At 3:30AM, I woke up in Vung Tau to this news from Catdompa at SubStack, "Linh, 9 shot outside Jack's Famous bar in Kensington last night. Typical, suv pulls up gunmen fire at crowd. Some 40 shots. 4 critical."

Jack's is a great bar. When I left Philly +4 years ago, it was still owned by Mel, a very well-read old Jewish guy with an oil painter for a wife. He was about to sell the bar to some "Asian guy" I never saw. With the neighborhood gone way downhill, Jack's didn't welcome nightshift workers in the morning but pimps, whores, junkies and maybe an old dude or two who couldn't sleep.

I wrote about Jack's, McGlinchey's, Dirty Frank's or Friendly Lounge more than any other Philly bar. Below are links to some photos of Jack's.

A panorama showing decades-old bottles and a handful of regulars, 7/28/15:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2015/07/jackx27s-famous-bar-on-7-28-15.html

With Samantha Melamed of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/13/17. Wanting to write about Jack's, she asked me to be her guide. With the neighborhood so deadly, she probably didn't feel safe going there by herself:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2017/05/samantha-melamed-at-jackx27s-famous-bar.html

With Jonathan Revusky, visiting from Spain on 4/22/17:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2017/04/linh-dinh-and-jonathan-revusky-in.html

Bartender Phyllis with a friend on 12/25/14:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2014/12/phyllis-and-friend-in-jackx27s-on.html

Me receiving charity food and Christian booklets on Christmas of 2014:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2014/12/linh-dinh-in-jackx27s-with-bag-of-gifts.html

Photo from 1/20/14. Note at the time, "His first war was Vietnam, and his last was Desert Storm in 1991, so the 'Iraqi Freedom Veteran' cap is not appropriate. He survived all these wars because he was merely a cook, he confided. When I asked if I could take his photo, he said, 'I don't care! You can take a photo of my balls if you want to!":

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2014/01/army-veteran-at-jacks-kensington-by.html

Poet Hai-Dang Phan visiting from Iowa on 8/24/15:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2015/08/hai-dang-at-jacks-kensington.html

Old woman drinking an empty mug for at least an hour because she had run out of money, 3/31/14:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2014/03/jackx27s-on-3-19-14-kensington-by-linh.html

Lovely Jack's at night in beautiful Kensington on 3/31/14:

https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2014/03/jackx27s-on-3-19-14-kensington-4-by.html