I got The Big Lebowski on DVD for Christmas. I own the VHS but apparently I've referenced the movie on enough occasions that those close to me thought I would enjoy the special features the DVD offers (you can really screw yourself that way.) (I did enjoy the special features by the way but there could have been more.) This movie is kind of a cult classic in that it wasn't met well when it was originally released but became much more popular later. I bring all this up because regularly on here various people get a little riled up about an outsider, a damn opinionated Californian, coming in and "ragging" on Philadelphia and it got me to thinking about a particular scene from this movie; rather than explain it I'll present the exact script.

Here "The Dude" our protaganist has had a rough night wherein he was drugged, beaten, and kicked out of Malibu by a porn king and is riding home in a cab:

DUDE: Jesus, man, can you change the station?
DRIVER: F*ck you man! You don't like my f*cking music, get your own f*cking cab!
DUDE: I've had a--
DRIVER: I pull over and kick your ass out, man!
DUDE: --had a rough night, and I hate the f*cking Eagles, man--
DRIVER: That's it! Outta this f*cking cab!

And he's thrown out. Its comical in its extremity and very well sums up the attitude of, "If you don't like it, get the f*ck out." (It just so happens I also don't like the Eagles, the band or the team. (Except when the Eagles are playing it usually means there's less traffic.)) I don't buy that attitude, I think its mindless patriotism at best and ignorant hostility at worst.

Point is, if you're irked about outsiders moving into your hometown and complaining I've got a message for you: too f*cking bad. Deal with it. As Philadelphia becomes more and more an attractive place to relocate more as*holes like me who are going to move in and have opinions about everything. (ie Tastykake sucks, the buses stink, its too humid, its too cold, its too hot, its too mild, hey maybe the Eagles should wear blue instead of green (green is so yucky), water ice is too icy, why isn't my cheese steak made with free range beef and organic asiago cheese, how come everyone here is fat (maybe its all that scrapple they eat) etc. etc. etc.)

Its time for some long time Philadelphia residents to put on big boy pants and start pissing in the toilet. Time to take it all in stride.

Just like NYC or LA or any other major city east to west, you become a resident here as soon as you lay your head down and can say whatever the hell you like. Remember, it may be Philadelphia but its still America, and god dammit, I'm an American.


Cheers,

-- mr c

So why did you move here? Why live somewhere you cannot embrace the local culture/foods/traditions or ignore the ones you cannot? Please don't tell me your wife made you, that's a tired excuse and already been taken.

You were ignored as a child, right?

Dude..

It's because no one ever moved here intentionally for about 40 years.


So .. I think we just got used to everyone just being from here.


Now.. we have people WANTING to move hear...and then they all what "changes" and "improvements" and other stupid useless stuff we never cared about.


So that's why.. dude...


Yeah.. corruption is funny because we're mostly connected.

Now.. the stupid new people made it so we aren't (PPA cough cough)..

and I think we just aren't used to critisism from people who actually know what they are talking about.


I will have to gut you if you ever... ever badmouth the Eagles Football team.

= you

and yeah.. I lived in Irvine, Placentia, and Costa Mesa so I do know how much better Cali is on the outside and totally full of **** Californians are.

I was born there.



It would be like whining about "dirty air" and "spanish" or those "stuppid churro thingies" and how everyone's stupid for calling I-5 just "the 5" or how "sigalerts" are the dumbest way to say "accident" ever created.

for comparison.







Nothing like tasting a sunset.

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"

"why isn't my cheese steak made with free range beef and organic asiago cheese"

Youre kidding right? No seriously. What are you a nihilist?

His wife/gf forced him here. He's "p-whipped" and taking it out on us.

I moved to Philadelphia, alone, out of my own free will. No friends/family in the city. Closest friends where in Harrisburg that I knew in Texas, and closest family is in Manhattan and some left all the way out in Boston.

And... I really do like it here. There are a lot of things about my old city (San Antonio) that I liked, but the #1 thing I didn't like about it was it's in the CENTER OF HELL. It gets over 110F in August down there. And it only became fashionable down there to live downtown about the same year I moved out [a year after I moved into my building... my brother moved into an apartment similar to the one I am in now in San Antonio].

I had the choice to move to New York, but I just cannot deal with living in a tiny tiny apartment. The stuff that I was comfortable paying for in NYC was way too far away from transit--and I would have to get rid of my car (something I was NOT prepared to do). Philly seemed like a safe alternative.


And since I have been here, I think I have earned the right to critisize the town for a lot of the stupid things it does.

I also feel that my voice counts a lot more in local elections here than it does in NYC--and having come from a Southwestern city that is prospering and seeing outrageous population growth and corporate investment for one that isn't... I think my concerns about Philly aren't grounded in thin air.

No one in Philadelphia City Hall spent their lives growing up in a city that has NEVER seen an economic downturn. Nor have they ever lived in an area all their lives where there was no state income tax, no city income tax, no wage tax, no BPT---and yet it's a city that's PASSING Philly up in size and it manages to come up with the money to pay for all sorts of things. WHY IZ DAT?

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WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

The evolution of MrCalifornia as a poster has been fun to watch. He started out as a newcomer to the city in a neighborhood that isn't the usual hot spot destination. His first few posts were positive and about his area of the NE. He was wondering why everybody was so down on it. He lives near me and was confused because the picture people on this board were painting of it wasn't what he was seeing. He was pretty much told that just because he found his neighborhood to be clean, friendly and safe that it wouldn't "hold on much longer and "the hand writing is on the wall" and "we moved in the 80s and by 2000 the neighborhood was a sty, see!" etc. Eventually MrC settled on being a provoking troll and board clown because it's nore rewarding.

Pathetic. You actually went and started an entirely new post to rag about people ragging on you for constantly ragging on "our" city

How long have you lived here? According to City of Philadelphia Resident By-Laws if it's less than 3 years then you haven't earned the right yet to rag on the city yet and you are required to shut up and just observe. Punishment for breaking this rule used to be that we drag you up to the 700-level at the Vet, dress you in a Troy Aikman jersey and proceed to beat the sh*t out of you. You do know what the Vet was and that it no longer exists I assume? I think the newly revised punishment is that you are required to stand in the intersection of Cottman and Frankford Avenue during an Eagles playoff celebration with a sign that reads, "Section 8 Rules; Renters Rock!"

I think he just wanted to write the words piss, f*ck, Eagles and asiago cheese in a public forum.

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Many a woman has a past, but I am told she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit. - Oscar Wilde

No, point is; if you move into a town and you are "irked" by the people already living there and by the way things are...well, "too f*cking bad. Deal with it."

By the way - and I love The Big Lebowsky too - I think that using that scene to support your argument was a pretty lousy choice.

Have a good day!