Potential Steelers Locker Room Controversy (Shampoo vs. Body Wash)

The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Ohio State defensive end Cameron Heyward with their first round pick in the 2011 NFL draft on Thursday. Heyward is the son of the late Craig "Ironhead" Heyward, a former Pitt star and NFL running back. You may also know Ironhead from his Zest body wash commercials like this one.



Now that Cameron Heyward is an NFL player, will he follow in his father's footsteps and be a body wash pitch man? If so, think of the potential controversy in the Steelers' locker room. Troy Polamalu is currently the face, well the hair, of Head & Shoulders. Can a locker room survive with two players promoting separate shower products? Will the veterans side with Polamalu and Head & Shoulders while the rookies support their colleague and Zest? Do they even make Zest body wash anymore? This situation may be coach Mike Tomlin's biggest challenge next season and possibly for years to come.

In case you're wondering, Troy Polamalu took the first shot at the new Steeler on Twitter.



Sure, Troy Polamalu is being nice, but maybe he's just biding his time for a private moment with Heyward.

Sean's Take On The News

Although I'm a little busy these days, I do my best to keep us with current events and the news. Therefore, I have some thoughts about recent events.

- Mississippi governor Haley Barbour announced that he will not run for President because he lacked the necessary "absolute fire in the belly" to run. In reality, most people surveyed about his candidacy couldn't get past the fact that a man was named Haley. (Alternate joke: He repeatedly walked up to camp fires and fireplaces and instructed the fire to "get in my belly." This turned out to be unsuccessful.)

- The FAA fired a third controller for falling asleep on the job. All three must be new parents.

- Will & Kate's wedding (Do I really need a link for this? I didn't think so.) - It would be ironic if it rains on Friday. There may also be 10,000 spoons at the reception when all guests need is a knife.

- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (or Medevdev according to Express) hints that he won't pursue re-election. I think he would make a perfect Dancing With the Stars contestant.





I'd love for him to say "I must break you" to the judges.

- The Pittsburgh Penguins meet the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight in game seven of the series. The winner advances to the next round while the loser goes home. Someone make sure that Pens coach Dan Bylsma has a burrito!

Trivia Tuesday: I See Dead People

I'm tired. I guess that happens for all new parents. As a result, my blog posts seem to be shorter and shorter. Plus, there's really not much going on in my life. Do you really need to hear about my experiences changing diapers? I didn't even leave the house this weekend except for two walks around the neighborhood. I guess I could write about the Penguins and Pirates, but that's not going to happen today. At least Passover ends tonight, and I can eat normal food again.

Anyway, you don't want to hear about this. You want, no DEMAND, trivia. Listed below are the year, location and causes of death. Your challenge is to name the famous dead people

1. 1916, St. Petersburg, Russia: Poisoned, shot four times, bludgeoned, castrated and drowned.

2. 1955, Cholame, CA: Neck broken in car accident on US Route 466.

3. 1962, Brentwood, CA: "Probable" suicide by acute barbiturate poisoning in bedroom.

4. 1977, Memphis, TN: Drug-induced heart attack in the bathroom.

5. 1990, Alpine Valley Resort, WI: Helicopter accident after performing a concert.

6. 1993, Wilmington, NC: Shot by a prop gun during the making of "The Crow."

7. 2006, London: Poisoned to death with polonium-210.

8. 2006, Great Barrier Reef: Impaled by a stingray barb while filming a documentary

9. 2009, Mont Tremblant Resort, Quebec: Epidural hematoma after falling during a ski lesson.

10. 2009, Bangkok: Suffocated during supposed autoerotic asphyxiation mishap in a closet in hotel room.

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

This quiz is courtesy of the fine folks at Stump Trivia.

Terrible Towel Sighting in London (Monday Links)

Every American newscast, including ABC's Good Morning America, is in London this week to cover the wedding of all weddings. So what would a live shot from London be without someone with a Terrible Towel?



Naturally, Robin Roberts made some type of comment about Hines Ward being on Dancing with the Stars. Nice network symmetry there.

I also have a few links for you to start your week:

How Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller and Girl Talk became the new face of the music scene. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Where is the game-winning puck from last year's Stanley Cup final? [ESPN]

How much money will you save if there's an NFL lockout? [Sarah Sprague]

Here's more about Jim Larranaga leaving George Mason from John Feinstein and Mike Wise. (I especially like the Wise piece.) I'm still shocked by this. [Washington Post and Washington Post]

Express Hates Passover

This is a different type of Washington Post Express Fail than other posts I've had in the past. In Tuesday's paper on the first day of Passover, Express dedicated an entire page in its Fit Section to bread and cupcakes.



