Blog Archives

Hi,

Today’s the anniversary of the seizure of the USS Pueblo in 1968 in the Sea of Japan.  The North Koreans held the crew captive for 11 months and confiscated the vessel.  Barney Miller premiered today in 1975 and January 23 is Babin Den day in Bulgaria.  This is a festival honoring midwives and grandmothers.

Guess where I’m going to be this evening?  Heinz Field, on the field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Watch for me on the side lines.  I’ll have a black and gold knit cap I’ll be wearing, it’s a little unique.  Black top, gold around me head and the colors kind of bleed together like stalagmite stalagmites, it that makes any sense.

A short drive from Pittsburgh, less than an hour is East Liverpool Ohio.  Early nineteenth century, it was the ceramics capital of the world.  During it’s hey day, there was over 20,000 people living and working there (there’s now about 13,000).   Hall China,  has their manufacturing facility there and an outlet store the Hall Closet is on the edge of town down by the Ohio River.  Also, in E Liverpool, the Pottery City Antiques Mall and a ceramics museum in the old post office that shows the evolution in ceramics industry in the area.  In near by Newell, WV is the Homer Laughlin plant an outlet store, they are the makers of the famed Fiesta line of brightly colored pottery.

There’s a art glass exhibit called Domesticity at Morgan Contemporary Glass at 5833 Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside.   This is a exhibit of sculptures by eleven female artists from around the country and some of the domestic service themed pieces recreated in glass are pot holders, a cartoon characters of a mop and broom as well as over sized knitting needles and many other pieces.  The domestic theme has caused some controversy.

Go Steelers,

ed

Hi,

We’re going to skip my normal  quotes from Chase’s Almanac and giving a January Birthdays Special.  Born in January were Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin D Roosevelt, Nicolas Cage, Paul Newman, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond.

BIG news, if you’re watching THE game on Sunday, watch for me ON THE FIELD.  Yeps, can’t say a lot here and right now, but keep your eyes open

Very cool, I’m not a skilled craftsman, more of a shoemaker.  Luckily, I am at a point that I can hire a professional rather than risk life and limb trying many things I knew I shouldn’t try an tackle.  But I’m still very active in doing handy man things here.  Ruellia, the guest suite in the Carriage house had the original bathroom exhaust fan from when I bought the property.  The fan wasn’t too effective and was getting very noisy.  I went to Lowes to get a replacement and instead of having to buy a whole new fan kit, they sell replacement kit.  You just unplug the fan, pull the metal plate bearing the fan assembly and replace it with the new one.  Very easy and less expensive.  This option has probably been around for years, but I just found it and wanted to pass it on to you.

Abby, the National Aviary’s bald eagle seems to be sick.  She hasn’t eaten in days.  They have her quarantined, they think she has some kind of a fungal infection.  They did some blood work on her and should have the results back in a few days.  I went to the National Aviary’s web site and clicked on the Contact Us  and sent Abby a get well e-mail.  You should also, if it doesn’t cheer her up (she may not have computer access while ill, but I bet the staff will get a kick out of it).  🙂

Ed Coll of Skys the Limit photography called me yesterday.  Ed’s an interesting guy that uses photography to do what he loves to do, travel.  He showed me a few incredible pictures of his travels through central and south America, Africa and the Asias.  Not to say he does shabby work in between his trips, got to his web site and see how creative he is.  As it turns out, he was scouting for a location to take the picture for a group’s new album. So he stopped by yesterday afternoon and loved the place.  He was going to contact the group to see if they wanted to use my space.  He called me and they came over today at three, then four.  🙂  The group turns out to be Lovebettie, I’ve heard them on WYEP.  They’re a cool retro/rock group that’s releasing their Red Door album in March and starting a tour then.  They’re going from Maine to Austin on tour.  Kind of funny, they reminded me of the group from ModCloth that did that photo shoot here, and when I mentioned it, Ed’s assistant is associated with them and the band’s into ModCloth as well.

