h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I live by Youngstown, Ohio, about an hour and a half away from Pittsburgh, and I just love it! I'm moving there after college. I'm glad to see someone wrote an article about it.

My wife and I trekked down to see DNA at Carnegie-Melon U. in April. We had a great time. I was expecting somewhere grey and gloomy. I couldn't have been more wrong. It was delightful.

JTG

Look at this. Accepted guide entry about Pittsburgh from someone who doesn't even live here. How can I live with myself for letting you write this first?

It's fine, though, better that I not write it. Cos I'm a bit cynical about Pittsburgh. Oh, it's much better than the people who think it's still a dirty industrial town would have you believe (as you obviously found out). The people who live here, though, or probably more correctly the people who are *from* here, raised here, etc. are a bit overly proud of the place. Couldn't possibly be anywhere better in the world. In fact, they come to this judgment without ever venturing out of their own *neighborhood*, let alone the city.

Ah, well. There are worse places, I'm sure. Like Cleveland. (That's a joke, long standing rivalry between Pittsburgh and Cleveland in all things. It's just a little over 100 miles away in Ohio. And it's a decent place, too.) But after living here nearly 8 years, much longer than I ever planned to, I'm thoroughly tired of it. No doubt some Pittsburgher on here will find me and chase me on out of town.

Did Modell take some of the enmity with him to Baltimore?

Enmity? Ha! A word sure to be misprounced here if anyone even knows what it means. But no, to answer your question, I really don't think it resulted in Baltimore evoking even remotely the same feelings as Cleveland. Besides, in terms of football (that's American football, folks) it doesn't matter anymore, since the Browns live again.

I thought the whole thing stemmed from a feud between Art Modell and Art Rooney.

Hm, well, I don't rightly know. I've only lived here for 8 years. It has seemed to me that any real or joking put downs of Cleveland are directed at the whole place, not just about football. Which means either football means way too much here (which is true) or it isn't just about that. And it really doesn't seem to extend to Baltimore.

I may be dating myself by mentioning the infamous "terrible towels", then. (Steelers fans, in the glory days of the 70's, used to wave towels around..."terrible towels"). I thought that there was a bit of fun to be had with that and the Hitch-Hikers' Guide's affection for towels. I made a quip about it to a student at Carnegie-Melon (At the DNA talk). He immediately took the view that I am obviously insane, and politely excused himself. 20 years suddenly felt like a long time.

That's strange, because Terrible Towels are definitely back in for Steelers fans. Perhaps he just wasn't familliar with Douglas' bit on towels. If he was a student there, chances are he didn't know Douglas Adams at all, at that he just attended the lecture because it was supposed to be on Technology. If that was the case, he was probably in for a bit of a surprise when it turned out to be A Hitchhiker fan ralley.

But nobody mentioned the BEER! Iron City Beer, an acquired taste to be sure, is one of those famous lagers that is as noteworthy for its can art as it is for its taste. But seriously, the Pittsburgh Brewing Company does an acceptable job of blending polluted water, hops, malt and barley to produce a liquid capable of killing lots of helpless brain cells. And don't forget that Sam Adams beer was first brewed by Pittsburgh Brewing Co. I think you can even tour the brewery, check your local listings for details!

That's interesting! Someone should do an expose of Boston, describing their penchant for beer plagiarism.

Beer should have figured in the article somewhere. I've never seen so many neibourhood bars!

JTG

Ahem... "neighbourhood".

JTG

The sheer quantity of bars is needed since you never know when the appropriate tunnel, bridge to your own neighboouhood will be closed for a parade, traffic wreck or depression.

What about the whole Pittsburgh accent thing?? Any unwary traveller may be taken by surprise when the English isn't exactly typical English...

And, you couldn't possible leave out the Pens...

Interesting you should mention that... what struck me, was not so much a distinct accent, than an unusual way of saying things. It's hard to say precisely *what* was strange about it. It was just... peculiar; though not so weird that you noticed right away. I dare say, the Pittsburgers,if that's the right word, thought the same of me.

Pittsburgher, yeah, that's the word.

And what yunz guys are talking bout with the speech is right here:
http://www.pittsburghese.com/

Bew-D-ful... rilly innerestin!

JTG

Hey! Look what I found on that site!

"Hoopie: Flattering name for West Virginians"

Any relation to "hoopy"?

That must have been a misprint as the words flattering and West Virginian do not go in the same sentance except for "It was really flattering not to be mistaken for a West Virginian."

The Pittsburgh accent is certainly unusual, although the differences between it and other US Midwestern accents are subtle. The most obvious difference is in the pronunciation of vowels. The one I personally find the most peculiar is the way they pronounce the word 'creek' as if it was spelled 'crick'.