With everything happening in Ukraine, I feel really silly posting this today. Even just typing this sentence makes me think I shouldn't do it. I guess if you're fortunate enough to be able to take a short break from watching and reading about the news, you can check out this cover of Celebrity Skin by Doja Cat.
While I understand that this cover was part of a Taco Bell commercial during the Super Bowl, I dig it. I love the original (the guitar riff is just awesome) and feel like Doja Cat did a nice job recreating the song. I hope that it gets released as a single, assuming that's still a thing.
Here's the original song by Hole in case this song is new to you or if you just want your 90s nostalgia fix!
For several years if not longer, I’ve passed this billboard on the Pennsylvania Turnpike:
I’m extremely excited that I finally got this picture. Credit to my brother for playing a photographer on the internet! I’ve often wondered about the Mountain Man character. Is he supposed to be like McGruff the Crime Dog, Gus the groundhog for the Pennsylvania lottery, or my favorite short-lived character G-Hog for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor?
I searched for the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program, and the website is all about the Dairy Princesses. The cold (milkshakes) never bothered them anyway! So was or is Mountain Man ever used in any campaign other than billboards around Pennsylvania? More importantly, is DJ Khaled getting any royalties for the resemblance?
My kids often lack culture in their lives. The Moose is all about sports. Pedro Tulo would be happy watching MLW Wiffle Ball, Dude Perfect, and Mr. Beast videos on YouTube all day. Luigi enjoys Paw Patrol and Wild Kratts. None of these activities or interests have much to do with art, theater, or music. So after hearing good things about Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, I decided to get tickets for a family adventure.
Our initial plan and tickets were for late December. Unfortunately, Pedro Tulo was a COVID close contact from someone at his school and because of Christmas, there was a delay in getting the test results back. While he was ultimately negative, we were able to move the tickets to this past Sunday.
The first few rooms were fine. They showed replicas of many of Van Gogh's works and even created an actual room of the Bedroom in Arles painting. There was a lot of text about Van Gogh's life and the paintings, but my kids were more interested in just looking quickly and seeing what was next. And then we entered the "360-degree digital show" room.
Sensory overload! And they loved it. In the video, you can hear Pedro Tulo share his excitement. Then, we went to a room where you colored your own Van Gogh work and take a picture to put it on the big screen. I did not intend to make Van Gogh look like a White Walker from Game of Thrones!
Overall, the kids enjoyed it. This was definitely something different for them and was more interactive than many other art exhibits and galleries, so that was a huge plus. Next up, maybe we can find an orchestra or symphony concert!
What you're reading right now is my 5th or 6th attempt at figuring out what to write. My friend Chris recently passed away at the age of 46. Chris and I grew up together in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh, and I probably haven't seen him in over 25 years. While I believe that we played baseball and participated in Cub Scouts together, we were definitely on the same "Under 10" championship-winning soccer team. (More on this momentarily.) We also starred in high school musicals together though he was a much better performer than me. (More on this momentarily too.)
There are certainly a lot of negatives about social media, however, one of the positives is that it can bring people back together. Chris and I reconnected on Facebook and on Twitter many years after graduating from high school. We mostly simply liked each other's posts, but we were supportive of each other's blogs. While Chris' The Moldy Cheese blog was short lived and long erased from the internet, it really showed his sense of humor. When I wrote about finding our soccer championship trophy, Chris wrote that he still had his trophy too. He also shared a very sweet message after my dad, who was our soccer coach, passed away.
Back in 2017, there was a show on ABC hosted by Kristen Bell called Encore! The show reunited classmates to perform their high school musicals. Chris organized us online and submitted an application to the show. Although we weren't selected, it was fun getting together virtually with everyone again. Plus, Chris starting this resulted in videos of our Lil' Abner show getting posted on YouTube.
Chris had health problems for some time, but at least online, he maintained his sense of humor. He was one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and he will definitely be missed.
