Philadelphia Drag Queen Now Delivering Anti-Trump Telegrams – And Wawa

Left: Philadelphia drag queen Brittany Lynn (played by Ian Morrison) delivering anti-Trump messaging and Wawa in Philadelphia. (Photo courtesy Brittany Lynn/Ian Morrison) | Right: Wawa hoagies (photo by Claudia Gavin)

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Philadelphia Drag Queen Brittany Lynn Now Delivering Anti-Trump Telegrams — and Wawa

One of the things that’s so fun about this job is that Philadelphia is positively filled with interesting characters whose activities provide you with no shortage of stories. And if you asked me a week ago if I thought that I’d ever lead my daily column with a story about a Philadelphia drag queen delivering anti-Trump telegrams while also delivering Wawa hoagies, I would have hard time believing you. But here we are.

Brittany Lynn, whose non-drag name is Ian Morrison, is the same South Philadelphia drag queen whose October 19th show was summarily canceled last week by Italian restaurant Popi’s (the show is now happening at the drag-loving Fringe Bar instead). And it was out of that mess that she got the idea to launch this novel new service.

For $100 ($150 in the burbs), Brittany Lynn will show up dressed as a Handmaid and deliver a personalized, handwritten telegram to anyone you want, all of the telegrams ending with the line “Fuck This Administration.” You can send the telegram anonymously or not, so let’s say your Uncle Alberto in Packer Park is a big Trumper and you want to tell him a thing or two but just can’t bring yourself to do it yourself, you can hire Brittany Lynn to do your dirty work. She will also bring Uncle Alberto a Wawa hoagie, a bag of chips, and a shot of Fireball as part of the deal.

And what is she using the money for? To fund her controversial Drag Queen Storytime events, of course.

“This is the thing that upsets them the most,” she tells Philly Mag. “So I will arrive stoically, with my head down, and deliver your telegram, and your money will go to the thing that goes against all of their beliefs.”

You can, of course, also just send somebody a happy birthday note. Brittany Lynn says she will continue to provide the service through November, “when the Gobbler hits.”

“Maybe Wawa will offer me a partnership,” she chuckles.

Josh Shapiro on Meet the Press

Hours before Donald Trump would take to the stage at the Charlie Kirk memorial in Arizona, telling the bloodthirsty crowd “I hate my opponents,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro took to Meet the Press on Sunday morning, interviewed by host (and Philly native) Kristen Welker, who asked Shapiro about, among other things, ABC suspending Jimmy Kimmel indefinitely. Here’s some of what Shapiro had to say:

Our foundational principle in this country, which has roots in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — William Penn settled here in the 1680s — is about freedom of expression, freedom of speech. And to see that being undermined by the long arm of the federal government is extremely dangerous. Again, whether you agree with Jimmy Kimmel or not, whether you found him funny or not, to fire someone because he told a joke about the president repeatedly and the president didn’t like it, to fire him because he was inartful in his words in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk, when you have others in the media, and I mean this as no disrespect, who really inartful every day, right? That is dangerous when we are selectively firing people because of their viewpoints.

And in addition to having Jimmy Kimmel no longer on the air, I think there’s a deeper issue here I wanted to just take a moment on. I was on a Spanish language radio program in the Allentown area, the Lehigh Valley here in Pennsylvania, just the other day. The host was asking me a bunch of questions about the work we’re doing here in Pennsylvania. And he said something really chilling to me, that he now has to think about what topics he’s going to discuss because he’s fearful he might offend federal regulators or offend the president.

Now, this wasn’t that type of a program where we were engaged in a lot of that conversation. But the fact that you have journalists now who will think, “Do I really want to probe some elected leader on that particular topic because it could offend federal regulators? Do I want to tell that joke because it might put someone off? Do I want to adjust my views to be more on the right-wing side of the political conversation to curry favor with these federal regulators?” That in many ways is even more dangerous than silencing one person, no disrespect, of course, to Jimmy Kimmel and his powerful voice.

I think we’re at a really dangerous moment here. And censorship, and what we’re seeing from the federal government, only serves to further divide us and make us less safe, and erode our fundamental freedoms here in this country. And for a Republican Party led by Donald Trump, who loved for decades to, you know, cloak themselves in this blanket of patriotism and freedom, heck, Donald Trump was talking about free speech in his inaugural address, what was that, seven or eight months ago. And now, to see how quickly they are eroding one of the foundational guideposts of our nation should scare everyone, whether you agree with the president or not, whether you voted for him or not. We are all less safe and less free because of the actions of this administration.

You can watch the full interview here. Shapiro is the first guest in the linked episode.

Calder Gardens Finally Opens

The new Philadelphia museum and gardens dedicated to the work of sculptor Alexander Calder officially opened on Sunday. I haven’t had the chance to get over there just yet, but I was amused by what an artist-friend of mine who went on opening day had to say about it:

“The new Calder museum in Philadelphia is a great museum for people who don’t like art,” he wrote on social media. “It only takes 18 minutes to see everything and there’s no pesky signage about the pieces or Calder himself. And almost none of the mobiles were moving, which seems like an odd design choice given the subject matter. The interior of the museum is lovely and the garden aspect wonderful. Go on a windy day so that you might get to see the outdoor sculptures moving. Just understand it’s a short experience for the $18 admission.”

As for the opinions of others: Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron had no shortage of praise for Calder Gardens as did the New York Times and the New Yorker.

For more background on Calder Gardens, read this Philly Mag feature.

By the Numbers

3-0: The record of the Eagles after that nailbiter of a game on Sunday. Did anybody have a parlay that the Eagles perform miserably during the first half, that Jalen Hurts would get viciously sacked more than once, and that the Eagles would block not one but two Rams field goal attempts and come back from a sad deficit to win the game? If so, you must have won a ton of cash. Next up: We travel to Florida to take on the also 3-0 Buccaneers this Sunday at 1 pm.

$75,000: What Eagles head of security Big Dom reportedly has to pay the NFL after the organization fined him for texting from the bench during a preseason game. Curious that the fine for a non-player texting from the bench during a preseason game is $17,778 more than a player actually spitting on another player while on the field gets fined.

1: Number of Democratic United States senators who voted in favor of a Republican-led spending bill to keep the government funded into November and avoid a government shutdown. And I’ll give you just one guess which Democrat broke ranks to side with the Republicans. Yes, the big guy with a penchant for hoodies and shorts. (Btw, the bill failed to pass the Senate.)

80: Age of Flyers legend Bernie Parent, who passed away over the weekend. The Flyers have only won two Stanley Cups, back when Parent played for them in the 1970s.

Local Talent

NBC just announced the opening lineup of Saturday Night Live‘s 51st (!!!) season, which kicks off on October 4th with host Bad Bunny and musical guest Doja Cat. Then, on October 11th, it’s Amy Poehler with singer-songwriter Role Model, fka rapper Tucker. (It was a good career switch — trust me). One week later, Pride of Quakertown Sabrina Carpenter fills the job of both host and musical guest, and I have to say that some of the best hosts in recent years have actually been musicians, not comedians. (See: the Adele and Bad Bunny episodes). With all the hubbub over Jimmy Kimmel, you’ve gotta wonder if Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts (Comcast being the parent company of NBC) is having some serious trepidation about what SNL is going to try to pull.