Sunday, February 5, 2012

Hi,

Happy Super Bowl Sunday.  Tomorrow is Bob Marley’s birth anniversary (1945), Babe Ruth’s birth anniversary (1895), Aaron Burr’s birth anniversary (1756), Eva Braun’s birth anniversary (1912) and Ronald Regan’s birth anniversary (1911)-lots of famous people born on the sixth.  It is also the anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth (1952) and the crash of the British air crash outside Munich that killed 21 people including 8 Manchester football players (1958).

I have been having problems posting pictures.  My hosting company, Beenanza finally got if fixed.  I assume most/all of you saw this picture last week, but just in case you didn’t, here’s the picture of the Delta Mariner that took out a bridge in Tennessee last week.  This happened in the middle of the night and some guy was going to work and luckily stopped in time.

Phipps‘ new green house that opened in 2006 has it’s third theme, Tropical Forest India.  The first one was Thailand, the next one was the headwaters of the Amazon.  Ben Dunigan assistant curator of horticulture and program specialist Jordyn Melino spent three weeks researching in India to be sure they would create an authentic recreation of India’s tropical rain forest.  Most of the plants they installed they were able to acquire from tropical growers in Florida and Arizona.  The plants they removed, they recycled to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium and the National Aviary.  The big palm trees and many of the common plants between both the Amazon and India were left.  They took pictures of all the plants they wanted to use in their natural settings so they could present them as true to their natural habitat as possible.  The India exhibit will be here for at least two years, if past precedence is any guide.  It is included in the regular price of admission ($12, $11 for seniors and $9 for kids 2 – 18).  Hours are 9:30 until 5 daily and until 10 on Fridays.  More info at Phipps web site or by calling 412.622.6914.

Champis, the five year old Swedish rabbit has been watching his fellow pet, a sheep herding dog too much.  Champis is now herding sheep.  Check out the You Tube clip, it’s pretty funny.

Sarris Chocolate and Candies in Canonsburg caught fire Friday night.  This family owned chocolatier has been in business for fifty-two years.  Bill Sarris. president vows to reopen early next week and be in full production in time for Valentine’s Day.

I don’t understand why people drink unpasteurized milk.  There’s another outbreak that seems to be winding down of milk infested with Campylobacter jejuni bacteria.  I really like local, small farms and fresh foods.  But we need to temper this with common sense.  It’s legal for inspected farms to sell unpasteurized milk to the public as long as there’s no middle man.  Of the 8,500 dairy farms, there’s 153 with permits to sell raw milk.  That means the farm has been initially inspected and then pop inspections four times a year.  When they inspect, they check for any bacteria in the milk or facilities.  There’s a lot of time in between where the cows are out foraging out in the mud that has had birds flying over doing what birds do and other sources bacteria infection.  I don’t eat raw meat, poultry, fish or dairy products.

James Cargnoni, of the family owned Collier Development LP company is the name on the deed for the old Iron City Brewery in Lawrenceville.  Collier Development is best know for Trader Jack’s flea market right of I79 south.  Surely he’s not planning on putting a big flea market there.  🙂  Actually, it’s kind of cool what’s happening in Pittsburgh.  A couple of our biggest development challenges have been addressed by Pittsburgh developers.  We have the Piatt family doing all that work Downtown and now the Cargnoni family takling this jumble of 22 buildings in the middle of the Strip, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and Polish Hill.  Some of these buildings date as far back as 1868 on this 9.5 acre site.  Then there’s Collaborative Ventures of Mt Lebanon that partnered with Zukin of Philadelphia to start redeveloping the Garden Theater Block over here on the Northside.

I bought a Prius last week.  The 2011 Prius is rated at 51 miles per gallon, the 2012 is rated at 45, go figure.  I’ve been thinking about getting a new vehicle for some time now.  I’ve been interested in the Prius all along.  But while shopping, I ran into some real “used car sales men.  They are truly annoying.  They never listen to what you have to say.  They take part of what you say and then twist it around for their benefit.  I bought this at Rohrich Toyota.  Paul, the new guy there was easy to deal with and other than a few minor mis-communications, offered the best deal.  Not to mention corporate Toyota was offering a 0% financing for five years.

Well, that’s about it for today, enjoy the game,

ed