Bread and cupcakes are two items that are certainly not Kosher for Passover. Express couldn't have printed these articles prior to or after Passover?

If you're wondering, yes, I am tired of matzah already.

Completely unrelated to Passover, now through tomorrow (Friday), Celebrate Fairfax is offering an early bird special on tickets for the June 10-12 festival. Adult tickets are only $7 and youth tickets are only $4. Please let me know if you can buy tickets to see Third Eye Blind, The Bangles or The Legwarmers for only $7. Didn't think so.

Washington Post Fails To Provide James Harrison As A Date

This is Katie Miller and Chris Bentley.



They were set up as part of The Washington Post's weekly Date Lab. While it sounds like they had a great first date, there is one part of the April 10th article that really stood out to me.

Katie: He texted me on his way home [and] said that he had a really wonderful time and wanted to see me again soon. I texted him back, “Me too,” and also that it was great meeting the King of the Toddlers. I’d give [the date] a 4.5 [out of 5]. I had so much fun. The only reason it’s not higher is because The Post couldn’t arrange a date between me and [NFL player] James Harrison. (Emphasis added.)

To The Washington Post - With the NFL players locked out, couldn't you have arranged for Katie to go on a date with James Harrison? Seriously, The Post could have made it happen.

Your move Pittsburgh Post-Gazette! (I challenge Cat of Cat's Call to arrange a date for James Harrison.)

Trivia Tuesday: Green Edition

No introduction today; just the questions. Your challenge is to name the "Green" thing based on the ten questions below.

1. Marvel Comics villain first appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #14.

2. Best-selling 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery, based in part on her childhood on Prince Edward Island.

3. Mascot of a large US food company, first appearing in ads in 1928.

4. Traditional English folk song, often heard in Western Christianity as What Child Is this?

5. Characterization of jealousy by Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello (“Beware, my lord, of jealousy, it is _______”)

6. 2nd largest drug store chain in the US.

7. 1965-71 TV series starring Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert about a New York couple who move to the country.

8. Fictional masked crime-fighter, originating in a 1930s radio show, and continuing as 40s film serials, a 60s TV series, and a feature film starring Seth Rogen.

9. English film director of United 93, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum.

10. American rock trio formed in 1987 that has sold over 22 million records in the United States. They have won three Grammy Awards.

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

This quiz is courtesy of the fine folks at Stump Trivia.

Visit Pittsburg Or Pittsburgh

The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Massachusetts just outside Boston published a story yesterday titled "So you think you know Pittsburgh?" where author Paul Kandarian describes a recent visit to the Steel City. It's a great article and you can tell that Kandarian enjoyed his trip and encourages others to visit the 'Burgh. There's just one minor problem with the article. See it? (The title of this post might be a clue.)



The by-line (is that the proper word?) shows the story as from Pittsburg. How can you misspell the location that you're writing about? For shame Son, I mean Sun Chronicle. For shame!

Am I Old?

Let me explain before you answer this question. I pride myself on keeping up with popular music. My biggest asset to our trivia team is the ability to name the title and artist of the songs played as clues during trivia night. While I may not be familiar with the indy music scene, I generally at least know the band names. Therefore, I was stunned to see the upcoming concert schedule at DC's 9:30 Club.



The 9:30 Club is pretty well-known music venue with a capacity of about 1,200. While the venue is way too small for the Rolling Stones (or Neil Diamond), many big name bands have played here over the years as an intimate setting for its fans. This is also a good place for up-and-coming bands as well as those that are no longer at its peak. I attended the Collective Soul concert here last year and had a great time.

Anyway, I cannot name one song of any band listed on the schedule. In addition, I've only heard of a handful of these bands. What happened? Did I lose touch with the music scene in the few weeks I've been a father? Or am I just old and don't know music that kids listen to these days?

Brooks Orpik Welcomes Steven Stamkos To NHL Playoffs

Tampa Bay Lightning Center Steven Stamkos has lived up to and exceeded the expectations of being a #1 overall draft pick. Stamkos scored 119 goals in just three NHL seasons including 51 goals during the 2009-2010 season and 45 goals this year. Based in part on his individual success, Tampa Bay earned a playoff berth as the #5-seed in the Eastern conference. As a result, Tampa Bay faces the Pittsburgh Penguins in round one.

