Suspect Minnesota Vikings Fans

There are so many topics that I could write about. The 2020 Presidential election would be at the top of this list. The Pittsburgh Steelers are 7-0. Kennywood announced on Tuesday that the amusement park was retiring the Kangaroo, Paratrooper, Bayern Kurve, and Volcano (formerly Enterprise) rides, a quite convenient time for this since everyone was voting or following election coverage. Instead, I'm writing about this NFL Shop commercial.

Specifically, these Minnesota Vikings fans.

I feel like there's a backstory here. Who are these people? They look kind of tough and hard. They have definitely seen some things in their lives, things that most people don't want to know about or think about. They might be running the crime family featured in season 2 of the FX show, Fargo. Sure, they hide in plain sight with their Vikings glasses and cheese board, but they have done some things. Some bad things.

Random Facts About Me

My friend Nichole posted this on Facebook, and I thought it would be fun to share my answers here.

First Job - Soccer Referee

Current job - Senior Analyst (How about that for a vague title!)

Dream Job - Professional Blogger/Influencer

Favorite Food - Lox on an everything bagel with cream cheese

Favorite dog - Farfel. My parents got her from a shelter a few months before I was born. I grew up with her.

Favorite footwear - I loved Adidas Gazelles. The problem is that the soles got worn out quickly.

Favorite Candy - Skittles

Favorite Ice cream- Mint Chocolate Chip. Graeter's Ice Cream in Columbus may have had the best I've ever had.

Your Vehicle color - Brown

Favorite Holiday - Probably Halloween. No clear winner for me on this one.

Night owl or early bird - A night owl before I had kids. Now, an early bird by necessity. (I hope to go back to being a night owl in 15-20 years again!)

Favorite day of the week - Saturday

Tattoos - No

Can you drive a stick - No

Favorite color - Green

Do you like vegetables - Some

Do you wear glasses - Yes, and I need a new pair. I also wear contacts.

Favorite season - Spring. The weather finally gets nice, and my birthday is in May. Spring was the end of the school year growing up, the start of the baseball season, and Kennywood Day!

Feel free to share your answers in the comments below.

Linked In

See what I'm doing here? (I think) I'm being clever by having a posted titled "Linked In" while I share links about interesting articles I've recently read. So here are some links to check out when taking a break from figuring out where and when to buy your turkey and pumpkin pie!

* Where did the phrase "Kennywood's open" originate? The Post-Gazette did some research though we probably will never know. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

* Josh went to Nashville. I went to Nashville for my annual(-ish) hockey road trip about two years ago, but I still haven't written a blog post about that portion of the trip. I should do that sometime especially since I really enjoyed the city. [Josh's World]

* A friend posted this "Homestead & Survival Alarm Clock" picture on Facebook. [Facebook]

Who's parents? Um, I've had this exact alarm clock for at least 20 years. I know that I took it with me to England in 2000, so I probably had it when I was in college in the 90s. What a solid alarm clock!

* An English soccer referee was banned for using rock, paper, scissors instead of coin flip before kickoff. The problem is that he should have played the pick a number between 1-10 and whoever is closest wins game. [CBS Sports]

* Apparently, in solidary with this referee, hundreds of refs did rock, paper, scissors to start games over the weekend. Although I was an assistant referee and not the center referee for two games Sunday, we did a coin toss since that's the way you start a game! [ESPN]

* Ron launched a new website, Steelers Takeaways. Please support him and the site. [Steelers Takeaways]

* Heinz offered Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes free ketchup for life. I think he should do it and not just because it's Heinz ketchup. Actually, yes, it's because it's Heinz ketchup. [ESPN]

* Finally, credit where it's due. Congratulations to Emory's women's volleyball team on winning the NCAA Division III championship. Emory dominated by losing only one set during the entire tournament run. Of course, that set was against Ithaca College in the quarterfinals and Emory won two other sets against the Bombers 25-23, but Emory deserves and earned the title. [Emory Athletics]

Photo from Emory University's athletics website.

Segue Needed

I'm not a television news producer nor do I play one on the internet (as you can tell by the poor quality video below). However, while watching Baltimore's WJZ noon news broadcast on Monday, I had to question why these stories appear back-to-back.



If you couldn't hear it (or don't feel like watching this), the first story is about ISIS/ISIL in Iraq. This is followed directly by a story about Vic Kleman, the 82 year-old who rode Kennywood's Jack Rabbit 95 times on Sunday to reach 5,000 rides on this roller coaster during his lifetime. I have no idea how Kleman figured this out. My guess is that I've been on the Jack Rabbit about 100 times, and that is a complete guess.