Shoma Uno won the bronze medal in the men's figuring skating event at 2022 Winter Olympics occurring right now in China. While you can watch his entire short program on YouTube (NBC won't allow the video to appear here), I recommend going to 3:15 of the video to listen to Tara Lipinski talk about his performance. Specifically, she says that we hear all about Nathan Chen and Yuma Kagiyama but not Uno. What a missed opportunity to say that we don't talk about Uno!
Thanks to my friend Messiah for letting me know about the video and comment and for making this terrific observation!
While he has played baseball and soccer over the years, we signed up The Moose for basketball this winter. This is the first time that The Moose and many of his teammates have played organized basketball. It has certainly been a challenge and a learning curve playing on a full court with referees calling traveling, double dribbles, and fouls. The lack of experience, particularly against other teams with kids playing multiple seasons, has certainly shown. Many of The Moose’s teammates aren’t comfortable dribbling the basketball and spacing and movement on offense is generally haphazard or non-existent. While they certainly try hard, the season has not gone well from a record standpoint.
They started the season 0-5, though the games were all close. The 6th game might have gone in The Moose's team's favor except for one kid who regularly dribbled past the defense for easy lay-ups. Seriously, look at the score book. This kid, who may be a young Steph Curry that doesn't need to shoot from 30 feet away, scored 25 of the opposing team's 40 points.
One thing to note from this game is that The Moose (#21 above) scored 6 points. In his first four games, he scored nothing. Nada. Zip. He had 4 points in the 5th game, and he was so excited about it.
Then came the next game. The Moose's team was 0-6 at this point playing the league's best team. It went poorly. The Moose's team trailed 24-0 at halftime. That's not a typo. 24-0. Fortunately, his team played excellent defense in the second half and ended up losing 28-10 with The Moose getting a late basket. The story of this game for me was the opposing coach, parents, and then the kids. The coach constantly pleaded and argued with the teenage referees for foul calls in this 5th grade basketball league, even when up big. A few of the parents of the opposing team sitting near me did the same thing. While the teenage refs either ignored the complaints or didn't hear them, I got more and more angry. I was actually shaking at one point. Texting with friends and family and posting on Twitter helped. I also made sure to encourage The Moose and his teammates. After the game, I even emailed The Moose's coach letting him know my thoughts on the other team. (It's at the end of the email.)
There's a good ending to this post. Over the weekend, The Moose's team won its first game. And they won fairly easily 26-12. He scored another 4 points and is getting more and more confident each game. The team clearly isn't the best in the league, but they're improving and having fun, and that's what really matters.
Dear Coach,
I just wanted to send you a quick note that I appreciate all of the time that you're spending coaching and teaching the kids. While the kids may be disappointed in the losses, I can certainly see improvement from the beginning of the season. The important thing for the kids is to have fun and learn about basketball and be better at the end of the season from where they were when they started.
To that point, thank you for being positive. I've been a soccer coach for several years and have also been a soccer referee since I was a teenager. I found myself getting angry yesterday at the opposing coach calling for fouls and arguing calls with the teenage referees. Some of the opposing team's parents were doing the same thing. Naturally, this rubs off on the players as I saw a few of them argue foul calls even though they were up big late in the fourth quarter. I'm glad that our team doesn't do this. This is a 5th grade rec league for fun, not the NBA with professional players, coaches, and referees.
A friend of my parents refused to ride over the George Westinghouse Bridge in North Versailles. For my non-Pittsburgh friends, Versailles is not pronounced like the palace in France. It's Ver-sails (like he sails the seven seas). Ah, I miss the pronunciations of Western Pennsylvania. Anyway, she had a dream that the bridge collapsed when she was on it and found routes to completely avoid the bridge. I always thought this was a little ridiculous.
Of course, most people who read this blog know that the Fern Hollow Bridge, only 6 miles away from the Westinghouse Bridge, collapsed on Friday. This bridge goes over Frick Park and links Point Breeze and Regent Square to Squirrel Hill. Again, for my non-Pittsburgh friends, this bridge is at the start of Forbes Avenue, one of Pittsburgh's most essential streets, which goes through Squirrel Hill, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and into downtown. As another reference, this bridge is about 2 miles from the Tree of Life synagogue. And I've gone over the Fern Hollow Bridge hundreds of times.
