Here’s one of Pitt’s finest talking about the riots after the Superbowl.
"“I expect nothing less from the city of Pittsburgh. I love it, it’s just crazy. People were uprooting little trees in front of the Cathedral and passing them around, and they had a keg up on the Cathedral front balcony and people were doing keg stands. It was awesome." – student Lauren Judy
Any other Pitt students or graduates out there get warm fuzzies from this?
The Steelers just won the Superbowl, which means parties are over, the bars are emptying, people are going home, and there are countless idiots driving around the city honking like it's going out of style. Making matters worse are the groups of drunken college students staggering in and out of the streets with less appreciation for the fragility of life than usual. The icing on the cake, though, is the snow. There's a thin layer of icy snow on every road in Oakland and Squirrel Hill (and probably elsewhere) making driving a rather hazardous endeavor. Don't tell that to the heros in the SUVs, though. They're invincible. (They're loonies.)
My apartment building is off of one of the steepest roads in the city, Forward Avenue. Every time there's snow, freezing rain, or sleet it becomes a skating rink. That doesn't stop General Patton in his almighty SUV tank. No siree. There ain't no mountain high enough to stop him.
Right.
Most of them end up sliding back down. Just tonight, for instance, there was a fender bender caused by fools who thought they could tackle Mount Forward. Idiots. I hope nobody was hurt.
Of course, the drivers aren't the only ones to blame. The city takes a big chunk of that. You'd like to think the ridiculous taxes we pay would buy us decent snow and ice removal. As if. I doubt there'll be any salt on my road before sunrise. We're not on a major city artery, so we're chopped liver. I thought the new 61D bus route would mean better road maintenance. I suppose on weekdays before 10PM it might. It's Sunday, though, and the 61D doesn't run on weekends. So the ice capades continue as folks try to get home.
I don't think Forward will be taken better care of until a major accident happens. Even then, it'll probably take a law suit to overcome political inertia and get something done. Why give a damn about your electorate when your party has effortlessly controlled the city for decades?
*sigh* I should stop ranting and go to bed. I hope everyone, especially my readers, got home safe and sound from their Superbowl parties. Goodnight.
‘Nuf said.
With all the hubbub of moving to WordPress and busy at work, I forgot to point you guys to my first submission to Overheard in Pittsburgh. If you’v never read OiP before, you really should. It’s freakin’ hilarious.
BTW, a belated congratulations goes to Chris Griswold, the proprietor of OiP, who was recently interviewed by City Paper. Keep up the good work, Chris. 🙂
Update 02/06: The link’s been fixed to reflect the changed title at OiP.
One of my friends told me about the closing of a restaurant in Pittsburgh affectionately known as The O. I meant to blog about it at the time, but put it off because I didn’t quite know what to say. There’s never a good time to say these things, or an easy way to say them, so I’ll just go ahead and speak my mind.
I don’t know if anybody who reads this blog has ever been to The O. I only went once, over a year ago. It was a hot dog place to end all hot dog places. They served hot dogs, hamburgers, assorted sausages, pizza… The list went on and on. It was a operating monument to greasy food. And the fries. Oh, the fries. Plentiful doesn’t begin to describe it. You all probably remember the old McDonald’s Super-Size. Maybe you think it’s pretty big, possibly even too big. But believe me when I tell you that the regular large, not even the X-tra large, dwarfed the Super Size. I hesitate to even compare them. The scale of The O’s large defies description. You really had to see it to believe it. Imagine a regular restaurant’s big basket of fries. Got that in your head? Good. Now take that, and pile fries in it until you’ve got a good six inches. That’s the ballpark I’m talking about here. I sorely doubt any single person could have comfortably eaten it, and isn’t that how much a "large" size should really supply?
Unfortunately, I don’t live anywhere near Pittsburgh. I always knew that my chances of ever getting the chance to go back to The O were slim to nil. But you know, that was okay. I felt better just knowing that it was out there, that bastion of grease and boiling oil holding steady against the salad-mongers who invade our grocery stores by the day.
Alas! I shall miss The O. What could ever replace it?