Job hunters beware: Some of the hard-earned skills listed on your resume are going unnoticed by potential employers.
Workers’ profiles on job posting websites often feature general abilities, like leadership, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving, a recent report from the Wharton School says. But they’re not highlighting the “specialized, execution-oriented skills,” employers are seeking. That’s created a “skills mismatch economy.”
“People are not representing their skills in a way that’s necessarily resonating with the skills that employers want,” said Eric Bradlow, the vice dean of artificial intelligence and analytics at the Wharton School, who co-authored the report.
Meanwhile, AI has been speeding the shift from a “role-based labor market to a skills-based economy,” the report outlines, making it all the more poignant to know what skills employers actually want.
Bradlow says generative AI has been “a positively destructive bomb on roles and titles,” by making workers able to carry out tasks that they didn’t know how to do in the past. So “having a specific job title is becoming less relevant.”
The Wharton School worked in partnership with Accenture, a professional services firm, to analyze millions of job postings and worker profiles for the report. The study useddata from Lightcast, a labor market data provider, andthe U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bradlow spoke with The Inquirer about their findings.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What are some skills included on resumes that don’t make much difference to employers, because everyone seems to have them?
Do we think it’s important to communicate? Well, yeah, of course, it is. Do we think it’s important to have leadership skills and manage teams well? Yeah, of course. Last time I checked, those were really important parts of the job — but everybody puts that down.
We’re not saying in the report that those skills aren’t important. What we’re saying is there’s an over supply of people stating those skills, as opposed to companies saying these skills are what’s going to get you the job.
Companies are realizing that depth of skill is what’s going to be really important.
Do people lack the specialized skills employers are looking for? Or are they just failing to highlight them on their resumes?
That’s something, trust me, I wish I could answer.
If we had people’s transcript data, or if we knew what courses someone had taken, then we could try to get an understanding of what skills people actually have.
I think two things are going to happen, based on this Wharton-Accenture Skills Index gap report. Number one is, you will see a migration where people [will say,] “I need to acquire those skills, if I don’t have them, if I want a job.” Second, you’ll see [organizations] — whether it’s an academic institution or a for-profit institution — saying, “Wait a second, here, we need more people with this skill. We’ll create a certification program.”
You found that some skills are actually tied to higher-paying jobs. Was that surprising?
I’m not sure I had hypotheses about which skills would be paid higher or lower.
I think maybe the part that surprised me a little bit was that there wasn’t massive swings and variation like “if you have this skill, your salary doubles.” That’s not what we found in the data.
What advice would you give someone crafting their resume?
One is talk about the specific skills you have. Every resume I read says “I’m an effective communicator, experienced leader.” That’s fine, but that’s not what’s going to stick out and become differentiated, because everyone’s going to say that. To the degree that you have specific expertise and depth or skills, those are the kinds of things to put on the resume.
The second thing I would say is that … we should be in the skills acquisition business, be a lifelong learner. Skills will always be valued. Jobs in a particular workflow can go away. People with skills will be hired.
Take, for instance, a customer-support agent in a customer-satisfaction group. If you’re someone with exceptional problem-solving skills, you’re hearing your customer, and you’re able to tie it to some remedy; that skill is not going to go away even if the job you’re currently in happens to go away.
What skills are needed more or needed less because of the adoption of AI recently?
I don’t view it as AI replacing humans. I view AI as that decision-support tool you should use for every decision.
If I were an employer today, I wouldn’t even consider hiring someone that didn’t recognize the power of artificial intelligence as a decision-support aid. I don’t know what business decision — pricing decision, product launch decision, product design decision, possibly even hiring decision — [for which] I wouldn’t use artificial intelligence as a decision-support tool.
I would also say, equally, I’m very concerned about the agentic use of AI — in some sense totally handing over high-stakes decisions.
From where you stand, is AI coming for people’s jobs, as we often hear, or is it coming for their skills? What’s the difference?
Go through the history of mankind.
The train engine came. So you mean we don’t need as many horses? Electricity came. You mean we don’t need as much coal? Green energy came, and so now we don’t need as much nuclear fusion?
Doesn’t technology always come and translate one set of jobs to another set of jobs? It’s not AI is coming for your job. What companies are realizing about AI is there are certain roles and functions that AI can do extraordinarily well, with high accuracy, and in some cases better than humans can do. These tend to be functions, by the way, that many humans don’t like doing anyway.
I don’t see AI coming for your job any more so than any set of technology. This is an extraordinarily disruptive technology, but we’ve lived through periods of extraordinarily disruptive technology.
“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes … Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared … Everyone is scared … No one can keep out of the conflict … the end is nowhere in sight.”
Donald Trump’s masked marauders murdered another U.S. citizen in Minneapolis on Saturday, a senseless killing in a senseless war playing out in broad daylight on America’s streets.
Cell phone videos showed one of Trump’s immigration enforcement goons violently pushing a woman to the ground. As a man recording the agents tried to intervene, at least seven federal agents surrounded and dragged him to the ground as another beat him with a canister.
As the agents struggled to subdue the man, another agent appeared to remove a gun from the scrum. A Border Patrol agent then shot the man in the back from close range. A third agent pulled out his gun as nine more shots were fired within seconds.
Several agents scampered away as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen with no criminal record, lay motionless on the street.
This undated photo provided by Michael Pretti shows Alex Pretti, the man who was shot by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday.
After the shooting, a crowd of protesters shouted profanities at the federal officers, calling them “cowards” and urging them to leave. One officer mockingly responded, “Boo-hoo.”
Pretti’s killing came two weeks after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis killed Renee Good — a mother of three and a U.S. citizen — as she tried to maneuver her SUV out of the street. A week later, a DoorDash delivery driver was shot in the leg by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
After the two killings, Trump and his loyal lieutenants tried to blame the victims and local Democratic leaders. But cell phone videos showed the truth: Trump’s jackboots have now plainly executed two U.S. citizens.
The American people can see the lawless mayhem with their own eyes.
Trump has unleashed a paramilitary of ICE and Border Patrol agents into American streets with a license to arrest, confront, detain, beat, or kill anyone who gets in their way — even if it is an off-duty police officer or a 5-year-old boy.
Any pretense of federal investigations into abuses by ICE or others doing Trump’s bidding is quickly compromised or shut down. Constitutional rights are ignored. The rule of law is now set by Trump’s morality, which appears to thrive on cruelty.
Federal immigration agents must leave Minneapolis and end their vigilantism. But who will stop them?
There are no checks on Trump’s power, as his administration is stocked with unqualified lackeys competing for his attention.
