5k in costume = Obviously.

Who wants to run a Halloween 5k in costume?

Who doesn't want to run a Halloween 5k in costume?

The Pittsburgh Marathon is sponsoring this one at North Park.

I will definitely be there & am bringing friends! Come on out!

G20 and Jagoffs

Ms. Pittsburgh begs of you

Don't be a G20 jagoff.

Thanks.

Kanye West Apology Generator

Ms. Pittsburgh is up too late and is finding the Kanye West Apology Generator a little too fun.

Here's mine:

I'M SOOOOO SORRY TO Liz Taylor AND President Obama FOR Freaking THE paper bag. I SPOKE TO President Obama RIGHT AFTER. Liz Taylor IS VERY big !!........... I'M IN THE WRONG FOR walking AND stalking!!!!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT AIG. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO Liz Taylor 2MRW. WELCOME TO ... Read MoreTHE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I'M A FAN OF sack!!! yall KNOW!!! BOOOOYAAAWWWWW!!!!!!!! WTF I GAVE MY banana TO Elvis WHEN THEY DESERVED IT... THAT'S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!!!! I'M NOT CRAZY YALL, I'M JUST BEING REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!!MUCH RESPECT!!!!!

Jews for Jesus

Dear Jews for Jesus,

Please stop targeting Squirrel Hill. Yes, Squirrel Hill is a Jewish neighborhood, and not surprisingly it is filled with Jews. But, if these Jews want to "come to Jesus," they can do so very well without your help.

It is quite possible, Jews for Jesus, that people are leading very happy lives without your interference. It is also quite likely that your influence can make people feel guilty about their happy lives, as if there were a Jesus-shaped hole in their hearts. This Jesus-shaped hole is impossible to fill, because it doesn't really exist.

Your impassioned evangelism actually makes a lot of people miserable. And besides that, it's irritating. Plus, your brochures are not environmentally-friendly. Didn't God want us to practice good stewardship of the Earth? Have you looked into websites?

Jews for Jesus and other proselytes, we've already heard your "good news." Please go bother someone else.

Sincerely,

Ms. Pittsburgh

It's that time of year again.

It's that time of year again. That time when a woman's thoughts turn to rambling. Two weekends ago I visited Dallas, TX, which kindly cooled itself to 95 for me.

In a week I'll be in Tucson, where the 110 degree temperature will hit me with the Wall of Heat I remember from my Texan childhood.

And then after that, Italy and France! Hooray! A week in Florence followed by five days with a long lost college friend in the French countryside. Oh the wonderfulness!

And, I will pack everything in a carryon! Dare me? I was already planning to do this, and this blog post provided even more inspiration! Because really, it's not like they don't sell toiletries in Europe.

And, AND, I am catching a non-stop flight home from Paris CDG to Pittsburgh for a ridiculously low fare! We should all patronize Delta for this one. Fabulous. :)

Schenley Park Wonderfulness

This isn't the first time I've mentioned Schenley Park on this blog. My friend Eve and I ran the Race for the Cure there in May. Last week I ended one of my jogs at the top of Overlook Drive, overlooking (appropriately) the city, and I remembered just how much I love Schenley.

As a bribe to make myself jog more often, I decided I should finish every jog in the park, then allow myself to lollygag and stare at the skyline as much as I want before walking home. Why not? It's not like I do anything productive in the evenings anyway.

So today, my jog ended right around that little playground by the pool. I had run across the Panther Hollow bridge and back, and once again I had seen the peaceful but forbidden-looking Panther Hollow lake.

I'd never been there. I wasn't sure how to get there. But then I saw some stone steps between the playground and the bridge.

I took that first set of steps, and the next set of steps, then I followed a gravel path that led to the lake. There I found a woman pulling weeds from an overgrown flower bed. She said hello. I stopped and started helping her. She told me her name was Laurie, she used to live in Squirrel Hill, and in the 1980s she and some Sq Hill people, including the late Bob O'Connor planted that flowerbed.

We pulled weeds for awhile. At 6pm I could hear those awful electronic chimes all the way from Duquesne U. (Duquesne, must you make the rest of the city suffer?) Fortunately Laurie appeared to be hard of hearing so she was spared the squawkery.

Then I wandered along the gravel path for awhile before I found my way back to Squirrel Hill.

ahhh

And Stanley came home.

Good job Pens!

Ms. Pittsburgh...BELIEVES

Pens. Pens.

I love you Pens.

I know you can do it.

Look into my eyes and tell me you'll do it for me. No stupid penalties, Pens. Defend your goal, Pens. I still love you. Love me again like you used to.

Now, go forth and kick butt.

The G20 Summit is coming to Pittsburgh!

Wow!

The G20 Summit is coming to Pittsburgh? Weird, yet for publicity's sake, appropriate. Look, here's a city that pulled itself out of smog and into health care and technology. And, we have a surprising focus on Green building and design here. That's a hot topic.

