"LIVE" Blogging Sebak: Things That Aren't There Anymore

((I was recently approached by a producer at WQED to do an on-camera interview for a special they are airing about Rick Sebak in the fall, celebrating his 25 years with the station. The interview took place last week, but the special won't air until the fall. Hopefully I don't land completely on the cutting room floor. To even be in this thing for a minute or two will be such an honor, and something of a dream for a Pittsburgh-loving kid like me. It'll surely be a surreal moment to catch myself on WQED now and then for years to come.))

It's currently Sunday afternoon. It's a little rainy and kinda cool. Most people are off with their moms today, but I'm here, keeping myself company with a little black cat curled up in my lap and a new Rick Sebak DVD to watch. I've decided to "live" blog it, or write this post as it goes a long. Enjoy...Things That Aren't There Anymore:

- This starts out in South Park at the Allegheny County Fair, and Sebak notes that he lived only a mile away, off of 88. He doesn't say it outwardly, but he lived in Bethel Park. Where I spent the first eighteen years of my life.

- South Park had the THIRD drive-in in the world?! Speaking of watching movies outside: Movies in the Park 2012!

- Pittsburgh word! "Nickelodeon" I am so proud right now!

- "The perfect movie generation. We believed everything we saw."

- Isaly's s something I always heard my mom talk about, but never got to experience for myself. And now that I'm watching this, I am so upset I never did.

- KLONDIKES. I might need to get some of those to share with friends tonight.

- Chipped ham. Oh, to relocate to New England and realize that not everyone in the world gets their deli meat chipped. That was a strange moment for me. "Thank God for the man that invented the chipper." Adorable.

- We're back on the county fair. Is there still a county fair? I don't think there is, which is a shame because I always had fun at the Topsfield Fair in Boston.

- ROLLING. PIN. THROWING. COMPETITION. Ok. New idea: We have our own East End Pittsburgh Fair. We can definitely come up with some excellent competitions of our own. Proximity Brick anyone?!

- "At one time there was more rollercoaster track in Western Pennsylvania than any other place in the world." (Sometimes I learn things about Pittsburgh and go, yup - that's where I must get it from.)

- I don't think I can think of a sadder thing than this man explaining where everything in Westview Park used to be where there is now a strip mall with a Kmart and a Dunkin Donuts.

- Burlesque clubs and nightclubs. Here. We. Go. Pittsburgh at its finest.

[[Ruh....roh.... Something terrible happened to this DVD. Moment for technical difficulty...]]

[[OK. We are back!]]

- I want to appreciate baseball more. I really do. But I can't watch it and enjoy it. I have to play it. And that is why I'm joining a softball team this summer.

- Bill Mazeroski :)

- Watching this footage of people on the last day of Forbes Field is incredibly sad. And I'm not ashamed to say I'm tearing up.

Bethel Bakery Adventures

I grew up in the South Hills. The town where I grew up (do I call it a town? a suburb? a community?) has been in the news lately because of something utterly stupid that came out of soon-to-be Republican nominee for President, Mitt Romney, during his visit to Bethel Park. If there is one thing that unites all who have ever lived in Bethel Park for a portion of their lives, it is that Bethel Bakery cake is the ONLY cake. It is - without question - the best cake in any former or present Bethel Park resident's mind. So, you'll have to understand why we were so upset when Mitt Romney looked at a plate of cookies set before him at a picnic table where he dined with four local couples, he thought this was the best thing possible to say:

(Said to the women sitting next to him.) "I'm not sure about these cookies. They don't look like you made them. No, no. They came from the local 7-eleven, bakery, or whatever."

And then, he didn't even try one. He just outwardly dismissed the food set out in front of him. What he was missing were some of the tastiest cookies you'll ever eat. I don't know how Bethel Bakery does it, but my goodness - I have no words.

Enter a new catchphrase in the political vernacular: "Cookiegate."

Honestly, I thought this was just being covered locally in Pittsburgh. But then one of my favorite musicians, Owen (Mike Kinsella), tweeted the following:

Cookiegate had become national news!

So, on Friday night while Allie and I started discussing plans for the following day, I mentioned that I would like to go get a Bethel Bakery cake. Because Allie is awesome and tends to always be up for crazy adventures, she agreed and drove to the South Hills the next morning.

I got the cake I had been dreaming about since Cookiegate started and the words "Bethel Bakery" were thrown about casually by just about everyone. I decided I needed to justify the cake-buying with a celebration. Fortunately, I had passed 1,000 miles biked for 2012 (making me 1/3 of my way to my Pedal for Pennies goal!). I went for something simple:

When we got back to Allie's car, we immediately knew something was wrong. It was making a horrible noise, and as we pulled out of the parking spot, it felt like something was dragging on the ground. We pulled back into the parking lot, and Allie jumped through numerous hoops in order to get a AAA tow truck to come and help us. This could have been a wholly horrific turn of events, which I feared having experienced a number of truly spirit-crushing dealings with AAA in the past. But we ended up being saved by the swellest AAA driver that possibly exists: Bill.

Bill showed up and of course he immediately knew what was wrong. And, also of course, he had a six-year-old black named Petunia in the truck along for the day.

Petunia was pretty awesome. And she sure loved Bill. When he left us in the truck while he got Allie's car up on the tow, she looked out the window and cried for him the entire time he was outside of the cab.

And then another swell guy I know, my dad, offered to come swing by South Park Shops and pick us up and drive us back to the city. We definitely could have taken the T (one of the greatest advantages of Bethel Park: access to the light rail), but it was cold and rainy and - goddamnit! - we had this cake we were carrying around. We were back in my apartment enjoying the world's bestest dessert before we knew it, and laughing about how crazy the past 16 hours of our lives have been.