Protesters chant and bang on trash cans Saturday as they stand behind a makeshift barricade during a protest in response to the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent earlier in the day in Minneapolis.
The Republicans who control Congress have abdicated their constitutional duty, while conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court continue to enable the president.
Sadly, justice left town after the U.S. Senate — including Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman and Dave McCormick — confirmed Pam Bondi, one of Trump’s personal lawyers, as attorney general.
The FBI has been decimated by Kash Patel, an unqualified incompetent, pushing conspiracy theories and vendettas. Kristi Noem has turned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into a Bull Connor-like police force, led by Gregory Bovino in his greatcoat.
The architect behind the draconian ICE crackdown is Stephen Miller, an unelected and unconfirmed senior adviser and speechwriter with a history of white nationalist ties and bigotry.
Republicans enabled the surge in ICE man power and funding when they approved Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. If the GOP will not stop Trump, then voters must act come November.
ICE was supposed to go after the “worst of the worst” people who entered the country illegally. Instead, Trump and his lawless administration have occupied cities, caused civil unrest, and accomplished essentially nothing.
Tens of thousands of immigrants arrested have no criminal records. Others are collateral damage. After Good was killed, Trump said that “things happen.”
Pretti was among the best in America. He was a nurse in an intensive care unit that served veterans. He died trying to help a woman attacked by a masked thug.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey asked the question many want to know about the Trump administration’s growing domestic war: “How many more Americans need to die?”
Rollie Massimino “did not mess around” when it came to drawing up defensive schemes against Patrick Ewing … or warding off gambling temptations that might filter through to his Villanova players.
“When we were playing, we had an FBI agent who was a former ’Nova basketball player give talks about gambling,” said Chuck Everson, a member of Massimino’s 1985 Wildcats title team that took down heavily favored Georgetown.
“Rollie did not mess around with that stuff. It wasn’t that far removed from the Boston College [point-shaving] scandal. Rollie brought in the FBI to talk to us. Coach Mass did a great job of teaching us, and it wasn’t all basketball; it was life lessons. And with gambling, it was, ‘Don’t do that.’
“To this day, I have never called DraftKings, or anything like that. I attribute that to being scared straight with Coach Mass.”
Everson, 61, played in an era when sports betting wasn’t legal in most of the country. These days, things are quite different. College athletes are compensated by their schools or through lucrative name, image, and likeness deals, and the legal/illegal gambling culture infiltrates every level of sports.
Last Thursday in Philadelphia, federal authorities announced a sweeping criminal indictment and related filings against 26 people on charges related to manipulating NCAA games and Chinese professional games through bribes, some as high as five figures.
It is the fourth federal criminal indictment that involves gambling and sports unsealed in the last six months, and the latest alleged gambling scheme involves one of the storied Big 5 programs: La Salle.
According to the indictment, at least one of the purported rigged games took place in 2024 in Philadelphia between La Salle and St. Bonaventure.
There are at least 39 players from 17 NCAA Division I schools who are alleged to have been involved in the scheme, but the indictment may underscore other, more troubling concerns.
Players at mid-major or smaller Division I programs might earn a fraction in NIL money compared to what their counterparts at elite programs take in, and therefore might be more susceptible to the temptations of illicit paydays. As one former federal prosecutor put it, this alleged scheme might be one of many dominoes waiting to fall.
“Anything that interferes with the integrity of sporting events, you’re going to get action by prosecutors,” said Edward McDonald, who prosecuted those involved in the Boston College point-shaving case in the late ’70s. McDonald, now senior counsel at the Dechert law firm, thinks that mid-major schools, like La Salle and some others in the Big 5, could be particularly vulnerable to gambling and bribery schemes.
“These smaller schools, the compensation to players is not as great [compared to larger programs], even for the better players on the team,” said McDonald, who learned of the Boston College scam through his investigations of organized crime family members with the Justice Department (and played himself in the Martin Scorsese-directed mob film Goodfellas).
“Players going to big-time schools are making 10 times more. A player [at a smaller program] might not be having a good season or might think they’re not going to play in the NBA or professionally, and they might say, ‘What the hell, I might as well cash in now.’”
Prop bets on a La Salle game
According to the court filings, one of the defendants, Jalen Smith, and former LSU and NBA player Antonio Blakeney (who is “charged elsewhere,” according to the indictment), attempted to recruit players on the La Salle men’s basketball team for the point-shaving scheme.
The fixers offered the La Salle players payments to underperform and influence the first half of a game against St. Bonaventure on Feb. 21, 2024, according to the filings.
Prosecutors allege that before the game at Tom Gola Arena, defendants who acted as fixers placed bets totaling approximately $247,000 on the Bonnies to cover the first-half spread. A $30,000 wager was made in Philadelphia at a FanDuel sportsbook, according to the indictment. But those bets failed after La Salle covered the spread.
“Neither the university, current student-athletes, or staff are subjects of the indictment,” La Salle wrote in a statement. “We will fully cooperate as needed with officials and investigations.”
La Salle coach Fran Dunphy directing the Explorers in November 2023. Dunphy retired after last season.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told The Inquirer that several years ago he received complaints from a number of college coaches in his state about online abuse directed at players and threatening calls from gamblers who had lost big.
“I called up [NCAA president] Charlie Baker, and asked him, ‘What do you think of prop betting?’” DeWine said. “He said, ‘We don’t like it.’ And I said, ‘Give me a letter that says that.’
“Under Ohio law, if I can get a letter from a league saying, ‘Don’t bet on certain things,’ that gives me the ability to go to my Casino Commission and they can [enact rules] without any legislation. Charlie sent the letter, I took that to the commission, and that stopped collegiate prop betting.”
The Ohio Casino Control Commission granted the NCAA’s request to prohibit proposition bets on collegiate sports in February 2024, but the decision affected only Ohio.
“It doesn’t really eliminate the problem,” DeWine said.
The ban in Ohio is only a drop in the bucket against a sea of pro-gambling momentum, legislation, and, most significantly, lucrative revenue streams.
CJ Hines, a guard who was dismissed from Temple’s basketball team on Jan. 16, allegedly participated in a point-shaving scheme during the 2024-25 season while playing for Alabama State, according to the indictment. Hines transferred to Temple in May but didn’t play this season after the university announced that he was under investigation for eligibility concerns before his enrollment.
Former Alabama State guard CJ Hines (3) averaged 14.1 points in 35 starts last season.
The Atlantic 10 Conference — which includes La Salle and St. Joseph’s — weighed in on the latest gambling indictment.