I’m going to blow my brains out.  I got the $ to do the two rooms (mine and a guest room), both had blue prints by my “previous” architect Val.  When I was approved for the $ in the beginning of December, I contacted Val.   Val is currently semi-retired and living in New England doing research.  He referred me to another Southside architect he knew.  I spoke with a friend that said I should use a local architect we both new.  So I went to him before the holidays.  He was going to stop by over the holidays.  After New Years, I stopped by his office.  It’s on the second floor and there’s no working door bell.  So I called his cell and got his voice mail.  I left a message.  When I hadn’t heard from him within a day, I started calling the architect Val referred.  I called for a week.  If I let the phone ring until it went to VM, the recording said the message center was full, please try again.  My next try was I sent an e-mail to an interior decorator that specializes in historic properties.  I figured she’d have a line on an architect, so I sent her an e-mail asking for a referral, no response.  So I then opened the Yellow Pages (my last resort) and guess what?  There’s ONLY two listed.  Did I say I’m going to blow my brains out?

Good night,

ed

Hi,

Today’s the birth anniversary of Benedict Arnold, Albert Schweitzer and Richard Outcault.  Richard Outcault was asked by the New York World’s Sunday editor to submit drawings for use with their new color printing process in January 12, 1863.  He went on to start the first “Sunday Funnies”, “Hogan’s Alley”.

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery removed “A Fire in My Belly” a film by David Wojnarowicz from the exhibit Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture because it was too controversial.  The film is being shown at both the Mattress Factory and the Warhol through February 13, the date it was to run through at the Smithsonian.

I keep getting these “comments” to my blog and they all seem to follow this format:

Kids room decor…

Thank you for this excellent write-up. I am usually searching for Kids room ideas to recommend in order to my own, personal readers. It is just what I was looking out for….

I haven’t said anything about “Kids room decor…” in any of my blogs and there’s always the “…” at the end of the narrative with nothing that follows.  I get spam through my Guest Comments Page on my web site, they’re always Viagra, other drugs, gambling opportunities, etc with hyperlinks.  I assume the hyperlinks take you to a bad place.  These comments don’t really have hyperlinks, other than the one that would take you back to originator.  I guess there’s some things in life I’ll never know.  🙂

Chatham University has always been this quiet girls school out in the Oakland/Shadyside area of Pittsburgh.  It’s been around forever, one of the alumni is Rachael Carson, which is appropriate for what’s to follow.  Chatham was given the 388 acre Richland farm, about twenty miles north of the City.  About 100 years ago, a HJ Heinz executive created Eden Hall on the property as a retreat for women that worked for Heinz.  Chatham plans on making the entire new campus environmentally sustainable.  Most colleges and universities have a sustainable building or area, but I believe this will be the first entire campus being designed from the ground up as being sustainable.  I’m impressed.

That friend that’s opening The Stone Manse out by Harrisburg saw a bald eagle outside her Inn today.  How cool is that.  What do I have, a family of vary large crows that have moved into the neighborhood.  Darn they’re big, I’d be nervous in a dark alley with one or two of them.  🙂

Well, that’s about it for today, Go Steelers,

ed

Hi,

Today is the anniversary of the first episode of All in the Family (1971), Batman (1966) and Dynasty (1981).  Zanzibar became independent in December 1963 under a sultan and over threw him on this date in 1964.  Finally, on this day in 1992 in Urbana IL, HAL of 2001 A Space Odyssey was “born”.

The West End, the little community just across the West End Bridge from me has several high light businesses.  There’s Articraft, a very high end antique store.  The gentleman that owns it has no connection to Pittsburgh, the reason he chose to locate here is we are the largest city within driving distance from New York and Chicago, his two major markets.  There’s also James Gallery over there.  They have shows there and do a lot of higher end framing, no Michael’s Crafts here.  🙂  Anyway, the current show is Pulp Friction, misspelling on purpose.  Director Paul Cicozi asked local and national artists to come up with art stretching the boundaries of paper.  The artists used torches, sand paper, cereal boxes, photographs and combinations of digital and hand work.  It is open Monday through Saturdays, 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. through January 29 and admission is free.  James Gallery is  S. Main Street, West End 412.922.9800.

