SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL 🍻
#3 | This Week in Review - May 24th, 2025, 7:00pm
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Memorial Day 2025
Want the memorial day experience without blowing off your own hand trying to light fireworks that shoot directly into the shingles of your neighbor’s roof? Worry not, as there are a plethora of events this weekend in which to safely celebrate and honor our fallen servicemen and women.
Strap in, you wild-eyed patriots and sun-soaked lunatics, for Memorial Day weekend 2025 in Philadelphia. From riverside carnivals to solemn salutes, this city’s still got life in it yet, and here’s the quick rundown:
Jersey Shore Free Toll Frenzy: On May 22, the Atlantic City Expressway throws open its gates, tolls be damned, luring you to the shore’s sun-bleached debauchery. Check the fine print and gun it to the boardwalk for the memorial day spectacular before the weekend swallows you whole.
National Constitution Center: At 525 Arch Street, the Constitution Center stretches its hours from May 24-26, 2025, for a celebration of patriotism. Flag ceremonies, a giant flag folding, and talks on America’s stone-hewn monuments will make your heart thump like a war drum. Admission varies, so check their site and dive in.
Museum of the American Revolution: Down at 101 S. 3rd Street, this museum’s a time machine to the Revolutionary chaos, running special programs May 24-26, 2025. Character actors breathe life into the past, discovery carts flaunt war-era relics, and kids craft memorial ribbons. Veterans, active military, and Blue Star Families get in free, while others pay a small fee to witness history’s pulse.
Eastern State Penitentiary: At 2027 Fairmount Avenue, the crumbling walls of this haunted prison turn somber from May 23-25, 2025. Reflect on the military’s mark on inmates and guards through exhibits that cut like a shiv. Admission’s not free, so bring cash (and don’t forget to tip the ghosts).
Palmer Cemetery Memorial Day Ceremony: Saturday, May 24, at 10:30 a.m., Elm Tree Post 88 unleashes a gun salute at 1410 E Palmer St. Honor the fallen, then scarf down food and drinks with the living. No cost to mourn, just show up.
Perkasie Memorial Day Parade and Service: Bucks County’s got a rager on Saturday, May 24, at 9 a.m., starting at 7th and Market streets in Perkasie. A parade storms through, ending at Menlo Park with rifle salutes, patriotic tunes, and veteran tributes that hit like a freight train. Free, but bring your respect.
Laurel Hill Cemetery: At 3822 Ridge Avenue, Philly’s first Memorial Day bash in 1868 gets a revival on Sunday, May 25, from noon to 2 p.m. Wreath-laying, honor guards, patriotic music, and fresh gravestones for unmarked veterans stir the soul. Refreshments flow, but the weight of history’s heavier. Free to attend.
Doylestown Memorial Day Parade: Monday, May 26, at 10 a.m., Doylestown’s 157th parade—one of the nation’s oldest—marches from Central Bucks West High School at 375 W. Court Street. It snakes through town to Doylestown Cemetery for a 30-minute service honoring the fallen. No charge, just your heart on your sleeve.
For a more comprehensive view of events in the Greater Philadelphia Area, feel free to visit here for more information.
Police officer convicted in fatal shooting
The jury in the trial of Police Officer Mark Dial spat out a mixed verdict in the 2023 Kensington killing of Eddie Irizarry, a 27-year-old caught in the crosshairs of Officer Mark Dial’s six-shot frenzy during a traffic stop gone bad. Found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, possession of an instrument of crime, and reckless endangerment, Dial dodged the heavier third-degree murder and official oppression charges. Dial, eyes wet, swore on the stand that he thought Irizarry’s knife was a gun aimed to end him. Irizarry’s kin, raw with grief, said that night should’ve ended with a ticket, not a body bag. The DA, Larry Krasner, nodded grimly, calling the conviction fair and just, while the streets outside, imbued with the passion of police protests past, slackened with a sigh of relief. Dial, a felon stripped of his badge, faces sentencing in July, his fate now dangling like a cigarette in the wind.
Tap in to Clark Park
On a lighter note, the Parks on Tap caravan rolls into Clark Park this week like a rogue carnival of booze and revelry. This ain’t your grandma’s picnic - grab your posse, your weirdos, your fellow hipsters, and dive headfirst into a sprawl of cold brews, grub, and lawn games under the open sky. It’s a fleeting oasis of community and camaraderie, with a slice of the proceeds going to keep this patch of green from turning into another soulless parking lot. No mercy, no regrets.
The event is from May 21-25, 4-10 p.m., at 4300 Baltimore Ave. Visit https://www.universitycity.org/event/parks-on-tap-in-clark-park/ for more information.
Got Flowers?
Out in the wilds of Germantown, the yearly Celebration of the Roses tumbles into the summer and exploded in full splendor at the Wyck Historic House, daring you to stare into their thorny souls. Bring your kids for some chaotic crafts, roam the Wyck Heritage Roses like a mad botanist, and stumble through the ancient house on free tours that smell of dust and history. Take in the buzz of local vendors hawking their wares, a beer tent sloshing with liquid courage, and food trucks dishing out greasy salvation. It’s a fleeting, sun-soaked madness, and you don’t want to miss it. If you did, though, there’s always plenty more for you to explore.
