It's probably too late by the time you read this, but Thursday's edition of The Daily News is a keeper because of the tabloid inside that celebrates the paper's 120th anniversary. It features historic front pages, old comic strips, and capsule bios of some of the paper's more colorful characters, including legendary art director John "Dink" Ulm, sports writer Merrill Granger, columnist M.F. Bowes, society editor Eleanor Kratzer, photographer Irv Saylor, and reporter Red McCurdy.
I got the last copy that the dairy store near my home had, so either people really wanted that tab, or else they were desperate to see what "Nancy" was up to. (I hope it's not the latter.) The News usually has back issues available at street price, if you stop in the lobby during business hours.
It's worth remembering that the News was once much more of a regional paper than it is now; but of course, Our Fair City was once much more of a regional power than it is now. Frankly, I'd like to see both the News and Our Fair City shake off a little of their self-doubt and behave with more of the swagger that characterized both from the teens through the '50s. The whole Mon-Yough area would be better off for it. During my year at the News (which did the paper no appreciable harm, so far as I can tell), the comment that made me cringe was when a former editor told me that there was no sense trying to compete with the Pittsburgh papers, because "we're only The Daily News."
Well, good grief, why don't we turn out the lights and go home? I thought. And I later said it to that editor --- which did not endear me, I fear. (I have that effect on bosses.)
It's hard not to argue that journalism and newspapers have improved, in general, since the 1950s. But as has been stated in this space before, many newspapers have also lost a sense of their communities, and by sanding off the rough edges of their reporters and editors in the name of "professionalism" and "diversity," they've also drained the color out of their columns --- thus losing a lot of what made them interesting to read.
All of the caterwauling, navel-gazing and back-seat driving done by the dozens of self-appointed journalism experts, from the Poynter Institute to partisan bodies like the Media Research Center and FAIR, hasn't really improved the products, as best as I can tell. Instead, it's only scared most newspapers into being timid, lowest-common denominator distributors of pre-digested pabulum.
However: In fairness to the News, it is showing more spunk and vigor in the last few years than I've seen it display since I first was able to read. Certainly there's more local content, and the editorial page is staking out actual positions on topics. Good on them, and I wish 'em another 120 years. I buy a News every day, and if you live in the Mon-Yough area, you should, too.
And go get a copy of Thursday's paper, if you can find it. It's worth it, if only to read a 1936 "Nancy" and see that "Nancy" wasn't any funnier then than it is now.
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Still looking for your favorite Mon-Yough valley place or attraction. Send 'em to me at jt3y at dementia dot o-r-g. Best one received before November 1 will earn the submitter one free item from the Tube City Online store.
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Gen Lucidi of the Woodland Hills Progress has a neat interview and profile this week of Chuck Blasko and The Vogues that's worth reading. I sent it to a family member of one of the Vogues, who tells me it's good, though there are a few inaccuracies. For instance, "Five O'Clock World" was featured in the movie "Good Morning, Vietnam," not "Good Morning, America." (Although wouldn't it be interesting to see Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer singing "Five O'Clock World"?)
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As a occasional pinball player (a bad one), and someone who used to repair pinball machines, this story by Bob Batz Jr. in the Post-Gazette is disheartening:
The Professional Amateur Pinball Association briefly boasted a collection of 232 pinball machines, including a Blackwater 100, a motocross game of "mud, sweat and tears." That theme now describes PAPA's newly opened headquarters in Scott, just across Chartiers Creek from Carnegie.
Five feet of flood water rose over the flippers of the "Fish Tales" and other machines, destroying every one. It happened one week after renovations were rushed so the building could host more than 300 people for the PAPA 7 World Pinball Championships, Sept. 9-12.
A tip of the Tube City Online hard hat to Officer Jim, who reports that the cheerleaders have gone wild at Linebacker U., according to the Daily Collegian of Penn State:
State College police reported that a woman walking through the area of the Student Book Store had refused the complimentary stickers the Penn State cheerleaders were passing out to those walking by the store.
Police said that upon leaving the store, the woman exited through a door farther away from the squad to avoid it. A group of people dressed in Penn State cheerleading uniforms then approached her and covered her with about 20 stickers, despite her protests, police said.
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On a tape of a secretly wiretapped prison conversation from May 2000, a lively comical discussion ensues as Abdel-Rahman and Arabic interpreter Mohamed Yousry attempt to remember Islam's English stage name.
