Celebrities in Pittsburgh Gear: Jeff Goldblum

Whenever I have the opportunity, I like to watch the first 20 minutes of ABC's Good Morning America. Yes, I know that I'm still 15 years away from being part of the core audience age group, but I enjoy the combination of Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, and Michael Strahan. More importantly, I feel like the show's beginning gives me a good summary of what's going on in the world.

On Monday, Jeff Goldblum stopped by the New York studio to talk about his new show, Kaos. You can watch the video below, but I was too busy trying to figure out his jacket to pay attention to whatever he was promoting.

Is it a Pittsburgh Pirates jacket? It looks like a #13 on the sleeve, so is the jacket celebrating Jose Lind, Carlos Garcia, Adrian Brown, Nate McLouth, and/or Ke'Bryan Hayes? Please let me know if you have any information where this jacket is from or who made it.

By the way, somewhat amazing that this is the first time in over a decade of celebrities in Pittsburgh gear posts that Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum made the blog!

Update 8/28: Apparently, this is a Prada jacket, not a Pirates jacket that you can purchase from the Saks Fifth Avenue website for $3,850. That's not $38.50 or even $385.00. That's $3,850! At least you get free shipping with the purchase.

Pickles At Chanukah

While I've written about the relatively new tradition of eating and tasting pickles during the holiday of Chanukah (or Hanukkah) plenty of times over the years, I decided to write the ultimate pickles at Chanukah blog post. Like many people, I'm pretty much stuck at home and my neighborhood during the pandemic and spend nearly all of my time with my kids or working. For something different to do, I want to spread some positivity over the holiday season. And to me, pickles are positive and are also fun and tasty. Therefore, besides telling as many friends and family about the pickles at Chanukah tradition as I can, I actually wrote this press release and sent it to dozens of websites, newspapers, pickle companies, synagogues/temples, and more. 

A Tangy Tasty (and New) Chanukah Tradition
 

While most Jewish traditions go back centuries and started in places like Israel or Egypt, you may not be familiar with a Chanukah tradition that began in 1998 in the mythical and historic city of San Diego. And it started by a misunderstanding. The students and staff of Hillel at San Diego State University ("SDSU") organized a Kosher Pickle Taste Test on a cool (for San Diego) December day. Hundreds of members of the SDSU community tasted a variety of pickles and rated their favorites. SDSU's student newspaper, The Daily Aztec, featured a medley of pictures of the event on its front page the next day with the caption, 'Students, faculty, alumni, and pickle men took part in the Chanukah tradition of pickle tasting yesterday on the north steps of the Free Speech Area." Naturally, when you think of free speech, you think of pickles! Based on the proximity of the event to Chanukah, at least one person at the Daily Aztec thought that pickles were an essential part of the holiday, ranking up there with lighting the menorah and spinning the dreidel.

 

Now, 22 years later, this humorous error actually has become a tradition for some of the people involved in the taste test. And those people spread the tradition to their family and friends. So this Chanukah, please keep this new tradition alive by eating pickles along with latkes and donuts (though probably not all at the exact same time). Dill, sweet, bread and butter, sour, half sour, or even gherkins. Any pickle will do. You can even try multiple types of pickles for your own pickle taste test this Chanukah!

Several places have shown interest in publishing some portion of this from various parts of the country, so I'm really excited. I also decided that instead of Sean's Ramblings becoming an all-pickle all the time blog, I would create a dedicated place for this. I'm happy to announce the brand new Pickles for Chanukah Facebook group. Even if you are in the delete Facebook crowd, it's perfectly okay to get all your pickles and pickles for Chanukah news on the page. For example, on Thursday, I posted a link to What Jew Wanna Eat's amazing Fried Pickle Latkes with Everything Bagel Ranch recipe. I could never make this, but it sounds delicious and goes perfect with trying pickles at Chanukah. 

With all of this written, if Good Morning America or The Today Show features a story about pickles at Chanukah, I'm definitely posting about it here!  

So if you celebrate Chanukah, have some pickles with your latkes/potato pancakes. Even if you don't celebrate Chanukah, sometime in December, buy two different types of pickles, taste them, and decide which is your favorite.

Please like the Facebook page/group and spread the word!