Want to know more? Visit wyck.org for more information.
Devon Horse Show
If you’re willing to make the trek out to country, the Devon Horse Show & County Fair HAS ARRIVED. A multi-breed gladiatorial arena where riders from every corner of this spinning rock chase glory and gold. The air’s electric with the snorts of beasts and the cheers of the crowd, while the County Fair sprawls like a medieval court: pop-up eateries slinging gourmet chaos, fair food stands dripping with grease and nostalgia, and boutique vendors peddling wares for the soul. It’s a wild, sprawling spectacle; bring your hearts - and your wallets.
May 21-June 1, 23 Dorset Rd, Devon, PA. Want to know more? Visit devonhorseshow.net.
Philly Ward Leader Sentenced to House Arrest
Former ward leader Stephen Jones was sentenced to a month in prison and two decades of house arrest this Thursday, following his conviction on sexually assaulting a minor in 2023.
This past February, Jones was convicted on four charges, including aggravated indecent assault of a person under 13, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of a minor, and indecent assault of a person under 13. Jones was previously the leader of the 59th ward in West Philadelphia.
According to the presiding judge, the factors of Jones’ advanced age and his stage four lung cancer led to a sentence primarily composed of house arrest, rather than the years in jail the prosecution had requested.
The Decline of Western (Pennsylvanian) Civilization
Penn State’s trustees unleashed a gut-punch vote to shutter seven of their 19 branch campuses - DuBois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York - slashing away like a bad Friday the 13th sequel. The 25-8 decision, coming in after a nearly two-hour hot-blooded public debate, represents the desperate attempt to outrun the demographic cliff and financial quicksand swallowing higher education whole.
Enrollment at these campuses, a measly 3,000 students - less than 4% of Penn State’s pride - has cratered 43% in a decade, with no salvation in sight as birth rates plummet and the state’s pool of youth goes up in smoke.
Trustees like ex-Penn quarterback Matthew McGloin, torn but resolute, backed the closures as a grim necessity for the greater good. The campuses will limp on until spring 2027, giving students a chance to finish or scatter, maybe with gas cards or “navigation coaches” to ease the sting. Beyond that, the future’s a hazy gamble - repurposing plans for these ghost campuses are vague, leaving over 500 employees and thousands of students staring into the void. So much for the old college try.
Krasner, the sequel
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner secured a decisive victory in the Democratic primary on May 20, 2025, defeating former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, positioning him for a third term in November’s general election, as no Republican candidate has filed to run. Krasner’s win was driven by strong support from black political leaders, including State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, and State Sen. Sharif Street, as well as a strategic campaign that nationalized the race by positioning himself as a staunch opponent of President Donald Trump, linking Dugan to Republican interests despite Dugan’s Democratic affiliation.
Krasner’s campaign emphasized his progressive record, highlighting a 40% reduction in the jail population and a historic drop in homicides, which resonated with voters in Black and progressive neighborhoods like Northwest and West Philadelphia. Despite Dugan’s significant financial backing from building trades unions and support in conservative Northeast Philadelphia, low voter turnout and Krasner’s robust coalition of black and progressive voters proved insurmountable. This victory underscores Krasner’s enduring popularity in Philadelphia, bucking the trend of progressive prosecutors losing ground elsewhere, and sets him up to potentially become only the second Philadelphia DA in nearly a century to serve more than two terms.
Prison Oversight Board Comes into the World Screaming
The same day, Philly’s voters cast their ballots to birth an independent Prison Oversight Board, a desperate stab at taming the city’s hellhole jails. It’s a quiet condemnation the system, and a beacon of hope for reform junkies screaming for accountability in a city where the cages are a plentiful.
World Heritage Week’s Historical Rave
From May 18–24, Philly, the first U.S. World Heritage City, threw a 10th-anniversary bash like a psychedelic history lesson. Tours of crumbling Stuart monuments, food markets, and brainy lectures swirled together, a cultural ice cream sundae toast to the city’s revolutionary soul.
Philly’s Green Dream Deferred
Bartram’s Mile Trail, that Schuylkill-kissing stretch of urban Eden, remains sealed off like a crime scene after a chromium spill from July 2024. Industrial neglect has left this mile-long escape tainted, dirt paths and river views now off-limits to Philly’s restless wanderers. Bartram’s Garden stands helpless, waiting for the DEP’s elusive “green light” while bureaucrats in suits play hot potato with “responsibility.” The trail, meant to stitch the city’s heart to Grays Ferry Crescent, is a casualty of progress gone sour, its closure a sorry reminder of urban realities. Tests hint at lingering poison, but deliver no clear verdict.
For now, Bartram’s Mile stays a ghost town.