"Add Yusuf Islam," Abdel-Rahman dictates to Yousry in Arabic. "That singer ... he was a famous singer, then God changed his life. That British singer."
"Lynne do you know this guy who was a member of the Beatles or something ... and now he is a Muslim?" Yousry asks.
"Is it Ringo?" Stewart asks puzzled. "Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr ... the drummer, and the third one who was never around, George Harrison?"
"Maybe," Yousry replied. "He is one of those. He was one of the Beatles."
"Oh yeah, he was the most famous," the sheik concurs in Arabic.
Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly interviewed President Bush yesterday and will air the chat Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Topics range from his National Guard service, Iraq and the Swift boat ads to weapons of mass destruction ...
A correspondent asks when I'm going to add some new tourist attractions to our McKeesport "visitors" page. Good point. It hasn't been updated in about 18 months. I'm taking suggestions; the attractions must be open to the public and not located in the city of Pittsburgh.
I tend to define "Mon-Yough area" as roughly bounded by the Parkway East to the north; Route 136 to the south; Route 51 to the west and the Turnpike to the east. Draw a circle about 10 miles in diameter from the junction of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers, and that'll catch most of it.
Send your favorite Mon-Yough valley place or attraction to me at jt3y at dementia dot o-r-g. Best one received before November 1 will earn the submitter one free item from the Tube City Online store.
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The restaurant page needs to be updated, too; I've eaten at several nice out-of-the-way places in the Mon Valley recently. Check in a week or so.
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President Bush will be flying over Western Pennsylvania to inspect flood damage today, but federal officials aren't disclosing the route of his helicopter for security reasons.
That sounds sensible. Unfortunately, it will also prevent us from expressing our true affection and gratitude to the President.
Just to make sure, every time you hear a helicopter today, I suggest running outside and dropping your drawers. Sooner or later, you're bound to moon the right chopper.
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Joanna Blair reports in the Trib that the problem-plagued Alpine Village shopping center off of Scenery Drive in Elizabeth Township is nearly full under the township's management.
Alpine Village is now generating tax revenue for Elizabeth Township, according to the chairman of the municipal authority that runs it. Renters and other businesses are paying about $28,000 per year in taxes, and the complex broke (barely) into the black last year.
Unfinished sections of the complex are now filled, Blair writes, and the number of tenants has gone from seven to 12.
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R.D. Summers of WWSW-FM (94.5) has compiled a "Top 100" list of Pittsburgh's favorite oldies, and counted them down on Labor Day. The complete list is online and contains many of the usual suspects: Number 1 is the incomparable "Since I Don't Have You" by Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners; Number 2 is "Oh, My Angel" by Bertha Tillman, which I can take or leave. (Maybe you had to be 17 when you first heard that song, and dancing with your first true girlfriend or boyfriend to love it. To me, it's just OK.)
But Number 3 is one of my all-time favorite records: "At Last" by Etta James. It never fails to give me goosebumps. Yikes!
Many of the songs were hits only in Pittsburgh, and most fall in the period between 1957 to 1965. Still, there's a wide range of musical styles represented (R&B, soul, jazz, pop, rock, country) by a diverse range of artists: solo artists; black, white and multi-ethnic assortments; girl groups and all-male groups.
I don't want to sound like a complete old poop --- I wasn't born with these songs were hits, but I know these songs. I'll bet most of the people in my parents' generation could hum all or most of them, at least if they grew up in Our Fair City.
However, I wonder: With all of the songs on "contemporary hit radio" sounding pretty much alike these days, what will a "Top 100 oldies" list look like in 2040? I suspect that with the homogenization of music radio from city to city, it will look pretty much the same, all across the country. I also suspect that none of the melodies of the Top 100 of, say, 1997 to 2004 will be memorable in 2040.
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Kim Lyons of the Observer-Reporter struck just the right note of whimsy in her story about how the publishers of the "Yellow Book" confused Petersburg, Pa. (near State College), with Peters Township in their recent Washington County edition.
The publishers of the "Yellow Book," which is not published by any local phone company, also mixed up Canton Township (a rural suburb next to Washington, Pa.) with Canton, Pa., which is in northern Pennsylvania.
It all means many of the addresses in the Washington County "Yellow Book" are wrong. A spokesman for the company that prints the book says they don't intend to correct the mistakes until the next edition, due out in May --- so if you live in Washington County and your address is wrong, hard cheese.
