A Vacation Ten Miles From Home

Intriguing headline headline is it not?  

Some background.

On Wednesday, June 10, a longstanding friend of Linda's was getting married.  A wedding is a private affair between the husband and wife, so I'm not going to mention any names, but the backstory for this one could have been a Nora Ephron screenplay.  To wit:

• The bride and groom were each other's date for their high school senior prom in 1970!
• As often happens, life took them their separate ways, they married, had children and grandchildren, and, sadly, lost their spouses after long and loving marriages.
• Not sure how it happened, but they somehow got back together, and, long story short, they got married last week.
• When I first met this couple four years ago, I was amazed to learn that the groom grew up on block away from me on Saline Street in Squirrel Hill.  He went to Allderdice High School, I went to Central Catholic, so we never knew each other, but we no doubt crossed paths with each other at Murray Pharmacy, the Lorretto Avenue Giant Eagle, and Mineo's Pizza many times in our formative years.  Only in Pittsburgh, amiright?

The wedding was a traditional Jewish wedding, and this was the first time that either Linda or I ever attended a Jewish wedding, and we absolutely loved it.  The music, the prayers, the participation of the attendees was very moving, and the wedding reception was an absolute blast.  So much fun.  How great it was to experience this event.  

Okay, now about that vacation.  The wedding took place at the William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, and when we got the invitation, we decided that we would make it an in-week getaway for us, and we booked a room for two nights at the William Penn, one of the great big city old-time luxury hotels, the kind that they just don't build anymore.

We checked in on Wednesday morning, and that day, of course, was spent with the wedding and the events surrounding it, but we awoke on Thursday morning (still not believing the 29 point comeback of the Knicks the might before) and decided to explore our home town.  We decided to walk into town and take a look at the newly remodeled Market Square.  In all honesty, we were unimpressed with the new look Market Square.  It was also 89 degrees so the several block walk was a killer.  We had a great lunch at the City Works Restaurant in PPG Place.  We then took a slow walk back in the heat, with a stop at a Milk Shake Factory.   Back to the William Penn for a mid-afternoon cocktail, then dinner at the Ritual House in the Union Trust Building.  Back to the Tap Room at the William Penn where we watched both the Stanley Cup playoff game and the Pirates-Dodgers game.  We concluded this getaway with breakfast at the William Penn's Terrace Room, where you can get the best Eggs Benedict anywhere, before checking out and heading home, but not before stopping at the new Arts Landing space and taking in the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

All in all, a terrific 48 hour whirlwind for Linda and Bob.

I will close by offering a commentary on a paradigm change that I found amazing.  I worked in dahntahn Pittsburgh for over thirty years.  To me, it was a bustling place with people shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalks and lots and lots of jammed traffic on any given business day between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM, where a pedestrian took his life into his hands merely trying to cross a street.  I know that things changed when the COVID-19 pandemic closed things down and people began working remotely, but I was still shocked when I saw that the sidewalks were not crowded, and vehicular traffic was virtually non-existant.  Let me show you.

Here is a picture that I took from our hotel room at midnight on Wednesday.  Our room overlooked Mellon Square Park and Smithfield Streets and Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

Pretty picture and no traffic, but it was midnight, so why would there be?  This next picture was taken at 8:30 on Thursday morning.  Gotta be lots and lots of traffic going into work, right?

Nope.  You could have fired a cannon down Smithfield Street and not hurt anyone.  Just wait until evening rush hour at around 5:15 though.  That will no doubt be a madhouse.

Not so much.  At least I see a bus there at Seventh and Smithfield by what used to be Gimbels. Maybe there were some people on that.

Despite all of that, both the City Works for lunch and the Ritual House for dinner were filled.  Where did they come from?

I know that both the city fathers and the business leaders are doing what they can to get people out of their remote locations and back into those office buildings, but will it ever again be like the City I worked in in the 80's, 90's and 00's?  Like I said, the whole scene amazed me.

