Thursday, October 30, 2008

Comcast Tower Breaks Curse of William Penn

In the category of strange and wonderful comes the story of William Penn's hat. Not the real hat, but the sculpted metal hat on top of Philadelphia's City Hall. For decades, nobody was allowed to build a Philadelphia building taller than that hat. In 1987, One Liberty Place rose above the hat, and a 25 year sports championship drought followed. This led to the story of Billy Penn's Curse.

Well, as the Comcast Tower was completed and became Philadelphia's tallest building this year, ironworkers of Local Union 401 attached a small figurine of William Penn to the final beam of this new icon, in the hopes of breaking the curse. What can I say? It worked. It's one year later and the Philadelphia Phillies have won the World Series, for only the second time in franchise history and for the first major sports championship in Philadelphia in a quarter century!

Here's to curses and their subsequent breaking!

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