Mid-day Update: Defending McDonald. Plus: Nutter and the Depression Time Band make tour stop, and the Temple shoe museum. Yea, the TU shoe museum.

So yea, remember that thing with our very own Shannon McDonald being awesome and being an up-and-coming journalist? Well Philebrity is on her side too and are on top of a Facebook group that has come out in support of Officer Thrasher and sports comments against McDonald. Check out their post today for a good laugh and maybe say a word or two to these Facebook folks and their TIS. "Typical Ignorant Shit."

As stated in our Wednesday night recap, members of city council held their first budget meeting last night at Ritter Hall in an attempt to get more community input. The majority of the city council was there and the room was filled with concerned communiy members, block captains, and ministers. The three major concerns were the proposed 19% property tax increase, tax abatements, and the cutting of social programs. The testimonies ranged from pissed off to tragic. It was pretty evident that the members in the audience were mad as hell, and not at the council. The suits in the corner of the room (members of the Nutter administration) cowered and sank further in their seats with every testimony from a recovering addict, estranged mother who was reunited, citizen who held up a voter's card, and any one of the others that put them on blast. That's our take, check out philly.com's.


Temple does, in fact, have a kick-ass shoe museum. Pun intended. It's actually located at the school of Podiatric Medicine down at 8th and Race streets, but it's got some interesting exhibits, including:

'a pair of 200-year-old French "sabots," the wooden shoes that gave birth to the expression "sabotage."'

"Malaysian clogs"

"a circus giant's size 18 shoes"

" the huge shoe of a young victim of gigantism whose leg and foot weighed 58 pounds"

"Shoes of sports stars include those of Dr. J and Joe Frazier, Bernie Parent's Stanley Cup skates, Reggie Jackson's five home-run World Series shoes, Andre Agassi's 1990 pink and black Nikes"

"Ella Fitzgerald's "very '60s" gold boots, Joan River's exotic Manolo Blahniks, and a pair of six-inch blue satin platform sandals worn by Sally Struthers as "Gloria" on the popular TV sitcom All in the Family."

Apparently people must be shuffling to get their foot in the door at this place, because "Admission to the museum is free, but visits must be scheduled in advance by calling 215-625-5243 or by email." So if you ever have a day when you just need to get on your feet, maybe you should take a hike down to the shoe museum. Puns intended.