“Any activity that undermines the integrity of competition has no place in college athletics,” commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said in a release. “The Atlantic 10 and its member institutions will continue to work closely with the proper authorities to combat illegal activities.”
A St. Joe’s spokesperson added: “St. Joseph’s University has not been approached by federal investigators or any other entity about suspicious sports wagering activity involving St. Joe’s student-athletes or team.”
Villanova, which plays in the powerful Big East Conference, has numerous resources and protocols in place to address the sports wagering issue.
Handbooks, which include NCAA rules on gambling, are distributed annually to athletes, who also must sign a sports wagering document before being declared eligible. The athlete must acknowledge he or she won’t engage in activities that influence the outcome or win-loss margins of any game.
In 2021, 2023, and 2025, Villanova brought in speakers who have a history with sports gambling to talk with athletes about the risks and dangers associated with it. Villanova’s athletic compliance office meets twice annually with every athlete to review NCAA compliance standards, including its rules on sports wagering.
Former Villanova basketball star Maddy Siegrist told The Inquirer last year that her college alma mater ingrained in her mind the potential devastating consequences of gambling, values that she continues to adhere to as a WNBA player.
‘The integrity of sports is at risk’
Even after the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that legalized sports wagering state to state, the honesty and integrity component still comes into question when so much is riding on any sports wager.
DeWine, the Ohio governor, is taking a proactive role in trying to address malfeasance in the gaming culture.
“I’m writing letters to all other major [sports] leagues,” DeWine said. “They need to get on this. If they sit back, they’re making a huge mistake. I think the integrity of sports is at risk. I’m continuing to urge these leagues to take care of business, because they’re the ones that are going to get hurt.”
But McDonald said that with the flurry of recent indictments involving sports and gambling, “you have to wonder how pervasive [the illegal gambling problem] really is.”
“This could very well be the tip of the iceberg,” McDonald said.
Rob Thomson served dinner at a soup kitchen in Kensington and read books to students in Germantown. He spoke at banquets in Cherry Hill and Bethlehem. For four days this week, he met fans and talked baseball across the region.
And in case he wasn’t previously aware of the discourse about the Phillies’ offseason, let’s just say the phrase “running it back” came up a few times along the trail.
Thomson’s take:
“We’re going to have three new relievers,” the manager said at one stop of the Phillies’ annual winter tour. “We’ve got a new right fielder. [Justin] Crawford’s going to get every chance to play. We’ve probably got a rookie starting pitcher in [Andrew] Painter. We’ve got Otto Kemp, who wasn’t here at the start of last year. We’re turning over 20 to 25% of our roster.
“So, if you think that’s turning it back, or running it back, whatever the saying is, I can’t help you.”
OK, Thomson isn’t wrong. But two things can be true. The Phillies can change two-thirds of the outfield and half the bullpen and still bring back the guts of a roster that accounted for nearly three-quarters of the team’s plate appearances and almost 70% of its innings pitched last season.
Does that constitute running it back? Maybe. Maybe not.
Regardless, it misses the point. Because whether or not you think president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made an appropriate number of changes after a second consecutive NL East title and another loss in the divisional round of the playoffs, the pertinent question is this: Are the Phillies better or worse today than when last season ended Oct. 9 at Dodger Stadium?
The Phillies are replacing Nick Castellanos (right) with Adolis Garcia in right field.
And on that topic, Thomson was less definitive.
“I think it’s to be determined,” he told Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. “But I feel better about it.”
It’s a manager’s job to be optimistic — and as importantly, to project optimism to the public, especially in a week when single-game tickets went on sale. Thomson listed reasons to be bullish. He likes the addition of free-agent reliever Brad Keller and suspects new right fielder Adolis García tried too hard to put the injury-wracked Rangers on his broad back last season and is primed to rebound. He also believes Crawford and Painter will bring youthful vigor as rookies with substantial roles.
It surely didn’t help that the Mets followed their backdoor deal with Bichette by trading for center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and top-of-the-rotation starter Freddy Peralta, the biggest splashes in a roster overhaul that needed to happen after a three-month collapse caused them to miss the playoffs last year. Add it all together, and Fangraphs upped its projection of the Mets’ total WAR to 46.7, third-highest in baseball and better than the Phillies’ 43.9 forecast.
Whatever, Thomson said. Step back from the last seven days, and he contends the Phillies’ internal outlook remains as bright as the Florida sun that awaits them in a few weeks.
“There are a lot of really good things going on,” Thomson said. “Because of the Bichette thing, a lot of that stuff gets overlooked a little bit, and I understand that. But we’ve got a really good club. We’ve just got to play better in the playoffs.”
So much will happen before that. In the interim, let’s attempt to answer whether the Phillies are any better with a cast of characters that is one year older but almost as familiar as ever. A few factors to consider:
After a long free agency, J.T. Realmuto finally re-signed with the Phillies on a three-year, $45 million contract.
Letting go of Bo
There isn’t much use for the Phillies to cry over the spilled milk of having Bichette slip through their fingers.
But there’s still milk all over the floor.
Signing Bichette would’ve set several dominoes in motion, including a likely trade of third baseman Alec Bohm. J.T. Realmuto almost certainly wouldn’t have been re-signed, with the Phillies getting so far down the Bichette road that Dombrowski phoned Realmuto’s agent, Matt Ricatto, to tell him they were headed in that direction.
“I wouldn’t want him to read about it in the paper,” Dombrowski said.
Within an hour of Bichette-to-the-Mets, Dombrowski called back Ricatto. The Phillies boosted their three-year offer to Realmuto to $45 million, with $5 million per year in incentives, and the iron-man catcher was right back where he has been since 2019.
But there was an underlying awkwardness when the Phillies announced their deal with Realmuto in a video news conference. Such occasions are typically celebratory in nature. Instead, Realmuto sounded like a human consolation prize.
“There’s no secret the Phillies had other opportunities,” he said. “Luckily, after they missed out on an opportunity there at the end, they called back, improved their offer, and got to a place we were happy with.”
Swell. As long as both sides are really happy.
The Phillies have developed a band-of-brothers culture over the last several years, especially since Thomson took over as manager in June 2022. Kyle Schwarber is the leader in the clubhouse; Realmuto on the field. There’s a bond here that players have been eager to join.
But given how much management clearly wanted Bichette, how can anyone be sure that Realmuto, Bohm, and others who may have been collateral damage are in the right frame of mind as spring training begins?
“It’s a good question,” Thomson said. “I think for the most part, our guys, because we’ve got a pretty experienced club, they understand the business side of it. They understand that things happen and things don’t happen, and they have to keep moving forward and stay focused on what they can control. They’ve been through it quite a bit, free agency, trade rumors. That’s all part of the business.
