April 07, 2006
Get Out Of Town!
Alert Reader Arden notes that the Tanya Kach case made the "Overheard in Pittsburgh" blog:
Point Brugge Café, Point Breeze:
Guy: Only in McKeesport can you be abducted in McKeesport and stay in McKeesport!
Well, truthfully, why would you need to leave
Our Fair City for any reason?
Other than to catch a train or a bus.
Or eat in a Mexican restaurant.
Or buy a new suit or shoes.
Or ... eh, we could go on for a while, so I'd better stop before I get depressed.
All kidding aside (were we?), I'm always amazed by the number of Mon-Yough residents I meet who've never been to Picksberg (except, perhaps, to a Stiller game), have never seen the Carnegie Museums, have never even been to Cranberry Township, for goodness' sake.
I know a few people who get nosebleeds if they're more than five miles from, say, Glassport. I know others who complain incessantly if they have to go to Pittsburgh International Airport or Washington County, as if they're outposts at the far reaches of the solar system. I have friends who can't find addresses on the opposite side of their own boroughs or townships because they rarely leave their neighborhoods.
What accounts for this insularity? There's nothing wrong with hometown pride (which is hardly in short supply at the
Almanac and the rest of
Tube City Online), but there's also nothing wrong with getting out to see the rest of the big, wide world. In fact, it's hard to understand your own world without seeing how other people live.
Sometimes I think that World War II was a good thing, because at the very least it forced our grandparents' generation to get out of their hometowns, work and live with people from other parts of the world, and see that there was more to life that what could be defined by the borders of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers.
Personally, I love to explore --- on foot, in a car, on a train, in a plane --- and I only wish I had the time and money to travel more. Locally, there probably aren't many communities in the 412 and 724 area codes that I haven't seen at least once. There's no place like home, but seeing someplace else can make you appreciate home a little bit more --- and maybe give you some ideas for improving your surroundings.
And as for Point Breeze guy, eh, I've seen your neighborhood. No offense, but I wouldn't brag too much.
...
Meanwhile, fill-in
Post-Gazette "Morning File" colyumist Bill Toland is
out to make amends with several local blogs that claim they're not getting their proper respect from the news media ---
AldoCoffee.com, run by a
Caketown coffee shop, and Jonathan Barnes'
"Barnestormin."
Interesting, isn't it, that while many bloggers claim that the mainstream media is dying, they "cry for attention" (Toland's words) when they don't get mentioned by the mainstream media?
Personally, I couldn't care less if this "blog" gets mentioned in any publication. Besides, I hate calling this a "blog." It's like a newspaper column, only without any coupons printed on the back.
And it's sure not a "cry for attention." It may, however, be a "cry for help."
...
Found On The Internet While Looking For Other Things:
Anyone who's worked in customer service will appreciate "Behind The Counter", the regular journal of a Wal-Mart employee somewhere in Florida.
In honor of the late Morgantown, W.Va., native Don Knotts, who very much got out of his own neighborhood, here's The Onion A.V. Club's list of the 20 best "wonderfully irrelevant" Andy Griffith Show conversations.
The Stiller Who Would Be Governor gets profiled by The Washington Post. Some people say that Lynn Swann has absolutely no idea what he would do if elected --- and that may be true, but others might say that Ed Rendell doesn't either. Unfortunately, he's been in office for more than three years.
Remember those ads in the back of comic books for Grit, "America's Family Weekly Newspaper" or "Weekly Family Newspaper" or "One of American's Weekest Newspapers"? I can't remember the exact slogan, but I do know they promised wealth and prizes if you took up a Grit route in your neighborhood. Well, I never met anyone who actually read Grit (maybe if I'd taken a route of my own, I'd be rich right now), but it's still in business.
...
Next Week: We answer your letters. Assuming the one that's
ticking hasn't gone off by then.
...
To Do This Weekend: Penn State McKeesport Campus hosts a spring open house for high school juniors from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center. The agenda includes a welcome from the chancellor, an Admissions presentation, talks from current students, tours and a free lunch. Call (412) 675-9010. Walk-ins are welcome ...
McKeesport Recreation Board hosts an Easter Egg Hunt for kids 12 and under at Jacob Woll Pavilion, Renziehausen Park, starting at 12 noon Saturday. (Rain date April 15.) Call (412) 675-5068. ...
Salsa Pittsburgh starts its "Spring Salsa Spectacular" dance tonight at the Palisades, Fifth Avenue at Water Street. Events begin at 8:30, and there will be lessons as well as performances by two Latin bands. Call (412) 881-9237.
April 05, 2006
Curiouser and Curiouser
Well, we knew the Tanya Kach case was going to get stranger as more details emerged. Claims and counter-claims are now flying back and forth, and it's hard to know who to believe.
But in stories last week by Jonathan Silver and others in the Post-Gazette, you could almost see the defense strategy emerging for her accused abductor, Thomas Hose:
- According to Silver, Kach had a reputation for being "sassy" and "argumentative," and was "reputed to have a penchant for older men."
- Contradictory reports in the same story paint the victim as both "naive" about the outside world, yet aware that she was listed on Web sites for missing children.
- Another man who was investigated in connection with Kach's disappearance in 1996 claims that he told police that she had "the biggest crush" on Hose.
