Maybe I could be out on a limb here and ever so surely, becoming a curmudgeon but having no life at times, makes you concentrate on some of the more trivial things around you. For example: the over use of the word "Awesome." Bad as the over usage is, now it's pronounced by southern youth (as well as some baby boomers) as "ossome" which rhymes with "possum". Now where did that come from?
Now, Awesome itself is a word defined as inspiring awe, expressive as awe and showingorcharacterizedbyawe. However, it has crept into the lexicon of everyday blandness.
Typical uses could be, "I mowed the lawn this morning."
"Ossome!"
"No, it had to be done but I left a few streaks uncut."
You may think I'm nitpicking here but think about it the next time you hear your kid or someone else say, "Ossome!" Was it truly awe inspiring and will the folks from Guinness Book of World Records be rushing with sirens screaming and red lights flashing to record the "ossome" event?
Saturday, July 3, 2010 A cool morning in the low 60s beckoned me to get out and explore. This time, I wound up on Mount Washington and the West End overlooking Pittsburgh and the Allegheny and Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. A great site and at 7:30 in the morning, it was still a bit hazy overlooking the river junctures.
The community of Mt Washington has all the hills and inclines you would expect in San Francisco where the streets are narrow and cars parked outside the older homes make for a tedious venture through alley sized avenues.
Mt Washington also has a couple of attractions for which I took advantage of one, the Duquesne Incline. It lifts passengers from West Carson on the river level to Grandview at the top in Mt Washington. Built in 1877, it is a working museum. It has a sister incline railway a half mile south, the slightly older Monongahela Incline, which was built in 1870. Tourists still take time to enjoy them.
This place seems to be all about a couple of things; tunnels and bridges. It seems you can't get anywhere without experiencing one or both.
Another thing is the confusion in traffic. Just because you're in the middle lane doesn't always mean you can go straight. More than once, I found myself caught in the wrong lane and had to stay with the traffic flow at a light, lest someone would begin blowing horns at me.
Sunday, July 4, 2010 After scouting out Pittsburgh again, I looked at spots along the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers where I thought be a good vantage point for fireworks at night. Every place I looked presented possibilities but each one gave me disturbing feelings of how it might be if there were some kind of emergency or disaster and I simply didn't want to be caught or trampled by a half million people. With those ideas tucked neatly inside my cranium, it was plain to me that the safest place would be back on Mt Washington again.
Parking was terrible and traffic through the narrow streets was frustrating but nevertheless, I still believe I made the right decision in finding a spot, literally, on the edge of the hill. Although I had to wait over 2½ hours it was a pretty good spot between an Indian family and a 4 pack of young Japanese students, each speaking their own language. We all watched a regatta, sky divers and the sun go down and at 9:30 PM, we received a spectacular light show over looking the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers.
264 years ago, prominent people had a dream and a desire to be free to live their own lives with freedom to do as they pleased without the constraints of a king in another part of the world. Many died and most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence lost everything they owned including fortunes, health and loved ones. They did this for a hope for themselves and for those of us who would reap those benefits decades and centuries later.
Really! My bet was I'd be on a plane Friday just possibly going home but, alas, it didn't happen. I'm here in Pittsburgh (Bridgeville), Pennsylvania for a while. This is my first weekend here and got out a while this morning to check out Pittsburgh. I stopped off at Fort Pitt Museum and while there and shot a few shots of the bridge over the Ohio River as well as a stainless steel park bench.
I know, it's silly but I found it very interesting and it doesn't take much to keep me entertained. This area is rich in Revolutionary War history but that was then and this is now.
Somehow the geometrics combined with the reflections gave me pause to click a few.
In almost every city you go to, someone you know has already been or lived there and occasionally will give helpful advice on places to go, things to do or something to eat. In Cincinnati, it was Skyline Chili, Chicago, it's one of the Chicago style pizza joints, Hawaii it was Poi and in Tuscaloosa, it's Dreamland Barbeque. So in the case of Pittsburgh, a colleague (yes, Mac, you) summarily prodded, if not conned, me into looking up Primanti Brothers Restaurant, a little dive down in the warehouse district or "the strip district". Umpteen years ago, they started making sandwiches supposedly for truckers that included meats, cheese, french fries and coleslaw all jammed together between two slices of Italian bread. Slices, not a bun.
I'm always open to the local flavor so I trotted down to the original location in the Strip District on 18th Street. Primanti Bros. is a cash only place with stainless steel counters, a caricature mural of famous people who've eaten there and a half dozen waitresses with the charm and warmth of an IRS agent.
The waitress mumbled, "Whattayahavin'?" and I replied, "Whatever is your number one sandwich." Tinkerbell snapped, "They're all number one" and walked off to intimidate another patron. When she returned, I took the cue to order something quickly, so I blurted out, "The steak sandwich and iced tea!"
Well, when she eventually plopped that thing down all wrapped in butcher paper, I opened it to find a sandwich about 4 or 5 inches tall cut in two. I realize presentation can be subjective in some cases.
It must be a local thing (see the reference to poi in Hawaii and chili in Cincinnati) because I couldn't see what the big deal was. First of all, I had to mash it down so I could take a bite and in doing so, the vinegar based coleslaw caused the bread to be soggy, hence the thing to fell apart. That with the combination of tasteless french fries in between the steak slices and slaw just made it, well.....a revolting experience. Like I said, I guess it must be a local thing. If I admitted that to the locals, I'd be run out on a rail.
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. ~ J R R Tolkien
Thanks
Hi, I'm C R and thanks for the visit. I travel quite a bit and hopefully, this way, I can give you some photos and tales of my travels without you having to download them all.
Living on the road over 300 days a year absolutely destroys many a road warrior's dietary discipline.
Here's a few things I believe are detrimental to you and avoiding them are helpful in the prevention of packing on the pounds.
1. If your restaurant features some kind of stylized figure or cartoon character as it's logo or spokes person, don't go there, you can gain two pounds just by watching the commercial.
2. If your restaurant has a lighted sign on a pole and colored with yellow, red and blue, don't go there. You're a victim of subliminal advertising. Those colors crank your appetite into high gear.
3. Watch the other patrons. If more than half of them can be can be classified as overweight, fat, obese or morbidly obese, don't go there. You are who you associate with and misery loves company.
4. If your waitress delivers you two plates for you to serve yourself, don't go there. Buffet lines tend to make you want to "get your money's worth".
5. If your restaurant always has a cashier that can't operate the register and has to punch the pictures on the keyboard, don't go there. He or she wouldn't be able to spell cholesterol anyway.
6. If your restaurant asks you not to place the plastic trays in the garbage, don't go there. At least a tip isn't involved.
7. If you can't understand your waiter because the cars behind you drown out the speaker on the sign, don't go there.
8. If you find yourself humming the jingle of your restaurant, don't go there.
9. If you saw the restaurant's logo on the side of a truck and trailer on the interstate, don't go there.
10. If you know the menu by number and "super-size" is part of it, don't go there.
11. Finally, don't order diet beverages. Only fat people drink them.
Good advice, I think. Do I live by these words of caution, oh heck no! I fight the pounds like everybody else but I do believe that obesity is associated with these foods.
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