December 22, 2005 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Life

Every DogHaus has his day, thanks to Rebecca Paul
by MARIE FOWLER

“We’ve all had babies,” interior designer Rebecca Paul remembers vowing, “so we can do this!” Paul speaks of the nine-month time frame in which three Chestnut Hill women conceived and brought into being the first DogHaus fund-raiser in 2003. Co-founders Lynn Lehocky, Robin Allen and Paul, all Hill natives, whirled into action, launching a designer showcase to benefit the Pennsylvania Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

‘Family Guy’ irreverent, politically incorrect, hilarious
by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.

When Matt Groening took his comic strip characters, The Simpsons, and turned them into a weekly-animated TV show for the FOX network almost 20 years ago, he had no clue how long the show would run or how much audiences would love every episode. The Simpsons have been a Sunday night staple for the network and a meter for popular culture, or rather, a meter for the decline of popular culture ever since.

George Gordon Meade Easby, whose house on Mermaid Lane is a virtual museum, was the great grandson of General George Gordon Meade, who led the Union forces at the Battle of Gettysburg. )

Visitors didn’t stand a“ghost of a chance”
George G. Meade Easby, a one-of-a-kind Hiller
by LEN LEAR

When The Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill had the official opening for its fall art exhibit, Plants for all Seasons, one piece had already been sold. The sale represented a first on two counts; it was the first painting in the exhibit to be sold, and it was the artist’s first sale of his art. The artist is 13-year-old, Kevin Wiesner, a student at Germantown Friends School and a resident of Wyndmoor.

Brilliant Christmas concerts in area
By Michael Caruso

BLUEGRASS AT MERMAID INN: The Youngers, a talented band from Berks Count that combines bluegrass music with electric guitars, will be performing at The Mermaid Inn at 7673 Winston Rd. (Mermaid Lane & Germantown Avenue) on Thursday, Dec. 29, 8 p.m. For More information about the band, visit www.theyoungers.com.

Two of Philadelphia’s leadingchoruses presented Christmas concerts this past weekend. With sufficient energy, it was possible to take in both performances on the same day, which is what I did on Saturday. I heard the Mendelssohn Club’s “A Feast of Carols” right here in Chestnut Hill at 4 in the afternoon in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church; then, at 8 in the evening, I caught the Choral Arts Society’s “Christmas in Leipzig, 1723” in the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

Bennett Fairorth stands on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill, where much of the action in his latest novel takes place. (Photo by Paula Riley)

Area novelist features Hill sites in latest book
by PAULA RILEY

You may not recognize the name Yin Yang, a Chinese restaurant with a bit of French flair, but once you read Philadelphia Holidays 2004, Turkish Pleasures 1997, you’ll surely know it as Cin Cin, the main character’s favorite dinner spot.