Amazingly, there were no casualties or even serious injuries. While four people went to the hospital, this could have been disastrous. A lot of talk is naturally going to be about infrastructure. And it should be. The fact that more than $4 billion in PennDOT revenues from the state's Motor License Fund was "diverted to other areas of state government, including $2.45 billion to the Pennsylvania State Police to help subsidize police coverage in communities without local law enforcement" is certainly problematic. Pennsylvania has one the highest gas taxes in the country, and the turnpike brings in millions (if not billions) in revenue each year. That money is supposed to go to roads and bridges. Overall, I really hope that states do some serious review of their infrastructure. I guess the federal government actually gets some credit for doing something in passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That money needs to turn into action.
Photos by Gene J. Puskar/AP and Rich Fitzgerald, Allegheny County Executive
In honor of the 17th anniversary of Sean's Ramblings, I decided to do something special. I considered buying a yacht or taking a trip to Australia, but that didn't seem feasible. Maybe next year when my blog turns 18. Instead, I went to Cameo.
I wrote about Cameo a few years ago. It truly is a magical place where you can spend hours searching for all levels of celebrities. For my anniversary, I knew exactly who I wanted to contact. Sean Foreman and his band 3OH!3! First, great name. Second, 3OH!3 is doing something very cool where proceeds of all of their videos go to the Sierra Club.
So with all that, here is the Cameo from Sean Foreman of 3OH!3. Oh, there's one NSFW word at the end which comes from the group's hit song "Don't Trust Me." Enjoy!
The Moose (age 10) lost a tooth the other night. This fact alone isn't worthy of a blog post, but what happened next, well, might not be either, but I still want to share the story.
Several years ago, my sister-in-law bought very cool personalized tooth pillows for my older kids. I write "older kids" since Luigi wasn't around yet. He can borrow one from his brothers when he starts losing teeth. Anyway, when the kids lose a tooth, they place it in the pillow pocket, which is a perfect fit for teeth and cash.
So The Moose put his tooth in a Ziploc bag, placed it in his pillow, and went to sleep. Hours later, I entered his bedroom to perform the tooth fairy duties. I should probably mention that The Moose shares a room and bunk bed with his brother, Pedro Tulo. There is definitely a higher degree of difficulty in the tooth to money exchange on a top bunk!
I found the tooth pillow, but the Ziploc was gone. While I put $2 in the pocket, the tooth wasn't there. After less than a minute of unsuccessfully trying to quietly and quickly locate the bag, The Moose woke up. He was drowsy, delirious, and wondered why I was there. My cover story was to make sure that he had covers and blankets on top of him because it's cold. Then, like the Jordan Peele movie with Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams where a character yelled GET OUT, I did GET OUT as quickly as I could. I think the movie was called The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down.
Fortunately, he didn't remember any of our interaction the next morning. If The Moose did, he didn't mention it. Before leaving for school, he found the tooth which fell below next to his brother's bed. My response was "That's strange." I did not elaborate. So at this point, the tooth fairy isn't coming back to take the tooth. She did her job and rewarded The Moose with $2. I guess he'll get to keep both the money and the tooth.
I recently found several papers that I wrote in college including one from an Introduction to Theatre class. I'd like to think that my writing is gooder now than it was then but maybe not. For this paper, which I included below, my assignment was essentially to write a performance review of the play A Shayna Maidel. This was essentially great practice for writing my blog. While I planned on simply sharing the paper itself (since I got an A!), I decided to see where the three actors I mentioned in the paper are today.
Michelle Federer - She was the star of the play and still acts today. According to her IMDB page, Federer has had a recurring role on the television show New Amsterdam and also appeared in Smash, Marvel's The Defenders, Blue Bloods, Rachel Getting Married, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent among other roles. She spent several years in Wicked as the original Nessarose on Broadway too. Looks like she's going to be in the upcoming Better Nate Than Ever on Disney+ with Lisa Kudrow and her husband, Norbert Leo Butz. Side note: Federer's brother lived next door to me for two years. I don't believe that my relationship with him had any impact on my review, but this certainly seems like a conflict of interest.
