Health Update

I'm really terrible at post titles. I mean, starting with a title of "Health Update" sounds ominous. Is something wrong? Was something wrong but now there's good news? It's actually none of the above.

I had my annual physical recently, and my doctor said I'm in great shape. In his follow-up report after receiving the blood test results, he wrote that I'm in "very good health" with my liver, kidneys, thyroid, etc. all normal and to come back in a year. This all sounds great, but I'm not completely convinced. First, my weight is up 6 pounds from last year. Now, I wouldn't recommend attending two holiday parties and a food testing event in the days before my physical, but I don't think that accounts for a 6-pound gain. Plus, while my total cholesterol (171) is in the okay range, my LDL, or bad cholesterol, is at 112 which falls into the high range. 

I saw the results on the doctor's online portal before the medical assistant or physician assistant called me. He shared the note from the doctor about my good health, and I asked him about the LDL number. The PA/MA said that I need to exercise more, have more salad, and eat less chips and fried foods. How does he know about my eating habits? I mean, I'm helping the economy and saving money by buying chips/salty snacks that are on sale at Costco! 

Fine. I'll start eating more celery. (Is celery with ranch or peanut butter okay?) I also just bought a pickleball racket, so I hope to hit the courts this winter since I definitely don't want to do any outdoor exercising. Stupid winter!

Photos are a screenshot of Brewster's Millions and from this Forbes article.

2021 Best of The 'Burgh

Voting is currently underway in Pittsburgh Magazine's annual Best of the 'Burgh. As I mentioned last month, I want to sincerely thank my friends and family for nominating me in the Local Writer category. I'm a finalist up against an impressive group of nominees in Damon Young, Gene Collier, Merecedes J. Williams, Natalie Bencivenga, and Tony Norman. All of these individuals have better credentials than me and get paid to share their opinions. If you've read this blog at all, you can tell that no one is paying to hear from me. 

Before I go any further, I should probably address something fairly important for this contest. I'm not a local writer. I mean, I'm a local writer for where I live, but that place isn't Pittsburgh or Western Pennsylvania. With that written, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Before the pandemic, I tried to get back at least once a year to visit family and friends and to expose my kids to Pittsburgh. I regularly write about Pittsburgh in posts including our family vacation, the closing of one of my favorite restaurants, The O, and predictions for the Pirates this season. My guess is that at least 1,000 of my over 3,000 blog posts here reference Pittsburgh. Historically, more people in Western Pennsylvania read my blog than from anyone else. I am also a proud member of the Pittsburgh Bloggers group on Facebook, and the majority of the people I follow on Twitter have Pittsburgh ties. In addition, I regularly visit blogs and websites devoted to Pittsburgh and listen to Pittsburgh podcasts. Basically, I believe that I have the credentials of a local writer except that I don't have a phone number with a 412 area code.

So this is the part of the post where I should encourage you to vote for me. If you'd like to, please do. However, any of the other nominees are deserving (and probably more deserving), so I'm not going to start a "None of the Above" campaign.

Voting concludes on Saturday, April 17th at 11:59 PM. The local writer category is under "Personalities." And thanks for checking out my third blog post in my 30 in 30ish challenge.

Name That Arena

With the Pittsburgh Penguins moving from Mellon Arena (it’s still the Civic Arena to me) in a few years, I wonder what corporation will pay for the naming rights of the new arena. Although Mellon may have the first opportunity to name the new arena, The Bank of New York Company, Inc. and Mellon Financial Corporation recently merged to become The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. With the probable change of company management, who knows if they want the Mellon name on the arena. Plus, I can’t see a Pittsburgh arena with “New York” in the title. Since Heinz and PNC already have stadium sponsorships, what will be the name of the new arena? The following names are simply guesses:

• PPG Arena or UPMC Arena – Between either of these and PNC, Pittsburgh will quickly be known as the alphabet soup of stadiums.
• Bayer Arena – The slogan: The Penguins will give their opponents headaches. (I’ll be here all week.)
• 84 Lumber Arena – After reading about his birthday party and wedding, maybe Joe Hardy is like Richard Pryor in Brewster’s Millions and needs to spend all his money in a certain amount of time.

• WESCO International Arena – This is a Fortune 500/multinational electronics distribution and services company. I have nothing funny to write.

If I had to make a prediction, I’ll go with Dick’s Sporting Goods Arena. Fortunately or unfortunately, it will likely be dubbed “The Dick” rather quickly.