Steven Stamkos: Welcome to the playoffs. XOXO - Brooks Orpik



The Penguins won game one of the series last night by a score of 3-0 thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury's 32 saves and a solid defensive effort by Orpik and company. I love playoff hockey! Oh, Mr. Stamkos. Don't feel bad about getting hit by Orpik. It's happened many times before.



This video from the Stanley Cup finals a few years ago gives me goose bumps.

Go Pens!


More about the game is available at ESPN and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Trivia Tuesday

We haven't had a Trivia Tuesday lately, so I'll get you started with one that I think is fairly easy. Your challenge this week is to name the teams that play their home games in the stadiums/fields listed below.

1. Target Field

2. Coors Field

3. FedEx Forum

4. United Center

5. Staples Center

6. Ford Field

7. Soldier Field

8. Madison Square Garden

9. Verizon Center

10. Joe Louis Arena

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

This quiz is courtesy of the fine folks at Stump Trivia.

Things I Learned Being Home

With the exception of trips to the hospital, doctors’ offices and the rare excursions to grocery stores, I spent most of the past three weeks at home. Therefore, I thought I would share my experiences at home as well as some additional notes from my first few weeks of being a father. (This is basically part two from last week's post.)

- There’s not a worse TV talk show on the air than the Rachael Ray Show. She is painfully annoying. I’d much rather watch two hours (maybe even two consecutive days!) of The View than two minutes of Rachael Ray.

- Speaking of painfully annoying, let’s talk about Bravo. I remember watching Bravo for West Wing reruns, but now, the station is all about Housewives or a former Housewife, Bethenny Frankel. If those programs aren’t airing, the station shows some type of talk show where the housewives talk about the episodes with some random guy who appears to be an executive producer for the shows and/or network. The only way to make the network worse would be to start showing the Rachael Ray Show or have Rachael Ray host the housewives shows.

- The local ABC station, WJLA, sponsored the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade with promos that included information about Grand Marshall “Brick” from The Middle. I love the fact that the ads never mentioned the actor’s name, Atticus Shaffer, only the character’s name. Did any parade ever say that the grand marshall was Webster instead of Emmanuel Lewis?



- It is so much easier to feed the cat and change the litter box than it is to feed and change the baby.

- Speaking of our cat, I’ve received several questions about how ZIggy is doing with the new baby. On the negative side, Ziggy was overfed when we were in the hospital and gained some weight. Then, I don’t think he was happy about being locked out of several rooms being used by either the baby or guests. Now that things are back to normal (with the exception of the new baby), Ziggy is doing fine. He keeps a safe distance from the baby but is comfortable being in the same room as him if we are there too. Overall, Ziggy is doing just fine.



- I spent time at two hospitals recently, and I didn’t see any doctors or nurses sneaking into rooms together or even flirting with each other. Television shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and even ER always featured "relationships" among employees. I think something might be wrong in the hospitals we visited.

- I am one of those people turns on the air conditioning only when I know that I won’t be using heat for the rest of the season. With the temperature bouncing up and down, however, I’ve switched back and forth between heat and air conditioning recently because I want to make sure that the baby isn’t hot or cold. I hate doing this.

- I’ve noticed that I spend a lot of time walking around the house wearing a burp cloth on my shoulder. It’s quite the fashion statement!

- I am a sucker for VH1 countdown shows. The newest show was the top 40 one-hit wonders of the 1990s. I think they made this show just for me. Anyway, I agree with the selection of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back for #1 and the inclusion of The Macarena, Chumbawamba, Right Said Fred and Vanilla Ice in the top ten. However, the fact that "Rico Suave" was #3 is a travesty. VH1 should be ashamed of themselves for putting Gerardo that high. My only other complaint is Whoomp! There It Is at #40 on the list. 18 years after its debut, the song is currently featured in two commercials for diapers and cell phones. Tag Team deserved better.


(I completely forgot about the Free Mike Tyson shirt at 2:18 mark.)

- Except for walking up and down stairs, I have had no exercise over the past three weeks. Remarkably, I think I’ve lost a few pounds.

Back to life. Back to reality.

Ithaca College Mascot Finalists

Ithaca College is in the final stages of its mascot search. After receiving 250 mascot suggestions, IC announced the following three finalists this week:

Mascot Finalist A: The Phoenix



Mascot Finalist B: The Flying Squirrel



Mascot Finalist C: The Lake Beast



Yesterday, the school sent a survey to students, faculty, staff and alumni to receive feedback to help determine which finalist will become the official IC mascot and carry the Bombers name. Even though you likely have nothing to do with Ithaca College, I thought I would open this up to you. What do you think?