Stacie Lewis - It appears that her professional stage name is Stacie Morgan Lewis. Like Federer, Lewis also spent significant time on Broadway most notably in Wicked. She co-wrote the children's album Harmonize and is involved in the Westport County Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut
Jonathan Ave - I was critical of his stage performance, so perhaps that's why I can't find anything about him online. There's a very, very brief IMDB page for him, but otherwise, all I can find are various streets named Jonathan Ave.
And now, here's the paper. You really don't have to read it except for the A at the end!
This might be the shortest paper I wrote in college. I had multiple papers that were 10+ pages...especially when I adjusted margins and font size!
Sean's Ramblings is officially 17 years old. I think that's about 214 in blog years! It's been an odd year. When I wrote the State of Ramblings in January 2021, my kids were still attending school from home virtually, vaccines were only beginning to roll out, and my work-life balance of working from home with everyone here was a disaster. I mean, although everything got done, it came at the expense of sleep and my writing. The beginning of the year on the blog focused on things at home. I watched the Biden inauguration, played Just Dance with my kids, and attempted to potty train Luigi.
Then, things started to open up. The older two kids went back to school and all of the kids went to camp this summer. We drove thousands of miles on I-95 for vacation, everyone returned to school/preschool and work this fall, and the kids played organized baseball and soccer. I also went to Nashville where I shared an elevator with Robert Plant and visited the Grand Ole Opry.
I started a brand new series called "Hills I'm willing to die on." I wrote two whole posts, so apparently there aren't many hills that I'm willing to die on. Hopefully, I'll find more hills in 2022.
I still like pretending that I'm a sports blogger sometimes. My 2021 Pirates predections post was quite thorough and included a fantastic group of contributors. I also continued to write draft recaps of the Pirates and Steelers, which are always fun.
Overall, I wrote 100 posts in 2021. That's the first time I've reached triple digits in blog posts since 2016. For 2022, I want to do something big. I don't know what that is yet. I've talked about covering the Oscars or Emmys or even a sporting event but that seems unlikely thanks to COVID. (And the fact that the Academy Awards people have not sent me an acceptance or denial response for this year's ceremonies. When I applied, they said I would receive a reply in 2 business days. It's now been almost two months. Maybe they're waiting to give me the VIP media credential!) Anyway, I have an idea for a huge interview which probably has a 2% chance of happening. That might be high. We'll see.
Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and for your support over the years. I have no idea how I've written this for 17 years!
After a two-week winter break with a COVID close contact causing us to cancel several activities and basically spend most of the time at home, we were excited to get the kids back to school. The kids were excited to return too. And then winter happened. We got about 6-7 inches of snow on Monday morning causing schools to be closed Monday, Tuesday, and now Wednesday. Although there's been sun causing some (but not much) snow to melt, the cold temperatures at night have resulted in plenty of ice. Many neighborhood roads are still a mess, and there have been numerous power outages. Even if you're not in the DC area and living with this, you probably heard about drivers, including Senator Tim Kaine, getting stuck on I-95 for many, many hours.
I'm sure that you're thinking, Sean, why are you writing a blog post about the weather? It's January and there's snow. Not exactly covering new ground here. Well, this is certainly different.
Yes, those are downed branches from the tree in front of my house. Although several branches snapped, they didn't fall completely. Because of this, we were very fortunate that there was no damage to the car. We managed to clear the garage and squeeze the car into it, but the car wasn't going to get out. And I couldn't get out of the driver's side!
We made calls to several tree removal companies who were all celebrating the increased business from downed trees and branches in the area. Seriously, the amount of business they've had this week might fund them for the year! Several hundred dollars later, the tree is about half of its previous size, but we can get out of the driveway and not worry about falling branches.
Now if we can only get the kids back to school! (Of course, there's more snow in the forecast Thursday and Friday.)
In my early days of blogging, I found someone who made an end of the year blog post where they took the first few lines of the first entry of each month to create a random and interesting summary of the year. I liked the idea, and this is now the 17th time I've done this.
January: 25 years ago last month, the film Sudden Death starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was released in American theaters. I'm sure that some people may disagree with this, but the film is basically Die Hard at a hockey game/arena.
February: In February 2009, I created the first of four annual Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournaments. This was a time when the blog scene exploded, and the goal of the tournament was to highlight the outstanding writing and work by so many people.
March: I feel like I'm spending much of my time in the bathroom these days. No, I'm not bringing back any TMI Thursday posts about bathroom stories from my younger days. This is about potty training three year old Luigi.
April: With the 2021 baseball season starting today, I asked people to share their predictions for the Pittsburgh Pirates. While I’ve done similar predictions posts over the years about the Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, the 2020 elections, and even the entire 2020s decade, this might be my favorite group of participants yet.
May: Sure, Trevor Lawrence was selected #1 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars at the recent NFL draft, but can he throw two footballs perfectly at the exact same time like three year old Luigi?
June: I thought I would share some pictures from the last month or so. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but The Moose and Pedro Tulo have been back to in-person school four days a week for about two months now. Therefore, it's just me and Luigi (and Ziggy) at home between the time we drop the older kids off at school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon.
July: I recently purchased a subscription to SiriusXM satellite radio since I expect to be in the car a lot more than I have been over the last year plus.
August: My wife and I celebrated our anniversary by getting an extremely rare night away from the kids. We stayed at a very nice hotel, and when they saw it was our anniversary, the front desk staff said they would send something to our room.
September: The 20th anniversary of 9/11 is this Saturday, and there will probably be many TV shows, videos, and articles to commemorate this tragedy. I realized that I never really shared where I was on 9/11, so I thought I would do that now.
October: I'm going to share something that only a few people know. It's something that I never discuss and thought went away completely. I was reminded a few weeks ago about this though when I got a letter in the mail.
November: Today is election day in Virginia, and I think that I speak for Virginians and those in the DC area in that we’re looking forward to not seeing anymore political advertisements.
December: Our cat Ziggy turned 13 several months ago. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a kitten but has largely stayed out of the spotlight since his retirement. Now, he's going big. He's running for president of France!
Since 2021 is almost over, it's time for my annual best of and worst of the year in pop culture and more. Enjoy!
Best Movie: Sound of Metal
Way back in January, I watched Sound of Metal about a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing. Riz Ahmed was amazing in the film. You really feel his anger and vulnerability. The sound (or lack thereof at times) was also incredible.
Honorable Mention: Godfather and Godfather II. It took until 2021 for me to finally watch these movies, and I have no idea why it took so long. I didn't recognize Robert Duvall or Diane Keaton at all. Promising Young Woman was also a fascinating movie that really stuck with me.
Best TV Show: Bluey
I watched a lot of TV in 2021, and even with that, there are still so many shows that I want to see. While I should probably pick Succession, Ted Lasso, or Mare of Easttown for the best show of 2021, I'm going off the board here and picking Bluey.* This is an Australian cartoon that I first learned about in 2021 and is really sweet. The dad dog reminds me of a smarter and more caring Homer Simpson. Best of all, the episodes are only about 10 minutes long, so you can watch one quickly before getting the kids ready for bed!
Honorable mention: The Other Two. I really enjoyed the first season on Comedy Central about the older siblings of a famous teenage singer. The second season on HBO Max was just as good as the older siblings manage varying degrees of success and recognition. It's consistently funny with an amazing cast (Molly Shannon is perfect as the mom and now daytime TV host) and all of the guest stars fit in remarkably well.
Worst TV Show: Robot Trains
My kids watched part of the first two episodes recently. In the first episode, one robot train tried to kill another robot train. Either later in the first episode or the next one, a train has amnesia. It was awful.
