Thursday, May 28, 2009

This is a BIG Deal

The G20 meeting here is a big deal. Not because you should believe all the nice things that will be said about our city in the next 6 months, but because others will.

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/09148/973412-82.stm

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Post-Gazette Lashes Out

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning lashed out against two campaigns for indirectly claiming that they received the paper's endorsement when they did not.
  1. Luke Ravenstahl prominently displayed the headline "City Weathering Financial Storm" from the post-gazette. Choosing that headline over "Dowd for Mayor: The Councilman has the Drive to Make the City Work." The funny part to me about the article Ravenstahl did cite is that in his only quote in the article, Ravenstahl points to the fact that the cuts were made because of the state oversight board. Also the article, despite its rosy title peels back the onion far enough to expose that "the pension fund is the hidden cancer" and that Ravenstahl cut the planned excess payment to the fund by almost $5 Million.
  2. The other accused candidate, Theresa Smith, was first brought to my attention by Bram and is guilty of a FLAGRANT case of political gamesmanship.
It's days like today that remind me how important it is to get to know your candidates EARLY in the political season, while they're still talking about issues. The gamesmanship is truly one of the, no I would venture to say THE, biggest embarrassments of this proud region.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Sour Kraut

Been a while since I did a Sour Kraut post, but I had two things to comment on and neither comment required a full post. So, it seemed like a good time to drag back out the German delicacy.
  • Mike Woycheck closed down his blog. He may end up best remembered for being Pittgirl's butler but that would be unfair. Woy was one of the godfathers of Pittsburgh blogging and deserves a proper send off.
  • The second comment is a quote from the ESPN article on Pittsburgh's win last night. It contained something that no self-respecting city should ever have allowed to be printed about a hockey game, and I quote, "Thanks to back-to-back games caused by a YANNI concert in Pittsburgh, the young Capitals came home with little time to regroup." Seriously Pittsburgh, someone needed to take Yanni out so that that never had to be printed.

300!


This is the 300th post to the Blog of Burgher Jon. A couple accompanying statistics:
  • This is one of the slowest trecks to 300 ever (due to several periods of blog neglect, including my current one). The blog originally began 7/29/2007, it suffered a period of dormancy almost immediately and started back up again 3/21/2008. So take your pick as to which date should be considered the start.
  • 3,311 people have visited the site visiting 4,524 pages. I know this is small time stuff for most blogs, but it's been a pleasure to me to share even with a small group.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Interesting....


For those of you who are not plugged in to Jane Pitt or Pittsburgh Magazine on twitter. Something interesting may be happening.