“I think they understand that. And now that we’re past that, I think they’re ready to go.”
From left: Prospects Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter, and Aidan Miller should all be in the mix for the Phillies in 2026.
In making the playoffs four seasons in a row for only the second time in their 143-year history, the Phillies built this core through free agency. Most of those signings worked out well, save Nick Castellanos and Taijuan Walker. Still, the number of long-term, big-money contracts on the books has limited their flexibility.
If it feels like the Phillies keep running back the same roster, that’s why.
The only way, then, to really alter the mix is to assimilate young, inexpensive players from the minors. And since 2023, the Phillies have had only 12 players make their major-league debuts — fewer than any team, based on Fangraphs research.
Crawford and Painter could change that. The Phillies expect Crawford to win the center-field job out of camp at age 22, which would make him their youngest player in an opening-day lineup since Freddy Galvis in 2012. Painter, 23 in April, could claim a spot in the season-opening rotation.
“If you want to have a really healthy organization,” Thomson said, “I think you have to be able to infuse some youth along the way.”
Thomson witnessed it firsthand a decade ago.
In 2016, he was the bench coach for the Yankees, who had the second-highest payroll in baseball and seven players in their 30s who made 240 or more plate appearances. They contended for the playoffs, but fell short with 84 wins. The roster had become stale.
A year later, the Yankees got younger without rebuilding. Gary Sánchez replaced Brian McCann behind the plate; Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery emerged as the team’s best starters at age 23 and 24, respectively; a rookie named Aaron Judge took over in right field.
The Yankees changed the mix on the fly, won 91 games, and went to Game 7 of the AL Championship Series against the trash-can-banging Astros.
“There were some warts there, no doubt, some growing pains,” Thomson recalled. “But when we turned it over into ‘17, they just took off and ran with it, and it was really good. I think there’s some similarities there.”
The biggest difference, according to Thomson: Whereas the 2017 Yankees were carried by the kids, the Phillies won’t have to ask theirs to do as much because the stars are still closer to their primes.
“Our core guys are really good, so if Crawford can come in and just kind of do his thing, don’t put too much pressure on him, he’s going to be fine,” Thomson said. “Same thing with Painter. If Painter’s in our [No.] 5 spot to start the season and he just relaxes and just grows with it, he’s going to be fine.
“I’m really excited about it. I love young guys. I just love the enthusiasm, the energy that they bring to the team that filters throughout the clubhouse and into those veteran players. And sometimes they need that.”
The Phillies need it like they need oxygen. You might even say it’s their best chance to be better than last year.
Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s vampiric period film starring Michael B. Jordan, made Academy Award history on Thursday when it was nominated for 16 Oscars, more than any other film in the history of the award ceremony’s 98-year run.
It toppled the 14 nominations previously received by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). In addition to Michael B. Jordan’s best actor nomination and Coogler’s best director nod, Sinners Oscar-winning costume designer, Ruth E. Carter, was also nominated for for her work on the film. It’s her fifth overall Oscar nomination.
That includes Smoke and Stack’s (twins played by Jordan) memorable 1930s-era three-piece suits, with complementary fedora and newsboy cap, timepieces, and tiepins.
Ruth E. Carter’s Oscar-nominated costumes from “Sinners” starring Michael B. Jordan as twins Smoke and Stack.
Coogler’s only direction to Carter was to dress Smoke in blue and Stack in red, she told The Inquirer in November.
Carter, not one to fret long, dove into her arsenal of research. By the time she began the fittings, she’d amassed an array of blue and red looks befitting of the 1930s sharecroppers-turned-bootleggers and juke joint owners.
“[And] when I put that red fedora on him, Ryan flipped out and said, ‘That’s it!’,” Carter said. “We wanted people to resonate with their clothing and it did.”
The Smoke and Stack effect went beyond Sinners. This Halloween there were tons of social media posts of revelers dressed as the mysterious twins.
Ruth E. Carter during the “Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” opening gala at the African American Museum in Philadelphia on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.
Also a part of AAMP’s Sinners display is the flowy earthy dress that best supporting actress nominee Wunmi Mosaku wore in her role as Annie. Annie is Smoke’s lover and a root woman who discovers the vampires in their Clarksdale, Miss., town.
Cornbread’s (Oscar Miller) tattered sharecropper outfit is on the dais along with Mary’s (Hailee Steinfeld) blush knit dress with its short-sleeved bodice and pussy bow accent. Her matching knit beret and pearls are also on display. In the film, Mary is Stack’s childhood friend, turned girlfriend, turned vampire.
“I immerse myself in the mind, body, and soul of my characters,” said Carter. “Then I see them in my mind, how they move and with research, I come up with a look that I feel is unique to them.”
The Sinners pieces are among the more than 80 looks featured in the “Afrofuturism” exhibit, joining outfits from The Butler (Lee Daniels), and from Malcolm X, Coming 2 America, Black Panther, and its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The show, headlining the African American Museum’s celebration of the nation’s Semiquincentennial, will be on display through September.
Lace gloves and knit dress detail of Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) costume from sinners.
During her five decades in the movie business, Carter has worked on more than 60 big-screen documentations of where Black Americans have been, who they are at the given moment, and who they dream of becoming.
Her work has shaped how the world sees African Americans.
In the 2010s, a friend of hers suggested she plan a museum exhibit around her costumes. After Black Panther, she partnered with Marvel, and in 2019, “Afrofuturism in Costume Design” debuted at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Atlanta Campus.
The “Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” exhibit at the African American Museum in Philadelphia on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.
Philadelphia is the exhibit’s ninth — and longest — stop. It’s also the first stop for the Sinners costumes.
“I am a griot,” Carter said. “[Throughout my career,] I’ve developed a knowledge base that embraces our culture and speaks to all of us in a positive way.”
“Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” will be on view through Sept. 6. at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch St., Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children.
Think you know your news? There’s only one way to find out. Welcome back to our weekly News Quiz — a quick way to see if your reading habits are sinking in and to put your local news knowledge to the test.
Question 1 of 10
Just in time for what figures to be a monumental year for local tourism, Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Hotel at the Comcast Center has introduced a new luxury floor dedicated to what it calls personalized, “residential-style” living. About how much will a night in the penthouse suite cost you?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
A booking agent on Tuesday said the penthouse suite — which spans some 4,000 square feet and features a sizable outdoor terrace — is currently going for around $25,000 per night (plus tax). See you there?
