Close-up, the effect on library walkability in certain neighborhoods is "pretty devastating." When a neighborhood is shown on a human scale, library walkability plummets.

I think we all, President Obama included, are long past ready — now that the cabinet's in place and the White House cleaning staff's hard at work ridding the place of the stench of blood money — for him to get down to the business of fixing this country.

"Maybe in years to come I'll be proved wrong, but I don't see New York, Chicago or Boston resorting to this 'solution' — why should Philly have to?"

Now, as we leave this most depressing week of January, we're all realizing that this is not a could-have-been situation. These Eagles were always this.

If Obama can blend green, healthy policies with the symbolism of actual green, healthy living, it could the greatest thing since chocolate met peanut butter.

Watching Jenn Figg and Tatiana Ginsberg repeatedly lay out and then remove the shadow of a tree is like peeking backstage at nature, catching a glimpse of the invisible stagehands who keep the planet's processes in motion.

Stein's world shows us trees that have been clear-cut and terrain now leveled and paved. The baffled coyote is left standing in the middle of a parking lot, its majestic stance beckoning nothing more than the overhead street lamp.

Hedda's real tragedy is that she's more conventional than she wants to be. These wretched men in their different ways are still in control of her mind and heart. Hedda may be bossy and angry, the Bitch of the Baltic — but one thing she is not is a lesbian.

This is a marvelous evening of theater: intimate, sincere, magical. If it inspires theatergoers to read Chaim Potok and readers to attend plays, then it will be doubly successful.

Pianist Billy Childs strikes a fairly even balance between the jazz and chamber sides of his output, swaying from impressionistic through composed-string pieces to Chick Corea-influenced fusion-lite workouts.

Alice Smith sings notes that, honestly, aren't usually enjoyable to the common ear. Somehow she makes them seem like the sweetest thing.

Christoph Eschenbach has returned to town, a couple of years after being told, essentially, that his services would no longer be needed, for a veritable Eschenbach festival.

No, he doesn't lift it over his head and pluck the strings with his teeth before setting his gayageum on fire and hurling it into a crowd of screaming teenage girls. He just plays with an impressive steadiness that's expressive without being wild.

If you attend enough live music events, you will occasionally encounter a musician who can conjure that "old-fashioned" sensibility.

South Philly Taproom Beef and Beer | Home Style Classics: A Celebration of Comfort Foods | Restaurant Week at Zahav | Hook & Ladder Night at Grey Lodge | Xochitl Restaurant Week

"I think your question contained a premise that was so much funnier and better than any answer a person can come up with. Then as the interviewee you just try to go along with it but also feel a grudging respect for the question. But also I have to say a little anger, 'cause you feel cornered — that question was so much funnier and more interesting than any answer I can invent."

Wed., Jan. 28, 7 p.m., $15, North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., 866-468-7619, northstarbar.com

Wed. Jan 28, 7 p.m., free, Penn Bookstore, 3601 Walnut St., 215-898-7595, stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

Fri., Jan. 23, 7:30 p.m., free, Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, 215-735-3456, phillyethics.net

Sat., Jan. 24, noon-5:30 p.m., $15, Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Road, Newtown, 724-836-1266, mufon.com