Greetings from Philadelphia

    Philadelphia is the quintessential American city.  Forget New York.  It's too educated, too rich, too diverse, too pompous.  In New York, people of all colors and tax brackets take public transit into a vastly wealthy inner city.  There's nothing American about that.

    In Philly, the city is poor and black and the outskirts and suburbs are white and rich.  SEPTA, the city's transit agency, is constantly fighting bankruptcy.  Junk food dominates the local cuisine, city government is notoriously corrupt and shiftless, and, occasionally, people actually look you in the eye and smile.