Tube City Almanac

October 07, 2005

For Those of You Coming From the P-G

Category: default || By jt3y

I'd like to offer a special welcome to those of you visiting the Tube City Almanac for the first time after reading about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Are you ready?

Welcome.

Ahem. Since that's out of the way, just a note to say that the Almanac principally concerns life in and around the Greater McKeesport area, which sometimes includes Picksberg, a city about 12 miles down river. Which is not to say that the Almanac is parochial; just that I sometimes feel bad for Picksberg. It might have amounted to something if only it had been closer to Our Fair City.

I have been corresponding with Peter Leo longer than either he or I cares to remember, so when he called yesterday to ask if it was OK to write about the Almanac, it tickled me like feathered underpants. But I was taken aback when he said that he might have to explain to the Post-Gazette's readers what the "Tube City" is. Great jumping George H. Lysles!

It's the Tube City because we once produced a large percentage of the world's steel and iron pipe, or "tube." Our once-prodigious tube output is down to a fraction of what it used to be, but we still make a fair amount of steel pipe and pipe-related products (only in McKeesport could you use the phrase "pipe-related products"), thanks to companies like Camp-Hill Corporation, CP Industries and Dura-Bond, among others.

And of course, McKeesport is also home to a different kind of "tube" --- the Canady catheter invented at UPMC McKeesport hospital by Dr. Jerome Canady.

We get together twice a week, at least, to update you on things happening in and around Our Fair City and its suburbs, which for our purposes include, oh, most of southwestern Pennsylvania when we're really hard up for a topic to write about. And your participation is always welcome.

Anyway, thanks for coming by. Feel free to look around. Some of the links in the menu at the left may also amuse you; the Almanac is just one part of Tube City Online, the Mon-Yough area's leading source of misinformation on the Internet since 1995. (And if you're so inclined on your way out, we also have a nice selection of souvenirs in the gift shop.)






Your Comments are Welcome!

Ho, ho, hey, hey,
How many trees did you kill today?
Mark (URL) - October 07, 2005



With impeccable timing, I dropped my P-G subscription just in time to miss today’s article. I did see your smiling face on the front of the G.C. Murphy feature, though…and my shrink says the nightmares should go away eventually.
El Kabong - October 08, 2005



Obviously, Mr. Leo is among the handful along the Boulevard of the Allies who don’t read or try to scoop that other killer of trees published along the highway named in Mr. Lysle’s memory.

Also, happily, I have other sources for my nightmares (and a pot of boiling oil to deal with those … ask my favorite colleague at the Norwin Star what that means).

Having said that, I find it amusing … and often encouraging … to have competitors in my midst. As long as my employer believes I’m doing my job, it isn’t a problem. (Uh, I’m not sure he always believes that, but that’s a topic for another posting.)
The Voice of North Irwin - October 11, 2005



I was shocked to see the P-G using Tube City stuff. That is a breakthrough.
Congrats!
Jonathan Barnes (URL) - October 11, 2005



To comment on any story at Tube City Almanac, email tubecitytiger@gmail.com, send a tweet to www.twitter.com/tubecityonline, visit our Facebook page, or write to Tube City Almanac, P.O. Box 94, McKeesport, PA 15134.