Question 2 of 10
According to a new law signed by former Gov. Phil Murphy, some New Jersey elementary school students will be required to learn this skill:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Beginning in September, New Jersey public schools must begin teaching cursive writing to students in grades three to five. New Jersey joins Delaware and at least two dozen other states that require cursive writing. Similar legislation proposed in Pennsylvania did not advance.
story continues after advertisement
Question 3 of 10
Tyrese Maxey is getting his first signature shoe. Which brand is behind the partnership?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Getting his own signature shoe from New Balance is the latest example of Maxey’s rising star power — following in the footsteps of teammate Joel Embiid, who debuted his own signature shoe with Skechers in December.
Question 4 of 10
At 18, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito is heading to the Olympics. What activity does she do on the side and plan to do in Milan to calm her nerves?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Levito won’t forget to pack her bedazzling kit. Besides all the sparkles she wears on the ice, she enjoys adding rhinestones to her various makeup cases and a comb. “It’s so soothing,” she said.
Question 5 of 10
Nearly all the stars of this new Netflix series have Philly roots:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Four of the five Mar-a-Lago women on Netflix’s Members Only: Palm Beach are from Philly or the Philly region. They include an interior designer who sells real estate, a DJ, a former Bucks County Zumba instructor, and a fashion line owner.
Subscribe to The Philadelphia Inquirer
Our reporting is directly supported by reader subscriptions. If you want more journalism like this story, please subscribe today.
A fictional copy of The Philadelphia Inquirer was featured on this week’s episode of Abbott Elementary with a photo of the Abbott crew. What is the headline accompanying the article?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Designed by Abbott Elementary’s props and production team, the mock front page pictures the teachers and principal surrounded by students with the headline, “Do schools even need schools?”
Question 7 of 10
The American ___ Tournament is moving from Connecticut to Philadelphia next year.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
New York Times crossword editor and NPR puzzle master Will Shortz announced he’s moving the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament from Connecticut down to Philly next year.
Question 8 of 10
Charlotte Astor, a junior at Cherry Hill High School East, is on the hunt for her mom’s 30-year-old demo tape. What was her mom’s band called?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
For Charlotte, Seed’s tape became a kind of white whale — a relic of her mother’s hard-charging past, something the teen occasionally scoured the web for, to no avail. Now, the hardcore community has stepped in.
Question 9 of 10
The former KYW radio building on Walnut Street sold for about $5 million — a steep discount from the $19 million it sold for in 2019. Which Beatle once worked there?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The building was built for KYW radio in 1937 and, later, its television division. The influential Mike Douglas Show was based out of the building for much of its run, employing Roger Ailes, later of Fox News fame, in the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, John Lennon and Yoko Ono guest-hosted the show from the building for a week, interviewing people including Chuck Berry and Ralph Nader.
Question 10 of 10
A Philly-area university professor is competing in the Jeopardy! tournament of champions. To celebrate, a local business named this menu item after him:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Joshua Weikert will watch the show Friday among family and friends — including his fellow contestant Matt Massie — at Troubles End Brewing in Collegeville, which named one of its beers after him. It’s an English Bitter, one of Weikert’s favorites, called “Who is Josh?”
Your Results
You have skipped .
You scored XX out of 10.
The average reader scored XX out of 10
Seems like you’ve been skimming more than reading there, buddy. There’s always next week.
You’ve read some articles (or made some educated guesses) but we wouldn’t come to you first for our local news recaps. Better luck next week!
Do you work here? You’re a local news stan with the latest updates on Philly happenings. Your friends definitely ask you for summaries on what’s going on and it shows.
Shalimar Thomas speaks for many about how Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is doing at the halfway point of her first term.
“I can see the difference in the neighborhood,” said Thomas, the executive director of North Broad Renaissance, a nonprofit that manages the business improvement district along North Broad Street.
Indeed, the big picture shows Parker is delivering on her campaign promise to make the city “clean, green, and safe.” While polls indicate a large majority of Philadelphia residents support the mayor, the reviews from the more than a dozen people I spoke with were mixed.
Ed Rendell, the former governor who is widely considered the city’s most consequential mayor of the last half century, gave Parker high marks for tackling quality-of-life issues, particularly crime.
“What she has done under the circumstances is remarkable,” Rendell said. “The city was demoralized, people had lost faith in government.”
Allan Domb, the real estate mogul and former City Council member who ran against Parker in the 2023 mayoral primary, said Parker’s best decision was to appoint Kevin J. Bethel as police commissioner.
“If the city is not safe, you can’t do anything else,” Domb said.
Under Parker, crime is way down. The city recorded the fewest murders in 60 years in 2025. Enhanced technology has helped police solve homicides at the highest rate in 40 years.
But this is not just a Philly thing. Crime is down across the country, thanks to several factors such as an aging population, a return to work and school after the pandemic, and investments in violence reduction programs.
A former City Council member called Parker’s selection of Kevin J. Bethel as police commissioner the best decision of her tenure so far.
Philadelphia had 222 homicides last year compared with 305 in New York, which has a population more than five times larger. Boston had just 31 murders. San Antonio, roughly the same size as Philadelphia, had 99 murders.
Despite the improvement, Philly remains a laggard when it comes to policing.
Mayor Jim Kenney fizzled out following the pandemic, but other positive trends were set in motion during his administration. The city’s finances are strong, property values are increasing, and job growth is outpacing many other big cities, including tech capitals like Seattle and San Francisco.
Parker deserves credit for working to scrub the city’s negative image as “Filthadelphia.” She launched an effort in 2024 to clean every block in the city. Abandoned cars were towed, graffiti scrubbed, dilapidated buildings were sealed, and vacant lots cleaned.
Parker recently announced plans to clean and beautify some of the busiest roadways in preparation for the more than one million tourists expected this year for the World Cup matches, the MLB All-Star Game, and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Parker deserves big props for tackling the opioid crisis that has long plagued Kensington. The city has cracked down on open-air drug markets and homeless encampments in Kensington, while pushing those battling addiction to get help.
Crime has dropped in Kensington, and the quality of life has improved. Critics argue that the problems have not gone away since the dealers and many homeless people were just displaced. But overdoses across the city dropped to the lowest levels in a decade.
Even still, some City Hall insiders and political operatives were critical of the day-to-day operations. Several criticized the administration for being slow to return calls or provide basic information. Despite Parker’s often-repeated slogan of a unified “One Philly,” some said the mayor does not respond well to anyone who disagrees with her.
Parker during a news conference in West Philadelphia last month. She recently announced plans to beautify some of the city’s busiest roadways in preparation for the more than one million tourists expected to visit this year.
