Underrated Places [NOT 23/6/23]

What's Out But Should Be In?

23/6/23 blue dogcollar 18
WC Fields
W.C. Fields in His Lordship's Dilemma / Excerpt from The Moving Picture World / October 9, 1915

What If You Were W.C. Fields?

In 1920, W.C. Fields jokingly suggested he’d like his gravestone to be inscribed with the phrase “I’d Rather Be in Philadelphia.” He also joked in one of his movies ““I’d like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.”

Philadelphia has long been the butt of jokes, but like Fields, I think it’s better than the grave. It’s been a few years since I’ve been there, but I actually think it’s a pretty good place to visit. It’s walkable, a nice scale, lots of good little restaurants, bars and shops, and has tons of history.

What’s an underrated place for you? Somewhere that a lot of people look down on, but you’d actually recommend people check out?

Cities, Towns, Parks, Places?

Maybe it’s a local hole in the wall restaurant where the food is pretty decent and you can always snag a table. Maybe it’s a National Park which somehow always gets overlooked in favor of Yellowstone. Maybe it’s a beach that people skip because the drive there is ugly and the nearby town is dingy, but the sand and water are great. Maybe it’s a thrift store that isn’t stylish, but you can still find a lot of fun stuff.

Let us know, Deadsplinterfinders, about some place that’s a diamond in the rough you’d go to if you were in the vicinity, or you’d bring people you knew weren’t too fussy about every little thing.

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18 Comments

  2. I’ve always really liked Philadelphia. And the rents, compared to NYC and DC, are much more favorable.

    A long while ago Better Half had a series of interviews with President Biden’s old boss, when he was a Senator, MBNA, which was HQ’d in Wilmington, Cayman Islands Delaware. He came really close to getting the job but he finally asked if he would be working out of New York. How he put it was, “So would I live in Wilmington?” And the woman, HR I guess, said, “Oh God no, you’d live in Philly or the burbs, like the rest of us.”

    • Yeah, I don’t know much about Wilmington but it seems like a stretch.

      But Philly is fun. I’m struggling to think of the kind of concentrated high end elegance you might encounter in NYC, London, Paris, Boston, California, etc., but there are certainly nice parts and there are parts where you feel like neighbors are always bumping into each other, in a good way.

    • The area around Rittenhouse Square is pretty swelegant. Nearby is something called The Gayborhood and I don’t know how upscale that is but the whole neighborhood has these 2- and 3-story houses that must be from the 19th century at the latest.

  3. I enjoy visiting California, but I like San Diego area the best and if I had a choice that’s where I’d want to live.

    SF is nice, but too fucking pretentious (even worse with the arrival of the Google/FB libertarian wannabe people.)

    LA is too LA for me. I feel like I’m in a stupid bubble when I’m in LA.

    And forget Orange County. I’ve encountered many jackasses there.

  4. zwolle….tho i dont think people underestimate it…..its just that the rest of the world doesnt know about the netherlands outside of the randstand

    zwolle is gorgeous

    and old….as the map probably gives away

    • Ooh, wow, I want to go there.

      I get the sense the whole area is full of places like that. The one time I was anywhere close I did a day trip to Aachen and another to Trier, which are sort of second tier attractions compared to Amsterdam or Cologne, but they were great.

      • pretty much….amsterdam is the tourist pull…. but pretty much anywhere in the netherlands near water has places like the above

        aaaand…you know… a beer is like half as much here as in amsterdam

  5. If you’re in southeastern Missouri, Sam A Baker State Park is lovely and you can easily wade into a pretty section of the St Francois River.

    If you’re travelling outside of the US, Belize is very much overlooked in favor of places with big beaches. I think there’s some beach areas in the southeast part of the country, but the Maya Mountains near Guatemala are just gorgeous and the cayes are beautiful too.

  6. oh also….if you are ever here

    and see a febo

    try it!

    yeah we have walls of food here!

    insert money…..to unlock food

    its pretty fresh too…i think theres a rule of like 2 hours…the bigger the city the fresher the snackage….

  9. The Barbary in Philly was good. It was a down and dirty frat-style bar the had a great booker. I saw Hanni El Kahtib and Bass Drum of Death there. Covid killed it, closed in early 2022.

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