Evolution Made Us All

Our UU choir director emailed via YouTube  Evolution Made Us All sung by young children.  Using the lyrical tune of All Things Bright and Beautiful, clear, young solo voices and a nice graphic flow accompany the music.   Speaking of All Things Bright and Beautiful, howling winds connecting sky and land without a line of demarcation brought another form of beauty.  Looking outside all you could see was solid white.  Several days have passed with frigid air controlling the melting of snow keeping it glistening white with sunshine bringing a shiny, golden glow to the surface. 

Ed likes the snow blower.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, a phenomenon bringing over 100,000 to Arlington, TX where our daughter and family live.  One hundred thousand people flock to see men bash one another brutally enough so that some players suffer serious health problems for the rest of their lives most of which are caused by head trauma.  I've never understood why people enjoy watching men fall over one another trying to take possession of a strange shaped ball running enough distance to score a touchdown.   The persons at the bottom of the heap must feel terrible pain although they never seem to complain.  This year's Super Bowl teams are the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, two teams with extremely talented players so I am told.  

The Golden Triangle

Having graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and having met my husband in the Mendelssohn Choir which performs with the Pittsburgh Symphony, I love the "Burg."  Well-preserved ethnic neighborhoods,  fabulous restaurants, a unique topography where mountains meet rivers and one may ride the Duquesne Incline up the mountain.   Here, the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers join to form the confluence of the Ohio River. Here stands the great city of Pittsburgh on a piece of land shaped like a triangle giving the downtown the name  "Golden Triangle" where Three Rivers Stadium served as home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1970 - 2000.  It was imploded and now each has its own stadium adjacent to each other, PNC Park is home of the Pirates and Heinz Field is where the Steelers show off their toughness delighting their fans. 

Pittsburghers talk funny.  Pittsburgeese not only has a unique inflection, but various phrases have been contrived over the years with the meaning understood only by a Pittsburgher. Here are a few.
gum band -- rubber band
soda -- pop
daan taan -- down town
yins -- you (plural)
bidness -- business
gonna -- going tob
bob wahr -- barbed wire
ceement -- cement
chipped ham -- very thin,  sliced processed ham
samwich -- sandwich
goin -- going

On several occasions I've heard someone out here on the prairie talk with the unique Pittsburgh dialect making them easily identifiable as a Pittsburgher.  I am not shy about asking them if they are from Pittsburgh and so both the stranger and I move into conversation about the "Burg." 
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Even though I have no interest in the Steelers, I am delighted when I see Steeler fans out here on the Central Illinois Prairie.   One can not help but notice Steeler decals  on cars, people wearing Steeler's hats, sweats, T-shirts -- you get the idea.  Steeler fans are found across the nation as well as throughout the world. 

All Things Bright and Beautiful and the Super Bowl .... 
Sigh....

--Judy