possible closure, though some adults expressed more concern.
“This school has had, and still does have, excellent community programs,” said Tilden teacher Cheryl Padgett through tears at the virtual meeting.
The district’s draft facilities plan recommends that in the fall of 2027, Tilden stop accepting new fifth graders, and then gradually phase out its remaining classes, closing for good in 2030.
All of Tilden’s current students would be able to graduate from the school under the proposal; new students who would have attended Tilden for middle school will instead stay at Patterson, Catherine, and Morton — the elementary schools that currently feed into Tilden. The district said all three of those schools would receive increased investment as they add grades and become K-8 schools.
Tilden is in a neighborhood deemed especially vulnerable by the district, which ranked it as “high risk” to account for its experience with previous school closures, as well as its high poverty rate, lack of publictransportation, and language barriers. (The district’s top vulnerability ranking is “very high risk.”)
Tilden’s building would eventually be repurposed as a sports facility for Bartram High and the broader neighborhood under the plan.
At the virtual meeting, community members worried that the buildings slated to become K-8 schools are not equipped for older children, and that younger students would be exposed to problematic behavior from older kids.
Some community members said they feared that changes resulting from the district’s plan, which spans a 10-year period, would not come soon enough.
“Do something now,” said Mama Gail Clouden, a longtime community activist. “While you’re talking about ‘in two years,’ and what you’re planning to do — right now, children and parents and staff are suffering in these schools.”
Tilden also has received additional support and funding from the city’s tax on sweetened beverages through the community schools program pioneered by former Mayor Jim Kenney.
“Our kids can succeed,” Kenney said at a 2017 news conference at Tilden announcing funding for the first group of schools. “They can meet their potential if we give them the resources.”
Asa community school, Tilden’s building serves as a center for such resources: The school hosts a food pantry every Friday, and families can access case management and utility and housing assistance and other supports through a partnership with Methodist Services.
“These kids, they have a way of growing on your heart,” said Wanellie Cummings, an attendance case manager with Methodist Services assigned to Tilden.
Cummings works with kids who have three or more absences to try to address any barriers at home that might prevent them from getting to school. She said she has not heard much from her clients about the potential school closure, though she did worry about Tilden’s food pantry closing.
“When you take that away from a community, what’s left? If those grandmoms and grandpops have to go somewhere else to get food …,” she said.
The district has said it would spend the 2026-27 year planning for how to maintain the resources now offered at Tilden.
When Aaron Deary, partner and general manager of R&D cocktail bar in Fishtown, began formulating his “liquid love letter” to Philly in honor of our nation’s 250th anniversary this year, he set out to challenge his bartenders in a new and novel way.
Seems appropriate, given that Philadelphia finds new and novel ways to challenge each of us every day.
Typically the mixologists at R&D receive cocktail projects that are flavor-focused, but for the bar’s latest themed menu, “Ripoff & Duplicate,” Deary asked them to create 13 drinks based on the stories, legends, and places that make Philadelphia Philly — from the murder of a meddling Canadian robot to the city’s long history of choking in big moments.
Bartender Eddie Manno makes cocktails at R&D.
The concoctions are presented in a 10-page glossy magazine-like menu designed by Deary that features cheeky Philly tidbits, tips, and neighborhood recommendations.
“We obviously had to put some funny things in there, too, because that’s our city and we wanted to show off some of the more ridiculous sides of Philadelphia that we all love,” Deary said.
While the new menu is the first of its kind for the bar, Deary said they plan to do other iterations throughout the year featuring different Philly neighborhoods and events. So while a dumpster pool drink didn’t make the cut this time, there’s still hope yet.
The Casting Bait (a tropical sour with Vietnamese gin, mangosteen, ginger, guava, and lime) at R&D.
“There were a few of them that came up and ones that I was a wee bit too scared to jump into, but you never know, you might see them in summertime,” Deary said.
Can Philadelphia’s stories be conveyed in a cocktail glass, and, if so, do they taste good? Inquirer food writer Kiki Aranita joined me at R&D last week to find out. We chatted about our experience the next morning. — Stephanie Farr
Kiki Aranita, food and dining reporter
Looking at some of the cocktail descriptions, I won’t lie — I was initially skeptical. There was nutmeg paired with watermelon, cream cheese paired with white chocolate. It takes a sort of mad genius (or 10 of them) to come up with those flavor combinations and have them be good.
I believe the technical term is “wackadoodle.”
