Comments on: On the Road: Pittsburgh

By: ZaZa

ZaZa — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 04:41:52 +0000

They have a couple of main streets in different directions built way up in the middle and way low on the edges, so the water can run off into the desert. When I first moved there I couldn’t figure out why the danged curbs on some streets were nearly 18″ high. First big rainstorm, and I knew. Typhoons always sounded so cool to me. I guess we’re both warped. ;+)

By: micki

micki — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:54:37 +0000

(-: Well, actually, they call it a typhoon where I am, but typhoons are all audio, not much video, in my experience (I’m in northern Japan right now, so they tend to lose steam by the time they get up here). Some thunder, but not really any GIANT streaks of lightening from heaven to earth, splitting the sky like a river, leaving you blinded until the grumble of thunder rocks you to sleep.

Which is what they have in Nebraska, where I was. But thunderstorms aren’t usually all-night jobbies — they blow up quick, they wind down quick too.

(-:Tuscon in a monsoon! Sounds like fun if you are on high ground. (-: I have such a weird sense of fun. As long as there’s no hail, I love the pyrotechnics of a good thunderstorm, and the coolness that comes after it.

By: ZaZa

ZaZa — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:28:57 +0000

micki said…
No place does thunderstorms like the mid-West. Fourth of July and a cold shower, all rolled into one.

You have to visit Tucson during the monsoon, about the same time you guys are having your thunderstorms, apparently. Yikes. One whole night, no one got any sleep because the storm just hung over town and crashed and flashed, like trying to sleep in the middle of the clash of the Titans. Did you get that??? Crash, flash, clash??? Alliteration AND Rule of three. Go me!

I worked at the University Med School, and they even cancelled a lot of surgeries the next day, rather than have docs operating on NO SLEEP! I guess they don’t call it monsoon where you are?

By: ZaZa

ZaZa — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:15:04 +0000

QUESTION FOR JENNY — how are those coupons going to work with the CBs who are buying books for those of us who can’t be at the signings? Will they be able to buy several on one coupon? Should they print multiple copies???

By: ZaZa

ZaZa — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:13:42 +0000

Midwest — Jenny is RIGHT! I read once that it seemed wacky because it was so named before the rest of the West, as in the West Coast and points East were not part of the country. The Mississippi was about it. Basically we have the East Coast and the West Coast, a leetle bit of strictly West, like Texas, for example, and everything else is either South or Midwest. Heh. Is it any wonder visitors to our fair shores get confused? Anyway, Ohio is definitely Midwest, as is Chicago. Pittsburgh, I dunno. Pretty East Coast to me, at least in mindset. But otherwise, I’m with the Cherry.

Glad to hear I’m not the only one who obssesses about getting up earlier than usual for an appointment (or a flight), to the point where they don’t sleep at all. And, no, you cannot trust those alarm clocks. Twenty-four hour? Twelve? Too many choices when you’re trying to set the dang time. And still…what if there was a power failure?

And if I’m repeating a dozen other commenters, sorry, but I haven’t read them yet. ;+)

By: lynn

lynn — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:35:21 +0000

Oooh, I forgot.

It is always construction season in Pittsburgh, especially when you are traveling on the parkway or on 28 – you can not escape.

At least you were near a good bakery in Oakmont. It would have been better than the snickers bar.

By: lynn

lynn — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:34:13 +0000

Late to the party … but, I have to side on the not in the Midwest portion of the argument, Pittsburgh is not in the Midwest. I lived there most of my life and never considered myself a midwesterner. (Sigh, not that there is anything wrong with that.)

Actually, I’ve lived in Ohio for several years now and really never considered Cleveland midwest either. Pittsburgh and Cleveland are very similar cities except for their sports teams. And I won’t go there.

Philadelphia? Seriously east.

By: Alice Audrey

Alice Audrey — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:37:15 +0000

Pittsburgh ISN’T back east? Oh.

By: Theresa

Theresa — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:52:38 +0000

I miss Pittsburgh. Sigh. I would so loved to have been able to go to Mystery Lovers, and buy Agnes, and meet Jenny and Bob, like last year. Sigh.

I like the last definition Jenny found for the midwest. Really, if you go by a map look, Ohio just sticks out and doesn’t fit anywhere. In my experience, people from the east coast tend to think Ohio is someplace out west, and folks from the west tend to think Ohio is on the east coast.

As someone who’s lived in both NE Ohio and western PA, these two areas are pretty darn similar. Right down to the rust in the belt.

By: The Great Dane

The Great Dane — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:07:55 +0000

For some reason I read it like this.

“I think we can make it without killing each other, depending on how fast he drops.”

