W. W. H. Davis, Doylestown, Bucks County

First, happy capital day to the city of Lancaster! As you may remember, it was on this day in 1777 that Lancaster became the capital of the United States... and lost the designation one day later. The Founding Fathers, having taken refuge in Lancaster as the British captured Philadelphia, decided to put the Susquehanna River between themselves and anyone who might be pursuing them, and relocated the capital to the city of Yorktown (now just called York). 

I couldn't quite decide what to write about for this week's quest, so I put up a poll for the blog's Facebook followers and asked them to make the choice for me. Much to my surprise, it ended in a tie, which was no help to me at all! So I resorted to that time-honored method of making a decision, flipping a coin, and the result is today's post. (If you voted for one of the other two options, don't worry - they'll both be appearing in October.) Join me for a look at the life of one of Bucks County's most celebrated sons - a veteran of two wars, prolific author, and prominent Doylestown resident.

Philo T. Farnsworth, Glenside, Montgomery County

This week's quest is rather a fun one, with a marker photo courtesy of my friend and former coworker Sheila. (She said she saw it and thought of me - thank you!) Of course, as I've said many times in the past, we in Pennsylvania do like our firsts and oldests. We're the home of America's first zoo and the world's oldest roller coaster, to name but two. We're also, up in Schuylkill County, the birthplace of cable television, which I'll be talking about in a future post. But today, I'm going to tell you about Pennsylvania's role in the creation of electronic television, which came before cable.

Valley Forge General Hospital, Phoenixville, Chester County

Last Wednesday was my [insert number here]th birthday, and I intended to do a special blog post; but between the various acts of celebration (I basically had a birthday week, because what's the point of getting older if you don't have fun with it) and some really bad weather, it didn't get posted in time. But it did get posted! So if you'd like to have couple of chuckles vaguely related to the content of this blog, you'll find it here.

Speaking of my birthday, in the September newsletter I put out a request for a birthday gift from my readers - I asked everyone to help me bridge the final gap standing between this blog and reaching the 100,000 page view mark. Well, you all delivered way faster than I expected, and the milestone was reached within 36 hours of the newsletter being sent! Thank you! Even more incredibly, the blog received a little over 10,000 hits just during the month of August, and with September not quite half over we're on track to double that. Honestly, I don't know how so many people are finding me but I'm beyond grateful.

For today's quest, we're going to head back down to scenic Chester County and learn about Valley Forge General Hospital. Despite the obvious implications of the name, this actually doesn't have anything to do with the America Revolution. It does, however, have an unexpected connection to - of all things - Saturday Night Live.

Blogger Birthday, Something Silly

So about half a million years ago (give or take a few hundred thousand), Labor Day fell on September 6th in the United States, and I came into the world. This year, for the first time since the blog began in 2018, that date happened to be on a blog update day, and I wanted very much to do something special.

Instead, what you're getting is something incredibly silly. These are actual signs I have seen or been sent by friends and loved ones - they're not historical markers, but they're somewhat in the spirit of the marker program. Somewhat. If you squint.

Anyway, please enjoy my birthday month and have a piece of cake for me. And I hope these all make you smile as they did me.