We know you know this but it always bears repeating: Nothing in Philadelphia is clean. Not even what ought to be routine matters of hard fact. Not even that wistful little story cycle about 30th Street Station's departures flipboard, itself soon to depart. Philebrity friend and correspondent Michael McGettigan, still unsatisfied with the why of the whole thing, took it upon himself yesterday to ring up the company that makes and maintains such signs and found out the following, which he duly forwarded to to both us and the Philadelphia Preservation Alliance last night:

UPDATE 6 September 2016 : I just got off the phone with a staffer at SOLARI, the makers and maintainers of such flip boards as the one at 30th St. Station. The story AMTRAK is promoting, that the SOLARI board is beyond repair, is not correct. SOLARI maintains and repairs such boards at a moderate cost--world-wide. They are doing brand-new flip board installs for STARBUCKS and other major companies. Amtrak has NOT contacted Solari regarding their board at 30th St. in decades. It appears the motivation here is to put in a large video screen which could also run advertising and generate revenue, at the expense of making the station into a giant TV room. Have forwarded what I learned to the Inquirer, and hope something develops about this. --Michael McGettigan

Oh, say it isn't so, beloved 30th Street! Hide your shame, brothers and sisters of Amtrak. What this does for the ongoing petition to keep the board, time will tell. But in the meantime, we'd like to pause and say, not for the first time, and certainly not the last: God damn it, Philly. Why is it always like this with you?