I remember the much better TV show set in Pittsburgh, or at least outside of it (in the non-existent suburb of “Three Rivers”) – My So Called Life.
One episode of MSCL puts every episode of Mr. Belvedere (and that stinker Hope & Gloria) to shame. Add in “The Guardian” and Pittsburgh’s TV cred has been redeemed.
Yeah, but my point was that they always used to use to talk shit on Altoona on Belvedere 
Add Tony Dorsett to the list of famous people from PA. He graduated from the same high school I did (Quite a couple of years before).
KDKA in Pittsburgh was the first commercial broadcast radio station.
Jonas Salk invented the vaccine for polio at the University of Pittsburgh.
The first Big Mac was sold in Uniontown, PA.
Yuengling, in Pottsville, PA, is the oldest continuously operating brewery in the US. It’s also one of the few remaining breweries that’s only ever been owned by one family.
First retractable domed arena was the Civic Arena in Pgh.
First nuclear power plant to produce electricity for commercial use is in Shippingport (I used to live within sight of the towers). It’s called Beaver Valley Unit 2. Unit 1 is a coal plant.
The funny thing about Mr. Belvedere making fun of Altoona is that Altoona is hardly on the radar for most 'Burghers. If they want someone to joke about, they usually look south and west to lovely West Virginia.
(Not that I’m saying they deserve it, just my experience.)
Altoona was also the origin of Wanda in the porn classic Wanda Whips Wall Street.
PA has a lot of strange place names. Here are just a few:
[ul]
[li]Intercourse[/li][li]Blue Ball[/li][li]Desire[/li][li]Panic[/li][li]Nanty-Glo[/li][li]Mauch Chunk[/li][li]Black Lick[/li][li]Big Beaver[/li][/ul]
In that same spirit, Pennsylvania also has a town called Eighty-Four. I bought a car there once.
Dunlaps Creek Bridge in Brownsville is the first rib-fixed metal arch bridge erected in the United States and has been in continuous operation for over 150 years.
I live there.
It’s also the home of 84 Lumber.
Washington, PA is the home of Pony League Baseball and the Pony League World Series.
The American version of Queer as Folk is set in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is home to the 12th fastest supercomputer in the world.
Well hell, catsix, we really were practically neighbors. I grew up in Union Township, between Elrama and Finleyville on the imaginatively-named Finleyville-Elrama Road.
BTW, in the Pittsburgh area, “Finleyville” is slang for “hick town in the middle of nowhere.” 
But the town of Mauch Chunk no longer has that evocative name. In a bizarre attempt to turn itself into a tourist mecca, the town bought the remains of the great athlete Jim Thorpe, built a tomb for him, and changed the name of the town to Jim Thorpe.
Incidentally, Mauch Chunk was the site of the world’s first roller coaster.
My dad’s from Altoona. Bet you didn’t know that, either.
Things about PA:
What is now the State of Delaware was actually part of the colony of Pennsylvania. It was populated with non-English (Dutch and Swedes) who were given autonomy by Billy Penn in the hope that they would rejoin a few years later. They did not, much to Penn’s dismay.
The primary act Billy Penn Sr. did for the King that led to Jr. getting Pa actually took place under Cromwell’s regime. That act was the conquest of Jamaica (after messing up an invasion of Hispaniola).
Pennsylvania briefly fought a war with Connecticut. Remember those old colonial maps that show the colonies stretching westward to infinity (or at least the Mississippi river)? Well Connecticut’s stretch kinda goes through the top of Pennsylvania.
More a Delaware fact than PA fact: The upper left corner of Delaware was, for a time, a non-man’s land claimed by three states: Maryland, Deleware, and Pennsylvania. Actually it was more unclaimed than anything else. An act of congress awarded it to Delaware.
The Philadelphia rivers “Schuylkill” and “Delaware” are not indian names despite some people insistance. The local tribes did not call themselves “Delawares”.
Hate to resurrect an old thread, but I did manage to write that article, and it is now online at:
d’oh :smack: . but we DO have a grand canyon
I enjoyed your article.
Excellent article!
I liked the segue from homosexuality to disaster. It’s the only one I’ve seen with a positive spin. 
Your writing has a nice flow, a pleasure to read.
In addition to your article, these came to mind:
Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Falling Water’ is exemplary of Wright’s brilliance. Philadelphia Savings Fund Society was the oldest savings and loan institution in the nation, and the safe deposit vault located on the mezzanine level at 1234 Market Street was hailed as an architectural marvel of banking construction in its time.
The Rockville Bridge crosses the Susquehanna River to the north of Harrisburg. It is the longest stone arch bridge in the world.
The first computer, ENIAC- was developed in Philadelphia at the U of P, circa 1946.
Home of York Barbell.
First daily newspaper on September 21, 1784 in Philly. First complaint about a paper in the bushes on September 22nd.
The Zoological garden of 1874 was a first, and a forerunner to the current Philly Zoo. (That’s the one with fences to protect the critters from the people).
The movie Kingpin was filmed here. A friend of mine was used as an extra. Woody Harrelson got high in Pensylvania.
sometimes spelled Pennsylvania. sigh
Damn this thread and that article. I do not care what is said about it, I really do miss PA. Such a wonderful place, that state. Never actualy lived there in my memory but have visited way tooooo many times to want to leave. Sigh.
(No mention of Gettysburg even if it is an old thread?)
Anyways, Deleware was named after De La Warr. The really brutal man who helped to shape up early Jamestown by instituting strict military regulations.
