The Curse of Billy Penn

We're winner's now-- a city of winners (that's right, smartass-- I said WINNERS, not wieners)... the Curse of Billy Penn has been lifted!

For those of you who don't know about the nefarious Curse of Billy Penn, in a nutshell, here is the story: the city of Philadelphia used to have a building code that stated you could not build

any building taller than the statue of Billy Penn that sits atop City Hall. In the '80's, the city rescinded that code, and numerous skyscrapers sprang up, leaving Billy Penn in the proverbial dust.

As of today, the tallest building in Philadelphia, opened on June 8 of this year, is the Comcast Building (Comcast World Headquarters), which towers a stunning 957 feet above JFK Boulevard. It officially became the tallest building in Philadelphia last summer (June 18, 2007). When the final I-beam was raised, ironworkers of Local Union 401 attached a small figurine of Billy Penn to it in an attempt to break the "curse," once again having Billy Penn at the tallest point in the city.

Did it work? Well, later that year ('07), the Phillies, the Flyers, and the 76ers all went on to make an appearance in their respective playoffs, culminating in the Phillies winning the World Series last week, ending a 25 year championship drought.

And I promise I won't bitch about Comcast ever again. Err... well, ever is a long time. How about I won't bitch about Comcast for the rest of this year? No, not buying it huh? Ok, the rest of this month? Grrrr... how about this week? You're tough... OK, OK, OK, so I already bitched about them!

My heart was in the right place, and now Billy Penn is too!