Most cities have developed some form of sandwich for which they are known. I think I’ve had a great signature sandwich everywhere I’ve been. Smoked meat in Montreal, a muffaletta in New Orleans, the cheesesteak in Philly. Getting back to Pittsburgh last week gave me a chance to reunite with a steel city favourite of mine – the Primanti Brothers sandwich. I couldn’t imagine a trip to Pittsburgh without stopping for at least one of these.
What makes it so special? I think the sign says it best:
I really like Pittsburgh. It’s my kind of town. I’m just back from my third stay in the city over the past few years, and there’s a consistent feeling from each of the trips. Pittsburgh is a friendly city. Really, really friendly. Certainly you know you’re in the USA when you’re there, but it’s the kind of city that wouldn’t feel out of place if you dropped it up here in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.
I’ll be writing about some of the things I squeezed into what was primarily a business trip. Until then, here’s one of my favourite things about the culture of Pittsburgh. When you arrive by air, you pass by this statue on your way out of the airport. It’s not of a founder or of a patron. It’s of something so much more important to the people of Pittsburgh. I can only imagine that Franco hasn’t had to buy a drink for himself in the city since 1972.
Please remind me not to make football predictions next year. I’m happy with a few of these I got right, but there are a few really embarrassing predictions in here as well.
Here’s how I did on predicting the order of finishing.
NFC East prediction: Eagles, Giants (*), Cowboys, Redskins. Got this almost completely backwards. Terrible.
As a passionate football fan, Super Bowl Sunday is both the best Sunday of football (the big game, the hype, the over the top snacks) and the worst Sunday of football (it being the last Sunday of football for more than seven months). This season certainly went out in style with a game for the ages that almost saw the 49ers come back from 22 down to win.
This game had a little bit of everything, and really, either team could have won. Sometimes it’s the small things that make the difference between winning and losing, and both teams did some very smart and very dumb things on the way to the eventual result. Beneath the big plays and flow of the game, here are a few things that caught my eye. Continue reading
Last year when I wrote my Eagles report card for 2011, I said simply that the season was a failure. If that was the case (and it was), then I’m not sure how to describe what transpired in 2012. Colossal failure? Total embarrassment?
Truthfully, I could see this coming. Well, maybe not 4-12 coming, but a bad year nonetheless. Yes, I know I “predicted” the Eagles would be NFC East champs, but even I admitted I was picking that with my heart, not my head. Preseason, the early indicators of a sub-par season were there. I had serious doubts about QB, the offensive line was missing it’s top player, and there were too many questions on defence to count. With my vision now 20/20 after 16 games, here’s how I saw the Eagles performance, position by position, and in some cases, player by player for 2012. Continue reading
Given how things turned out on Sunday, I’m fairly certain I’m going to grow weary of all of the Ray Lewis and “Harbaugh Bowl” talk that will happen over the next two weeks. It’s hard to deny both teams deserve to meet in the Super Bowl, and on paper, it should be a great match up of two very physical teams with a lot of play making ability on both offence and defence.
Here’s what I saw during the two conference championship games: Continue reading
After a disappointing wildcard weekend, the divisional weekend slate of games produced wall-to-wall drama. Here’s what I saw in the four matches:
Ravens-Broncos: Wow. Aside from Eagles playoff games (ah, those were the days), I can’t remember a playoff game that had me glued to the TV like this one. Deep passes, turnovers, special teams TDs and inconsistent officiating all came together to produce a spectacular double overtime win for Baltimore. Truly, I didn’t think the Ravens would play consistent enough to make the AFC championship, but they’ll be back there for the second year in a row. Aside from all the spectacular plays, a few more subtle things caught my eye in this game: Continue reading
I’m a pretty big football junkie, but three of the four games this weekend bordered on unwatchable for long stretches. Thankfully, the last game on Sunday provided a full sixty minutes of entertainment, and possibly a story line to last through the offseason. Here’s what I saw in the four games this weekend:
Bengals – Texans: In what was one of the least appealing playoff games in recent memory, the Texans won by six points and by the balance of play, should have won by three touchdowns. Letting Cincinatti hang around, the Texans were within an Andy Dalton overthrow of AJ Green late in the 4th quarter of losing. For the third time in four years, the Bengals flame out on wildcard weekend. Continue reading
Banff and Lake Louise. Toronto. Ottawa. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Denver. Even considering plans for trips to Trinidad and Pittsburgh that didn’t work out, it wasn’t too shabby a traveling year. It’s hard to sum up a year’s worth of seeing and doing things in different places and the trips there and back, but here are a few of my favourite travel-related memories that will stick from 2012.
Best travel days: The day trip outside of Reykjavik to see Iceland’s “Golden Circle”. So much natural beauty and so peaceful. It was the day that cemented my love of Iceland and ensured a return visit in the not too distant future. In a similar vein, seeing the Sognefjord in western Norway was the reason we included the country on our Scandinavian trip. Jaw dropping natural beauty was the story of that day. Last but not least was a rushed visit to Lake Louise due to a string of forecasted bad weather that forced us to change our travel plans. Even with limited time, looking out over a frozen Lake Louise on a serene day in the Rockies made me feel more connected to my country.
Favourite 2012 travel photos – I See What You Mean. Denver, CO USA. November 2012
Bluenose Traveler 