“One Philly can’t be just your Philly,” one City Council staffer said. “Some of the things Mayor Parker does, Councilmember Parker would not tolerate.”
Like many interviewed, the City Council staffer asked not to be named, so as to speak candidly.
Several pointed to the proposed Sixers arena in Center City as a microcosm of Parker’s inability to compromise. Nearly a year was spent forcing Council to back the deal — despite stiff opposition across the city — only to see it collapse.
“[Council] is still pissed about the Sixers,” the Council staffer said.
Others said Parker’s hard-line stance in the labor negotiations with the city’s trash haulers and other blue-collar union workers led to an unnecessary strike and left bruised feelings among many who are part of her base of support.
“That was a strike that didn’t need to be,” said one political consultant. “After it was settled, there was no need for the victory lap.”
Parker’s signature housing initiative, known as Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., has been slow to become reality. After two years of planning, the program remains bogged down in Council.
“It’s surprising how slow out of the gate this has been,” said another political consultant. “She could be halfway through Year Three before it even gets going.”
The plan to create and preserve 30,000 housing units will be funded by borrowing $800 million in bonds — a hefty number with a murky return on investment.
Parker discusses the municipal workers’ strike during a July news conference. “That was a strike that didn’t need to be,” said one political consultant, who took issue with the mayor’s hard-line stance in contract talks.
Some believe the problem is that Parker micromanages her administration and does not empower top staffers to make decisions.
“I think she tries to be too hands-on,” said the first political consultant.
This is where it would have been helpful to hear directly from the mayor, but Parker’s communications team did not make her available for an interview despite several requests.
Rendell, who did not support Parker in the crowded primary, had a simple answer: “You can’t make everyone happy.”
That holds true with the way Parker has responded to Donald Trump’s attacks on cities, migrants, affirmative action, and many other issues.
Rather than push back, Parker has laid low — much to the outrage of those who argue that this is not the time to remain silent. Others argue Parker is wise not to poke the wildebeest.
Trump has not sent National Guard troops into Philadelphia, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have made arrests across the city.
Philly is a tough town, but a poll last summer found Parker’s approval rating at 63%. Despite some setbacks, she is off to a good start.
Crime, poor schools, and high taxes have long prevented Philadelphia from achieving its full potential. Until all three are addressed, lasting improvement will be incremental.
Time will tell if Parker’s strategy is the right one. Or if her tenure will result in substantive change.
The defense was a strength for the Eagles for most of the 2025 season, though not so much in their playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Eagles got to 11-6 and won the NFC East in part because of their ability to win low-scoring games. Their defense bailed out the offense in a few marquee victories, like their 10-7 win over Green Bay, their 16-9 victory over Detroit, and when they squeaked by Buffalo, 13-12.
Vic Fangio’s unit lost a few key players from 2024 and dealt with an injured Jalen Carter, but still managed to finish fifth in points allowed per game despite a pretty tough schedule.
What does that mean for 2026, with a handful of key players set to be back? Here’s one compelling advanced stat for each starter, the second in a two-part series that previously analyzed the offense:
Quinyon Mitchell developed into one of the premier corners in the league in his second season.
Quinyon Mitchell
Let’s start with Mitchell, a first-team All-Pro selection in his second NFL season.
Mitchell emerged as one of the best cover corners in the NFL in 2025, as evidenced by his 42.4% catch percentage allowed, according to Next Gen Stats, a mark that led all corners who played a full season. Mitchell is so good it’s worth including another number: He led all NFL corners with an average target separation of 1.8 yards.
If you were ranking the list of spots on the depth chart you were least worried about, CB1 would probably be at the top.
Cooper DeJean dominated the slot during an All-Pro season.
Cooper DeJean
From one All-Pro to another. DeJean was named first-team All-Pro at nickel, and it’s worth noting that because that distinction is a key one. The Eagles like DeJean in the slot, and DeJean said it’s a spot he’d probably like to remain in.
Why? There’s enough data out there now to suggest that it’s his best spot.
After logging just nine snaps at outside corner during his rookie season (1.5% of his total snaps), DeJean, whom the Eagles kept on the field in their base package, aligned outside on 30.1% of his snaps in 2025.
He fared much better in the slot, where he allowed a .574 completion percentage and 5.9 yards per target, according to Next Gen. Both of those numbers ranked well below the league-average marks of .695 and 6.8, respectively. DeJean allowed a similar .588 completion percentage when he lined up outside, but his 10.9 yards per target ranked seventh among defenders to have faced at least 15 such targets. He was susceptible to the deep ball when facing top receivers outside.
We’ll count Jackson as a starter since the Eagles played more nickel than base and needed another outside corner not named DeJean on the field quite often.
It wasn’t always Jackson’s job. The second cornerback spot was a position with a lot of intrigue in training camp and even early in the season. It was Jackson’s job, then it wasn’t, then it was again.
Jackson was targeted at a higher clip (26.5% of his coverage snaps) through the first eight weeks of the season than any other cornerback in the NFL. After that, though, Jackson was targeted on just 16.5% of his coverage snaps while allowing a completion percentage of .585, slightly below the league average. He did not give up a touchdown during his last five games of the regular season or the playoff game.
Jackson, 30, is a free agent, and the Eagles may need a new cornerback opposite Mitchell next season. But Jackson’s play showed that even an aging and average player can be put in that spot, and the defense won’t fall apart, regardless of the preseason narrative about a certain spot on the depth chart.
Zack Baun generally lived up to his rich new contract in 2025.
Zack Baun
Baun proved he wasn’t a one-year wonder in his second season with the Eagles, who plucked him out of free agency last offseason and turned a player who had mostly been an edge rusher and special teamer into one of the best off-ball linebackers in the NFL.
Baun didn’t earn All-Pro honors like he did in 2024, but he was still really good in 2025. While his tackle total dropped from 151 to 123, his pass deflection number rose from four to seven, and he intercepted two passes in 2025, up from one in 2024. Pro Football Focus ranked Baun as the fifth-best linebacker in the NFL, and the second-best coverage linebacker.
His ability to cover ground may be his best trait. Baun was seventh in the NFL with 17 hustle stops, which Next Gen Stats defines as a tackle during a successful defensive play when a player covers 20-plus yards of distance from snap to tackle.
A quality 2025 season will serve Nakobe Dean well in his next contract.
Nakobe Dean
Has Dean played his last game with the Eagles? And, to that end, can Jihaad Campbell replace Dean’s production?
Because Dean was pretty productive in 2025 after he worked his way back onto the field after surgery to repair a patellar tendon injury, which he suffered in the wild-card round a year ago.
