Philadelphia's First Skyscraper?

When I was downtown the other day I was fascinated enough by an old building on Walnut Street to take this picture...

According to some websites I looked at, the Witherspoon Buidling is Philadelphia's first skyscraper. Not sure how official that is. It was completed in 1897. As you can see in the photo, it housed the "Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work."

I was fascinated by the fact that this building, with its intricate front, is sitting empty, at least at street level (note the sign in the window). It's close to City Hall, just down from Broad Street, and right across from IHOP. :) Seems like a great location. I wonder how much money it would take for a business to make a go of it there, especially in these hideous economic times.

How I Celebrated Valentine's Day

I made the photo that is in this post my new desktop wallpaper, replacing fake Jake. Although it's not nearly as revealing as fake Jake (and I still want to know whose body that really is), this photo of Darren Criss is from Out.com so it's 100 percent legitimate. I have to say I'm concerned about this little storyline in an upcoming "Glee" episode, though.

The fact that this is what I consider to be my celebration of Valentine's Day tells you all you need to know about my single life. I didn't even get to use my IHOP Buy One Entree/Get One Free offer. And I would've liked some pancakes, if only to preview Lady Gaga's next awards show outfit. (Don't know who came up with this joke first, but I saw it so many times on Twitter last night...)

And now, to finish off my night, I'm going to watch RuPaul's Drag Race, featuring a whole bunch more people who have more reason to celebrate Valentine's Day than I do. That, or this episode of "The Simpsons." (So...do you...like...stuff?)

IHOP Screwed Me!

When I was walking around Outfest earlier this month I happened upon the IHOP table. There's been an IHOP in the Gayborhood for...I dunno, a year or two now? Well, they were asking people to sign up for their mailing list, to get emails with coupons and promotions and the like. The first deal would be a free Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity. I like free stuff, and if it's food, so much the better. So I signed up. A few days later I got an email with the deal. I didn't print it out at the time. I was going to do it the next day and again decided to wait for some reason. A couple of days after that, I decided to print it, only to find I can't. The email suddenly has an addition. Note the area I've circled:

Can you believe this? I assume this is to try and prevent people from forwarding it around or printing it multiple times or something, but there has to be a better way than this. I wonder if there's a cookie on my computer that caused this? I want my free food, dammit!