Little Failures

Gene Weingarten won the Pulitzer for feature writing? For that horrid Joshua Bell-terrorizes-hapless-commuters story? Gene Weingarten?!

And in the same week, Alan Rich is fired as the classical music critic of the LA Weekly.

I'll tell you this, folks. I'm going to guess that the distinguished judges of the Pulitzer went to college. And I suspect that the corporate types at New Times, the parent company of LA Weekly, also went to college. So in theory, the people that made the above decisions are well-educated.

This means that we, who are in the business of educating such people, completely failed.

Connections

So, you know how Interstate 95 is a really major freeway? Like, it goes from Maine to Florida, and if you live anywhere on the east coast, you spend a lot of time dealing with it. In my four years living in Connecticut, I would do anything possible to avoid it en route to New York. In my year in Boston, it was how you got to either New Hampshire or Providence. In Washington, where I lived for many summers, it forms half of the beltway. If one drives between DC and New York or Connecticut a lot, as I did, it's how you do it. Here in Philadelphia, 95 cuts right through the city, and is how I get to the airport.

Okay. So, there's another freeway here, Interstate 76. Not quite as big deal as 95, but it is probably the most important freeway for people living in Philadelphia and to the west. The "blue route" they call it for some stupid historical reason. It goes along the Schuykill River that divides Center City and West Philly, and is a horrible, traffic-laden misbegotten mess. But it's important, you know? Goes all the way to Ohio ultimately.

So my complaint: this major north-south freeway, and this major east-west freeway, they connect in Philadelphia, right near where I live. The problem? They don't actually connect! You have to exit 95, go over a weird bridge, wait at a light to turn left, go on a surface street for a bit, and then finally you merge onto 76.*

Why doesn't it properly connect like real grown-up freeways do?!! ARGHHHH!

Next in our series: how New Jersey conspires to make it impossible to drive from Philly to NYC.


*I suppose I should admit that they do kind of connect on the other side of the city, but in a ridiculous and completely useless way.