Elusive fruits of the season | Morning Newsletter
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The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hi, Philly. It’s a sunny Saturday with a high near 62.
Pennsylvania joins New Jersey in declaring a drought watch for 33 counties, including Philadelphia. Here are ways to use less water as we endure one of the driest spells on record.
Today, I’m talking about an elusive tree fruit known as the “food of the gods.” But first, we look into how both presidential campaigns are turning out Pa. voters this weekend, thousands of ballots flagged for issues in Philly and Montco, and PHL’s upgraded parking services.
— Paola Pérez (@pdesiperez, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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What you should know today
Two people were killed in separate hit-and-run crashes in Philadelphia early Friday morning. The police department has increased enforcement on busy thoroughfares as these crashes continue at a swift pace of more than one a day.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court doubled down Friday on its previous rulings that undated mail ballots should not be counted in next week’s election. You can use our tool to find out if your mail ballot was one of the nearly 4,000 flagged for issues in Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
West Philly gang member Ameen Hurst pleaded guilty Friday to killing four people and escaping from the Philadelphia jail. It was a courtroom moment more than three years in the making.
Pennsylvania has become a focal point of the nation and an epicenter of activity for both presidential campaigns as they try to squeeze every last vote out of the state. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are using very different tactics.
Harris is rolling out her closing message to Pennsylvanians with Gov. Josh Shapiro by her side. President Joe Biden swung through Philly for an event with union laborers. And Trump and his allies on social media have been bombarding the state with unfounded and, in some cases, knowingly false claims of voter fraud and election interference.
The Pennridge school board in September rolled back the prior Republican-led board’s policy banning “sexualized content” in library books. But that hasn’t put an end to books being pulled from library shelves.
Philadelphia International Airport travelers are getting more parking options, including the ability to plan ahead.
Philly-founded on-demand delivery service Gopuff is now accepting SNAP payments, the company announced Friday.
Local organizations, Uber, and Lyft are offering free or discounted rides to the polls on Election Day in Philadelphia.
I had heard of pawpaws before. The tropical-tasting delicacy is native to our region, and it’s North America’s largest edible native fruit. Few know it exists because it doesn’t travel well, so it’s a rare treat you’d be lucky to find in a local forest or farmers markets. What I didn’t know is that we had another delicious secret in Philadelphia: persimmons.
This week, I happened to run into my colleague Joe DiStefano as he shared a few homegrown persimmons with the newsroom. I had never seen or tried one before. It fit perfectly in the palm of my hand. I swore the cute, plump fruit was a tomato until Joe educated me. He sold me on it by saying, “It’s a cross between an apple and an orange.”
I immediately started reading up on it and was happy to learn we were in the middle of persimmon season. They can be found in trees across the city, in West Philly, Germantown, and East Fairmount Park. And, like pawpaws, they are delicate, highly perishable, and only ready to eat in specific circumstances.
I took it home, snapped pictures of it, looked up recipes to experiment with it, and ultimately waited to have it with breakfast. It was delightful, rich in flavor — much more on the apple side than the orange — and only left me wanting more. Its botanical name Diospyros virginiana means “food of the gods” for a reason.
It tracks that I fall for a fleeting fruit again. Rainier cherries are my favorite summertime treat, and they are also notoriously hard to find when they’re in season for what feels like the blink of an eye. I’m hopeful there’s another ripe persimmon in my future.
One viewpoint
On Election Day, roughly 45,000 poll workers will staff more than 9,000 polling places across the Keystone State.
Their jobs — thankless and increasingly dangerous — will be in the spotlight, especially those in must-win Bucks County. But it wasn’t always this way, writes columnist Devi Lockwood,
There are also staffing shortages to consider, Lockwood says, an issue that is reflected nationwide.
“It is much easier to stand on the sidelines and critique elections than it is to get our hands involved in the (often mundane) processes of running an election smoothly at the local level,” Lockwood says. “But too few of us do.”
Read on for Lockwood’s perspective on why “more of us need to step up” for this civic duty.
❓ Pop quiz
Which Hamilton actor had a college roommate from Philly who introduced them to “the joys of Wawa hoagies and Tastykakes”?
A) Lin-Manuel Miranda
B) Ariana DeBose
C) Jonathan Groff
D) Leslie Odom Jr.
Think you know? Check your answer.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Everyone watching Flyers games knows how good this 19-year-old rookie is. Now the NHL has taken notice.
MATH MOVIE VICK
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Marie Molinari who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Phil Martelli. The former head coach of the St. Joseph’s Hawks has a new podcast, and it’s not just about basketball
Some 500 students from 17 Philadelphia high schools marched around City Hall during a youth get-out-the-vote event on Tuesday. The rally featured student-led speeches and performances, and eligible students then cast their first ballots inside.
The nonpartisan celebration aims to empower young voters, increase voter turnout among Philadelphia high school seniors, and highlight the importance of civic participation in the democratic process. — Tom Gralish
Somewhere on the internet in Philly
Philadelphia was recently ranked as one of the best cities to celebrate Halloween. How did the city celebrate the ghoulish holiday?
Someone handed out candy and potatoes, another apparently turned their front yard into a hot dog stand, a couple was spotted “reverse trick or treating,” and a spooky Chucky car was also seen around town. The Philadelphia Museum of Art also warned that Monets were found in some chocolate bars.
Philadelphians chimed in on Reddit with their favorite costumes. Props to this Adventure Time crew. If anyone saw the kid dressed as the TopDog Law advertisement, we gotta see photos. And shout-out to Emily Doginson for this fun thread of the “utter horror show” that unfolded across the city.
👋🏽 Don’t forget to change your clocks. We “fall” back in time Sunday. At least there are some bright sides to this change.
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