To Absent Friends - Gene Shalit

 

Gene Shalit

1026-2026

Legendary movie and entertainment critic and regular on the Today Show Gene Shalit died this weekend at the age of 100.  Tributes to Shalit and the amazing way that he had with words and puns in his film reviews have been all over the media in the days following his death ("Ishtar ishterrible"), and they are great fun to read.

Tis post will be my story of one of his reviews  that sticks in my mind.  It was in 1977 for the Paul Newman hockey movie "Slap Shot".  Shalit didn't care much for the movie and I remember happening to be watching the Today Show when he said:

"Slap Shot is has an R rating, which means that no one under 18 can see this movie unless accompanied by a parent.  Any parent that would take a kid to this movie deserves to be slapped.  Or shot!"

How great was that?

RIP Gene Shalit.

They Are The Champions

Both the NBA and the NHL wrapped up their Championship Series this weekend, and both results were quite satisfactory in our home.

The New York Knicks won their first NBA title since 1973 in five games over the San Antonio Spurs in what can only be described as astonishing fashion.  Here was their Playoff run:

• Fell behind two games to one to the Hawks in the first round then won three straight games to advance to the second round
• Swept the 76ers in the second round
• Swept the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals; in Game 1, the Cavs led by 22 points with 7:00 minutes remaining in the game, and the Knicks tied it and won it in overtime
• Defeated Spurs in five games to win The Finals

But that last bullet point doesn't even begin to describe just HOW the Knicks won those five games.  The Spurs had double digit leads in all five games, and could have, and perhaps should have, won all of the games that they lost.  After losing the first two games, the Spurs rallied to win the third game in Madison Square Garden, and appeared to have a Game Four win in their hip pockets, a win that would have tied the series.  They held a 27 point lead over the Knicks at the half, and got that lead up to 29 points in the third quarter.  No NBA teamed ever overcame a 29 point deficit in an NBA Finals game.  Until this past Wednesday.

The Knicks kept chipping into the lead, while the Spurs, with perhaps the most dominant low post "big man" in all of basketball, Victor Wembanyama, kept attempting , and missing, long range jump shots and three point attempts.  The Spurs still held a seven point lead with a minute to play, but the Knicks kept at it, and the Spurs kept missing shots, and it all came to an end when OG Anunoby tipped in a missed shot by Jaylen Brunson with 1.2 seconds remaining to give the Knicks an unbelievably improbable 107-106 win.  

OG Anunoby becomes Bobby Thomson in Game 4!

We watched that game unfold from our hotel room at Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel (why we were there will be the subject of another post coming in the next day or two), and simply could not believe what we were seeing.  As I often say, a game like that one is why you follow sports.

The real star of the Knicks was Jalen Brunson, who was named MVP of the Series.  After the Knicks fell behind by double digits is Game 5, Brunson willed the Knicks to overcome the deficit and scored 45 points in New York's 94-90 win.  He'll never have to pick up a check in a New York City restaurant for the rest of his life.

MVP

A couple of comments on two other key figures in these Finals.

I was tremendously impressed with Knicks Head Coach Mike Brown, and after pulling off that unprecedented comeback in Game 4, how could you not be, but more than that, his calm demeanor on the sideline throughout all of these games stood in sharp contrast to his coaching counterparts on all levels of basketball.  He never whined or screamed at the refs.  When he had a beef, he would calmly address it to the official in question.  Most of the time, he stood on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets.

In a profession that is filled with Danny Hurleys, it's refreshing to see a guy like Mike Brown on the sidelines.

Make no mistake, the San Antonio Spurs are a very good team.  Led by their star player, 22 year old Victor Wembanyama, and other young stars like Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, the Spurs will be back on this stage again and will win NBA championships over the next five to eight years.  Wemby is a force of nature and when you see how he can dominate a basketball game at this point in his career, it boggles the mind to think of how much better he will become as he matures, and I use the word "mature" purposefully here.  I love watching him play, but it was disappointing to see some of the, shall we say, churlish behavior on his part both on the court (Is he a dirty player?)  and in post game interviews and interactions with other players.  Hell, he's only 22 years old, so let's all hope that he outgrows some of that stuff as he gets older.  He will be, if he isn't already, the Face of the NBA, and he needs to realize that there is some responsibility that comes along with that. 

