Local royalty I have met since my last post

The only reason I haven't posted anything since February 9th is because I've been getting bombarded by bucket list quality run-ins with a veritable who's-who of Western Pennsylvania. Let's power-rank 'em...


4. Punxsatawny Phil & his handlers

PA's most famous groundhog and the weird club of tophat & tuxedo dudes who care for him were in town for a random Saturday afternoon Pens-Canucks tilt. It was a huge honor to meet the animal responsible for cutting this wonderfully mild winter short over a month ago, and the Gobbler's Knob crew (bad name) were nice enough to give me a weird Phil token for my troubles. All that said, the groundhog was limited to his weird hamster cage & Punxsatawney is closer to Philly than Pittsburgh. Big get nonetheless. moving on...

3. Rick Sebak

Sebak, who I didn't really know much about before I started a blogspot writing about Pittsburgh, has been working with WQED for probably forever making cool videos & documentaries about stuff he's found in the city of Pittsburgh. I actually first met him at a sparsely attended Pittsburgh Mills book signing (I bought a DVD about stuff that isn't here anymore), and ran into him again at the exemplary but pretentious new Strip District "restaurant incubator" that is Smallman Galley. Sebak is a legend I am no doubt underrating; and he even got bonus points for buying my lunch. Sebak is my homeboy:

2. Amadea Szamosi

I dunno if yinz have been paying attention, but the Duquesne Dukes womens' basketball team is tearing up the A-10 with a top 25 ranking and is no doubt March Madness bound. Well I figured out you could attend a Lady Dukes' game for about $5 & that they would have stupid promotions about lusting after their players around Valentine's Day. Throw in an awkward Uber promotion where my driver gives me a Valentine's card and a rose, and bingo bango, Duquesne University's most eligible Hungarian bachelorette has Davey Dormont's digits ;)


1. Mr. Mayor

I met Mayor Peduto at the Penguins-Rangers game earlier tonight, and he is every bit the Pittsburgh guy you want to see running our great city. Mr. Peduto has season tickets one row behind my dad, and he makes it out to about 7-10 games a year. Interestingly, our Mayor says he has been a season-ticket guy since the 70's when he would go with his dad. Pittsburgh Dad taught us that some diehard yinzers still think Hockey is a sport for Russians; personally I think it's refreshing to see a mayor who was a Pens fan before Super Mario came in and had the best overall impact any player has had on one franchise in the history of organized professional sports. But that's just one jag's opinion


I totally blinked in the picture with Amadea. She even offered to hold the phone/take the pic with her "super long arms" ;) ;)

PPS Szamosi is averaging 12 & 8 for a top 25 women's team, so I'm not just being superficial. My girl boxes out