But hey, at least we liveblogged it!......

Wednesday, we told you about The Barking Beauty. And while we still encourage you to buy tickets and support Stone Soup Theatre Arts and PAWS, we also know there are more than a few reasons you may not be able to. (Palm Sunday being one of them. The limited space at L'Etage being another.) But, if, in your absence, you still want to be kept abreast of the goings-on at The Barking Beauty, have......

Ah, the Miss America Pageant. From the 1920s to just a few short years ago, it put Atlantic City on the map just as much as any casino did. But in 2006, the pageant packed up shop and moved to Atlantic City: The Sequel Las Vegas, leaving our region (Atlantic City's not that far!) without the glitz and glamor that only fifty-two (one for every state, plus D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands) leggy......

Dear Mamaist: Lately, I've been babysitting a lovely little girl two days a week. Her parents are close friends of mine, and they named her for one of their personal literary heroines, which you know I think is awesome. She's five months old and thinks just about everything I do is funny, except for when she's a little tired. But when she is tired, I put her down in her crib and play lullaby versions......

Do you like dogs? Oh, who are we kidding? Of course you do! So then clearly, you'd be interested in knowing that the American Kennel Club has released its list of the Top 10 Most Popular Dogs in America. Tops on the list? For the umpteenth year in a row, it's the Labrador Retriever. Also notable: German Shepherds (our faves) at #4, Poodles at #8 (is that surprisingly low to anyone else?), and, for......

It's hard figuring out what to get for the people in your life who already have everything, and so you're usually stuck at the last minute, still trying to figure out what you're buying them after the rest of the shopping is done. And here you are, four days before Christmas, stuck for ideas. Fortunately, I come from a family of procrastinators – especially when it comes to buying gifts. As a result, I've mastered......

"A former lawmaker has returned $79,000 he was paid to serve as litigator for House Republicans." But the state Ethics Commission still has to decide whether his contract violated Pennsylvania law, in which case he might have to pay fines equal to three times that amount. The 90-year-old woman who was beaten and robbed outside her Port Richmond home last month has now died from her injuries. The police are asking for help in......

Dear Rittenhouse Square: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the good times we've shared. Thank you for the picnics. Thank you for the people-watching. Thank you for the adorable dogs and even more adorable children. Thank you for serving as a frequent shortcut. I'm a big fan of any diagonal path that can get me there faster. Recently, while crossing the park, I saw two young men in t-shirts and baggy blue jeans carry......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Travelin' Dogs Now that we're into the swing of summer and so many people are hitting the road, I figured a basic post on traveling with pets would be fitting. I mean, so many people take their dogs on vacation now and even though basic pet traveling tips seem like common sense, we can get caught up in the excitement and forget......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love A couple of months ago, I posted a column that touched on the issue of pets becoming our kids, so it only seems fair to say that, while millions of mothers will be receiving gifts and words of thanks from their sons and daughters, a million more folks will be celebrating the day as being a parent to their schnauzers, bull dogs,......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love Dancing Dogs?! Forget about all the hoopla surrounding Dancing with the Stars, according to PetPlace.com, dog lovers are signing up to learn how to dance with their dogs. Sound crazy? Not to a bunch of folks who want to participate in a sport called Canine Freestyle—an activity in which dog and owner move in tandem through a set of choreographed steps to......

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week. Divine Canine: With the Monks of New Skete (Mon, 8PM-8:30PM, Animal Planet) - The first of two new Animal Planet shows debuting Monday night, this one is about some monks in Cambridge, NY who use holistic training methods on misbehaving dogs in order to transform them into loving pets. In this first episode, a monk tries to talk some sense into a naughty Cavalier King Charles spaniel.......