*****

One night later, the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Las Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 to win the  NHL's Stanley Cup in six games.

I can sum up our actions to this by restating these comments from my June 2 post:

"Our rooting interest will be with the Hurricanes, not only because of her preseason wager, but because her sons  Jeffrey and Justin and their families reside in Raleigh now and are Hurricanes fans, and because she wants to see ex-Penguin Jordan Stahl win another Cup."

So the Canes checked all the boxes for Linda and I throughout this series, and Jordan Stahl even won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Series!   Oh, and the "pre-season wager" referred to above was a five dollar bet that Linda asked me to place for her back on October 3 that yielded a $52.50 payout on FanDuel.

*****

In other sports news, the FIFA World Cup kicked off last Thursday, and on Friday the USA began play in their Group with a rousing 4-1 win over Paraguay.

It was great fun to watch, and in fact, this whole tournament has been and will continue to be fun to watch play out over the next thirty-four days.  Every day during group play there will be as many as four games matches being contested, and it has been fun to watch throughout these first five days of competition.  I won't be glued to every contest, but I will be watching certain matches with great interest, like when the USA plays, or when Argentina, led by the great Lionel Messi, plays.  Their first match is Tuesday night.   The USA takes on Australia on Friday night.

Revisiting "The Great Gatsby"

In my younger and more vulnerable years, like when I was in high school, I, like every other high school student in America, read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I recall that I liked the novel at the time, liked it a lot, but in retrospect, I realize that at the age of 16 or 17, I really would have had no idea as to what the novel was really about. I have just finished rereading this classic work for probably the third or fourth time since those high school days. With each rereading, and with the wisdom (?) that I have gained from living life for the past fifty plus years,  I can conclude that The Great Gatsby is "about" many things, and I can glean something new from it with each reading. In 2026, how can one read The Great Gatsby and NOT think about a billion dollar ballroom, tacky gold leaf decorations from Home Depot all over the Nation's Capital, and a UFC arena being constructed on the lawn of the White House. But I digress. The point is, that some things are timeless and should be experienced multiple times over the course of a lifetime, and The Great Gatsby is one of them.  

As an aside, that F. Scott Fitzgerald could really turn a phrase. Several times while reading this, I had to go to the dictionary to look up a word. (Example: "pasquinade"; I'll let you look it up for yourself.) I once read a critic say that the reason none of the movie versions of this book have ever been all the great is because no Hollywood screenwriter could possibly capture Fitzgerald's phrasings. I believe it.

I will turn 75 years young later this year, so I wonder if there is another re-reading of The Great Gatsby is in store for me. So if or until that occurs, we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

(Did you see what I did, twice, in this post?)

My Most Ambitious LEGO Project Ever

There it is!  The FIFA World Cup as designed by the good folks at LEGO.

While I don't consider myself a LEGO Hobbyist, I have dabbled a bit with the colorful bricks in my retirement years, and have taken great pleasure in completing a few small projects, and I can say the same thing about this replica of the World Cup.  This was far and away my most difficult and ambitions LEGO project ever. It was over 2,800 pieces packaged in 20 separate bags. This made the step-by-step process  easier, but the project was not without its fits, starts, and frustrations, and God help you if you somehow miss a step somewhere along the line!   A couple of times I had to take apart one of the "bags" and start it over again.  There were some missing pieces (which was probably my fault) which I had to reorder, and upon completion, I did find a couple of imperfections, but I will probably be the only one who notices them, so for all practical purposes, this LEGO model is finished!

Now the question becomes, what do I do with it?  I will probably display by our television while the actual World Cup Tournament is being contested over the next several weeks, but after that....who knows?

I do know that this may well be the last big LEGO structure that I will ever do.  They seem to offer nothing but Harry Potter and Star Wars stuff, which doesn't interest me, but, like I said above, who knows?  Maybe they will come up with something else that will grab my attention for a 2027 project.

Enjoy the FIFA World Cup, folks.

Will Lionel Messi and Argentina win

 the Cup once again in 2026?