You can read more about Kleman and his Jack Rabbit adventures in this Post-Gazette article. You can also help me understand why these two stories aired consecutively since I have no idea.

Pittsburgh Festival In Washington

Perhaps it's because Celebrate Fairfax is only days away, but I'm getting into the festival mood. I also realize that it's unlikely I'll be able to visit Pittsburgh this summer (this year?) and that makes me a little sad. Therefore, why not put the two together. That's right. I want to create a Pittsburgh festival in the Washington, DC area.

I could worry about the details like location (Dulles Expo Center?), insurance, security, etc., but today, I'm going to be an ideas man. There are thousands of Pittsburgh transplants that live in the Washington area (see the 2008 Steelers game at FedEx Field and the Post-Gazette series detailing Pittsburghers that moved away) and even more if you expand this to Baltimore. Why not celebrate our Pittsburgh-ness and expose the city to the greater Washington DC area?

The first step would be to partner with Visit Pittsburgh, the official tourism office for Pittsburgh. They are the experts on all the great things to do and see in Pittsburgh.

Here is what else this festival should have (some of this is unrealistic but others could definitely work):

- Food: You can't have a Pittsburgh festival without Pittsburgh food. Primanti's sandwiches, Quaker Steak & Lube wings, hot dogs from The O, Potato Patch fries, Peppi's Roethlisburger, pierogies, Eat 'N Park Smiley Cookies, anything from the Oakmont Bakery, Prantl's Burnt Almond Torte, Vincent's pizza, Sarris Candies, Dave & Andy's ice cream and lots of Heinz condiments. Yes, there will be Iron City beer too. I'm getting hungry!

- Some type of presence from current or former Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins. Heck, we can have some Riverhounds or Maulers too. Yes, I'll even allow a visit from Steely McBeam.



- We need to have some type of Kennywood exhibit. Maybe they can build The Racer or Thunderbolt for this festival.

- Music: Let's get Wiz Khalifa, Rusted Root, The Clarks and Mac Miller, who recently wrote "I am Pittsburgh" on Twitter.

- Admissions officers from Pitt, Duquesne, CMU, Robert Morris, Chatham, Point Park, and Carlow to help recruit high school students.

- Bring a dinosaur from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum. With the dinosaur hall at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History closed until 2019, folks in DC will want to see a real dinosaur skeleton.

- An exhibit from the Andy Warhol Museum.

- A Mister Rogers and/or Daniel Tiger exhibit. Mr. McFeely could make the trip to DC again.

- Birds from the National Aviary.

- Have a giant poster showing the view of Mt. Washington where people can take a picture standing in front of it.

- Booths from some of Pittsburgh's biggest employers such as UPMC, Giant Eagle, Highmark, US Steel, and PNC Financial Services to recruit potential employees.

What else would you want to see at a Pittsburgh festival? Do you think this could happen?

Joey Fatone At Kennywood

Although Joey Fatone would probably jump at the opportunity for an 'N Sync reunion (although Justin Timberlake would probably earn 75% of the tour revenue), he's had a pretty good career since his boy band days. Fatone appeared on Dancing With the Stars, hosted several television shows including NBC's The Singing Bee and now stars in the musical 42nd Street. On his day off from performing the musical at Pittsburgh's Benedum Center, Fatone did what any normal person visiting Pittsburgh would do...go to Kennywood!

Kennywood Day was such a big deal as a kid that you planned what to wear days if not weeks in advance. (I remember once wearing a matching Pittsburgh Pirates T-shirt and shorts outfit that I debuted specifically for Kennywood.) Apparently, Fatone simply went to the merchandise store to buy a Kennywood sweatshirt.

(The first picture is by my friend Jill; the second one is from Joey Fatone's Twitter page.)

Link City

Here are some must-reads that I think you'll enjoy:

Kennywood is considering selling beer in the amusement park. They will make a ton of money particularly during school district picnic days. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]

Fascinating article about the matzo business [New York Times via a list of things thrown five minutes ago]

Awesome pictures of the 171st Air Refueling Wing out of Pittsburgh [That's Church]



Good read from an English teacher about the Tennessee standardized test including some sample questions. Note to self...don't go back to high school in Tennessee.[Mr. Brame's Blog]

NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Discovery mounted atop will fly above the DC area on Tuesday, April 17. Can I arrange for them to stop by my office? [NASA via The Washington Post's The Buzz]

Finally, although this post is over a month old, check out this cool story about a student journalist interviewing Aaron Smith as a student at Northern Colorado. [Behind the Steel Curtain]

Express Fail

I've shared how much I enjoy reading Express, a publication of The Washington Post, during my morning commute. However, I got upset after reading this article from Wednesday about Kennywood:



If you don't want to enlarge the article, the first line states, "Though Philadelphia is a city built on steel, some of the most sought-after attractions in it are actually made of wood." While this statement may be true, there is one major problem: the article highlights Kennywood Park located in PITTSBURGH (technically West Mifflin), 300 miles west of Philadelphia!

To be fair to Express, the article was written by Jennifer Yates of AP. However, longer versions of this article published on Yahoo, USA Today and ABC all correctly identify Pittsburgh. Therefore, I put the blame on Express.

I wrote Express on Wednesday notifying them of the error, but the paper did not issue a correction in the Thursday or Friday edition. Therefore, I feel like it is my responsibility to share Express' mistake with the world. In the future, if Express needs a Pittsburgh consultant, I am happy to help.

Pittsburgh Sports Memories

As part of Mondesi's House Readers Rule Week, I was invited to answer the Pittsburgh-centric questions listed below. I think that this will be posted on the site sometime Tuesday (update: it has been posted; click on the link above), but I wanted to share my responses here anyway.

1. What is your all-time most memorable moment in Pittsburgh sports history?

On Tuesday, May 8, 2001, I was living in Columbus, Ohio and watched game six of the Eastern conference semi-finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres with some friends. After the Penguins won in overtime, the ESPN announcers innocently stated that there were still tickets available for game seven. My friends and I looked at each other, decided to call the Sabres’ ticket office and managed to buy tickets in the last row of the arena. We all left work around noon on Thursday, drove the 325 or so miles to Buffalo and watched live as the Penguins defeated the Sabres in overtime when Darius Kasparaitis beat Dominik Hasek and dove on the ice in celebration. After jumping around and making our way down to the lower section (where I happened to be in the background of ESPN’s interview with Kasparaitis), we drove back to Columbus, had a horrible 4:00 am breakfast at Denny’s and made it to work on Friday.



1A. What is your all-time most forgettable moment in Pittsburgh sports history?

Everyone is going to write about the Francisco Cabrera, Sid Bream and the 1992 National League Championship Series. I still remember staring at the television in disbelief and watching Deion Sanders chase Tim McCarver around the locker room. While this is definitely #1 on my list, I’ll share my #1B least memorable moment in Pittsburgh sports history: the 1994 AFC Championship game between the Steelers and San Diego Chargers. The Steelers were huge favorites, and as we later learned, had plans to create their own "Super Bowl Shuffle" style video. However, Stan Humphries, Tony Martin and Alfred Pupunu ruined it. Trailing 17-13, the Steelers had one final chance on fourth and goal, but the Neil O’Donnell pass was batted away. I never heard Three Rivers Stadium and 55,000 people so quiet. It was silent walking out of the stadium.



2. What makes the city of Pittsburgh special to you?

The pride that people have in the city and its citizens. Maybe it’s just me (though I don’t think so), but we love to tell people about famous Pittsburghers such as Mr. Rogers, Andy Warhol and August Wilson. We love our teams and players from Western Pennsylvania like Jason Taylor, Curtis Martin and all of the legendary quarterbacks (Marino, Unitas , Montana , Kelly, Namath, etc.). I get so excited when I see positive things written about the city as was the case earlier this year when the New York Times and USA Today each published stories about traveling to Pittsburgh . Conversely, we get defensive when an outsider speaks ill of the city as a Seattle writer did prior to the Steelers-Seahawks Super Bowl. Again, I don’t think I’m alone on this. We even have pride in our food and restaurants like Primanti’s, The O and Eat ‘n Park! Maybe other places have this, but I haven’t seen it.



3. What would you consider your all-time favorite Pittsburgh sports team, specific to a single season? (For example, the '90-91 Penguins or the 1979 Pirates)

The 1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins. I was too young to remember the Steelers’ Super Bowl championships so this was my first opportunity to celebrate any type of Pittsburgh sports title. I have several specific memories during the season. John Cullen was probably my favorite player on the team, and I remember being upset that he got traded to Hartford . Since the Penguins received Ron Francis, Grant Jennings and Ulf Samuelsson in return, I guess things turned out pretty well, but at the time, I knew very little about these guys. I just didn’t understand why the Penguins traded one of their best players. I also remember being at Kennywood during game one of the Stanley Cup Finals (it was our school district’s Kennywood Day) going around the park trying to listen to the game. Finally, and probably the reason why this team is my all-time favorite, the Penguins were all that we talked about during high school after each playoff game. I guess we had tests and homework but there seemed to be nothing else going on in our lives besides the Pens.

Feel free to provide your own answers to these questions in the comments or, if applicable, your own blog, and I'll be happy to link to your post.