Pittsburgh

[Rich k]

OMG!! the freaking hills!!!.... they are huge and steep and go on forever, and well just look at the bones, ok seriously they are pretty gnarly. I really think that in a few cases some drunk bastard painted a double yellow on a brick wall and put a street sign next to it) Is it just me? So I guess i'm used to driving relatively flat roads and shortshifting because with me and the fiance and our luggage and christmas presents and such in the yaris it just ran outa everything resembling forward motion on a hill and stalled in 2nd. Now i only had like 3 hrs sleep and had been driving for 10 hours at that point and am out of practice on hills so its driver error and not nearly a complaint about the car, which i love, or about pittsburgh which i really like, though it shocked the hec out of me. I can't even imagine san fransisco. Ugh the stuff of nightmares. P.S. I can start uphill from a stop with little to no backward roll, though who here is with me that those gps nav system things should have a flattest route option just for those days when you haven't had enough coffee or sleep and don't want to deal with hills?

[ddongbap]

... awesome..

[kargoboy]

We have streets in the city that have street signs and appear on maps but they are just long sets of steps with houses on either side.
Gotta love trying to get from one place to another here. There are no straight lines, at least not for very long!

Oh, and we have the Steelers.

[GeneW]

OMG!! the freaking hills!!!.... they are huge and steep and go on forever, and well just look at the bones, ok seriously they are pretty gnarly.

I was told by a Geologist that after California Pittsburgh area has more mudslides than other place in the US.

One of the reasons I bought an AT was because I don't have energy to shift on these damn hills.

I really think that in a few cases some drunk bastard painted a double yellow on a brick wall and put a street sign next to it) Is it just me?

Belgian block? Neat stuff, huh? It's tricky when it gets icy.


Hey, how did you like those potholes? Fun, huh?

Next time you're around take a moment to talk to the natives. Pittsburgh has one of the strangest dialects of English in the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEyJjAAPy38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ln9wtnaQG8

They do talk that around here.

Here's a real good example.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6P9g89cL8k

I spent way too much time with educated folks and "hill people" to keep the dialect. Don't want it either.

This is just too cute to not mention...

Myron Cope (former sports reporter) doing the Macarena.. the girls look that around here too. Tons of Eastern Europeans, Italians and others settled here. Which is cool by me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhSWsNP-3ME

Gene

[Rich k]

1st off GO STEELERS! I'm a Redskins fan since i was like 4, though when they aren't playing each other i root for both. So I'm on my way to becoming a good little steelers fan and i really really wanna like the Pirates, i sincerly do, they just aren't gonna make that easy for me though are they? I'm engaged to a native Yinser, and her family still lives there, in the land of the carnivorious pothole (a few of these potholes you could park the Yaris in :O )

The accent is interesting, the sentence construction and slang are too. I'm not that great with grammer though i know that in pittsburghese you never say that the Yaris needs to be cleaned. You say: The Yaris needs cleaned. And yes that belgian block is slippey (not slippery as it tends to be here in NY lol) My parents here in ny gave me the strangest look when i asked for a glass of pop after living with Kerry for a few months. Its all very endearing. Like I said I like the city, we are planning to have the wedding there in St Paul's, and the recepton possibly at carnegie music hall, with the rehersal dinner at PNC park.

Ohhh and i freakin love Eat'n Park. Esp those smiley cookies, ohhh and Permantis, and I even like IC lite.

Like Kerry says, one day she will turn me into a good little yinser. I look forward to it, even the driving the hills with a manual transmission.

[ddongbap]

Wouldn't this fit better in the regional section?

[GeneW]

know that in pittsburghese you never say that the Yaris needs to be cleaned.

Not quite... you say that it needs "red up", pronounced as spelled. Try it on your other half, she'll pick up right away.

Go any direction for about an hour outside of Pittsburgh and unless you're in a working class industrial area the accents tend to drop off and people tend to talk more like they're in Appalachia or Ohio. Unless you go into Amish/Mennonite areas in Somerset county. Those people are a breed apart, pacifists, industrious and pleasantly distrustful of "English".

Lot of rednecks, except that they do not have mullets and do not have confederate flags.

Gene

[GeneW]

Wouldn't this fit better in the regional section?

Until we got to the point of regional dialects I'd agree. However Pittsburgh speech, idioms and the odd conditions around here are interesting enough for English speakers.

BTW, Pittsburgh still headquarters a lot of major firms so it's not like it's outer podunk 'n at.

Gene

[Rich k]

Aha thats right red up, i have heard that from Kerry's mom. Haven't had much expereince in areas about an hour out of the city as yet, though i'm a fly fisherman and i hear the decent rivers and streams tend to sit about that far out of the city, so i'm sure i will come to know those areas and the people that live in them.

[kustom play]

i lived there for a little over 2 years when i went to school at the art institute

the downtown is awesome, you can walk everywhere and there public transportation wasnt bad also

however they wanted 240 bucks a month to park downtown

i opted for the 60 bus pass

[33OH]

I'm only an hour and a half away from Pittsburgh and I've only been there twice. And I hate the hilly driving in town. Especially with the people behind you getting right on your arse. My first trip there was a month after I got the Yaris, and let me tell you, you could definitely smell clutch by the time I had parked it.

[kargoboy]

I'm only an hour and a half away from Pittsburgh and I've only been there twice. And I hate the hilly driving in town. Especially with the people behind you getting right on your arse. My first trip there was a month after I got the Yaris, and let me tell you, you could definitely smell clutch by the time I had parked it.

You just need more practice :) Come back again.

[Pitt Yaris]

i live 40 minutes north....i don't get down much.

[elmo]

you guys do know what hills are i live here;

[33OH]

You just need more practice :) Come back again.

Eh. There's nothing in Pittsburgh I need that I can't get in Cleveland or Columbus. =)

[33OH]

you guys do know what hills are i live here;

But there's no houses or streets there. =P

http://pittsburghskyline.com/images/05.2007x/pittsburghskyline_may.07_36.jpg

[Rich k]

Yea houses and cross streets, not to mention that in the berg every hill has at least one stop sign right in the middle, if not 3 or 4 scattered up its length or the ever popular stoplight at the crest of the hill. The guy who designed these streets didn't drive manual, or he did and was a masochist. Its tru you do get better with practice and it isn't an issue, though its daunting when you first get there if your not doing it everyday.

[elmo]

But there's no houses or streets there. =P

http://pittsburghskyline.com/images/05.2007x/pittsburghskyline_may.07_36.jpg

your right there aren't many houses but our roads are like a road course with hills :smile:

[33OH]

your right there aren't many houses but our roads are like a road course with hills :smile:

Yeah I would love to visit and drive them.

Especially the 'Tail of the Dragon' :biggrin:

[elmo]

the dragon is fun in a car, but it is heaven on earth on a bike, i try to run it at least twice a year once in the spring and then again in the fall.

[33OH]

That's what I meant. On the bike. =)

I'm not sure I'd have too much fun in a Yaris on it. =)

[elmo]

yeah that zx-6 would be fun,

you got to be very careful the cars and trucks throw up gravel in the curves seen more that a few go down, and if you have been ridin long you know what that feels like

[33OH]

I've had a streetbike since I was 18 (22 now), but I've never been down.

But I know what it's like to have gravel all over the roads, and I had a guy behind me wipe out on it. I just went way left of center to avoid it.

[elmo]

your a lucky man