And to have our president and all those other leaders come here is just awesome. I admit it, I still love the big O. I mean, who doesn't? And pitting him vs Hothead and Dimwit last November didn't make him look any worse.

In spite of all that, I still think we have a great opportunity to speak out for change: Change we can believe in!

At this point, I'm planning my brief, yet poignant, sign to hold outside the Convention Center.

These are very rough drafts, so if you'd like to help me edit, have at it!

How about something like this:

"Mr. President, I went back to school like you told me to. Now I owe $400 a month and I don't have heathcare."

"Mr. President, my parents were laid off 5 years ago, and they still only have part time jobs and no health care. My mom has diabetes and my dad has heart disease."

"Mr. President, I have a graduate degree. Where's my healthare?"

"I pay my taxes but I don't have healthcare."

"Mr. Sarkozy, I don't have health insurance. Know any single French men? Ability to speak English is optional."

It's all about the Penguins!

I still need a Satan jersey.

Yeah Pens! Here we go again to the Stanley Cup. Woo! I forgot what team we’re playing, but really, does it matter?

Now… where to watch the game?

There’s always Primanti’s, although strangely this East Ender doesn’t have one within a close distance. (Oakland doesn’t count. Drunk undergraduates are no friends of Ms. Pittsburgh.) I’ve been invited to go watch the game at Primanti’s in Cranberry, but...Cranberry? That’s like driving to watch a Pens game in New Braunfels. You folks don’t even know where that is. It’s that far. Like Cranberry.

East End folks tend to gravitate toward the Sharp Edge in Friendship/‘Sliberty. 87c drafts when Sid the Kid gets a goal! Plenty of beers and bites but it’s hard to see a TV there. On the plus side, it’s a grill and not just a bar. Friends with kids can bring them, if they must.

Another restaurant/bar is D’s in Regent Square. But D’s is out. It’s always hard to get a seat, and during a game it’s virtually impossible. And the service….well….maybe they need to hire more servers?

Cappy’s in Shadyside was surprisingly un-crowded when I visited it for a Pens/Canes game. But Shadyside’s a weekend urban mecca, so it might be a lot harder to get a seat in teeny tiny Cappy’s for Saturday night’s game.

Silky’s in Squirrel Hill (the grill-- not the strip club in the Rox) now they know how to stock a place with TVs. Compared to Sharp Edge, beer selection is mediocre, but the food is good and cheap. It was very crowded during the playoffs, but early birds can get seats. And every seat is a good TV watching seat! Another plus for me is the proximity to my abode, which makes stumbling home after a game all the easier.

Go Pens!

Ms. Pgh visits... The Maridon Museum

It’s a weird location for such a treasure, in a modern structure made from two converted homes on a residential street of Butler. Just a short drive from downtown Pittsburgh, the Maridon Museum features works of Chinese and Japanese art from the personal collection of Mary Hulton Phillips. Although the late Ms. Phillips never actually visited Asia, she had a passion for collecting not only Chinese and Japanese art, but also the European art influenced by it.

When I visited on a recent Sunday, I found the collection of carved ivory and jade sculptures particularly impressive. I also enjoyed the varying designs of the dozens of snuff bottles. And, if you smile and ask nicely you might get a personal tour of the collection of samurai dolls, which is housed in a temperature- and humidity-controlled room in the back.

The building, although tiny, is lovely. The collection is impeccable. Even the gift shop has the unique museum items you’d expect, but they are incredibly inexpensive. The Sunday clerk told me that Ms. Phillips personally selected every item in the shop, specifically stating that they were not to be sold for profit. My friend J surprised me with a beautiful silver ring that features a green amber stone in a uniquely modern setting.

xox

ms. pgh

...and cooking

As much as I love Pgh, and lord knows I do, sometimes I wonder why, oh why, I live in a place where it has trouble hitting 60 degrees at the END OF MAY?

It's particularly difficult because I've developed a craving for cobbler. Not just any old cobbler, but my mama's straight-from-the Southwest peach cobbler. This cobbler is unlike any other. It requires peaches so ripe that you smell their sweet scent from another room, so ripe that they would rot if you waited one more day.

But I live in Pittsburgh, and peaches won't be ripe until July or so.

So tonight I tried to make do. I made a strawberry cobbler. My first ever, and I used frozen strawberries from Trader Joe's, which in retrospect might not have been the best idea since they were very moist when cooking.

Here's how it looked. Interestingly, the strawberries sank as soon as I took it out of the oven. Peaches don't do that.

Here's a close-up.

How did the strawberry cobbler taste? It was surprisingly good! With peach cobbler, the sweetness of very ripe peaches combines with the sweetness of the sugar to coat your tongue and your senses with a sweet-gasm of happiness. With strawberries, the cobbler has a tinge of tartness that surprises the palate. I'm afraid to imagine that I could eat a lot more of strawberry cobbler at one sitting than peach cobbler, because it's not so very sweet.

