Let's get this thing started already

     And so it begins, my first ever blog here or at least my first ever blog that doesn’t  involve me trying to break the ice or kicking the tires of this site, but rather just me prattling on.

     Actually the bog is on a road trip today, as I am having dinner at a little place called the Squirrel Cage.  That the local name for it anyway, it’s actual name is the Squirrel Hill Café,, the locals just call it the Squirrel Cage, or if we are being particularly lazy, just The Cage.

     The food at The Cage isn’t anything to write home about (perhaps that is why I am writing here and not sending a letter off to my mom) but it is good for bar food, and The Cage does offer one thing that most places in Pittsburgh no longer do, that is the ability to smoke and eat at the same time.  A state wide smoking ban was passed a while back, and I am not going to argue the merits of, or rail against the idea of a ban on smoking in public places, I only mention it to say that it exists.  As part of the ban though, certain bars were granted a waiver, provided that a high enough percentage of their sales was in alcohol versus food and they paid for a permit to allow smoking.  The Cage meets that requirement but still has food on the menu, so I can smoke and eat here, which suits me just fine.

     The Cage has it’s assortment of locals, as any watering hole of its type most assuredly does.  I can’t say I am a regular, though I come here enough that the bartender doesn’t even have to ask me what I am drinking, my iced tea (of the non-alcoholic variety) is usually poured for me as soon as I sit down.  I do not come here to drink, I just like being able to sit and eat and smoke and relax in some manner, either breaking down invoices for work, or reading a book or as you can see today, by writing about whatever it is that pops into ye olde cranium. 

     And there has been a lot in ye olde cranium recently, I am just not sure where to begin.  I suppose like most  Americans I have taken an interest in the Olympic Games currently taking place.  Not so much that I chant “USA, USA” at the TV screen, but just because I like watching the competition amongst nations.  Sure I like it when the United States does well, but I am not so invested in it that if we fail to medal in a specific event I get all upset about it, I just enjoy watching most of the events, regardless of who is actually competing.

     Most of my sporting attention this summer though has been focused surprisingly on the Pittsburgh Pirates.  I know, it shocks me too, considering the Pirates have run off 19 consecutive losing seasons, the longest such stretch in the history of professional sports in North America, so it is quite shocking to be sitting here in early August and see the Pirates somewhere around 12 games over .500 and within 2.5 games of the first place Cincinnati Reds.  Better still, the Pirates record is good enough that, if the season ended today, they would get one of the two wild card slots for the National League.   Honestly I think the locals would be happy just to see a winning season for a change (as would I), but this flirting with actual post season play has made me want to go to games for a change.  The atmosphere at the ballpark these days is just different.  It used to be that you could walk up on any given day an hour or so before the game and know you could buy relatively good seats, now if you don’t have tickets in advance there is no saying that you will get tickets at all. 

    Of course the Pirates aren’t the only thing that is hot this summer, there is also the actual weather.  Not that Pittsburgh is Siberia and we are happy to get any sun, but the average in Pittsburgh is that we will see 8 days a year where the thermometer breaks 90 degrees, so far this year we have had at least 20, and there is still a month and change left of summer yet.   Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, any time I start sweating along and am just at the point where I might complain about the heat I remind myself of one simple thing, it isn’t snow. 

     Not that the summer has been perfect, it hasn’t.  God know just the number of political advertisements that have aired already is enough to make me want to throw my TV out completely.  And don’t even try to get me to sit through what passes for news on TV, because it is to the point now where I can’t stomach it.  Just the other day I saw a segment on Fox News where the topic du jour was whether it was unpatriotic that Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas was unpatriotic because her outfit was pink, and not red, white and blue.  As if all of those hours training in the gym to represent her country on the international stage should somehow count for nothing because of her selection of apparel.  Really!   Not that the local news is any better, what with their desire to not do actual reporting, but instead to report on such insane nonsense as what people are saying on the station’s Facebook page.  Or to offer up man on the street interviews in lieu of actually interviewing someone involved in the story.  Prime example, a couple of months ago there was a story where a professional baseball player from a visiting team was staying in a downtown hotel.  Apparently during the night of a game, someone entered into his hotel room, tied up his girlfriend and proceeded to take valuables from his room.  The story seemed a little suspicious for a number of reasons (How did anyone know he would be staying there and what room he would be in, how did the culprit get past hotel security, why did the girlfriend let an unknown person into the room, just for starters) and interviewing people who might be tied to the story would perhaps help flesh it out a bit, such as the investigating officer, the head of hotel security or the hotel’s manager, the player or the girlfriend.  So, you might ask, who did we get for our breaking news interview?  How about a guy who works in a building across the street from the hotel and happens to be a baseball fan instead.  Yes, that is what passes for journalism these days.  Just stick a camera in someone’s face, create a reason that they are even slightly connected to the story and just ask stupid questions and your work here is done.    I am actually surprised that when we landed a rover on Mars last week, the local stations didn’t go out and interview a person from Mars, Pennsylvania who wanted to be an astronaut as a kid.

     Okay, I have now finished dinner (beer battered fish and French fries in case you were wondering) and am having the post meal cigarette, so now is just about as good a time as any to wrap this up for a while.  Don’t worry, I’ll be back.  I am like the common cold, hard to get rid of.  Until then, I am outtie, like a belly button.