Brian from Eventures called me last week and had the courtesy to set up an appointment to meet at 11 a.m yesterday.  A few days later, Jay from Catered Elegance called and said Brian and Shannon wanted to meet here Tuesday afternoon, they’re getting married here this coming July.  I really needed to get my oil changed and called Blue Wave Auto Spa and set an 11 a.m. appointment.  I looked at my calendar and saw Brian and Shannon, but some how missed Brian from Eventures (maybe my brain saw Brian twice and counted it as one?).  Brian from Eventures called me to say he was here while they were changing my oil.  He was gracious  enough to wait for me to come home.  They do social and business media, recording meetings and weddings, audio visual effects, etc.  Very nice and professional, even though I was so rudely late.  The point of the story really isn’t my rudeness, I was flying down I 279 at 85 miles and hour and in the rear view mirror, I see a motorcycle police officer way behind me.  I slow down and he comes along beside me, looks at me and shakes his head NO and continued on his way.  Thank you.  I do speed all the time, but nothing like that.  Generally, I go just under ten miles an hour on my speedometer.  My speedometer is eight miles and hour fast.  So in a 55 mile and hour zone, I’m actually going more like 62.  Wrong, but not outrageous like 85.

Anyone that knows me or follows my blog knows how much I hate big.  I never go to Walmart, switched to a one branch bank (Slovak Savings Bank), seldom go to Lowes or Home Depot, etc.  And I never have anything nice to say about them either.  Well, I went to Verizon yesterday and had a pleasant experience.  I’ve been having problems with reception with my phone.  The agent was polite as well as knowledgeable.  He pointed several things out I could do on a maintenance basis.  And he reviewed my account and VOLUNTARILY OFFERED TO LOWER MY MONTHLY PAYMENT AND GAVE ME UNLIMITED HOURS.  They picked me up off the floor after that.  🙂  I have had such unpleasant experiences with Verizon over the years.  Generally speaking, anytime I dealt with them in person or over the phone, they were indifferent, at best.  When I moved up here, after being a Verizon customer for years in Florida, they made me pay a deposit because I didn’t have payment history up here with this branch.  They couldn’t contact the branch in Florida.  Yet, I was receiving continuous solicitations for changing my land line to them, then FIOS started.  I would get multiple solicitations in one day.  Verizon farms their marketing out to independent contractors (ie make lots of money by working from home) and there was no way to stop it.  I ended up letting out a barrage of profanity every time I answered the phone and it was someone soliciting for Verizon.  Also, they would send these “account executives” around door to door that would ask to see my phone bill and they would show me how they could save me money.  I must say, I seldom hear from them lately.  God I hate unwanted solicitation.  Anyway, I was impressed with Verizon yesterday.  I’m thinking of getting a smart phone (it may help me 🙂 ) and now that they have the iphone, I may go that route.

Steve Bland, the guy in charge of the mismanaged Port Authority was in today’s paper, but I don’t want to rant on two items in one day.  Maybe I’ll give him another shellacking tomorrow.  🙂

ed

Hi,

On this date in 1982, AT & T was forced to divestiture.  This is the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, in 1815 the British were soundly trounced (neither side new that the War of 1812 was officially ended two weeks earlier).  Finally, today is the anniversary of Chou En-Lai’s death in 1976 (no one knows exactly when he was born, sometime in 1898).

OK, my glass isn’t half empty or half full.  It’s three quarters full!  Well, more good news on the water leak.  Paul finished repairing the stack and only had to take about 6′ of the 18″ wide wall next to the front door.  We didn’t have to touch that gorgeous paneling in the front foyer or take the plaster down in the Dining Room with Kathleen Flaherty’s mural.

