8 February 2002 - 2:05 p.m.

The back of Snyder of Hanover pretzel bags read:

"The Land of Pretzels:

Not everyone's lucky enough to live in a part of the country that's famous for something. People in Wisconsin have thier cheese. Folks in Vermont have thier maple syrup. And here in Pennsylvania (we call it Pretzelvania) have our pretzels."

As a Pennsylvanian, I just need to step in and say that that is patently untrue and unforgivably cheesy. Pretzelvania? Myassylvania! I grant that we are known for pierogies, Amish people, Groundhog Day. and a whole host of other lame things. I will even grant Gus' dad that we are known for pumpkin pie, just because he asked nicely? But pretzels? Tosh. And the only people who call this fine Commonwealth Pretzelvania are the people who manufacture Pretzeld, and like to fancy themselves some kind of local celebrities, even though we already have Mr. Rodgers, which is about the best you can do, outside of New York or LA.

On a more local note, the President was mere blocks away from my little carriage house yesterday, and though I chose to ignore him, I am living to regret it because it has to be kind of cool to watch him say dumb things live. Like how now that Pittsburgh is no longer really a steel town, we shoudl really call it Knowledge Town.

I know that I should be flattered that the President thinks we're all smart 'n'at, but you know, I think the bigger ego boost is knowing that this is where people make robots and discovered the polio vaccine and stuff. And even if I didn't feel that Pittsburgh might just as well stay underrated, I'm not sure that "Knowledge Town" is the ticket to improving our image. In fact, I bet that as soon as he said that, all of his PR people felt really self-satisfied and indispensible. I know I would have.

What I'm wearing:

What I'm reading:

What I'm doing after this: