The author's posts are entirely his or her own and may not always reflect the views of Movoto.
In most cities, if you see an old chair sitting out on the curb, you would assume the chair is out for the garbage collector to pick up. However, a "Pittsburgh Parking Chair" is put in place to prevent you from parking in what someone considers to be a reserved spot. There must be a better way to do this. Of course, if you're an outsider in Pittsburgh, you may get honked at for having the nerve to not allow the car facing you at an intersection to turn left when they have no legal right to (that's right, green Honda Civic owner; no legal right). This is because the natives are employing the practice of making the "Pittsburgh Left," which isn't even remotely legal, even in Pittsburgh.
Outsiders to Pittsburgh may not realize it, but the iconic black-and-yellow colors that adorn the uniforms of every major Pittsburgh sports team actually originated on William Pitt's coat of arms, and were then transferred to the city's flag. The idea that the city's teams are marked by the same color scheme is so cool that it's frankly baffling that the sports teams from all other cities haven't stolen the idea and done it themselves. Although, this didn't stop rappers who were fans of other sports teams from coming up with a dozen annoying remixes to "Black and Yellow" that weren't one-sixteenth as cool as Wiz Khalifa's original.
Of course, it would really annoy Pittsburgh residents if Philadelphia sports teams all started to dress like them, particularly because...
There's plenty of resent here, and there are several reasons for it. Maybe it's because Pittsburghers think Philadelphians suck up too much of Pennsylvania's tax revenue. Maybe it's because the two cities engage in three of the best in-state sports rivalries across all of the sporting world. Or, maybe it's annoyance because Pittsburghers tend to take the rivalries a bit more seriously than Philadelphians, who prefer their rivalries with cities they're geographically closer to, like New York or Washington.
Then again, maybe they're just irritated that Philadelphians think people from Pittsburgh aren't authentic Pennsylvanians because they talk funny. But, guess what...
Or, another way to put this would be to say they're all a bunch of "yinzers." This is derived from the word "yinz" which is another way to say "y'all." This gem of a word was tucked into the Pittsburghese lexicon by the Scots-Irish immigrants to the area. Of course, there are plenty of other weird words Pittsburghers like to use, which is why I totally expect to be called a "jagoff" for writing this article in the first place.
Of course, I'm used to being called a "jagoff" by people from Pittsburgh once I tell them how...I'm not talking about the legitimate Pittsburgh Steelers fans that actually live and work in Pittsburgh; you and I are cool. My issue is with the bandwagoners who decided they were Steelers fans in 2005 because their great grandparents moved from Pittsburgh to Detroit in the early '30s before the Steelers had even been founded. I'm sure your newly-discovered fandom had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the Steelers were suddenly great again, right? Hey, if I'm stuck with the Lions, you're stuck with them, too. Seriously, I can't count the number of times I had to hear, "Jerome Bettis is from Detroit, and Charlie Batch used to play here; I'm a Steelers fan now!" Spare me. This is just a guess, but the Steelers may be the NFL team with the third greatest number of bandwagon fans in other states behind the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots.
In New England's case, we're talking about all the female Patriots fans (and probably some male fans, too; who are we kidding?) that think Tom Brady is just so dreamy. And, speaking of fans being annoying because they think someone is dreamy...Detroit Red Wings fans are annoying because they're everywhere and obnoxiously loud; I get that. Pittsburgh Penguins fans are annoying because half of them became Sidney Crosby fans before they were technically even hockey fans. So, the fact that an extended, nationwide Penguins fanbase full of teeny boppers materialized out of thin air is largely owed to the machinations of the National Hockey League. Perhaps I'm still a little bitter over the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. It could also be the fact that the only time I was ever called a "bitch" at a sporting event was by a young, drunken Pittsburgh Penguins fan. A young, drunken, female Pittsburgh Penguins fan. Wearing a Sidney Crosby jersey. And she was from Detroit.
One-fifth of Pittsburgh residents self report as having German ethnicity, and this doesn't include the people who are at least partially German and just gave up and started calling themselves "white" decades ago (which actually includes half of my family). There are "Germantowns" all over the country, but Pittsburgh's Germantown is so German that it's actually called "Deutschtown." On the business side of things, Pittsburgh is the home to possibly the most famous homegrown American company with a German name, the H.J. Heinz Company. Of course, the Heinz name adorns the home stadium of the Pittsburgh Steelers as well.
One of the ways the Germanness of Pittsburghers manifests itself is through observing that...
When Forbes ranked America's hardest drinking cities a few years ago, Pittsburgh was slotted at number 11 and narrowly missed the top 10 thanks to another uber-German city, Cincinnati. This ranking was owed to the fact that nearly 60 percent of Pittsburgh's residents could be counted on to drink in a given month, while about one-fifth of the population had consumed five or more drinks on at least one occasion. Local beer companies like Penn Brewing and the Iron City Brewing company are around to cater to these sorts of indulgences.
Now, I certainly can't handle my alcohol well enough to tolerate five drinks in one sitting, so this is just more proof of something else we've all heard, and it's that...People from Pittsburgh are really tough, and a generation ago, I would have meant that exclusively in the blue-collar, steel-working sense. Nowadays, Pittsburgh is probably the best example of an American city where people showed their resiliency and repurposed themselves in the wake of an economic downturn. Now, they are thriving as a result.
Even if you don't want to believe the internet hype machine trumpeting Pittsburgh's success, or its consideration by Forbes Magazine or the Economic Intelligence Unit as "The Most Livable City in the U.S.", the bottom line to all of this is that...If you don't believe all of these assorted rankings that label Pittsburgh as "The Best This" or "The Smartest That," just spend one day in Pittsburgh and take a look around for yourself. With successful businesses, racially diverse neighborhoods, great schools, relative safety, a robust arts and entertainment scene, and beautiful natural beauty just about everywhere you look, modern Pittsburgh is essentially the polar opposite of modern Detroit (as much as it kills me to say it).
Feature Image Source: Flickr user daveynin