By: micki

micki — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:06:04 +0000

(-: Mid-West seasons? What, temperate, Broiling, freezing and TORNADAH WITH A SIDE DRESSIN’ OF HAIL? All in the same day?

Sigh. To tell you the truth, I miss it too. No place does thunderstorms like the mid-West. Fourth of July and a cold shower, all rolled into one.

I’m gonna go fix me some carrot and lemon jello — sure cure for homesickness.

By: patmc

patmc — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:51:47 +0000

my dad said he lived in the midwest all his life till we moved to California, he was born in Wimber Pa, and i was born in Detroit Mi, where he had moved his family after being in one coal mining cave in with his dad. he saw little future in that.

said he liked ca better. no coal mines to work. but he missed the midwest seasons.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:25:45 +0000

Aw, she thinks I’m lovely! Way to create a fangirl-for-life

You were both lovely and gracious yourselves. Thanks so much for coming to town. As I said, I really enjoyed Agnes; you and Bob are sounding great together.

On the Great Question of Geography: bear in mind that Pittsburgh is also on the border of Appalachia. That explains a lot. As does the saying, “Pennsylvania is two major cities with Alabama in between.”

By: Mary the CB

Mary the CB — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:42:09 +0000

Geez, Corinne, if Ohio is part of the Northwest [territory] then I’m really confused.
Yes, BCB, more so than usual.
From the Left Coast perspective, anything past Colorado is Back East. The Mississippi river is right next to the Hudson, isn’t it? Well, relative to the Columbia it is.

By: BCB

BCB — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:47:54 +0000

Jenny says that Andrew Cayton says: “At the very least, the Midwest is what people say it is, that is, what they perceive it to be. . .” A mushy anti-region? I guess that explains all the gravy. And jello.

I am reminded of a quote from another famous scholar: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

Glad we cleared that up.

And so happy that you’re apparently feeling better, Jenny, and up to doing some late night research on weighty topics.

By: carol_d

carol_d — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:21:11 +0000

OK. I know where I was. EAST of Pittsburg in a cute little town. Thanks Jenny for a lovely signing. I’d thank Bob here too, but I’m quite sure he isn’t reading. If he IS, he isn’t responding, which is the same thing, really.

I say that western NY and western PA are in the “Great Lakes region” … which is easy to identify on a map because the Great Lakes are usually large and blue. Midwest and Northeast and Middle Atlantic just don’t fit.

By: WapakGram

WapakGram — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:20:56 +0000

OT
Bob Seger- 3rd row- on the aisle, Senior Year at Bowling Green State University. Opening for him was a little known MIDWESTERN band called “Foreigner”.

By: micki

micki — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:16:14 +0000

(-: I’m from Nebraska, and I have to vote with Bob. I have a hard time accepting that *Ohio* is part of the mid-West. And Minneapolis? Well, they like to *think* they are mid-West, but I know better. The mid-west is South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. OK, and I’ll allow Iowa. Possibly Oklahoma, but not Missouri. Everything else is East, North, South or West.

Although, if they served you Jello-salad in Pittsburgh, and the waitress told you about her bunions, I’ll allow it as an Honorary Mid-West. I think it’s really part of the Industrial Belt or Steel Belt or something.

(OK, maybe it could be both. MidWest is largely a state of mind.)

By: Rox

Rox — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:13:58 +0000

I must have a psychological block against Pennsylvania being part of the Midwest. It just doesn’t feel right to me, I don’t care how far west Pittsburgh is. Maybe because it was one of the first states in the union. It’s been around so long. I think of the Midwest as Pioneer Land, not Colonial America land. A former colony doesn’t feel like “Midwest” to me. Also, the kids from Pittsburgh who lived in my dorm at the Univ of Mich did not come across as Midwesterners to me. Maybe that had more to do with them paying out-of-state tuition rates than anything else. Well, that and worshiping Bruce Springsteen, who I had never heard of until they pointed their stereo speakers out their dorm windows. We were all about REO Speedwagon and Ted Nugent and Bob Seger.

Huh. Who would have thought that rock bands would be a defining element of geographic region?

By: Corinne

Corinne — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:57:53 +0000

They’re right up to a point– having grown up in SE Wisconsin, I have a hard time accepting that the Dakotas count as Midwest, f’rinstance– but the Eastern boundary of the Midwest is actually the best established one, because Ohio was the easternmost point in the old Northwest Territory. Just to make things more confusing, I would suggest that Pittsburgh feels Midwestern because it’s part of the Rust Belt, which also includes most of the cities in the eastern half of the Midwest, but from what I’ve seen the surrounding regions aren’t Midwest; SW Pennsylvania might actually be part of Appalachia.