Tomorrow Phyllis Diller turns 95 (and she’s still working), it is the anniversary of the execution of Czar Nicholas and his family by the Soviets, it is Erle Stanley Gardner’s birth anniversary (1889), the opening of America’s first theme park, Disneyland opened in 1955, it is the anniversary of the collapse of Kansas City’s Hyatt aerial walkway (1981), it is the anniversary of the start of the Spanish Revolution (1936) and the debut of the Stealth Bomber (1989).

Hurricane Ivan’s legacy lives on.  Folks up in Beaver County are trying to organize a clean up of the Connoquenessing Creek on September 22.  There’s grills, appliances, a septic tank, even an outhouse that was deposited from the flooding (and of course there’s trash from irresponsible people since).  Spearheaded by Christina Handley, they are seeking 200 volunteers to clean up the creek and it’s shores.  If you have time, more info by calling Christina at 724.3710416 or sending her an e-mail at alleghenyaquaticalliance@hotmail.com.

A tropical greeting at the entrance to The Parador Inn:

Did you know Beechview boasts the steepest street in the world?  Canton Avenue, with a 37% grade is the steepest recorded street in the world (Guinness recognizes a street in New Zealand, that one has a 35% grade, but is significantly longer).  Beechview also has another notable steep street Boustead Avenue right of Broadway by that new Spanish restaurant I’m hearing such great things about but haven’t eaten at yet.

What’s up with Penn State?  At the turn of the century, they were aware of child sex abuse by a staff member of there’s on school property.  That seems to be pretty much accepted at this point.  The people in charge were criminally guilty, but I don’t want to talk about that at this point.  Fast forward ten years when indictments came out.  When the indictments came out, the president of the school, the vice president of the school, the chief of athletics and the head coach all denied previous knowledge of the abuse.  The board of trustees fired them all and kept mum.  The board of trustees promised full cooperation and an open investigation.  A year of silence from Penn State and then the e-mails came out.  I’m ashamed to say I am a Penn State Alumni.  The only thing Penn State can do at this point, in my opinion, is to discharge the entire board of trustees with NO compensation/benefits/anything.  They even bestowed a prestigious title on spanier when firing him.  Disgusting.

There’s a pretty cool exhibit at August Wilson Center through September 15 at 980 Liberty Avenue Downtown.  Richmond Barthe: His Life Iin Art will be available for viewing 11 am until 6 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays.  Admission is $8.  Richmond, 1901 – 1989, created classically influenced bronze sculptures featuring African and African-American themes.  This traveling exhibit of 30 of his works include portrait busts, free-standing figurative works and other forms.

Want to cool off?  Dress appropriately when traveling water themed “pub crawl” I just invented.  Start at the new park outside the Children’s Museum and walk into The Cloud to be missed off.  Then work your way down the the Allegheny River and wade in the Water Steps.  When you cross the river to Downtown, skip the fountain at the point for another year.  Instead, make your way to PPG Plaza for their 140 water columns that gush 15 feet in the air.  Next walk over to Bessemer Court at Station Square to the Waltzing Water Fountain and cool off as the water dances to guess what, yeps waltzes.  Finally hike down to South Side Works for your final dip in Town Square Fountain where water burbles and spikes amount 25 fountain heads.  You can always enjoy any of the city’s spray parks in Troy Hill at Cowley Playground on Goettman Street, Beechview at Vanucci Playground on Orangewood Avenue, Mellon Park in Point Breeze and Wilner Drive in the East Hills.  Allegheny County has spray parks at Round Hill Park in Elizabeth and Deer Lakes Park near the intersection of Creighton Russelton Road and Mehaffey Road.  Tarentum new river front park has a spray park.

Want a little more formal wet getting?  🙂  Kennywood Park has three water themed rides in the park.  Allegheny County Parks system features wave pools in Boyce Park in Monroeville, Settler’s Cabin in Robinson and South Park.  Soak Zone at Idlewild Park in Ligonier is geared towards families with small children.  Of course there’s the water park in Hays, Sandcastle Water Park with a whole plethora of water related rides and their famous Boardwalk on the Monongahela River you can boat up to.  If whitewater rafting is your speed, there’s always Ohiopyle in Fayette County and just a little farther south is New River and the Gauley in West Virginia (New River is one of the oldest rivers on our continent and totally changes from the regular run in later spring/ summer and the early spring when they release extra water from the dam before the rains.  Finally, Wisp Resort in Maryland has a man made whitewater facility that was built for competitive-training but can be used by rafting fans not affiliated with a team.

This reminds me of when I was working in Nashville at was then the Crowne Plaza across from the state capital.  A group of us from work when over to the Ocoee River for a white water rafting trip.  The Ocoee also is a man made course that was built for the 1996 Olympics.  It was fun, we all had a blast.  While there, I noticed Rodger’s Used Kayak Emporium.  It was one of the many times I quit smoking and was looking for a new physical activity and thought I’d take up kayaking.  I was off the next Monday and so I drove down to pick one out.  When I arrived, there was a big gate closing Rodger’s off.  So I went across the street to an open convenience store to ask if Rodgers would be opening later.  The clerk looked at me like I was from Mars and said “It’s Monday”.  I replied with a blank look and he said “It’s Monday, they close the river on Mondays, so most places are closed”.  So I drove down the river and sure enough, what the week before was this raging rapids was a little trickle of a creek.  TVA owns the dam and they need to build back up pressure on Mondays to run their hydro power plants.  So I went back to the convenience store, got Rodgers number, told him I was down from Nashville (three hour trip), didn’t know they closed the river on Mondays and would like to buy a kayak.  He came over in about a half and hour, I got my kayak and was a happy camper.

I’m not a big fan of Howard Schultz, not saying anything negative about him.  He has a lot of tremendous attributes that I admire, it’s just after reading his book Pour Your Heart Into It, he started getting on my nerves.  I now have to take my hat off to him and give him massive kudos.  He’s started a program that I’ve been whining about for years, supporting small businesses.  Howard started the Indivisible line, a line of specialty coffees, mugs and wrist bands whose proceeds go to support small businesses.  Starbucks partnered with Philadelphia based Opportunity Finance Network, a national network of community development financial institutions that provide loans and other financial assistance to benefit low-income communities.  Starbuck’s initial order for 20,000 of these specialty mugs went to American Mug and Stein Company located in East Liverpool Ohio.  East Liverpool once was the pottery capital of the US, but has fallen into such dire straights that only around one percent of the population can find jobs in the few pottery plants left (down from 90% of the residents worked pottery just back in the 1990’s).  American Mug is one of three pottery factories left (one of the others is Homer Laughlin’s Fiesta plant), to read the entire article click on the AM link.

Gonna be a hot one again tomorrow, keep hydrated,

ed