Stephanie Farr, Philly culture columnist
Agreed. What I loved was how the drinks were created. Aaron told us they came up with the Philly reference for the drinks first and then created different challenges for the bartenders to invent them. For the HitchBOT, the rule was to create a drink made with ingredients from each of the countries HitchBOT went to before being murdered in Philly. So there’s a gin from Holland, a German herbal liqueur, a Philly orange liqueur, and Canadian maple syrup.
Longing for Awnings and the Art of the Choke.
For the Art of the Choke, an ode to all the times Philly’s choked in major moments over the years, the rule was to create a drink using ingredients that spelled out J-A-W-N, so there’s Jamaican rum, artichoke amaro, watermelon, and nutmeg.
The best analogy I can think of is it was like these bartenders were given amazing writing prompts and came up with great liquid stories.
Kiki Aranita
HitchBOT was made blue by blue Curacao. It was the most visually stunning of all the drinks, which showed shocking restraint in terms of garnishes and presentation.
It’s one of the less sweet sours I’ve had and it had Jagermeister in it, which gave it a surprising, herbaceous balance.
The Hitchbot (a blue sour with Dutch gin, Jagermeister, maple, and lemon).
Stephanie Farr
I think the Crum Bum was really interesting. It’s listed on a menu page that tells about Philly’s history with pretzels and baseball, but it’s a pretty clear nod to the infamous incident where KYW reporter Stan Bohrman approached a then-retired Frank Rizzo to ask why city police were acting as his private security detail. In turn, Rizzo called him a “Crum Bum.” I love getting to introduce that legendary Philly moment to people who haven’t seen it yet. And as I said, as a reporter, it’s good to be hated by the right people, and Rizzo is definitely someone you want to be hated by.
Also that drink came with a sidecar of pretzels, and it smelled like pretzels and Philly and love. It was a little strong for me though.
Kiki Aranita
We had to ask for seconds of pretzels at this point.
Stephanie Farr
I mean, that is a Philly drink. I want all my cocktails to come with a sidecar of pretzels from now on.
The Crum Bum, a tequila old fashioned with genever, burnt honey, pretzel and mustard spices.
Kiki Aranita
I have to say — a lot of the drinks sounded weird but didn’t taste weird. They were straightforward, balanced, and really lovely.
Stephanie Farr
As you noted, there was a lack of garnishes overall, aside from a few twists. Do you think that was the right call? I don’t know why I was expecting them to come with a Tastykake on the rim or something. That being said, I did not miss the garnishes once I dove into the drinks.
Kiki Aranita
I’m not a native Philadelphian … and I’ve never had a Tastykake. I’m glad my first one didn’t have to be shoved into a cocktail last night.
No component was ever too much. Longing for Awnings, an ode to South Philly, had lingering spice (but not too much!) from serrano pepper and beautiful body from tomatillo (but also not too much! It didn’t taste like salsa).
I also loved the Kompleta martini, which I found really smart and a great way of using Polish bison-grass vodka (not the easiest to find and rarely seen except in Polish restaurants) with Italian Nonino bitters. It tells the story of major immigrant groups coming to Philly in a really thoughtful way.
The Kompleta Martini with bison grass vodka, Italian bitters, and Islay gin.
We also found that embedded in all the Philly history, there were personal stories, the fingerprints of previous bartenders and bar managers who left their mark on R&D. For instance, Resa Mueller, who used to run the bar there — her citywide is a pet-nat and room-temperature gin. You can go and order that off this Very Philly Menu.
Stephanie Farr
And how about that menu? It’s beautiful and cheeky — part neighborhood guide, part Philly history, part urban legend and also still a menu.
In a small guide to Bella Vista in the menu, for instance, it says to go to Angelo’s but “don’t pee on the street” and it also reads “Magic Gardens, mushrooms,” without any context. I’m pretty sure they don’t sell mushrooms at the Magic Gardens, so I can only assume what they’re talking about here.
Kiki Aranita
They self-deprecatingly describe these cocktails as gimmicky, but they’re really not. They lead with flavor and balance first, and gimmick second.
Reading through the menu (it’s basically a graphic novel) and tasting through the cocktails that were odes to different neighborhoods (though unfortunately not mine), made me feel a lot of Philly pride. You really see how vast our bank of flavors, spices, produce, and dishes is.
And in the hands of nerds, it was so much fun to see what they came up with.
I do have to recommend for our readers, though, that they should not attempt to try all the cocktails solo. Bring a group. There are so many cocktails.
Stephanie Farr
I think the menu also illustrates how vast our stories are but also how we have a shared sense of culture as Philadelphians — moments we all remember and some we can never forget, like when Philadelphians caught babies thrown from the window of an apartment building fire, “unlike Agholor.”