Video Week: Macklemore Wears Clemente Jersey

This is a late surprise entry to Sean's Ramblings video week. If someone wears a Pittsburgh sports jersey on national TV, I'm going to blog about it. On Thursday, Macklemore went on Good Morning America to perform his new song with Skylar Grey, Glorious, wearing a Roberto Clemente Pittsburgh Pirates jersey. It's an awesome jersey.

(I'm having trouble embedding the ABC video of the performance here, so you can see Macklemore being interviewed by the Good Morning America crew instead. The point of the post is the jersey, not the song itself.)



A little critique though. I don't like the tucking a jersey into jeans look. Yes, baseball players tuck jerseys into their uniform, but they aren't wearing jeans.

In addition, I noticed that Macklemore is releasing Glorious as part of a solo album. What happened to Ryan Lewis? (I found the answer here.) Is this the equivalent of Hall leaving Oates? Is this George Michael leaving Andrew Ridgeley and Wham?


This post is a little of everything. It's Sean on Fashion, my series of Celebrities in Pittsburgh gear, and Sean's Ramblings video week!

Gay Celebration

Earlier this week, Good Morning America showed the video below of China's Zhang Jike celebrating his victory at the Table Tennis World Cup in Germany. The video also included notable athletic celebrations among American athletes. About 15 seconds into the video, between the Ickey Shuffle and Brandi Chastain's iconic World Cup celebration, you'll notice Pittsburgh Steeler William Gay dancing after scoring a touchdown on Sunday against the Colts. I guess someone at ABC is a Steelers fan. (I'll go with George Stephanopoulos.)


More ABC US news | ABC Health News

Go Steelers!

What Happened to Debbie Gibson?

It seems like only days ago when I wrote about my excitement of the return of Debbie Gibson. After seeing her performance on Friday's Good Morning America, I'm not as enthusiastic. Take a look.

Let's start with the positive. Debbie really looks great. It was also nice of her to give Right Said Fred some work. However, Debbie doesn't sound nearly as good as she did 20 years ago. In addition, why exactly is she rapping in the middle of Only in My Dreams? I don't get it. This performance reminded me of Sophie B. Hawkins on the underrated and underappreciated NBC show Hit Me Baby One More Time. (I have no idea why I can remember parts of this show but I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night.) Hawkins starts off fine but quickly started losing her breath. In response, she decides to turn on the sex appeal by taking off her shirt and waving it over her head. Through the power of YouTube, I found the video. (It is suitable for work unless your HR department frowns upon Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover. My description makes it sound much more risqué than it is.)

   

Notice any similarities between the two performances?

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]

Steelers-Browns Recap with TV Notes

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers on winning the AFC North division and earning a first round playoff bye by defeating the Cleveland Browns 41-9. It’s rare for an NFL game to be decided less than one minute into the game, but that essentially happened on Sunday. Troy Polamalu intercepted Colt McCoy on the Browns second offensive play, and the Steelers quickly responded on a 56-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Mike Wallace. As usual, I have some thoughts about the game and the commercials.

- How did the Browns not realize that the Steelers were going to throw a deep pass to Wallace immediately after the interception? Did they not watch film on the Steelers this season? Everyone at the bar knew Roethlisberger was going deep to Wallace.

- Former Steelers running back Willie Parker was also known as “Fast” Willie Parker. Mike Wallace is faster than Parker ever was, but we don’t seem to call him “Fast” Mike Wallace. This should change. On Twitter yesterday, Cotter suggested Maverick because he "obviously has a need for speed and he flies."

- Cleveland coach Eric Mangini (remember when he was Man-genius?) deserves to be fired simply for his decision to kick a field goal down 14-0 early in the second quarter. The Browns had the ball on Pittsburgh’s 2 yard-line and this move showed that he quit.

- I was also curious about Cleveland’s offensive strategy to start the game. RB Peyton Hillis has been fantastic for the Browns; however, the team decided to run a spread offense during the first few series with Hillis on the sidelines.

- Miller Lite shows a series of commercials where guys either wearing dragon clothes or a “European Man Thong” asks for a light beer. I rarely go to bars anymore, but since when do people order a light beer? Don’t people order a specific brand or the special? I’ve also never seen a bartender ask “More Taste or Less Taste?” followed by the patron saying that he doesn’t care.