- "For a woman said to have been hidden and held against her will for nearly a decade, Tanya Kach was visible to many in her neighborhood and downtown McKeesport during the past 10 months," wrote Silver and Cindi Lash in a story for the P-G on Saturday.
- Silver and Lash say Kach went shopping at the Foodland on Fifth Avenue and the drug store at the corner of Versailles Avenue and Evans Street, attended high school games with Hose, got her nails down at a nearby salon and talked to the mailman.
- And Kach's attorney now claims that former mayoral candidate Bob Sokol (ex-husband of the hairdresser accused of altering Kach's appearance to conceal her identity) sometimes drove Kach and Hose around.
I hate to make light of this tragedy, which is touching dozens of people and has the potential to ruin several lives, but I suspect it's moving into the realm of farce for many people.
I was originally thinking that this was a Lifetime Movie Event, but now, I'm not so sure. I think it could easily go on a network now. Maybe we should work on the casting next. (I'm thinking Perry King and Britney Spears in her first dramatic role.)
I can also imagine the liability suits that might soon be flying back and forth. Hose will be sued for allegedly holding Kach; the school district will be sued for employing Hose; the hairdresser will be sued in connection with her alleged role; and maybe Foodland will be sued for not stocking, "Help! I'm being held hostage" greeting cards.
...
Eh, look on the bright side. Lots of good things are happening, too. Despite the cold weather of the last few days, spring is upon us, and the daffodils and tulips are starting to come out.
And the trees are budding in Renzie Park, where the kids will be hunting Easter eggs this Saturday, and catching trout in Lake Emilie the following Saturday. The first "lunch on the lawn" event of the year is only about a month away at Kelly Park across from the Masonic Temple. Things could be worse.
...
In other local news: The tiny Ardara post office along Route 993 in North Huntingdon Township is indefinitely closed after someone tried to make it a drive-through last Thursday.
According to Paul Paterra in the
Trib, a car collided with a school bus and then took out three of the four support poles holding up the front of the post office. No one was seriously hurt, but post-office boxes have been moved to the Larimer post office, also on Route 993.
...
Finally, I was saddened to learn of the death of a former supervisor of mine, Dave Miller, recently retired from the
Tribune-Review as a news editor. Another former colleague, Jen Reeger, turned in a
fine tribute that must have been hard to write, since she also worked for Dave for several years.
You meet a lot of really cynical, unhappy people in the news business, but I don't think I ever heard Dave say an unkind word about anyone, or ever be cruel or nasty with a reporter.
Despite something like 40 years in the news business when I first met him, Dave was also still very, very capable of getting excited when you pitched a good local story to him --- and he asked great questions. My last week at the paper was the week of the terrorist attacks of September 2001, and Dave put in hours as long as anyone's.
I wasn't able to make it to the funeral home yesterday afternoon, but my deepest sympathies go out to his wife.
Requiescat in pace, Dave.
April 03, 2006
Sermonette
(In a break from our usual format, we have asked the Rev. Paul Lloyd Waner, pastor of St. Honus of Carnegie Church in Coulter, to offer an inspirational message on behalf of a local charity case.)
My dear brothers and sisters, peace be with you.
Spring has finally arrived, and like it, each Lenten season brings with it the hope of renewal and new life. The Church calls upon each one of us to consider some sort of sacrifice that may bring us closer to the Kingdom of Heaven, and this explains, perhaps, why so many of us have remained faithful to His Pittsburgh Pirates.
But it seems to me that 13 seasons is a great deal of penance, even for those who most sincerely seek the blessings of His grace.
Because we know that our reward is not of this earth, we are joyous despite our place, year after year, at the bottom of His standings. As we read in Mark 10:31, "many that are first shall be last, and the last, first."
Yet it is also written in Murtaugh's First Letter to the Forbesfieldians that it is better to win more games than we lose. And though on the journey of life, we will always sin and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), it is also written that "there should be joy in the chase, zest in the pursuit" (Rickey 12:20). Thus we must strive ever to at least break .500.
And so we offer the following petition this morning.
Oh, Heavenly Father:
We ask that You watch over our Pittsburgh Pirates, among Your most humble servants in the majors for lo these many years. As You led Your people out of the desert, so we ask that the Pirates be led out of the cellar of the National League.
Make straight the flight of the ball, lest Thine pitchers load up the bases with walks. Guide Thine fielders' arms not into foolish throwing errors, and remove the scales from their eyes, lest they bobble easy pop flies.
As we seek greater Communion with You, so shall our bats seek greater Communion with the ball. Make clear the base paths, lest our runners be trapped between First and Second.
Oh Lord, we know that it says in Matthew 4:7 that we shall not put You to the test, so we ask not that Thou leadeth Thine Pirates to the World Series, though if that be Thy will, then Thy will be done. Rather, we beseech You only that they not stinketh out loud again this season.
Amen.
(Next time: The Rev. Anthony Esposito, pastor of Badger Bob Church of Christ in Munhall Gardens, offers a eulogy for the Pittsburgh Penguins.)
Published weekdays (usually), except holidays (and when we have something better to do) at McKeesport, Pa., by Tube City Online LLC, P.O. Box 94, McKeesport, Pa. 15134.