Category: default || By jt3y

An otherwise nice story in the Post-Gazette about H&H Fish Market --- a landmark in Our Fair City since the 1920s --- is somewhat spoiled by the very first sentence: "Tucked into a skinny storefront on a one-way side street in what's left of downtown McKeesport, in the shadow of the blue onion domes of Holy Virgin Dormition Russian Orthodox Church, is a shop straight out of the old days."

Gee, do we come to your town and remark on how crummy it is? Why must staff writers at the P-G continually reach for these easy cliches whenever they write about the Mon Valley? It's as if anything south of Hazelwood is forbidden territory for One of America's Great Newspapers --- they're like Lewis and Clark, meeting the natives for the first time.

A few years ago, the P-G did an entire series about canoeing down the Yough and "discovering" places like Sutersville and Whitsett. This line still sticks in my craw: "For much of this week, Annie and I have felt like a team from National Geographic, drifting through some exotic river region's spectacular scenery and distinctive culture."

Yes, you haven't lived until you've seen the aborigines of Buena Vista, running around bare-chested with bones in their noses, hunting tigers with spears and setting out on the Youghiogheny in their outriggers to dive for pearls. (Or are those Allegheny whitefish?)

In all seriousness, the profile of H&H is otherwise very nice, and frankly, since most stories from the Picksberg news media about the Mon-Yough area tend to focus on fires and shootings, it's very welcome.

But we're not savages, for crying out loud. We've got penicillin, flush toilets, telephones, cable TV and everything.

"What's left of downtown McKeesport," indeed. Been to downtown Picksberg lately?

(Update: I originally named the writer of the H&H and canoe trip pieces, and I then revised this entry to remove his name, because this isn't a personal attack on him --- it's just an observation on something I've noticed. He's otherwise a good writer, and for all I know, a very nice guy. We are a kinder, gentler blog.)

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Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune has a feature called "Fine Lines," in which he quotes great passages from stories in the news. I thought this paragraph by Karen Ferrick-Roman in the Beaver County Times, about the new bomb-sniffing dog at the Pittsburgh International Airport, was a winner:

At the airport, Pascha is all work and absolutely driven. Miller calls his partner, the only female on the force, his lady. He also has a little less flattering term for his four-footed significant other: "a German Shepherd with ADD." A malinois is a bit leaner, a bit edgier than a shepherd. Those triangle ears cap so much energy that Albert Einstein might be forced to rethink his computation and make energy equal to malinois squared.

(Tip of the Tube City hard hat to Ol' Froth.)

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Another fine line: "In private life, I am honest as the day is long, which, in early February, is not as long as it could be, but that's another matter." --- Garrison Keillor answering his email on the Prairie Home Companion website.

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Slate profiles Dunkin' Donuts, which is trying to hold its own against Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and other pretenders to its soggy throne.

I've never understood the fascination with Krispy Kreme's doughnuts, which taste like so much deep-fried air. Dunkin' Donuts aren't as tasty as good bakery doughnuts, but they beat Krispy Kreme, hands down.

Not that I've ever turned away a Krispy Kreme doughnut, mind you.

Which reminds me ... is it time for me to cut another hole in my belt?

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The readers of "Something Awful" do it again, with more digitally-altered images, now featuring "Boring Movies." It's hit and miss, but there are a few gems (warning: strong language 'n at).

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A Nova Scotia woman who goes by the handle "Ronniecat," and who I only know from her posts on Usenet, is suffering degenerative hearing loss. You can read about the progress of her disease, and about her decision to get a cochlear implant, at her website.

I'd recommend you go back to the beginning and read forward. If you don't find yourself choking up, you have no soul. What a writer, and what an ordeal.

She's also providing one helluva service to other people who are suffering from hearing loss; after all, her journal will be searchable via Google and all of the other usual suspects. When someone who's going deaf starts looking for information, and stumbles onto Ronnie's page, they're going to get better details from her than any doctor would provide.

Now, are blogs really just "CB Radio"? Hmm.