- Until watching the game yesterday, I didn't realize that Maurkice Pouncey is the first Steelers rookie to make the Pro Bowl since Kendrell Bell. In a related note, who wants to buy my Kendrell Bell jersey? Did you know that he was the last Steelers rookie to make the Pro Bowl? That's got to make the jersey worth at least $50.

- CBS apparently introduces a brand new Early Show cast today. While I don’t know anyone that watches Early Show and I’m not sure that the new folks will impact ratings, I will give CBS credit for hiring Marysol Castro formerly of Good Morning America Weekend. After Tony Perkins returned to DC, ABC made a poor decision in selecting Sam Champion as the main GMA weather guy over Castro.



- Possibly overlooked in the Steelers dominating performance on Sunday was the fact that the offensive line did not allow a sack when Roethlisberger was the QB and that they had only 3 penalties for 25 yards, none in the first half.

- Dear Lexus: If you have a promotion called December to Remember Sales Event, and it is now January, you should either stop running these commercials or change the name.

- There’s a new Nicolas Cage movie coming out on Friday called Season of the Witch. It doesn’t look very good. When was the last good Nicolas Cage movie with him as the #1 star? Adaptation in 2002? Do we have to go back to Face/Off, Con Air, The Rock or Leaving Las Vegas from the mid to late-1990s?

- I really liked the play call to have Randle El throw the ball in the red zone which turned into a TD pass to Hines Ward. I guarantee that the Steelers will use a similar formation in a playoff game, faking the ball to Randle El causing several defenders to go to ARE and leaving someone else open.

- Who is the band in the Hyundai Holiday commercials? We’re about to start a search for a new car, and I may avoid Hyundai simply because I am sick of these commercials.

So now the Steelers have a week off before facing the Colts, Chiefs or Ravens on Saturday, January 15th. I hope the Steelers enjoy the well-deserved rest.

Weekend Thoughts

* I’d like to call out Christine Brennan of USA Today. On Good Morning America this morning, she said that the Tiger Woods accident story would have gone away at this point if it wasn’t for the internet and the blogosphere. That’s an interesting point since the Tiger Woods story is on the front page of today’s USA Today (A1) and was also the second item on GMA behind only the incident where four Washington police officers were killed. Yes, this is definitely a story because of bloggers.

* I thought that Dennis Dixon played well in his first NFL start. The loss is definitely not on him. While I certainly understand that the coaches wanted to put him in as little risk for injury as possible, I really would have liked to have seen a play call or two in OT where Dixon could have run the ball himself.

* By the way, I liked the old Pittsburgh Pirates hat Dennis Dixon’s father wore at the game.

* Shopping at Kohl’s recently, I noticed that they are selling perfumes from the following celebrities: Elizabeth Taylor, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Halle Barry and Usher. I hope that Miley Cyrus and Beyonce are looking for new agents!

* Since the Penguins scored eight goals at home against the New York Rangers on Saturday night, does that mean that everyone with a ticket stub received free chili from Wendy’s? This promotion that occurred when the Pens scored seven or more goals has probably been over for about 20 years now.

* Congratulations to the Woodland Hills High School football team for winning the WPIAL AAAA football title against the Gateway Gators on Friday night. For folks not familiar with Woodland Hills, famous graduates include current NFL players Jason Taylor (Dolphins), Ryan Mundy (Steelers), Shawntae Spencer (49ers), Steve Breaston (Cardinals) and Lousaka Polite (Dolphins) as well as “famous blogger” Sean (Sean’s Ramblings).

Today could be the last day of the mustache. More on this tomorrow, but you can donate to the Movember Foundation by clicking here.

Weekend Links

If you’re looking to waste a little time during this holiday weekend, I’m here to help with these links:

There’s an entire video dedicated to Sean’s Ramblings for President. Unfortunately, the staff left a “/” in the graphics. Consider them fired!

Is anyone really surprised that the Steelers have the NFL’s best fans according to ESPN?

It looks like I made a good decision to see Neil Diamond in Washington as opposed to Columbus.

