On Station Square, Pitt, and TV Announcers....

A post-Christmas cleaning of the Mental In-Box....

• For whatever reason, Marilyn and I feel like we are "on vacation" this week. Not sure why that is, but we are enjoying the feeling.
• Continued a tradition of ours by having our anniversary dinner last night at the Grand Concourse in Station Square. The crab cakes were top notch, but nothing beats a bowl of Charley's Chowder before the meal.
• Took a stroll through the Shoppes at Station Square before dinner. That was semi-depressing, and to think that this was once the crown jewel of downtown revitalization.
• And on a similar note, the Grand Concourse itself had a lot of empty tables at what should have been the prime dinner hour during the holiday week.
• Plans for today include a trip to the Robinson Cinemark to take in the highly touted "The King's Speech." Will provide a review later this evening or tomorrow.
• To those of you curious as to our New Year's Eve plans: an early showing of "True Grit" followed by a stop at the KFC take-out window. Nothing says New Year's Eve like a bucket of the Colonel's Original Recipe!
• Work is set to begin on the Village Drive "Basement Project" next Monday. Periodic updates will follow.
• To Absent Friends: a belated farewell to actor/comedian Steve Landesberg, who passed away last week. While Landesberg was not always my idea of a boffo stand-up comedian, he was great in the role of Detective Arthur Dietrich in one of TV's all-time great sitcoms, "Barney Miller." RIP.
• That was quite a can of whoop ass that the Pitt Panthers opened up on the UConn Huskies last night. Regardless of the home court advantage afforded by The Pete, that was a most impressive victory.
• Speaking of the Pitt game, the positioning of the Pitt broadcast table right next to the Pitt bench gave Billy Hillgrove's bourbon-nosed mug a lot of face time on the ESPN air last night.
• I can see how can be irritating to some, if not many, listeners, but I like Bill Rafftery as an analyst on college hoops games.
• Speaking of irritating announcers, on Christmas night, after the company was gone, and the house was "redd up," and before crawling into bed, I turned the TV on to the NFL Network's telecast of the final eight minutes or so of the Cowboys-Cardinals game (which, for a game between two crummy teams, had a very exciting finish). Can there possibly be a worse announcing crew than the Papa-Theismann-Millen Team? Papa may be an okay play-by-play guy, but he has no chance of being liked when teamed up with those other two jack-wagons. Positively the worst.
• Congratulations to Jamie Dixon and Susie McConnell-Serio on being named Dapper Dan Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year by the Post-Gazette. Can't think of a more deserving winner than Dixon.
• Watched a bit of the Saints-Falcons game after the Pitt game last night. At one point, Jon Gruden was waxing eloquently how about what a heads up and intelligent QB Drew Brees is. He just doesn't make mistakes, the Coach insisted. Two plays later, Brees made an ill-advised throw that was intercepted by a Falcon defensive tackle and returned for a touchdown. It was a stupid play that you might expect from a raw rookie QB playing in his first pro exhibition game. Hey, I'll agree that Brees is in the top echelon of NFL QB's, but the irony of such a bonehead play coming right after the MNF announcing team's canonization of him was absolutely delicious.
• On the was home from Station Square last night, we took a ride through town and saw the "Horne's Tree" on the side of Penn Avenue Place. A beautiful site.
• We also drove past Heinz Field to catch a view of the ice skaters on the temporary ice rink that has been put up outside of the stadium. Why couldn't that rink become a permanent fixture on the North Side during the winter months?
• Here's hoping that the forecast of mild weather for New Year's Day does NOT come to pass so that the Winter Classic can be played in appropriate winter conditions.