Honorable mention: La Brea
I watched all ten episodes of NBC's attempt to recreate Lost, and I really don't know why. The premise seems cool. A giant sinkhole opens in Los Angeles and everyone who fell into it gets transported back millions of years. From there, it just gets ridiculous. The "dad" who is in present-day LA has visions so he can see what's going on in the past. Some people manage to go back and forth between the past and present. Oh, and then there's a Back to the Future story line where the kids will disappear if something doesn't happen. Even with all of this, I still plan on watching the show when it comes back.
Best Song: good 4 u by Olivia Rodrigo
Once again, my rule is that the best song must be featured in a blog post from earlier in the year. This year's best song was easy for me. I love good 4 u (even if the title should be Good For You) and I'm still not sick of it.
Worst Song: Hurricane by Cheat Codes featuring Grey and Tyson Ritter
We drove thousands of miles this summer, so I listened to a lot of pop music. Hurricane isn't a bad song, and I like hearing Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects again. The problem is the chorus:
Three cheers to the ones that don't grow up
24 forever till we self destruct
Lifestyles of the broke and dangerous
Maybe they'll name a hurricane after us.
The World Meteorological Organization is responsible for naming hurricanes. All of the names are singular. There's no such thing as a hurricane named Tom and Jerry or Thelma and Louise. Therefore, they aren't naming a hurricane Cheat Codes, Gray, and Tyson. NO ONE IS NAMING A HURRICANE AFTER YOU!
Worst Sports Moment: Many
2021 was an awful sports year. We started in January with the Steelers losing in the playoffs to the, I can't believe I'm typing this, Cleveland Browns. Wow, that actually happened. In May, Sheffield Wednesday tied Derby 3-3 in the final match of the season. A draw doesn't seem bad, but the result caused Wednesday to get relegated to League One, the third division of English soccer. In hindsight, it's been kind of nice seeing Wednesday win matches and do well in League One over the last few months, but at the time, seeing that Wednesday would have to play teams like MK Dons, Crewe Alexandra, and Accrington Stanley seemed devastating. A few weeks later, the Penguins got knocked out of the first round of the playoffs by the New York Islanders. Pens goalie Tristan Jarry just had a terrible series basically giving game 5 away. Then, the Pirates went 61-101. Overall, not a great sports year for teams I support.
Best Sports Moment: Little League Baseball
Not counting a coach-pitch league three years ago, The Moose played baseball for the first time this fall. The coaches were fantastic in teaching the game and making sure that the kids played multiple positions. The Moose pitched and played every position in the infield and outfield. In the playoffs, his team trailed 4-0 after the top of the first inning and 6-0 in the middle of the 4th. Then, The Moose stepped up to the plate and did this:
He started the rally leading to the team scoring 4 runs in the half inning. The team battled back all the way to 6-5 and had two runners on base before the opposing team got the final out. It was such an exciting game, and we were all proud of The Moose's team. After the game, instead of feeling sorry for themselves for the loss, the coaches gave each of the players a baseball, and they all signed autographs for each other. It was fantastic.
Best New Podcast: Bit Season
One of my first ever blog posts in January 2005 was my disappointment of waking up and finding out that The Sports Junkies were no longer on the radio thanks to a station format change. While they generally go by The Junkies, 17 years later, I still listen to their morning radio show when I can. The show's producers created a podcast called Bit Season several months ago with a behind-the-scenes look at the show as well as things about their lives. It's a fun listen.
Best Book: How Lucky by Will Leitch
I've pretty much stopped reading during the pandemic. For years, I read on my bus and Metro rides to and from work. I worked from home for well over a year, and when I started working from the office again, I drove. While I've found it difficult to focus on reading at home, I managed to make it through a handful of books in 2021. My favorite has been How Lucky by Will Leitch. It's a fictional story about a wheelchair-bound protagonist with a neuromuscular disorder, his life in Athens, Georgia, and a missing college student. I'll let this review explain more, but it's an enjoyable read.
Best Live Concert: Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and Weezer
Ah, August. A simpler time. This was well before omicron and even delta.
Warm weather meant more time outside. Sure, I still wore a mask indoors and limited time in crowds, but I made an exception for this concert where I purchased tickets in 2019. Of course, COVID-19 was still around as evidenced by the fact that one of the members of Fall Out Boy (or their crew) contracted the virus causing the band not to perform, but it was fun doing something that seemed completely normal.