 

Finals Week Begins

The National Basketball Association's Finals and the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Championship Series begin tonight. 

The NBA Finals begin tomorrow night, and it is a match-up that has to have the league office and its television partners simply ecstatic.  The New York Knicks who sit in the nation's largest television market will face the San Antonio Spurs and their star player, Victor Wembanyama. At the age of 23 and in only his third year in the league,  he has become the Face of the NBA, if not the Face of the Sport of Basketball itself.

As I alluded in this post few days ago, I found myself really getting into the NBA Playoffs this year, and found myself cheering for both the Knicks and the Spurs as they made their way through the East and West playoffs.  I find myself very excited at watching this Finals series play itself out, and I honestly can't say for which team I will root.  

The Knicks are a fun team to watch and Jalen Brunson is just a terrific player.  The Spurs have Wemby, and what more is left to be said on that front?

The Knicks have won eleven straight Playoff games, many of them by large margins.  The Spurs have come off of a grueling seven game series against the defending champion OKC Thunder.

The Spurs are a slight betting favorite (-190) over the Knicks (+160), but the Knicks look to be on one of those unstoppable rolls upon which teams sometimes find themselves.

The Knicks have Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Timothee Chamalet, and Christopher and Bobby from The Sopranos.  The Spurs have the "Spurs Nuns" and those two young ladies with the low cut tops who sit in the second row right behind HC Mitch Johnson.

I hope it goes seven games.

The NHL's Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes.  As you know, my interest in hockey wanes when the Penguins are not involved, so I turned to Linda, my Hockey Fanatic wife (her vanity license plate is HOCKEE) for advice on this one.

Prior to the season, she had me place bets on both the Hurricanes and the Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup.  She was astonished that the Knights dispatched Colorado in four games, but not surprised at the Canes being in the Finals.  She is calling for Carolina to hoist the Cup when all is said and done. Our rooting interest will be with the Hurricanes, not only because of her preseason wager, but because her sons  Jeffrey and Justin and their families reside in Raleigh now and are Hurricanes fans, and because she wants to see ex-Penguin Jordan Stahl win another Cup.

Those are good enough reasons for me to root for the Canes.  That, and the chance to see numerous shots of Rod Brind'Amour and his smooshed up nose behind the bench.

How many times do you figure that proboscis got busted up 

over the course of a 21 year NHL career?

Enjoy these two Championship Series, folks!

To Absent Friends - Joe Negri

 

Jazz guitar virtuoso Joe Negri died over this past weekend.  He was ten days shy off his 100th birthday.

When I say "jazz guitar virtuoso", I am not exagerating for Joe Negri was known throughout the world of jazz music as one of the very best.  In his life, he has performed with a Hall of Fame line-up of jazz musicians from the 1940's to the end of his life. Born in the Mt. Washington section of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School, Negri served in the Army at the tail end of WW II, and, upon returning from the service, he toured with various bands and jazz groups, but he chose to stay in his native Pittsburgh, and you just cannot have grown up watching television or following The Arts scene in Pittsburgh over these last seventy plus years (like I have) without knowing who Joe Negri was.  

He appeared and played on children's shows like "Ricki and Copper" and "Paul Shannon's Adventure Time".  He was also in the house band at KDKA-TV, back when local television stations had such things, and appeared on locally produced programming like The John Reed King Show and Daybreak.  He was one of those people who become completely ingrained in the fabric of the community, and when such people leave us, you feel like you've lost a member of the family.

However, many of my not-in-Pittsburgh friends who may read this, people who have never lived in The Burgh, will, if they or their children grew up watching "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" on PBS, know of Joe Negri as "Handyman Negri", an regular visitor to Rogers' Land of Make Believe on that landmark children's program.  

Negri also passed on his musical gifts to countless Music and theater students over the years as an instructor at both Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne Universities in Pittsburgh.  His affiliation with Duquesne lasted over forty-five years.

He continued to play the guitar and perform right to the end of his life.  The world of jazz music has lost one of its very best performers, and Pittsburgh has lost one of its Legends. 

RIP Joe Negri.