I'm no big fan of Verizon, but it sounds like a good reason to stick with their book.
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Since I was a kid, there's been a "Rexall" pharmacy in Liberty Borough --- Kessling's. Last time I checked, they still even had a soda fountain there (though I don't think they still make the treats there --- the ice cream and pop is all pre-packaged).
The Rexall name in the U.S. was once applied to thousands of drug stores, but the company went bankrupt in the early '80s. The American trademark was sold to a multi-level marketing company that's been trading on the Rexall name to peddle what some people consider suspect nutritional supplements.
But in Canada, the Rexall brand name is being resurrected for pharmacies by a big chain of drugstores. In fact, the Edmonton, Alberta, hockey arena is now called "Rexall Place," and a new tennis stadium in Toronto is also being renamed for Rexall.
Does anyone remember Rexall's slogan? Or which famous (actually, "infamous") national radio program that was sponsored by Rexall?
Answer tomorrow ... stay tuned!
A correspondent wants to know: If Our Fair City rode out Friday's deluge with relatively few problems, why was Walnut Street closed in the Third Ward on Saturday and Sunday?
Brandy Brubaker had the story in Monday's Daily News:
In McKeesport, a collapsed sewer line caused headaches on city streets. Walnut Street between Eleventh and Thirteenth Avenue remains closed because of a buckled roadway. Part of Twelfth Street is closed due to a large sinkhole. Officials were unsure when the roads would re-open.
So why do the wheels fall off this show so quickly? Hey, do I look like I work for cheap? Let the geniuses at CBS figure out why every new show of theirs that doesn't have the letters "CSI" in it is so terrible.
I didn't mind brushing my teeth with beer --- in fact, I liked it so much, I went back and brushed my teeth three more times Sunday morning --- but have you ever tried to shave with cold water from the jug in the fridge?
No? It ain't pretty.
More to the point: Have you ever tried to go several hours without using the toilet?
You might be saying, "Well, I usually go all night without using the toilet, so what's the big deal?" The big deal is the psychological impact. When you're asleep, you're not thinking about using the toilet (or maybe you are, I don't know what kind of sicko dreams you're having.). If you're awake, and you do have a toilet available, and you don't need to go, then everything's likewise fine.
But if you don't have a toilet available, even if you don't have to go, you'll eventually convince yourself that you do. You may be trying to mind your own business (such as it were) but the fact that you can't flush the commode will prey on your mind. What if I have to go? I can't. I don't have to. But what if I do? Over and over again, you'll play through this scenario, until eventually, you convince yourself you do have to go. And then what? Stand out in the front yard? There goes the neighborhood.
Edgar Allen Poe couldn't make up that kind of internal struggle: "The Pot and the Pendulum." "The Tell-Tale Flush."
Friday's storms left Our Fair City and its environs in less dire straits than many other areas in Western Pennsylvania. There was the standard flooding on Route 48 and at Eden Park Boulevard; both River Roads --- Port Vue and Dravosburg --- were underwater for a time. And, of course, we had several ugly mudslides. (New tourism slogan: "Come for the bike trails, stay for the mudslides!")
But for sheer storm destruction, the Mon Valley had nothing to compare to Pittsburgh's North Hills and west suburbs. The water barely made it to Water Street downtown. A mere puddle! (Yawn.) Wake us when it gets to Centennial School, OK?
Still, Saturday morning, I awoke to find the water --- the kind in the faucets, not the kind in the streets --- running ve-r-r-r-r-y sl-o-o-o-w. Within an hour it was just gurgling. Shoot. I had things to do anyway, so I left the house for the rest of the day. By the time I get home, I thought, the water will be back on.
I got back at 8 p.m., unlocked the door and turned on the faucet. Nothing. Hmm.
Turned on the radio: No storm information. Just sports, sports, sports, infomercials, sports, sports, sports, sports, right-wing nutjobs, sports. (All this sports talk, and no one was giving out the Penn State or Pitt scores. Some localism on "Fox Sports Pittsburgh," eh?)
Truth be told, I don't live within Our Fair City --- I live just on the edge, in a suburb --- so I called our borough building to see if there was any recorded information about the water outage. Nothing.
I decided to call the police station --- on the non-emergency line, of course. Normally, I wouldn't, but water seems like a public safety issue, right?
Police desk: "
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