Philly gets love from Reader’s Digest

For once, Philadelphia gets a couple of thumbs-ups from a national media outlet.

Surveys have branded our citizens ugly, miserable, hungry, fat and constipated. A study last week said up to 90 percent of the city's young men were too uneducated, obese or convicted for military service. And who'll forget the recent black eye - literally - of Pukeman, the barf-targeting Phillies fan?

Then along comes "100 Things We Love About America" in the June/July issue of Reader's Digest, on newsstands now. It's a haphazard roundup that ranges from "Best Offbeat Holiday" (National Goof-Off Day, March 22) to "Best Quartet" (4Troops, an ensemble of soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and now sing at Army bases).

Philly's kudos aren't quite like being sort of compared to Paris (as a New Yorker correspondent once did), but they beat being beat up because a viral video shows a pint-size Phillies fan putting a probably-empty beer bottle to his lips.

The magazine names Philadelphia's own Ralph and Linda Archbold "Best Impersonators" for their portrayals of Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross - and for their storybook (or history book) marriage. "No one is allowed to get married at Independence Hall, but city officials made an exception for us," she said of their July 3, 2008, ceremony.

The "Best Dream Team" goes to about two dozen West Philadelphia High students - "the only high schoolers competing for the $10 million Progressive Automotive XPRIZE," the Digest writes. The Inquirer's Tom Avril took a closer look in an article Thursday, explaining, "The team is headed to Michigan this weekend for the latest round in a $10 million international competition with a provocative quest: Build a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon." For more, see www.philly.com/philly/education/96541204.html.

Other nods were sprinkled around the local states.

"Best Town Names" said that "in Loveladies, New Jersey . . . it seemed that all the women were trying to get to Husband, Pennsylvania." Loveladies is on Long Beach Island, Husband's in western Pennsylvania, near Johnstown. Funny, but in citing everywhere from Boring, Ore., and Loafers Glory, N.C., to Whynot, Miss., and Sweet Lips, Tenn., the list somehow overlooks Bird in Hand, Virginville, Desire, Jersey Shore and Blue Ball in Pennsylvania, and New Jersey's Ho-Ho-Kus, Buttzville and Cheesequake State Park.

But "Best Street Name" does include, at No. 5, New Oxford, Pa.'s Tapeworm Road. Well, at least it does online. (Only the top 3 - Connecticut's EZ Street, Kentucky's Lois Lane, and Maryland's Bad Dog Alley - appear in print.) No mention of Shades of Death or Ataboy Court in Jersey, or Reedsville, Pa.'s Bear Bottom Road,

Delaware got a couple of mentions, too. "Best Irresistible Ice Cream Flavors" includes the African vanilla with bacon bits at the Ice Cream Store in Rehoboth, and "Best Festivals" includes the annual Pumpkin Chunkin contest in Bridgeville.