I’m pretty sure that WTAE reported on this before, but of course, with the Stanley Cup finals going on, it’s a good piece to run again. I had a chance to go to the Aviary and see Sid, and I had a blast. I had never been there before, and the whole experience was so much fun. I did find out that I ended up going through the entire place backwards, but I still maintain that I did it correctly, because if you go through the “correct” way, the quotes hanging from the ceiling down the one hallway would be unreadable.

But I would like to draw attention to this quote from the article:

“He can eat up to a pound of fish a day by himself,” said Erin Estell, manager of animal programs at the aviary. “He only weighs about five pounds. In the wild, that is like a fifth of their body weight that they are eating.”

As opposed to when they are in captivity and division is different…?

But I digress. If you get a chance, go check out the Aviary. The schedule (and website) of the Aviary has changed since I’ve been there, and it looks like you can meet Sid and the other penguins Monday and Tuesdays in the atrium.

Click here for the National Aviary

Added: Oh my goodness, I either broke, confused or outsmarted the coding of Metblogs….this entry has no related entries!

Added again: Never mind, it found something!

Hockey is a pretty big deal in this town – well, it’s a big deal as long as the Penguins are winning. Ok, maybe it’s a big deal all the time, but people like me (that is, people who don’t like sports) don’t notice it unless the Penguins are winning. So, the Pens are doing well this year, eh? I guess that’s cool, if you’re into it.

Anyway, the Pittsburgh area has a hockey team that interests me way more than the Penguins interest me, except this more interesting team doesn’t exist except in a movie and it’s not spending millions of dollars on a new rink or whatever.

Ladies and gentlemen: the Monroeville Zombies!

Kevin Smith, the director of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, is a bit of a geek, which typically includes being a fan of zombies and zombie movies. Monroeville Mall was the location of the original Dawn of the Dead. Aside from that, Smith’s new movie was filmed in Pittsburgh, creating a perfect little package of Pittsburgh/nerdy/zombie/Kevin Smithy references.

The movie opens on October 31st. Duh.

Google Street View has been discussed in this space before, since Pittsburgh is one of the few cities to have it. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a way for people to look at urban topography from the sidewalk – a human’s eye view, which is a far more useful navigational tool than a bird’s eye view.

The Boring family is suing Google for driving into their private driveway and including the resultant images in its searches. They might actually have a case, since the Smoking Gun shows how intrusive Google’s camera car appeared to be (in these pictures, specifically).

The legal side isn’t what interests me. Instead, we look to the Associated Press’s article about the invasion of privacy suit, which makes great pains to blast the Boring door wide open with information freely available on the Allegheny County website!

Anybody interested in purchasing property in the area knows about the utility of the county’s real estate website. There is far more information there than a series of multi-angle photographs, as the Associated Press indicates in its coverage. It makes one ask the question, possibly to oneself or even possibly to others: is it ok for the government to compile and offer this kind of information to anybody, instantly, and yet not ok for a private company like Google to take pictures of somebody’s front yard?

Jim Russell posted a link to Dick Longworth’s interview on Chigago Public Radio about his new book called, Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism. Dick seems to be thinking about a lot of the things I have since I came to Pittsburgh more than 4 years ago. The entire center of the country seems to be slipping off the global map and losing it’s vital connections to the world, right at the moment it needs them most.

The world only seems to be flat for those regions that are interested in actively embracing it and doing everything they can to stay actively linked to it.

Jim posted this on Rust Belt Bloggers.

You might remember Randy Pausch, the computer science professor diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer whose inspirational final lecture has, well, inspired a lot of people.

Since I originally wrote about him, Randy has since been on Oprah, among other things. Though that particular milestone probably wasn’t on his famous list of things to accomplish, one of the other things became a little more attainable.

J.J. Abrams, director of the newest incarnation of Star Trek (a movie that co-stars Pittsburgh native Zachary Quinto), heard about Randy’s long-held wish and made him an offer:

So, I just wanted to put the invitation out there — that if you had any desire to be in the film (can’t promise you role as CAPTAIN, but… we could do SOMETHING!), it would be my honor and pleasure.

Like any good fan, Randy took J.J. up on the offer – you can read about his adventure on his blog (you’ll have to scroll down a bit for it).

The Zaharkos family from Allison Park is getting a home technology makeover from My Home 2.0. This appears to be some sort of reality show/promotion for Verizon that is swooping in and giving families technology makeovers. You can stop by for the block party and be part of the reveal. Kind of like Extreme Home Makeover but this is all about technology.
My Home 2.0 Block Party – The Zararkos Family
Saturday, November 17, 1-4pm
Concord Drive & Chase Place, Allison Park, PA
The Zaharkos family really needs one as you can see from this video. They have 1 computer for 11 people – Mom Zaharkos admits she is afraid of technology so it will be interesting to see what happens when technology takes over their home.