Since the Big Dig worked so well in Boston, there is talk of having one in Reston, Virginia too.

Congratulations to Ithaca College senior Revital ("Revi") Roza for winning Good Morning America’s intern superstar contest.

I’m a few days late to this but Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies interviews the Post-Gazette’s Bob Smizik.

Finally, don’t forget to enter the Ted Marshall Open Television Death Pool. Entries must be submitted by tonight (August 31, 2008) at 11:59pm Eastern time.

Vote for the Intern Superstar

Ithaca College senior Revital Roza's summer internship with "Good Morning America" may have an unexpected payoff. The ABC show is holding an "American Idol"-style contest pitting Roza and her funk-rock band The Rozatones - comprised of IC classmates - against a fellow intern. Go to ABC News website to vote for Roza simply because she is an Ithaca College student (and because she’s a talented musician, of course; seriously, she and the Rozatones sound really good).

You can also check out the Ithaca Journal for more information about Roza and the contest.

California Tortilla & Washington Post Updates

After 21 consecutive weeks of eating a California Tortilla burrito, I think it is time for a break. However, I still have 31 coupons for free burritos good only at the Reston location. If you are interested in buying a coupon or multiple coupons, please e-mail me at seanramblings[at]yahoo dot com. The regular Blackened Chicken Caesar burrito is $6.19 including tax and some of the other specialty burritos cost even more. I’m looking to sell the coupons for $4 each, but I am willing to negotiate, especially if someone is interested in buying multiple coupons.

As for the Washington Post, I am getting closer and closer to canceling my Sunday subscription. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I received the newspaper at 9:30 AM on Sunday, December 16 and then, the paper was delivered on Sunday, December 23 even though I submitted a vacation stop. Today, the paper again arrived just after 9:30. I submitted a comment on the Post’s subscriber services page, but I doubt that I will receive a response. If I do not hear from the Post by Tuesday afternoon since the screen stated that the Post’s “service representatives have received your message and are working to address it within two business days,” I will call them on Wednesday.

While I was waiting for Sunday’s newspaper, Good Morning America featured a story about an octogenarian couple in Edgerton, Wisconsin who have delivered newspapers for more than 50 years. The story mentioned that they generally deliver the paper around 5:00 AM. That would be 4.5 hours before my newspaper is delivered!

Wednesday Morning Notes

On the way to the San Francisco airport, we passed a Shell gas station charging $4.33 a gallon…for regular unleaded! Directly across the street was a Chevron station charging 70 cents less per gallon. According to the taxi driver, who was extremely passionate about the subject (some might say crazy or fanatical), the Shell station is believed to be the most expensive gas station in the country. Apparently, a San Francisco TV station questioned the station manager about the extraordinary prices. The manager explained that he was just breaking even because of the high cost of rent.
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Unfortunately, Tiffany Catania got voted off Good Morning America’s Dancing With the Moms. I blame myself. When I first encouraged people to vote, Tiffany advanced to the next round. Since I was away last week, I didn’t solicit votes, and now we see what happened. Sorry Tiffany.
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Finally, Mother’s Day is on Sunday, so don’t forget to send Mom a card. There is no mail on Sunday, so you may want to mail the card soon, like today!

Another Month, Another Contest

Already this year, I have encouraged folks to vote for the Best DC Blog, Dog Show USA, Grease and the NFL’s Super Bowl Commercial. The next contest is Good Morning America’s “Dancing With the Moms Challenge!” Yes, this is a terrible name, but apparently ABC wants to get as much promotion for “Dancing With The Stars” as possible. Instead of dancing celebrities like Laila Ali, Joey Fatone and Billy Ray Cyrus, this contests features mothers dancing with their kids. Actually, that’s completely a guess since I haven’t watched any of the videos.

Anyway, over 1,000 people entered and there are now 10 semifinalists, including Tiffany Catania, who is someone I went to high school with in Pittsburgh. According to this link, each week the moms will be given a new dancing challenge, and then we can vote for our favorite dancer. Two dancers with the lowest vote totals are eliminated each week and the final four dancing moms will be flown to New York to train with professional dancers and perform live on Good Morning America. Basically, I’m just asking you to vote for Tiffany. Thank you.