‘Datelines’ Archive

First ever appearance of a VA Route 420 sign?

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — I have been critical in the past of the lack of signs along state numbered highways in the city and Northern Virginia region. Generally speaking, Alexandria does not post numbered routes with any regularity, especially the 400 series. Did you know that at least portions of Van Dorn Street, Quaker Lane and [...]

The flawed PNC Park

PITTSBURGH — I am not sure I can overstate what a wonderful combination of architecture, location, size and that is PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In fact, I only detected one flaw* with the whole ballpark.

No cupholders.
*A unscientific sample of Pirates fans agreed with The Onion that there was another flaw – the [...]

Review: Primanti Bros.

PITTSBURGH — When I was about 7 years old, I determined that adding french fries to the top of a hamburger greatly enhanced that experience and I’ve been doing it ever since. Once, when I was a student at Penn State Hazleton, I had some McDonald’s with me at the beginning of class and I [...]

Maybe Pittsburgh is “The Paris of Appalachia”

PITTSBURGH — A few years ago I learned of a book called “The Paris of Appalachia (amazon.com)” Now, using the “Paris of…” for anything is good for a laugh in most cases. I haven’t read the book, but I think the author has a point.
Having spent a weekend in Pittsburgh attending a Washington Nationals [...]

Mayor Bloomberg is gonna freak: 24 oz. Pepsi cans

Praise for a gigantic can of Pepsi

The nostalgia around Iron City Beer is better than the flavor

Iron City Beer is pretty bad. As in it tastes skunked out of a can or on draft. One friend, with some experience in construction, suggests that it leaves a similar taste as after a day out by a site with lots of steel grinding going on. When I told two Pittsburghers natives that I had an “Arn” this past weekend they both exclaimed “WHY?!”.

Pittsburgh’s PNC Park is a magnificent place to attend a baseball game

There are three things that tend to make a view from a ballpark spectacular: skyline, water and hills/mountains. PNC Park is perfectly situated to show the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline and Allegheny River in all of their glory with Mount Washington visible between the skyscrapers in a few spots. Behind center field, the Roberto Clemente Bridge spans the Allegheny to the Golden Triangle. Many fans eschew parking in stadium lots or using the newly built light rail tunnels to walk over the river to the game. If there is a finer entrance to a baseball stadium, I haven’t heard of it.

Nats come home from Pittsburgh with a series win over the Pirates

After many years of wanting to, I finally followed the Washington Nationals to Pittsburgh for their annual series against the Pirates in beautiful PNC Park. I made it to the Saturday game. The Racing Presidents were there too for the Great Pierogie Race (Let Teddy Win).
The series went down just as Sam predicted it would [...]

DC Metrobus spotted near Breezewood, Pa.

BREEZEWOOD, Pa. — We had just gotten away from the indirect connection for Interstate 70 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike when I saw a familiar color scheme on a bus. As I got closer, I was kind of surprised to see that it was a D.C. Metrobus. Why it was approximately 128 miles away from Washington, [...]

Mount Hamilton has views of Capitol, Washington monument

WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to the maps provided at the National Arboretum, the hill that the azaleas are on is called Mount Hamilton. The National Park Service says Mount Hamilton has an elevation of 240 feet above sea level. There is some debate about that as mountainzone.com says the elevation is 236 feet while trails.com [...]

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