Wawa is leaving the city. The Wawa at the corner of 20th and Chestnut is going to be closing at the end of the month, and I have it on good authority that the others will close when their leases expire. Which means that a) they are turning their backs on some of their most loyal customers and that b) the spokewoman I spoke with a couple of months ago when I did a story on the Rittenhouse Wawa was less than truthful with me and in, turn, Philadelphians when she said that they weren’t leaving the city.

“This is not the beginning of a pullout of Center City Wawa’s,” said Bruce, who disputes rumors that the company is focusing on building Super Wawas, which are larger and include gas pumps. -Philadelphia Metro 2/27/2008

Really? Six of ten pulling out of Center City since 2000 and no new ones being built is not a “pullout”? (I guess technically she is correct, since the pullout began in 2000.) I will never eat at a Wawa in the burbs or get gas from one, and I highly encourage you to do the same. Screw Wawa. We in Center City have loyally supported them for years, and they return the favor by dumping us and lying to us while doing so. P.S. I say this not because I hate Wawa but because I have come to really love it and depend on it and I am sad and frustrated to see it go, especially this way.

Dunno if you are familiar with the Johnny Cash song “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town”. Amazing song. Anyways, I was just tooling around on Youtube and discovered the above gem.

Press release I received this morning:

April 22, 2008 (PHILADELPHIA)- The City of Brotherly Love can now be known as the City of Mallardly Love thanks to the efforts of the Shut the Duck Up! Campaign. Their endeavors to muffle the noisy vehicles of the Philadelphia Ride the Duck Tour Company are helping more city residents than merely offended pedestrians.

The popular “quackers” distributed to Duck Boat riders are indistinguishable from call of a real Mallard hen. World Champion Waterfowl Caller and Call-Maker Sean Mann, corroborated the effectiveness of these souvenir quackers stating that “very lonely ducks” are likely to be drawn to the alluring snare of the Duck Boat calls. Philadelphia neighborhoods effected by the Duck Boat tour route have experienced a spike in traffic incidents involving duped loner ducks, who have become disoriented by the imitation calls and inadvertently cause automotive accidents.

The growing congregation of deluded ducks has also attracted the attention of the waterfowl’s natural predators. Recent sightings of fox, raccoons, and stray dogs patrolling the route of the Duck Boats has neighborhoods up in arms over the increased disappearances of family cats, and daily nuisance of having to manage overturned trash cans and recycling bins.

Shut The Duck Up! are the sole activist group in Philadelphia concerned with the safety of local ducks and neighborhoods effected by the ignorant oversights of the Philadelphia Ride the Duck Tour Company. Their mission statement resolves to earn the respect from the Ride the Duck Company and to work towards a symbiotic relationship between the Tour Company and all residents of Philadelphia, fowl or friend.
PREVIOUSLY: Shut the Duck Up Video.

On Saturday afternoon, Glenn Macnow and some other celebrity judges voted for the best cheesesteak in the city. John’s Roast Pork came out the winner. No controversy there. But it was the 3rd place finisher that ruffled some feathers over at Foobooz last week. Chink’s Steaks, who finished third, got a thorough haranguing from Kirsten Henri due to it’s racist name. What are your thoughts? Should Chink’s Steaks be forced to change their name?