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 Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette |
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Let the sun shine
It would have been unwise to predict what the weather would be like by the time you read this, or undertake your grilling and other outdoor holiday activities. But let's take a guess: Cloudy? Gray? Dismal? Some sun had actually been in the forecast, but we'll believe it when we see it. Pittsburghers love to boast of their miserable weather, including a recently gloomy spell, but heck, there have been at least nine whole days this month when the National Weather Service recorded not a spit of rain at Pittsburgh International Airport. In a 1993 Benchmarks report from the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, analysts showed that Pittsburgh's average of 59 sunny days a year was fewer than any major metropolitan area but Buffalo, which receives 55. NWS meteorologist Ray Visneski says the fault lies with the combination of Lake Erie and the winds blowing across it from the northwest, collecting moisture along the way. But before you even think about moving to Tucson, read on.
Flying the flag? Priceless
The folks at AmericanFlags. com are so patriotic about displaying the Stars and Stripes on Memorial Day -- or any time -- that they're encouraging people to order a "free" 3-foot-by-5-foot flag. There's a $5.99 shipping and handling charge, but the e-commerce company created in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks insists there are no other catches or hidden fees. AmericanFlags.com has previously offered flag giveaways related to Veterans Day, Election Day, inauguration day, President Reagan's death and other occasions, and receives between 10,000 and 50,000 orders each time, said Jeff Reynolds, president of a parent firm, Precision Marketing Solutions in Huntington, N.Y. He said the giveaway is the company's preferred way of marketing itself instead of spending money on traditional advertising. The company normally sells its "sturdy weather-resistant non-fading polyester" flags for $19.99. "If we just cover the basic cost of getting the flags out of the warehouse, it's a good way of getting the word out about our web site and maybe building some new customers and relationships," Reynolds said. The offer is good through June 1 at www.AmericanFlags.com.
Free flags deserve cheap homes
There's great news for Pittsburgh home-buyers -- therefore terrible news for home-sellers -- in new information from the U.S. Census Bureau comparing 88 cities. Its American Community Survey found the estimated median value of a home within Pittsburgh's city limits in 2003, $68,553, to be less than that of all but one other city. And that one other city with even more worthless -- oops, we meant to say "affordable" -- housing was ... yes, indeedy, insert your own favorite Buffalo joke here. Pittsburgh's housing value was not even half the national average of $139,759. San Francisco's housing was valued the most, $607,065, so evidently it's not the hills that are the key factor here. Must be the weather. The findings are based on estimates that a sample of local homeowners gave appraising their own properties. Allegheny County-wide, residents valued homes at a median of $94,247, which was 217th out of the 241 largest counties.
Take that, Tucson
The nightly news
The Morning File is by necessity a stout advocate of things occurring in the a.m., such as reading, but also respects the night as a worthy rival for attention. That's why a scholarly new book, "At Day's Close: Night in Times Past," by A. Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech University, seems intriguing. Reviewing it in the May 30 edition of The New Yorker, Arthur Krystal writes that Ekirch "has reclaimed that portion of the circadian cycle which historians have traditionally neglected. He has emptied night's pockets, and laid the contents out before us." The book notes that before European cities began using low-level public lighting in 1650, the world was a much more dangerous place at night, with carriages tumbling into ditches and gangs roaming the streets. It was common after dark for drawbridges to be raised, city gates to be shut and logs to be placed blocking thoroughfares. Crimes committed after curfew were met with stiffer penalties. "At Day's Close" also has a thorough discussion of how hard it was to sleep despite the absence of light, with such interferences as scampering mice, leaking roofs and rough bedding.
