Welcome back to Pittsburgh Furries! Today is a guest blog post from “Marc Andre Furry” Pittsburgh’s fav Furry!
Here are a few tips about Pittsburgh that may help you get oriented:
Pittsburgh is known for a number of firsts:
- First newspaper west of the Alleghenies (1789) – The Pittsburgh Gazette
- First Ferris Wheel (1893)
- World’s First Commercial Radio Station (1920) – KDKA
- First Ice Capades (1940)
- First All-Aluminum Building (1953) – Regional Enterprise Tower (formerly the Alcoa Building)
- First Polio Vaccine (1954) – Dr. Jonas Salk at the University of Pittsburgh
- First U.S. Public Television Station (1954) – WQED
- First Retractable Dome (1961) – Mellon Arena
- First Mass Transit Busway System (1964) – Allegheny County Port Authority
- First Nighttime World Series Game (1971)
- First Robotics Center (1979)- Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute
- First Internet emoticon, the smiley 🙂 (1982) – Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist Scott Fahlman
Pittsburghers Created:
- The Big Mac, the world’s most famous hamburger, was ‘invented’ near Pittsburgh by McDonald’s franchise owner Jim Delligatti in 1967 and distributed nationally in 1968.
- Heinz Ketchup, invented in Pittsburgh by H.J. Heinz.
- Pierogies, found at restaurants throughout Pittsburgh, reflect Pittsburgh’s Polish heritage. Cooked in butter, these delicious dumplings are stuffed with potato and other flavorings depending on the creativity and tradition of the cook.
- Chipped Ham is one of Pittsburgh’s most famous foods. This spicy lunch meat made its debut in 1933 at Isaly’s, a locally based family chain of dairy stores. Former Pittsburghers are known to have it trucked or flown across the country when they get a hankering for this hometown favorite.
- The Klondike Bar, another Isaly’s original, is a vanilla ice-cream bar dipped in pure chocolate and packaged in a familiar silver wrapper. They cost a nickel when Sam Isaly invented them in 1929.
- Wedding Soup, that delectable Italian broth with tiny meatballs and rich egg pastina, is served throughout the city.
- Fried Zucchini Strips – thin, crispy and savory, are a hometown original and popular as an appetizer.
- ‘Pittsburgh Salad’ – take any salad and top with french fries.
- Primanti Bros. Sandwich – A sandwich with the fries and coleslaw added right in. Invented during the Depression so that day laborers could hold their entire lunch in one hand.
Pittsburgh is also known for the worst accent in the country… Pittsburghese and here are a few examples for those of you trying to fit in as a local:
House is pronounced HAss (Like a ha ha with and s)
The Pittsburgh Steelers is pronounced Pittsburgh STILLers
Up there is pronounced UP Air. This is important for when you are pointing to a local asking them a question and pointing to the top of a building or up a street.
Down there is pronounced DAHN Nair. Just the opposite of UP Air.. but, you need to know it because if you try to act like a local and say, ‘Is the PPG Paints Arena” UP air?” If it’s the opposite way the local person will say, “No, it’s DAHN nair!” See why you need to to know this?
Jagoff is NOT a swear word. Yes, some people have had their mouth soaped for saying this word BUT… it’s not a swear word! It’s in the Oxford Dictionary but not putting a link to it because HERE is the real definition:
Jagoff – someone that you don’t like; someone who is being a jerk, or cocky, etc BUT, know this, many Pittsburghers use it as a term of endearment!, “Hey, how’ve ya been, YaJagoff!
So feel free to use the phrase YaJagoff for: bad drivers, stupid politicians, whatever but ALSO feel free to reserve the right to use the, “How’ve ya been YaJagoff?”
Have fun here… let us know if the list helped!
Thanks to Visit Pittsburgh for the lists.
Special thanks to our friends Anna Mac and Mary M of Mary Mac’s Bakehouse!