*Transplanted Texan's Peach Cobbler

1 1/2 c. flour

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 t. baking powder

1 egg

dash cinnamon (optional)

splash vanilla (optional)

3 or 4 very ripe peaches, peeled and sliced into bite size chunks (for strawberry cobbler, I used 2 pkgs Trader Joe's frozen organic strawberries)

a couple T of melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add egg and mix well. (I mix by hand, using a whisk.) It will be lumpy. That is ok. Add vanilla, if using. Place peaches on the bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish. Place peaches close together, in one layer, so that you have a peach in every bite. Pour contents of mixing bowl evenly across peaches. Drizzle melted butter evenly across contents of baking dish. Bake until the crust is golden brown, about 20 or 30 minutes. I never really time it, actually. Look for a brownish crust.

Now, to eat this like a true Texan, you have to put a big slab o' cobbler, warm or cold, into a bowl and drown it in milk. Treat it like your cereal, and you'll love it a whole lot more. :)

*all ingredients natural/organic/cage-free, etc. unless impossible to find like that in a Pittsburgh grocery store

And we're back!

Yes, yes, it’s been a long time since the Ms. Pittsburgh blog has been updated. I’m sorry, really. Honest.

Here are some recent events:

Ms. Pittsburgh and friend Eve joined the jogging masses on Mother’s Day in Pittsburgh’s Race for the Cure. It was a scenic hustle through Schenley Park and Squirrel Hill on a lovely spring morning.

This was our first race ever. Unfortunately we didn’t run fast enough to find the cure for cancer, but we’re working on it.

Eve and I both began running around Christmastime of 08. We’re both…well...in our 30s, and this running thing is very new to us.

But, as Eve said, our goal was to finish the race without falling to the ground and twitching. Mission accomplished!

Snow?!

Snow? Snow?! WTF?

“If you win the rat race, if you come in first place, then a rat is all you will be.”

Ms. Pgh ran into an ex-fling yesterday at Whole Foods. Here’s what happened:

2:15 p.m.
Ms. Pgh arrives at Whole Foods and selects a lunch from the expensive but delicious foods at the hot and cold bars.

Ms. Pgh waits in line at the register.

Ms. Pgh chats pleasantly with the cashier, then has a funny feeling that someone is looking at her.

Ms. Pgh turns around to see L eating (alone) by the window, staring at Ms. Pgh's reflection in the glass.

From that spot by the window, he must have seen Ms. Pgh enter the store. Has he been watching her the whole time? Ms. Pgh hopes she hasn’t done anything embarrassing near the tofu.

Ms. Pgh pays and heads for the exit, noticing that L must have hauled ass out of there, because he vanished in about 30 seconds.

Ms. Pgh shrugs and walks to her car.

As Ms. Pgh responsibly buckles her seatbelt, L drives by very slowly in the Porsche *sigh*, steadfastly staring straight ahead.

Ms. Pgh backs out of her parallel spot and eases out onto Centre Ave.

Ms. Pgh changes lanes a couple times to avoid slow/parked cars, and ends up directly behind L at a stoplight.

L stares at Ms. Pgh in the rearview mirror. Doesn’t wave. Doesn’t smile. Just stares.

Ms. Pgh opens her sunroof and turns up the stereo.

L takes off (Porsche) weaves around traffic, then swerves over to the side of the road and screeches to a stop, letting Ms. Pgh pass.

Why? Ms. Pgh was not following him. Ms. Pgh has many more important men to follow, like ones who don’t need pills to operate, or fingers you-know-where to finish the job.

Maybe that cliché about why psychiatrists go into psychiatry is true…

Dude, YOU are the scary one. I just wanted an overpriced lunch from Whole Foods.

*************
"Clockwise Witness," DaVotchKa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvpJdVhTwhg

Tragedy

My heart goes out to the Pittsburgh police officers involved in today's tragic shooting, and to their families and loved ones, and to the people of Stanton Heights.

www.postgazette.com
www.cnn.com

Ms. Pittsburgh <3 Distilo Tailoring

It's true. Ms. Pittsburgh <3 Didtilo Tailoring.

When Ms. Pgh got a little tear in the pocket of her leather jacket, she made the rounds of Sq Hill tailors for estimates.

"I have to take out the pocket, so $30," said Ianni's.
"The computer says $30 for leather," said the 12-year-old who was staffing the counter at the one across the street.
"I have to take out the pocket, so $20," said the nice little man at Distilo. Sold!

The mend is beautiful, almost invisible, and the price was very reasonable. Thanks Distilo!!

Welcome to Ms. Pittsburgh

Welcome to Ms. Pittsburgh, a Pgh Ms.'s blog for events, activities, culture, loves, hates, and snarky gossip about all the best of the 'burgh.

xox

Ms. Pittsburgh