Regular Friday Mystery Column

This my third stab at a recap of the week and, oh my, what a week it's been. 

Aftermath of Celebrity Dying Spree I found it cathartic all the talk of death this week. My greatest motivating influence in life is to either escape or accept my inevitable death. Since I don't think I will find a way to live forever, I think it's best to work on the acceptance thing. I think the discourse around Michael Jackson's death was flimsy although I enjoyed dancing to his music quite a bit this week. However, the tributes to Philadelphia Weekly writer Steven Wells got me crying while reading on the R5. 

Everybody Needs a Job I recently hired a friend to help me with cleaning and writing tasks and have a running list of 5 friends looking for work. I would start an employment service, but unfortunately I don't have any decent job leads at the moment. According to the news, the employment rate will likely rise to 10%. Every day, I am grateful that I am employed. 

Like Mark Sanford, I Got Something on the Side This week I started my own blog, but that didn't mean that I stopped blogging here at One Find Philly. Although I haven't quite sorted out my identity yet. I think my private blog, Planet Caroline,will be more personal and less about parties and Philly events. I think the blog will evolve over time, but I don't plan on letting it distract me from this blog. I love writing on a group blog and appreciate the collaboration with some awesome people (some of whom I've met and some I haven't).

I'm going to cut this blog piece short. I have a day off today and it's time for my nap.

Regular Unnamed Friday Column

I'll remember this week as an explosion of excess akin to the Monty Python sketch of the man at the restaurant. Too much of everything. Even the good stuff seemed more than I could handle. Here's a rundown.

RIP. This was a week full of celebrity deaths. We all know about most of them, so I don't need to explain the roll call here. Steven Wells, Gary Papa (pictured), Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. With the Philly deaths, Steven Wells hit me harder than Gary Papa. I think that's because I read Wells' Philly Weekly columns about his cancer. Here is his last Philly Weekly column. On @PhillyWeekly Twitter, there have been some great tributes like this one being posted up.

Social Overload. Social media is leading to socializing overload. The event invitations on my Facebook are piling up. I received at least 20 social invitations (including personal invites from friends for coffee or lunch) this week. Highlights this week included: Casino Free Philly circus, Philly Tweetup at McGillans, Derrick May at Arts Garage (Saturday), Jake Henry's record release party at Vango (Friday- tonight!).

DAY 14-BLOGGER CHALLENGE

Ok, it's 11:30 pm and you may think I am writing this post is to keep my 14 day writing streak alive. There are 1,000 things to write about. But I'm going to write about my Dad as an early father's day tribute.

My father is Lee B. Leopold. He is a good subject for this blog because he lived in Philly for most of his adult life. He settled in the city after he left the Army sometime in the 1950's. After his stint in post-war Korea, he got his bachelor's degree at Temple. He worked at places that you still hear about today: Redevelopment Authority, Federation of Jewish Agencies, and Balch Institute. The Federation job is the one he loved best- he was an archivist, which meant he kept records of Jewish history in Philly. He did a lot of geneologies of Jewish families and would go on speaking engagements.

From child eyes, what I admired best about my Dad was he loved to play with his children. He would take me and my sisters to the pool every day in the summer. He was like those Dads you see nowadays...involved and completely delighted in the lives of his daughters. To this day, I get weepy when I see a happy dad and daughter in Rittenhouse Park. And I see a lot of them these days.

I often think what my father would have thought about my life. I think he would have loved that I studied psychology in grad school and that I broke out of my introverted, antisocial shell and have begun to enjoy people. I think he would have loved Facebook and Twitter and he always loved finding and chatting up distant relatives. My dad was endlessly interested in people, in their lives and their histories.

I wish you could have met my father, but he lives on in my mother and my two sisters.

Rest in Peace Dad (October 31, 1935 - June 8, 1990)

P.S. I'll post up a photo of him when I get one scanned in. Have nothing of him on my computer.