Did I tell you about my basement?  It’s a labyrinth of small rooms, the entire Inn is built of bricks. Even most of the interior walls.  So it needs a bunch of foundations below.  When I bought the Inn, the basement had a lathe and plaster ceiling.  I initially hired someone to take the bulk of the ceiling out so I would have access to the floor joists.  Since then, I’ve picked away at finishing cleaning the basement ceiling up.  After Paul repaired the stack, he went down the basement and removed a bunch of old pipes that were left from previous uses.

Squeezed in that chase with the stack was a bunch of electrical lines of all styles.  Shaun, my electrician had a cancellation on Friday and came by and straightened the wiring in that chase up and started removing dead wiring from the basement ceiling.  He’s coming back Monday to run some new wiring up to the third floor while we have that chase open.

The electrical and plumbing has been repaired, I have a fan on the chase drying it out.  So by next week, I should have the front hallway all closed up.

There’s a new hard cider bar that’s recently opened in Lawrenceville.  Arsenal Cider House and Wine Cellar is located at 300 39th Street.  Bill & Michelle Larkin converted the first floor of their Lawrenceville 19th century row house into the cider bar.  They make all their own hard ciders and are always coming up with new adaptations.  They’re open Wednesday through Friday from 4 – 8 p.m., Saturdays from noon until 8 and Sunday from noon until 4.  Their first batch was sold out in in three months and had to close for three weeks to brew a new batch.  They sell their cider in growlers (1 liters) for about $20 and refills are about $12.

The week before Christmas, I had a melt down with Mark from the Northside Leadership Conference.  At issue was the lack of support to local Northside businesses by the new Rivers Casino and the lack of support of Northside business support groups for this.  When I would drive out the Parkway West and see that sign for the Best Western Hotel’s that says “Stop in for free casino discount tickets”, my blood would boil.  Well, I have to give Mark credit, within two days, George from the Rivers called and set up another appointment with me (we met last summer).  When George stopped by, Jeff from the Inn on the Mexican Wars Streets was here also and George offered us discount tickets also.  He said they also would include us with a link on their web site.  I’m quite happy with this.  Thanx Mark & George.

Well that’s about it for today,

ed

Hi,

A lot of famous people were born on this day, Louis Braille was born in 1809, Jacob Grimm (of Grimm’s Fairy Tales) was born in 1785 and Isaac Newton was born in 1643.  Today, Utah was admitted to the Union in 1896.

Happy days are here again.  Paul, my plumber was here this morning.  There definitely is/was leaking into my walls from at least the second to the first floor, possible starting all the way up on the third floor.  The FANTASTIC news (sorry for shouting, but I’m really excited here) is we will not have to take the paneling in the front foyer down or take  the dining room wall out (it’d kill me if I had to damage Kathleen’s murals).  The problem is the stack (where the water comes down from the tubs, toilets & sinks) has failed.  It runs up the wall between the foyer and the front hallway next to the front door between the Parlor and Dining Rooms.  So we’re going to have to take out that little (maybe 18″) section of wall right next to the front door where the light switches are.  And it seems to get better.  It looks like if we need to repair the stack all the way up to the third floor, it runs through a closet in Bird of Paradise’s foyer that I store holiday decorations in.  All things that will relatively easily be repaired after the plumbing is fixed.  What a HUGE sigh of relief.  Paul’s coming back tomorrow morning, so once he has that wall opened up, we’ll see how extensive the work will need to be.

