Something that has come up in conversation numerous times lately (and also at various times that I can recall), is the fact that you can go just about anywhere and find Steelers fans.  I posted last week about the Terrible Towel in Space, but another item that seems to propagate is the Steelers-themed bar.

A friend from college studied a semester in Australia and found a Steeler bar down under, and I always hear about finding Steeler bars in cities across the country and countries around the world.

Doing some research about it (since I don’t travel a lot, I figured I could live a little vicariously through google…) I actually found a list that the Post Gazette has put together by state.

• Here’s the list for Arizona, in case you are there and need some respite.  Quite a few actually, even around Phoenix and its surrounding communities
• Here is the link for Florida, for anyone headed down to Tampa without tickets (also, don’t forget if you happen to be in Ft. Lauderdale, stop into Primanti Brother’s for a sandwich)
• And finally, here is the international list, for any displaced members of Steelers Nation

Two items of note, about the Terrible Towel.  Both have been making their rounds, but I figured that now was a good time to post them.

The first is a video at WTAE’s website of the Towel in space, pretty awesome!

The second is from a recent Pen’s game, Fleury came back on the ice briefly in support of the other Black and Gold:

I have a story about how I came in possession of my own Terrible Towel, hopefully I’ll have a chance to share it in the next few days!

0117092000.jpg, originally uploaded by Mike @ pittsburgh.metblogs.com.

Countdown to XLIII: 14

Got this cookie a few days ago, snapped a picture just in case.  Smilie is happy, and so is Pittsburgh!

I know, you saw enough of my pictures from the Fort Ligonier Days Parade.  This picture is from one of the craft vendors at Fort Ligonier Days ( I was unable to live blog this one for you because I took so many pictures of the parade my phone was almost dead).

Yes, this is really something special, it is your very own Steeler’s print toilet seat cover.  You can even get a cane cover and propane take cover to match.

I love that these things exist.

More proof the Steelers blew it with their mascot.

A man with a name seemingly invented for writing about football, Lang Whitaker, recently posted a list of the Five Best Cities For Watching Footaball. To post here in order to say that Pittsburgh was included on the list would be silly – of course Pittsburgh would be on that kind of list. It’s like finding a list of cities with the most stylish mall bangs and not seeing our City of Champions on it.

Having not watched much football that didn’t involve either a black and gold or blue and gold color scheme, let alone traveling to other cities for that specific purpose, I can’t say whether Atlanta deserves the number one spot on Mr. Whitaker’s list.

I can say, however, that Pittsburgh should at least replace Las Vegas on the list, since he admits that Vegas has only one football team. He further justifies his decision by noting that one can gamble on the results of the games there and, get this, because football is on lots of television sets.

I’d like to suggest that perhaps football is on a lot of television sets here, too.

Using Mr. Whitaker’s logic, Pittsburgh’s exclusion is even more detestable. Pittsburgh has a major college football program, and WVU is only an hour away – not to mention the proximity of dirty, filthy Cleveland and Cincinnati. In fact, you might say that Pittsburgh occupies a veritable pigskin nexus.

The most overriding, obvious, unavoidable reason for including Pittsburgh as the best city for watching football is the fact that your humble blogger cared not one whit about the sport until moving here five years ago. Even my rock-hard resistance to organized sports of any stripe was easily demolished by the irresistible force of Steelers Fever. Other expats might not agree, or might not have felt the early symptoms of it (the earliest of which being a small tug of joy when Troy flies, frog-like, at a loose ball).

The Steelers infuse everything in this city, and I think they even put something in the drinking water. Even if you don’t really care about sports, you can still probably notice when the Steelers lose – a malaise settles across the city, clingy and oppressive like Pittsburgh before a thunderstorm.

I would offer one last bit of evidence to Mr. Whitaker, in the hopes of getting our city its due: this kind of thing doesn’t happen just anywhere.

Steely McBeam, seen here as his alter-ego, Frighten McInfants, is criticized by one of our local development gurus:

Jay Aldridge still flinches when he comes across a newspaper reference to that “old steel town.”

Steely McBeam is the new Steelers mascot, a square-jawed representation of a 1950s-era mill worker, with hard hat, overalls and heavy eyebrows. To Mr. Aldridge, a man formerly responsible for marketing the Pittsburgh area to prospective businesses around the country and overseas, Steely McBeam reinforces an outdated image of our town, just as the Steelers do.

Once I quell the urge to rip Jay Aldridge’s nose from his face for maligning the Pittsburgh Steelers, I have to admit he has a point. Maybe a steelworker isn’t the best mascot for the town that all the steel mills left, especially if Joe Magarac isn’t available (he moved to Japan and changed his name to Hamato Magaracu). But what is the iconic image of the new Pittsburgh? I have been brainstorming.
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The Steelers’ new mascot has a new name, and it stinks worse than my afternoon commute on a bus with a busted air conditioner: Steely McBeam.

This, after “70,000+” entries and apparently a gas leak at Steelers Marketing Headquarters.

For the record, we have Diane Roles of Valencia, Pa to blame for the name and the Post-Gazette to thank for the quotes and the picture.