Please note that as stated on the IC mascot page, "as you view each of these videos and read each of their supporting statements, we caution against reacting solely to the draft logos shown briefly at the end. These logos are early concepts of the way the final graphics may be portrayed for the selected mascot. Once a mascot is chosen this summer, the final logo (and then a costume) will be further refined based on suggestions and responses from the community throughout this process."

Update: The videos were removed, but this YouTube video still remains, so you can see the potential logos.

Being a New Father

After approximately nine months of waiting, our baby boy arrived about two weeks ago. It has been an exhilarating and exhausted experience. It has also been hard, and there is no way that we could have survived the past few weeks without our families. Naturally, like everything else that has occurred in my life the past 6+ years, I feel that it is important to share my notes and observations as a new father.

- On the first day in the hospital room, our child was an angel. He slept most of the day, and I don't think he cried once. Our friends and the nurses told us that this stage wouldn't last, but what did they, as veteran parents and medical professionals, know about our sweet, precious boy? Well, they were right. On what I believe was the third day, our child had moments when he turned into the kid from The Exorcist. The only thing missing was our child's ability to turn his head 360%.

- This may sound odd, but I love the way my son smells. I can't really describe it other than writing that he smells wonderful.

- Our son managed to urinate through his diaper (likely user error by his father) on to my Pittsburgh Penguins shirt. I'm hoping that he's marking his territory as a Pens fan. Otherwise, I will not be happy if he entered this world as a Philadelphia Flyers or Washington Capitals fan.

- Despite multiple requests, my idea of having this portrait of Modern Family's Cam and Mitchell painted in the baby's room was vetoed.



- While I knew that babies don't enter the world all clean like they do in the movies, I was unprepared for the dark blue/gray color of our child when he first appeared. He was fine, but I was momentarily freaked out.

- Our boy has the unique skill of always urinating as soon as you take off his diaper. I'm quite proud. On his back on the pediatrician office's scale, he managed to hit the door with his stream. Again, I'm very proud!

- I have said nipple more in the past two weeks than I have the rest of my life. Sadly, I no longer smile like an 8th grader when I say nipple. OK, I just smiled a little after writing nipple in the previous sentence.

- Meanwhile, I'm not impressed that our son seems to flash the University of Texas Hook 'em Horns sign. There are absolutely no Texas fans in the family.



- Whenever I see or hear the bus passing our home, I realize that I'm going to have to return to work soon. I'm both excited and dreading returning to the office.

- People keep telling me that I look tired. It's probably because I'm not sleeping much.

- I love the fact that the hospital encourages new parents to take stuff. Diapers - check. Wipes - okay. Blankets - sure.

- If it was solely my responsibility to clothe my child, he would wear only a diaper. I can't figure out how to get his feet and arms through his clothes especially since he squirms through the entire changing process.

- When our son cries and I'm the first to get to him, I believe that this is what he thinks:


(Underrated TV show)

There were countless times during the first few days of our son’s life when I questioned if I was ready to be a father. I panicked in the hospital when my baby spit up when I was in the process of cleaning his very messy diaper. Of course, he urinated in the middle of this too. I’ve started to settle into the father role, and while I’m still overwhelmed and tired, our kid is remarkable and really cute. Plus, everything that I’ve worried about so far has turned out to be completely normal. The past few weeks have both lasted forever and been a blur. So as we prepare for the 21st century, I am ready to accept the challenge.*


* This last sentence is a very inside joke that only one person will get. In college during the late 90s, I used some variation of “as we enter the 21st century” to begin the concluding paragraph for nearly every paper I wrote. It seemed to work well.

Hockey Man Cave

This may be the first and only time I share a video from FOX Toledo. Enjoy.

Ultimate hockey man cave: foxtoledo.com

This is nice and all, but I demand more Mario Lemieux memorabilia in any hockey man caves!

Trivia Tuesday: Where Is Sean?

This week's Trivia Tuesday is quite simple. Where is Sean and when is he coming back? Just know that I am still around. Overwhelmed and tired, but still around. I have the beginnings of a very good post about what's going on in my life in draft form, but I don't know when I will click publish.

In the meantime, enjoy this geography quiz courtesy of Rethinking Schools. There is no score or time limit; just a learning tool to see how well you know your geography.

h/t lacochran