Here’s an interesting one for you.  The Palace at Versailles is being leased by the French government to a Belgium firm that’s going to turn it’s 23 bedrooms into a luxury hotel.   I’ve never been to Versailles, but I did visit Mad Ludwig’s recreation of it in Bavaria and it’s quite the palace.  The French government has assigned their top historian to oversee the renovations so the hotel doesn’t damage the integrity of the palace.  I can’t imagine what a night there’s going to cost.  I would imagine higher than my $150.  🙂

Disney’s national Mary Poppins’ tour includes three locals.  Case Dillard from Little Rock, Ark, Shua Potter from Erlanger, KY and Eric Hatch from Knoxville, IA are all on the cast and are graduates from Point Park University.

The PBS’s Antiques Roadshow is coming to Pittsburgh this year.  If you want your free tickets, go to www.pbs.org/antiques and sign up.  You have to do this by April 18.  They are also looking for large antiques for their Roadshow Furniture Roundup.  They plan on airing this show in 2012 and are looking for a selection of large antiques within a fifty miles of each other.

There’s a guy in California, Dan Balsam, that got so fed up with spam, he quit his job, got a law degree and now his whole practice is fighting spam. The attorney representing several of the spammers Dan’s sued calls him a “spambulance” chaser.  Pretty cute.  I love his poem on the front page of his web site.  His web site www.danhatesspam.com is worth a visit.

bye,

ed

Hi,

Happy New Year, I hope everyone had safe and happy holidays.

Today, in 2004, after traveling 302.6 million miles, the Mars Rover successfully landed and began exploring Venus (just kidding, looking to see if you were paying attention).  Alaska was admitted into the Union on this date in 1959 the first drinking straw was patented in 1888, it was a paraffin-covered paper which replaced natural rye straws.

There’s a move afoot to save Pittsburgh’s last remaining wooden block paved street.  Roslyn Place is a cul-de-sac in Shadeyside and is made up 26,000 4 X 8 inch oak blocks.  It was originally laid in 1916.

Did you know that poison ivy’s active ingredient can infect you up to five years after it was killed on a tree (ie be careful of firewood).

The Penns were a disappointment over the weekend, but the weekend was great.  I had about half Penns fans and half Caps fans and everyone played nicely together.

A lot of the plumbing and electrical here are buried in the walls.  One of my greatest fears seems to have come true. I seem to have a water leak in the walls over the front foyer.  Last week when the weather got so warm, I hosed the front and side porches off and even got the windows washed.  I’ve been smelling a funky smell in the front hallway and attributed it that.  Then Saturday night, the smoke/fire alarm was sending an alert of a problem with the pull box by the front door.  I called ADP and just as I got through to Wayne, the system reset to Normal.  When I looked at the pull box, the plaster had more cracks than I recall being there and part seemed damp.  I went to the basement and directly under the front foyer the floor was wet and there was (is) water dripping from the joists.  There’s two light switches for the basement.  One at the top of the stairs that turns on the lights in the first half of the basement and then a switch in a doorway to the second half.  There’s one or two lights in each of the rooms.  Stupid me, either Mr Cheapness or Mr Ecology, I turn lights out in the basement in areas I don’t normally go to.  The light that lights the area under the foyer I had turned off, I may have caught this sooner if I didn’t leave it in darkness.  I talked to Paul, my plumber and he was going to try and make it over today, if not definitely tomorrow.  I’ve checked both Bird of Paradise and Lady Palm’s bathrooms (directly over this leak) and there’s no obvious water.  There’s a hot water and a cold water pipe going up from the basement directly where this leak is.  I have no idea how we’re going to fix this.  I’m scared.

We’ll talk again as soon as I have an update,

ed

Hi,

I didn’t get to post this until today, but yesterday was my holiday.  It’s National Whiners Day. 🙂  They take nominations for national recognition at hugging_whining@yahoo.com, if anyone wants me to be nationally recognized for my whining.