This is what the Eagles could be asking Campbell to replace should Dean not return: Dean’s catch percentage allowed of just 58.3% on targets ranked third among all NFL linebackers who played at least 200 snaps in coverage, according to Next Gen. And Dean was even better as a blitzer: He led all linebackers with a 40.7% pressure rate on his 27 pass rushes and got home for four sacks.
Injuries prevented Jalen Carter from demonstrating his full effectiveness for the NFC East champs.
Jalen Carter
The Eagles will be hoping Carter’s step back is easily explained by the shoulder injuries that limited his production and caused him to miss three games after undergoing procedures on both shoulders in late November.
Carter, according to Next Gen, had a career-low 7.7% pressure rate on the year despite facing fewer double teams (41.7%) than he ever has. Carter generated five pressures against 158 double teams after tallying 12 in 2023 and 15 in 2024. His average time to sack also dropped to 5.32 seconds from 4.85 year over year.
Notably, after Carter returned following his three-game break, he had five pressures and a sack vs. Buffalo and the same output in the playoff loss vs. San Francisco.
Will the shoulder injuries be revisited in the offseason? Will Carter’s slide allow the Eagles to secure him on a long-term deal at a lower price? Lots of intrigue there.
The emergence of Jordan Davis was one of the Eagles’ best stories of the year.
Jordan Davis
Davis was a revelation for the Eagles in 2025, and a big reason that the defense was so successful even as Carter’s play declined a bit.
Davis showed up to camp in much better shape and improved his play in every area. Mainly relied on as a run stopper in the past, Davis showed his pass rushing chops in 2025. Entering the year, Davis had just 3½ sacks on 559 pass rushes through his first three NFL seasons. This season, Davis racked up 4½ sacks on 355 pass rushes.
The run-stopping ability didn’t go away even though he showed up in July a little more svelte. Davis, according to Next Gen, had a career-high 50 run stops (run defenses that result in a negative play for the offense), which was second among all defensive linemen this season.
Davis is in line for an extension, and his play in 2025 earned him a big new deal that will probably come from the Eagles.
Jaelan Phillips played well but was not a sack machine for the Eagles.
Jaelan Phillips
Phillips helped steady the Eagles’ pass rush after he joined the team at the trade deadline, but while he and Jalyx Hunt formed an elite pass-rushing duo — their 61 combined pressures from Week 10 through Week 17 ranked fourth during that span — he had trouble converting his pressures into sacks.
Phillips led the Eagles with 34 pressures after joining the team, but he turned just two of those into a sack. His 5.9% pressure-to-sack conversion rate, according to Next Gen, ranked 10th-lowest among 97 defenders to have generated at least 15 pressures after the trade deadline. Some of that is bad luck. Fangio talks often about the importance of pressures and not getting too hyper-focused on sack numbers.
But the Eagles need a top-end talent at the top of the depth chart to pair with Hunt since Phillips is a free agent. Phillips wants to be back. Is the feeling mutual? We’ll see when free agency arrives.
Jalyx Hunt made an impact as a member of the linebacker rotation in 2025.
Jalyx Hunt
Hunt became the first player in Eagles history to lead the team in sacks (6½) and interceptions (3).
That’s an impressive stat, but this is a compilation of advanced numbers, so let’s point to this one instead: Hunt ranked seventh among all edge rushers who had at least 100 pass rushing snaps with a quarterback pressure rate of 17.3%.
The 2024 third-round pick broke out in a big way in his second NFL season, and the Eagles used his safety background to drop him into coverage with success.
Reed Blankenship was a team leader but the record shows that he struggled at times in coverage.
Reed Blankenship
Blankenship has been a leader on the defense for the last few seasons, but he’s now a free agent and it’s fair to wonder if he’ll be back next season.
Blankenship has been solid against the run, but he’s not great in pass coverage when he’s targeted. After a 2024 season in which he ranked fifth-worst among safeties with at least 500 coverage snaps with an 81.3% completion percentage allowed, Blankenship had the eighth-worst passer rating allowed (116.8) in 2025, according to Pro Football Focus.
It’s unclear what Blankenship’s market will look like in free agency, but it’s a position the Eagles could probably stand to upgrade.
Drew Mukuba’s return from a broken fibula figures to be a training camp storyline.
Drew Mukuba
Mukuba’s first season in the NFL was incomplete. The second-round pick was lost for the season after suffering a fractured fibula in the waning moments of a Week 12 loss to Dallas.
Mukuba wasn’t targeted often in coverage. Before his injury, he was targeted on just 4.2% of his snaps, according to Next Gen. That ranked fifth-lowest among all defenders in the NFL with a minimum of 150 coverage snaps. But when he was targeted, it was on deep balls. He had the fifth-highest total in yards per target allowed (13.5).
If you see a persistent pothole on your street or a raccoon in your attic, who are you going to call? In 2025, for over half a million requests, the answer was 311.
“311 is your connection to city services,” said Daniel Ramos, who works in community engagement and outreach for the call center. Philly311 helps city residents with non-emergencies by answering questions and transferring inquiries to the appropriate city department or community partner.
But there are some cases where 311 might not be the best number to call. Test your knowledge of whether you can 311 that or not.
Your neighbor is being unbearably loud.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
You can first try going over and asking them to keep it down, but if that doesn’t stop the awful din, Daniel Ramos says to call 911. Even if you do call 311 first, “noise complaints from an individual or a residential source would be transferred to 911,” he said.
Despite this, 311 received over 1,600 noise complaints in 2025. The Philadelphia Police Department, on the other hand, heard 10 times the number of grievances over loud music.
You just saw someone leave their dog’s poop in front of your stoop.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
You would hope this never happens, but in 2025, 311 received 66 information requests about dog waste on the curb.
That said, the Animal Care and Control team is the department to contact. ACCT handles local animal ordinance violations. According to a city ordinance on animal control enforcement, the dog’s owner is required to clean up after their pet. An ACCT control officer can follow up with an investigation as long as a location of the animal is included in the complaint.
You accidentally started a small fire in your kitchen.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
If it is a small stovetop fire and you decide to fight it, the National Fire Protection Agency recommends sliding a lid over the pan and turning off the burner, waiting until the pan has completely cooled before uncovering it.
Otherwise, get out, close the door behind you if you can to contain the fire, and call 911 from outside your home. Even a small fire can spread quickly.
Your smoke alarm needs replacing.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
You can request a new smoke alarm through 311.