Best Blog Post: NHL Outdoor Game Ideas
The NHL hosted an outdoor game on the banks of Lake Tahoe. The pictures and views were absolutely stunning. I had fun coming up with ideas for future outdoor games.
Honorable mention: My immediate reaction to the January 6th attack on The Capitol Building. It's amazing how many people (particularly many House Republicans) are trying to minimize this attack and are actively against any investigation.
Worst Blog Post: Honey Nut Cheerios with Blueberries
I successfully wrote 30 blog posts in just over 30 days. One of them was sharing my excitement about adding blueberries to my morning cereal. While this continues to be a tasty edition, this was probably not blog worthy.
Please feel free to share some of your best and worst of 2021 in the comments section.
* After I finished drafting this post, I listened to The Watch podcast where Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald were joined by Sam Esmail in discussing the best TV shows of 2021. Greenwald mentioned that Bluey would have been his number one show except that there were no new episodes in 2021. I guess my out of the box pick wasn't out of the box!
In January 1990, the National Hockey League hosted its all-star game and activities in Pittsburgh. Although we didn't have tickets to any events at the Civic Arena, my dad took me, my brother, and my best friend to the hotel (probably the Marriott City Center) across the street on the Saturday before the game. I'm not sure what exactly we expected being at the hotel. I guess our hope was that players would go to and from the arena through the hotel. We weren't alone as there were dozens if not hundreds of people joining us in the lobby. I'm sure that the hotel staff was thrilled!
Sure enough, we did see players. While I'll always choose Mario Lemieux over Wayne Gretzky, Wayne was gracious in signing autographs for at least an hour. Meanwhile, Mario ran through the lobby as quickly as possible, signing only a handful of autographs. My brother was one of the few of the lucky ones. We got autographs from several other players too, so today, I'm happy to share a brand new found in my brother's basement!
I guess we thought that we might forget who signed the autograph or were unsure if we could read the signature. That's why you see the hand-written names near the autographs.
Thanks to Wayne, Mario (sort of), Mark Messier, Al Iafrate, Joe Nieuwendyk, and others for taking time to sign autographs for kids.
I should also mention that the Gary Anderson autograph was from a different event. Plus, I'm pretty sure the Will Clark autograph was part of the card.
Fenway Sports Group, one of the world's largest sports ownership groups and owner of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club, recently purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins. Basketball superstar LeBron James is a partner of Fenway Sports Group (or FSG), so that makes him an owner of the Penguins. Therefore, it wasn't a surprise to see James wearing a Mario Lemieux jersey on Wednesday. (This sounds like some type of math problem like if A=B and B=C, then A=C only that we're replacing A with FSG, B with LeBron, and C with the Pens. Clearly, you can see why I don't teach math!)
During the time of "The Decision," when James chose to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, I suggested that James should come to Pittsburgh. Looks like he finally took my message to heart!
In 2019, Lil Nas X had a monster song "Old Town Road" which featured a remix with Billy Ray Cyrus and included a video featuring Chris Rock. I feel like many people became fans of Lil Nas X simply based on his visit to Lander Elementary School in Cleveland and the reaction by the kids. It's a cool video.
His next song (Panini), arguably most notable for his sample of Nirvana, didn't do nearly as well (which is natural since I believe Old Town Road held the #1 spot on the Billboard chart for longer than any other song all time). Still, how does Lil Nas X follow this? Was he basically a one-hit wonder (or 2-hit wonder if you count Panini) and done? The answer is a clear no. I listened to a lot of pop songs this year (more on that in my best of 2021 which I'll write hopefully before the end of January 2022) and his songs Montero, Industry Baby, and now That's What I Want are all really good and smash hits. Enjoy That's What I Want though not at work since the video is a little racy and has some bad language near the end.