Let me start this blog with whining about a whiner.  Larry Ginsburg owns Music Distributing Company.  It’s this very cool company that buys, sells and repairs vending machines, jukeboxes, kiddie rides and other memorabilia.  It has been in the Millvale Industrial Park for some time and he had 40,000 square feet.  The Millvale Industrial Park was recently torn down for the route 28 expansion/rehab.  Since they were going to tear the building down, he relocated to 23rd Street in Sharpsburg, a much smaller space.  He’s complaining about the lack of space he has, that he’s had to store stuff all over the place in friends garages, etc.  The state ended up auctioning stuff off left in the Millvale building (he got a percentage of the proceeds of the auction).  He can only do repairs currently, because the state is paying his rent for the first year and he’s barred from selling for some reason.  But my point is, he wasn’t blind sided.  They have been planning this much needed work on route 28 for at least 20 years.  If he took just two things out a day for the last twenty years, surely he could have moved everything out.  🙂  Not to trash Larry too much, he seems like a nice guy and if you are into these classic pieces, please stop out in Sharpsburg and check him out.  I did do a search, it seems like he had a web site at one point, but if you type music distributing company pittsburgh pa, a number of things come up on him, but no actual web site.

Just about forty-five minutes from here are two toy museums.  The Marx Toy Museum at 915 Second Avenue, Moundsville, WV is only open the rest of this week before it closes for the winter.  Call them for their hours 304.845 and to be sure they haven’t closed already for the winter.  They have rooms full of all kinds of classic and vintage toys.  Louis Marx owned the Marx Toy Factory in nearby Glen Dale and in the 50’s & 60’s, his company was the largest toy manufacturer in the world.  Close by, just outside Wheeling is the Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum.  It is located in a two story formal school house and has rooms of toys, dolls and even the Ohio Valley Room that has displays on the history and geography of the Ohio Valley.  Their phone number is 877.242.8133.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and are enjoying the time between Christmas and New Years,

ed

Hi,

Today is the anniversary of the founding of the Federal Reserve Bank, 1913.  Also, it’s Mexico’s Feast of the Radishes (no kidding).  In Oaxaca they hand carve figurines out of radishes and sell them in booths and many other radish related festivities.  🙂

Myra, my good friend opening The Stone Manse Inn in York, PA scolded me for not keeping up with my blog, so here’s two in two days.  Myra’s looking for furniture for her new Inn.  In particular dressers, tables, chairs, etc.  She’s looking to barter, so if you have something decent in the basement or garage, you could possibly turn it into a get-away at a very cool Inn.  Her phone number is 717.774.0999.

On December 9th I spoke of Penn Hills Fire Department having a model train display up as a fund raiser.  (The fire department also added a burning house complete with smoke and flickering red lights in the windows).  🙂  Penn Hills also has a train display in their Municipal Building featuring a lot of Pittsburgh sites.  There’s a miniature train display in the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Ardmore (near the Meadows Racetrack) which is know for it’s various transportation exhibits.  In Richland, the Model Railroad Museum has a train display featuring view of the old B & O and MV rail lines from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD with “toy” towns based on actual photographs from back then.  Thorncreek United Methodist Church in Jefferson Township has a train display that looks quite colorful.  Of course my favorite space in the city, Phipps Conservatory has a miniature train display called The Garden Railroad. This is the longest running until March 13.  Finally, in Etna at the All Saints school, they have a 16 x 24 foot train display for their kids.

Sold out tonight, the Steelers have their last regular season home game tonight.  It’s perfect weather for a football game, cold but not bitter, snowing, flurries, not a blizzard and hardly any wind.  I’m not saying it’s perfect weather for me, I hate the cold.  But football should be viewed in the cold by the fans (and by me in the warmth of my room).  Call me a sissy, that’s OK, I hate the cold and can’t wait for Spring.

Friends of mine own The Inn on the Mexican War Streets.  Carl and Jeff had their holiday open house last night, Jeff sure can cook.  He’s a retired culinary instructor.  I love being invited over to their house for food, it’s always a delight.

Well, my guests should be arriving soon.  I promise it won’t be a week again before I post my next blog.

Happy Holidays,

ed