the pop box

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

Both J and I really like Strangers with Candy. It is hands down one of the funniest and most disturbing shows that ever graced cable tv. Perhaps we were drawn to it because Jerri's crazy shenanigans reminded us of our own youth. I think Orlando was actually saying these lines from The Trip Back about us... Click here to have a listen.

PS: I met Amy Sedaris and David Sedaris (both on separate occasions) and I have fantabulous stories. More to come later. - POP by E

I used to really like Snapple. You could say, obsessively. When I was in middle school, I worked at a bagel shop in a local farmers market. We sold Snapple and I drank it like water. I even wore a hip Snapple bomber jacket that we got for free.

I thought that someday, I would meet “The Snapple Lady” AKA Wendy Kaufman. I had a grand plan: I started saving the labels from the bottles and the caps, with the intention to some day build something so cool that it would get me a spot in one of Wendy’s commercials. Sadly, I never did get to meet Wendy, but a friend of mine did and he got me this autographed picture AND a bobble-head doll. It turns out Wendy thinks I’m the “best stuff on earth” too!

Oh and if you’re wondering what ever happened to Wendy, get this. According to Wikipedia, she was unceremoniously fired from the company in 1994 when Snapple was sold to Quaker Oats (douche bags). We then lived for three years without her until she was reinstated in 1997 when the company was sold yet again. More recently, you may have seen her on Celebrity Fit Club (twice) and also heard about her new business venture, Wendy Wear – “Fit for A Queen Size.” Yes, it’s activewear for plus-size women.

Wendy says, “Just because I like to eat, doesn’t mean I should be destined to a lifetime of wearing sequined pumpkins and appliquéd kites on my clothing.”

You go girl! - POP by E

I have a lot of laminated items. We had a machine for my mom’s job at home and I was always creating odd little plastic thingys including these fantabulous figurines from The PJs that we used to decorate our locker.

The PJs, as in the projects, was a claymation television show that graced the airwaves from 1999-2001, during my high school years. I loved this show. It was ridiculous, to say the least. Synopsis: Thurgood Stubbs lives with his wife Muriel in the housing project where he is the chief superintendent AKA The Supa. The show, created by Eddie Murphy, follows the adventures of the Stubbs family and the others in the building, animated through a process called 'Foamation.'

The cast of characters was spectacular. I think Juicy was my favorite. He's a little fat kid who idolizes Thurgood and sounds like his mouth is stuffed with cotton balls. In one episode, he turns out to be an awesome chef and wins the chili cookoff. I was so proud. We used to imitate him all the time: “Supa, you got a cookie for me?” I know that I had a little laminated picture of him. Where could it have gone?

How could you not like a show with such wonderful stereotypes. Remember Smokey the crack head and Jimmy Ho the Korean? Bring back The PJs! Oddly enough, they still show it on late-night telly in Australia... - POP by E