If you've checked out my blog recently, you might remember that I visited Nashville where I spent time with Robert Plant and attended a show at the Grand Ole Opry. There was more to the trip though, but first I want to go way back to 2016 when I made my first visit to Nashville as part of our annual-ish hockey road trip. In looking through previous posts, while I wrote about the St. Louis and Metropolis (yes Metropolis) portions of that year's trip, I never shared a thorough post about Nashville. The short version is that I loved it. Nashville's Bridgestone Arena is right on Broadway, a multi-block party filled with bars, restaurants, and live music, particularly country music. Five years later, the place seems even more insane.
My hotel during this trip is about 1.5 miles away from the heart of Broadway, and I walked downtown from there twice. One of those occasions was on Sunday just before noon and the street was already rocking. Here is a picture of a party bus featuring a woman wearing the jersey of everyone's favorite "immunized," though not vaccinated, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
If you have poor eyesight like me, you'll have to really zoom in to see it. Actually, since Rodgers was unable to play football due to contracting COVID-19, maybe it actually was him!
Many of the bars on Broadway are owned or at least named for musicians. There's one for Luke Bryan, another for Florida Georgia Line, one for Jason Aldean, Kid Rock, etc. Dierks Bentley also has a bar. I mention this because an Uber driver told us that two people died there in the last few months from fights. (I only found a story about one death in an online search.) This isn't part of the advertising campaign for the bar on the sign at the Nashville Airport.
While I'm not sure if Nashville is considered a foodie town, Hattie B's Hot Chicken is well known. I went with a mild chicken sandwich because I like to taste and enjoy food rather than spending an entire meal with my mouth on fire. I also ate at Pancake Pantry, which I highly recommend. I'm all for restaurants that serve delicious breakfast food all day long or at least through lunch. By the way, Taco Bell deserves major credit for having likely its coolest sign in their downtown Nashville restaurant. I did not eat at Taco Bell.
One of the oddest Nashville attractions is The Parthenon. It just seems so random and out of place. People in the 1890s just decided to recreate the original structure in Athens, Greece and place it in Nashville. While I didn't go inside, it's an art museum in the middle of a park. There was a flag football game going on just steps away from the building!
Oh, I saw the house that Jay Cutler built.
Finally, at least two of my Uber drivers are musicians, because why not? I didn't get the name of one, but the other has a bunch of videos on YouTube. She's really talented, so I hope that Autumn Knight makes it big, and I can share that she gave me a ride to the airport!
Our cat Ziggy turned 13 several months ago. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a kitten but has largely stayed out of the spotlight since his retirement. Now, he's going big. He's running for president of France!
Based on the three years of French I took in high school (and using Google Translate), this says:
In 2022, French Cats Vote Ziggy.
Work Less, To Eat More
This seems to be Ziggy's platform:
+ Ziggy wants health, committed and French food for all.
+ A 100% transparent composition, no more political blah-blah!
+ A veterinary formulation for our croquettes and pates
+ Sustainable food and recyclable packaging
As you can probably guess, Ziggy is a French cat food company. Nevertheless, I completely support the name and campaign and with apologies to current French President Emmanuel Macron, Ziggy has my vote!
Thanks to my friend T for letting me know about this campaign!
Hanukkah started on Sunday night, and I'm excited to share some videos to celebrate the holiday. First up, Dave Grohl and producer Greg Kurstin return for another year of their Hanukkah Sessions.
It's nice to see A Cappella groups The Maccabeats and Six13 back with new Hanukkah songs.
I know this isn't real, but Lady Latka is a potato pancake making more potato pancakes. She's shredding her own kind! Plus, while I haven't spent much time around dogs lately, why wouldn't Blue eat her? It's food on the ground!
Nissim Black and Kosha Dillz teamed up for a new song.
I have no idea what this is.
While I've mentioned this several times over the years, if you celebrate Hanukkah, please include pickles as part of your celebration. This is the story of how the pickles at Hanukkah tradition started, and this is the Facebook page dedicated to pickles at Hanukkah!
Finally, this is a now deleted tweet by Leeds United apparently hoping that Hanukkah lasts for 10 days instead of 8.
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
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