This Spring is the third anniversary of Lifeknot, online meeting place for people of all ages, based solely on interests and hobbies. The CEO and founder, Matt Muro, began Lifeknot after using online dating services that seemed to force an instant romantic relationship. “I felt that online dating sites rushed people into the relationship stage of a friendship and social networking sites linked you to so many people that the intimacy of establishing a......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love No Bones about It Because pet food recalls continue to expand, I simply could not ignore the issue and decided to recap what’s been going on just so all dog owners out there have yet another resource to ensure that their dogs and cats are safe. This whole mess has been going on for weeks and one wonders when it all will......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love... Pet Casting Every once in a while I’ll visit weather.com to check on temperatures for the area. Sometimes my server is slow and because that weather site is so robust with graphics, text and so many other bells and whistles, it can take forever for the home page to upload. Typically, this is annoying. However, the uploading slowness brought to my attention......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love... On a Short, Long, Short Leash A question about the integrity of retractable leashes came up the other day. It was amongst a group of dog walkers who, I decided, have control issues. Granted, I’m notoriously lenient—a softy, if you will, who pities the pup that suffers constant jerking by walkers utilizing conventional, double-reinforced leashes in a militant way. I’m sure there......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love... Fantasy Crushes and Used Condoms Dog walkers are, in a way, akin to nannies or au pairs. We are invited into people’s homes, we are caregivers to the “kids,” we are often told, “Mi casa es su casa,” and we wind up helping ourselves to the last slice of cold pepperoni pizza in the fridge without pissing anyone off. We sometimes run......

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog Owning Love... Hang out at any of the dog runs in Philly and you might just feel like you’re on a playdate with local mommy or daddy groups. “He’s so gregarious, isn’t he? As soon as Fred and I brought him home we realized he was going to be the extroverted one. He’s nothing like our oldest, George, who keeps to himself and......

A quirky column about walking dogs in the city of dog owning love... "Riss is Riricurous! Rit’s Reakin’ Rold Rout Rere!” Surely this is what every dog on every walk was thinking this week. Even if they were eager to step paw outdoors, I’m certain the blistering cold had them rethinking their noontime itineraries. Instead of stopping to sniff every tree, post and hydrant to and from their dog runs, canines well-known in dog walking......

Author Caroline Tiger...

Every so often I might wander over to CNN. But just to glance the top headlines. To catch up if I've been out of touch - I don't own a TV. Mostly though, even that duty has been relegated to MSN and even, the BBC. Besides CNN.com's systematic dumbing down in the last year - continued reporting on all things inane, ranging from Suri Cruise to Lindsay Lohan, as well as the introduction of Cliff's......

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. Austinist wasn't as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on "Heroes." Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

Lots of people are off work today, but the -ist-a-verse is still going strong... Gothamist: Now that's an adorable squirrel. Austinist: This is pretty damn brilliant. SFist must be pretty damn bored. Bostonist: Think of the uproar if they did that on SEPTA! Parisist: Not much time left to get the "real" Paris experience. Go now, and bring a pack of unfiltereds. Seattlest: Best. Headline. Ever. Chicagoist: There should really be a social services department......

Last night, Phillyist went to the Free Library for the kick-off of the 215 Festival - "a showcase for performers that are as smartly engaging as a book and authors that are as fun to watch as a band." That's a fair description of the frivolity we caught at the Free Library last night - John Hodgman (who is not married to a Griffin) taught us all about the great Hobo rebellion; Jonathan Coulton proved,......

It's probably usually a relatively good idea to avoid the Schuylkill River and the Wissahickon Creek, but it's currently even more important, due to the fact that there was a "toxic discharge" of some kind - or at least, that's the graphic way they put it on XPN this morning - which killed a bunch of fish in Montgomery County, and might poison you or your pets as well. To be safe, the city has......

Hey, thanks to that Philly Inquirer article we linked to a little while ago, about how the health checks on city restaurants and lunch carts are few and far between, "City Councilwoman Marian Tasco is asking for hearings on Philadelphia's restaurant inspection system." Tasco's resolution most likely will face little resistance (after all, what politician - or inhabitant of Philly for that matter - would be against better restaurant inspections?), and the hearings will probably......