In 2025, 311 processed 3,096 smoke detector requests, so if you live in a one- or two-family home that you own and want a free smoke alarm replacement, submit a request to 311 and the Philadelphia Fire Department can help you. Just know that it might take up to 90 days until PFD does the installation.
On the other hand, if you rent, your landlord is responsible for placing fire alarms on every level of the building. If they’ve failed to do that, you can also file a report with 311 as well.
story continues after advertisement
On your drive home, you get stuck behind a parked car on a single-lane road.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
A parked car blocking traffic is considered an immediate hazard. “We don’t dispatch,” said Daniel Ramos, so he recommends residents call 911 instead.
311 can help you report other nonemergency parking violations like double-parking or parking on a sidewalk to the Philadelphia Parking Authority or the Philadelphia Police Department. You can also use Laser Vision – an app developed by Philly Bike Action – to send a parking violation report directly to the PPA.
There’s a car on your block that’s been in the same parking spot for months and trash is starting to build up under and around it.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
311 can help, but it might take some time before you see the car moved. “Up to 120 business days,” said Daniela Ramos (no relation to Daniel Ramos), the city’s 311 contact center manager. “And that doesn't include holidays or weekends.”
In 2025, the center received nearly 28,000 abandoned vehicle complaints – the third most common service request – and over 3,400 questions about abandoned vehicles. According to state legislation, a car is considered abandoned if it has been sitting empty on public property for over 48 hours.
To process the request, Daniela Ramos said residents need to provide details such as the abandoned car’s make, model, color, tag number, and location in their 311 report. The Philadelphia Police Department will then determine if that car is in fact abandoned.
Your trash can went missing after pickup.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
If the missing trash can was a city-issued and city-owned Philacan, 311 can connect you with the Department of Sanitation to get you a new one.
Even if you start some beef with your neighbor by accusing them of stealing your trash can, 311 can offer resources. “We have the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission,” said Ramos, referencing the city’s free conflict resolution services. “If it's a neighbor dispute, we will give them the contact information for that organization.”
Your Results
You have skipped .
You scored XX out of 7.
The average reader scored XX out of 7
If you want to submit a 311 request, you can use the Philly311 app or website, or send an email to philly311@phila.gov. If you want to call them instead, their call center operates between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Staff Contributors
Design, development, data, and reporting: Charmaine Runes
Editing: Sam Morris
Illustration: Brian “Box” Brown
Copy Editing: Brian Leighton
Subscribe to The Philadelphia Inquirer
Our reporting is directly supported by reader subscriptions. If you want more journalism like this story, please subscribe today
As certainly as Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day awakes to “I Got You Babe” every morning at 6 a.m., every year around this time, PETA calls for Punxsutawney Phil to be retired to a sanctuary and replaced by some perennially preposterous proxy.
This year the animal-rights organization has offered to replace Phil with “a giant, state-of-the-art, 3D projection hologram of a groundhog” like he was Tupac Shakur.
The best part of this proposal is that this year, PETA included an artistic rendering of its idea, which shows that if hologram Phil predicts six more weeks of winter, he will be blue and surrounded by snowflakes, and if he predicts an early spring, he will be pink and surrounded by flowers.
Either way, this would be one mammoth marmot. Hologram Phil’s paws appear to be about the size of a human head, which, if you’ve ever encountered a groundhog in real life, is both an adorable and terrifying prospect.
PETA even says the hologram would come “complete with vocal weather predictions,” which I also shudder to think about. Groundhogs sound like squeaky dog toys, which is perhaps not the best sound to rally a drunken crowd in a small Pennsylvania town at the crack of dawn.
In response to the proposal, Gov. Josh Shapiro — a noted fan of Phil who’s hosted the wondrous whistle-pig at the governor’s residence and has attended Groundhog Day celebrations in Punxsutawney — posted a photo of Phil on X this week with the words “DONT TREAD ON ME.”
I reached out to the Governor’s Office to see if Pennsylvania’s boss hog was serious about his support of the state’s famous groundhog.
“He is indeed very serious about his defense of Phil,” Alex Peterson, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office, told me.
Prince or a pawn?
PETA’s position, as stated in a letter from founder Ingrid Newkirk to Tom Dunkel, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle, is that groundhogs are timid prey animals who want to avoid humans at all costs.
“They dislike human smells, fear loud noises, abhor gatherings, and prefer to stay in their burrows,” Newkirk wrote. “Yet every year, this terrified little animal is subjected to loud announcers and noisy crowds and held up and waved around without any regard for his feelings, welfare, or instincts.”
I see their point — Phil never particularly looks happy to predict the weather. Mostly he just seems confused at why he’s being asked to do so and what this life is all about.
Punxsutawney Phil looks bewildered as he’s asked to predict the weather at Groundhog’s Day.
Plus, there are plenty of other Groundhog Day traditions that happen in Pennsylvania and across the country without a real animal. At the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge in Southwest Philly, a puppet named Tinicum Tim pops out of the ground to predict the weather. In Reading, a bucktooth groundhog mascot with a fancy pink bow gives her prognostication atop the Reading Pagoda. And in Quarryville, a mounted taxidermy groundhog gives predictions from the top of a manure spreader called the “Pinnacle of Prognostication.”
Michael Venos, who runs the website Countdown to Groundhog Day and has been to many of the alternative celebrations, said he considers the events “just as fun” and the “predictions just as valid.”
Tinicum Tim, a groundhog puppet, predicts the weather during Groundhog Day festivities at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge in 2024.
Venos said he shares PETA’s concerns for Phil and all prognosticating animals.
“While I’m sure in the past, the animals’ welfare was not the primary concern for the people who organize these events, I believe, and am trusting, that nowadays, the utmost care is being taken to make sure that the animals are safe and well cared for,” he said. “Punxsutawney Phil in particular seems to live a very cushy life and appears to be well taken care of.”
The perks
Phil lives one of the bougiest lives of any Pennsylvania resident, and who’s to say he woodchuck it all away, if given the choice?
According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, there’s only ever been one Phil. He drinks a special “elixir of life” every summer, which has kept him young for going on 140 years. He does not, however, share that elixir with his wife or two kids, a burrowed secret that’s shadier than seeing your shadow on a cloudy day.
When not predicting the weather, Phil lives with his family in a climate-controlled burrow in the town library, which is connected by underground tunnels to a brand-new home the Inner Circle had built for them last year at Gobbler’s Knob.
Two homes and a secret underground tunnel network — in this economy?!? Lucky.
I see both sides of the argument here, but given that our second-most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania is already computer-generated and heavily into gambling, I say we keep the real Phil around for now.