Perils for Pedestrians is a monthly tv show that airs on the DISH network, public access and (thankfully) the internet. This months episode is all about Pittsburgh.

–We talk with the head of Bike Pittsburgh;
–We learn about Friends of the Riverfront;
–Free Ride recycles abandoned bicycles;
–The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission looks at transportation issues;
–A study at Carnegie Mellon University examines the history of pedestrian crashes.

I have watched part of this episode and I am eager to see the whole thing. I am thrilled to see anyone advocating for more pedestrian safety. Especially since Pittsburgh is #14 on on the Forbes list of most sedentary cities. This video is also great because it shows off some of the great things going on here in Pittsburgh.

Yes, that’s a Planned Parenthood logo, and no, I don’t mean that kind of choice.

The Post-Gazette reported yesterday that WDUQ, the only radio station I listen to, was pressured by their Catholic masters to refuse underwriting from Planned Parenthood of Western PA:

Duquesne ordered WDUQ (90.5) to stop airing a series of underwritten messages from the reproductive rights and health-care education group, saying that Planned Parenthood isn’t aligned with the university’s Catholic mission and that the station isn’t required to accept donations.

That is, of course, true. It is also true that I am not required to continue sending WDUQ the ten dollars a month I have been giving them for years.

Much of this is personal to me. Not in the sense that I have ever directly used Planned Parenthood’s services; I never have. They refuse no one help, but I have never needed it.

I was raised Catholic, and spent kindergarten through eighth grade in Catholic school. I was not in a position to do much thinking about what we were being told until second grade, but from then on it was a hell. I spent six years being told that it was sinful to believe the conclusions my mind reached and the directions of my conscience. It was self-evident to me that there was no God watching us, that prayer was a waste, and that the dogmatic positions of the church, especially on the sorts of things they argue with Planned Parenthood about, were idiotic. Saying this meant punishment, not saying it meant feeling cowardly: was it any surprise I trouble for my teachers?

In the midst of writing this it seems ironic that my greatest blow-out with the higher-ups at my school (I will not give the name, except to say that it was called the Carlow College Campus School, and sending your children there should be considered child abuse) put WDUQ more or less on my side.

When I was in eighth grade I heard on Morning Edition one day as I was getting ready for school that it was National Condom Week. This was the early nineties, when the public had finally started to catch on to AIDS, perhaps thanks to the HIV awareness episode of Mr. Belvedere several years prior. I went in to school and shared this information with everyone, as I was in eighth grade and thought that the idea of a week for condoms was pretty awesome.

This was the event that ultimately, after some escalation, led to my somewhat early exit from Catholic education. I thank WDUQ for that gift, and for years of great radio programming. I am even appearing on an already taped program on DUQ later this month.

However, I support the mission of Planned Parenthood, and they and I support similar ends in politics and in society. My friends support Planned Parenthood, and some have gotten help there that they could not have gotten anywhere else. I dislike the people who oppose Planned Parenthood, especially the most vocal of them, the psychopaths who picket their headquarters.

So, WDUQ, which has given me a great deal while asking for little in return, takes the side of the Catholic Church, which I have every reason to hate. Doing so, they run up against an organization that does a difficult and necessary job.

On my way to work yesterday I saw a group of people standing at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Allegheny River Boulevard with giant signs featuring photos of fake dead babies, liberally spattered with blood and gore, and I was pushed off the fence. I am unable to support anyone who takes the side of those people.

I canceled my WDUQ membership this morning.

From a Post-Gazette editorial on a misguided recycling/deposit law that was never in danger of passing in the state legislature:

While freshman state Rep. Lisa Bennington, D-Morningside, deserves credit for trying creatively with HB 1839 to fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund, this flawed proposal should be canned if not bottled up.

Only one awful pun per sentence, please. For instance: “:Not a prayer: Religion can’t justify harmful acts under the law,” the hilarious headline to an editorial about the rape of a 14-year old girl. Now that is a good use of meaningless reflexive wordplay.

Do you like dumb jokes about local politics written by people whose background is in journalism rather than comedy? If you are reading my weblog posts, I think I can assume the answer is yes.

Tonight, at eight o’clock, is the premiere and closing, because people will need to go back to their real jobs tomorrow, of Off The Record VII, Pittsburgh’s best and only annual musical comedy written by journalists. The journalists in question here are the employees of the Post-Gazette. The employees of the Tribune-Review were invited to help, but they were all busy trying to cover up their boss’ divorce.

Call 412-456-6666 (three sixes are evil, but five sixes means fun for everyone) for tickets. You can find me by turning around in your seats and gazing high into the nosebleeds, because I can’t afford your fancy sixty dollar tickets.