Hi,
Tomorrow’s birth anniversary include Louis Armstrong (1900), American composer William Schuman (1910), poet Percy Shelly (1792), hockey great Rocket Richard of Canada (1921) and Barack Obama (1961). It is the anniversary of Lizzie Borden’s ax murders (1892), the 50th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s arrest and the finding of the slain bodies of three civil rights workers in Mississippi.
There’s a group here in Pittsburgh that’s part of a loosely aligned group called Awesome. Awesome Pittsburgh is a group of I believe ten sponsors that kick in $100 for a $1,000 grant they award to people/groups that wouldn’t normally qualify for grants. You go to their site and fill out a very simple form explaining why your idea is Awesome and if you impress them with your idea for something that’s unique and creative, bang, you get $1,000. One was recently awarded to a dental clinic on the Hilltop (Beltzoover, Mt Oliver, Allentown, etc) that provide dental services for the poor. One of the things the dentists wanted to do, but couldn’t get funding fo,r was fluoride treatments for kids to stop or slow cavities. At around $2 a treatment, that’s a lot of little kids that will be able to have some decent preventative treatments. Another award was for a puppet photo booth (more than just getting your pictures taken with puppets, but I don’t want to blow there shtick.) 🙂
Bike-Pittsburgh is kicking off two weeks of events this Sunday with Pedal Pittsburgh starting and ending at SouthSide works. Start times are 6, 7 and 9 and the courses go from just two miles for the timid to 63 miles for nut cases like my brother Tom. (I say that in the kindest of means). 🙂 After the event, they are having and expo featuring food and equipment vendors, a beer garden (put those pounds you just worked off back on) 🙂 , BMX riding demonstrations and music. Admission varies from $30 up to $100 for the VIP pass. More info on their web site or by calling 412.325.4334.
Murrysville own Kathy Campisano won PFAFF’s World’s Most Creative Sewer Contest in June. She’s sewn since she was a girl, this project was her first quilt after attending a baby shower. On the gift registry cars was one of the things listed. So Kathy incorporated cars and used primary colors for Nathan. Each patch on the 45″ by 60″ quilt has two, so as Nathan grows, he can learn from his “baby blanket”. Kathy ended up submitting it to PFAFF’s web site and won the June award which includes a framed certificate and fame. At the end of the year, the twelve winners will go before an expert jury to pick the year’s Most Creative. This contest is being run to celebrate PFAFF’s 150 year anniversary.
Ohio River Trail will be having a Fall Fest October 14 at the Lodge in Brady’s Run Park in Beaver County and runs from 9 am until 5 pm. Events will include a mountain bike ride, 35 or 50 mile run and walk, kayaking, canoeing and other activities like trail tours, music and beer tasting. Admission is free for kids under 12 and $20 for the rest of us. More info at their web site.
From 8 pm until midnight Mean Streets Racing race will be situated Downtown and racers will encounter obstacles like Dumpster Diving, Wall Street, Traffic Jam and Cat Burglar. Admission is $60 per individual, $50 for members of teams. More info for this less than traditional race is on their web site.
I don’t understand the hoopla about installing parking meters that are missing in the area. #1, they are city streets. If you want free parking on your street, move to the suburbs, or West Virginia. I have meters in front of my business. Guilty as charged, when I lived on the Southside Slopes, I went in to work at the William Penn early and would come down Arlington and make the hard right onto Carson and park for free along that wall that the city’s now going to turn into a bike lane. I think they should meter any legal spot on Penn and Smallman Streets. I know if I lived east of the city and came in to work, I would know where the “free” spots are and park there and then walk or bike to work. That’s what people are doing now in that area. The residents are upset about loosing their free and convenient parking. Yo, you live in a city. Some in the business community are complaining people won’t plunk quarters to shop there, get better merchandise or lower your prices. If you have a product someone wants, a meter isn’t going to slow them down. And you will get rid of all those All Day Parkers, freeing up space for lots more temporary shopping kind of parking.
Highland Park’s Lake Carnegie, built in the 1870’s as a pumping station from the Allegheny River to the Highland Park Reservoir. It is a lake that has these cement walkways over it and it is the set for Quantum Theatre’s latest play Golden Dragon. It is set in a Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant in Germany where 17 unrelated travelers meet and how their lives interconnect. This is the second play by Ronald Schimmelpfennig’s they performed. Quantum does nice productions and this would be a great setting for this play. It runs through August 26 at 8 pm Wednesdays through Sundays. More info on their web site.
Well, enjoy your weekend and keep hydrated,
ed
