Mario Batali (the redheaded Italian TV chef) is narrating a Food Network special on ballpark food.
When they talked about PNC Park, he actually pronounced Primanti’s as, well, Primanti’s. That’s only the second time in my life I’ve heard anyone NOT pronounce it “Permanny’s.”
So, as I was cleaning the apartment this morning, Striking Distance came on TV. I stopped to watch it for a moment, because it was filmed in Pittsburgh, and is unique in that it’s actually set in Pittsburgh.
It’s weird though, the director and set people went out of their way to establish the authenticity of the setting- Bruce Willis has a Penn State cap and Rolling Rock sign on his bedroom shelf, there’s a giant truckload of cases of Iron City involved in the chase scene, and they even got Sally Wiggin of WTAE to do a cameo as herself.
But then they completely neglect other details. The police hat Willis tosses into his car is all wrong, for example. And they completely butchered the geography. In the first chase scene, they announce that they’re going to corner the suspect on Second Avenue, while they’re crossing the Smithfield Street Bridge onto Carson Street. WTF? They mention the southbound Tubes… which tubes? There’s two sets, plus the Squirrel Hill Tunnels, and neither one of them would have put them into the part of town they ended up in. And all that is just in the first 12 minutes.
Guinness tried to break another one of my necklaces last night. Since the incident with the silver cross, I’ve been wearing a gold heart-shaped locket more often, because the chain has the length I like, it’s distinctive, and it provides enough fidget-value, which is the reason I’m so insistent on wearing necklaces all the time anyway.
So I was fidgeting with it last night, absent-mindedly, while the cat played on the arm of the couch. Then he leaned over, picked up the locket in his mouth, and tried to take it! Fortunately, he underestimated the resistance the chain would put up, but that was nearly a second victim of Guinness’ rambunctiousness.
And he mauled my arm this morning. I’m going to take him over to Tom’s house this weekend and let him run around outside while I water the plants. I think he’s bored because he’s not getting outdoor playtime.
Today, I learned that a $6 box of Raid roach killer is a hundred times better at keeping the roaches out of my apartment than the quarterly visits from Eagle Pest Control that the management company pays who-knows-how-much for.
And don’t worry… all the little bait units are placed well out of Guinness’ reach, which is important, because they smell like peanut butter.
Shamelessly swiped from Tepper, and hidden behind the extended entry.
(more…)
Via BoingBoing, a list of assorted Tricks of the Trade.
What trade? Lots of them.
Via Ian: The Wikipedia actually analyzed Pittsburghese. It’s so… technical.
And here I am, having always thought that I had never developed much of a Pittsburgh accent, caught completely unawares! Who knew that “hoagie,” “neb,” “dippy eggs,” and “sweeper” were Pittsburgh-specific? Guess I’m a lot more Pittsburgh than I thought. I did add “guchies” and “sammich” to the list. You KNOW you’re straight Pittsburgh if you know the term “guchies.”
But that grammar point about how “to be” is often dropped is completely true. I didn’t know until my senior year of college that “The car needs washed” was incorrect.
