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Not only are people stuck at home, instead of making a mess at the workplace or school, but people are using the time to clean out the basement.
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In Philadelphia, as in most other major American cities right now, trash collection has become a problem during the coronavirus pandemic. Not only are people stuck at home, instead of making a mess at the workplace or school, but people are using the time to clean out the basement or do yardwork, or both. In addition, there are delivery boxes and even cities that have banned plastic bags have allowed them for public health reasons. Then there's the problem of the safety of the trash collectors. Not all heroes wear capes. Or a pretend cape made from a Hefty bag.

Why are Philly’s streets full of trash during Covid-19? City’s former Zero Waste and Litter Director weighs in. [Grid Philly, July 21, 2020]

Philly asks residents to put trash out a day later as it catches up on garbage pickup [Philadelphia Inquirer, July 19, 2020]

Not a day goes by I do not think about this article.
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Not a day goes by I do not think about this article...

French writers' coronavirus getaways prompt backlash

Accounts of bucolic isolation by Leïla Slimani and Marie Darrieussecq prompt charges of elitism and comparisons to Marie Antoinette

By Alison Flood, the Guardian

Leïla Slimani in 2017.
 ‘A bit like Sleeping Beauty’ … Leïla Slimani in 2017. Photograph: Alamy

Leïla Slimani and Marie Darrieussecq may be two of France’s most acclaimed writers – but their accounts of life in lockdown in their second homes in the countryside have unleashed an outpouring of resentment among French readers, with one fellow writer even comparing Slimani to Marie Antoinette. More...

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Iron Age Theatre has 6 online events

Through June 21, The Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia is streaming their 2018 production of James Ijames's KILL MOVE PARADISE as a fundraiser for Black Lives Matter Philly (BLM Philly). Get Tickets

Friday, 10pm EST, the Playground in San Francisco presents a Zoom reading of POLAR BEARS, BLACK BOYS & PRAIRIE FRINGED ORCHIDS by Vincent Terrell Durham. Reservations, Tickets, Donations

Are you more interested in British history? Because there's nothing interesting going on in your immediate neighborhood? Small Island, adapted by Helen Edmundson and directed by Rufus Norris, is streaming for free with National Theatre at Home from 7pm UK time on Thursday 18 June, until 7pm UK time on Thursday 25 June 2020. It is subtitled.

Things you have already found on your own:

Dave Chappelle's 8:46

Last Week Tonight: What does it mean to Defund the Police?

Philly diverts $14 million from police funding in late-night budget agreement with no public comment (BillyPenn.com 6/18/2020)

Under [Mayor] Kenney’s watch, the PPD’s budget has ballooned 30% to more than $725 million. In early May, while grappling with the pandemic’s unprecedented economic toll, the mayor proposed well over a $19 million increase over last year in the name of public safety. He rescinded most of that proposed boost last week amid heavy backlash.

Council’s preliminary budget simply moved an additional $14 million from the police budget to the Managing Director’s Office: $12.3 million for crossing guards and $1.9 million for Council President Darrell Clarke’s new fleet of public safety enforcement officers, according to budget documents.