the pop box

Henry is a man of many talents. He will not only help you if you are confused, but he will also sell you a car AND fix your credit... Found posted in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.

One of my new favorite and shameful obsessions is A&E's new reality series, Parking Wars. The show follows meter maids, booters and impound lot officers all over the city. Now who would have thought that an entire TV show about the day-to-day lives of Philadelphia Parking Authority workers could be so entertaining? For starters, it's all based in Philly which means you're going to get the cream of the crop from downtown bitches, rude tourists, ghettolandians, college kids and more...

My favorite character goes by the name of Swoop AKA Tiffany. She's a ticketing officer who says she has to say the "Serenity Prayer" to get through a stressful work day. Her goal, every day all day, is to write the most tickets possible. Rundown of Operation Swoop: Swoop hides out in park behind bush across the street from bank with handicap meter right out front. Patrons continually pull into the handi spot to run into the bank (shame shame shame). As soon as the drivers are out of site, Swoop runs across the street and writes a ticket like lightening. Angry driver comes out pleading and cursing: "I was only in there for 5 seconds!" LIAR!Swoop has already written the ticket and she's all smiles. Suckers.

To me, Swoop is a local celebrity. My sister was in Center City the other day. She writes,

"u will never believe who i saw! SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!! she came by my meter as i was feeding it with the smart card and i went "SWWWWWOOOOOOP" and swoop went "heeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."

And that was it. I heart Swoop. - POP by E

CORRECTION: "A headline in Monday's Daily News, 'He regrets his role in postal vid,' implied that Richard Marino, the subject of a YouTube video, was sorry for an incident in December at a Brooklyn post office. Marino, in fact, is not sorry. The News regrets the error." -- Daily News, New York.

So you know how pretty much every day, there is a list of corrections printed in the newspaper? Sometimes they are rather amusing. Liz forwarded me this article about a guy who keeps a website called Regrettheerror.com which lists corrections from all over. The above is one of his favorites, as is this one, which I love. - POP by E by way of Liz

CORRECTION: "It has come to the editor's attention that the Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement. We regret the omission." - The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, apparently trying to make up for decades of forgotten coverage, printed this two-sentence note.