It's Feb. 13, and a major holiday is almost upon us...time to break out the green beer! St. Patty's day is only a little over a month away. No worries, Pittsburgh has us covered.

"Get a wee bit of the luck of the Irish – right here in Pittsburgh! The city's St. Patrick's Day Parade is the second largest in the world -falling short only to the celebration in New York. Each of these parades is bigger than any held in Ireland!"

http://www.10best.com/Pittsburgh,PA/locationDetails.html?tab=facts

Here in the 'burgh, we don't just beat our competition...we crush them. And occasionally throw them in the river. This time, I'm not talking about the Steelers.

"The famous Heinz products, including Heinz Ketchup, are yet another example of Pittsburgh genius. But few people know this: In the 1880s Henry Heinz bought the products and equipment of a competing company and “sank the competition” by throwing it all into the Allegheny River!"

http://www.tripcart.com/usa-regions/Southwestern-Pennsylvania,Fun-Facts.aspx#Guide||||||Top||||||||

All politics aside...

Since those brainiacs at CMU seem to know their stuff, this piece of Pittsburgh trivia comes from the Carnegie Mellon admissions website. No matter how you feel about our infamous former president, he did get one thing right:

"President George W. Bush has referred to Pittsburgh as the “Knowledge City.”

http://my.cmu.edu/site/admission/page.fastfacts

The Pittsburgh Left

My apologies for using the very authoritative Wikipedia to bring you this piece of Pittsburgh trivia. A few days ago, someone mentioned the Pittsburgh Left and the perils associated with it. Being as how I take the bus most of the time, I turned to the Internet and discovered:

"The Pittsburgh Left involves two cars facing one another waiting at a traffic light or other stop signal: one turning left and one going straight. The left-turning car will execute its turn through the intersection before the car going straight passes through the intersection, where normally it would yield. Permission to do so is either given by the car going straight, or sometimes taken by the left-turning car by starting through the left turn early enough so as not to obstruct the straight-going driver. This practice is seen as courteous, because a very small delay for the oncoming vehicle can eliminate a long delay for the left turning vehicle and those blocked behind it."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Left

Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky...

If you were thinking it's a little gloomy out there despite the spectacular Steelers Superbowl victory, it might just be the weather. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely to improve any time soon. On average, there are only three clear days per month in Pittsburgh in February. The really depressing thing? There are only an average of fifty-nine clear days per year in Pittsburgh total.

Find some really cool Pittsburgh weather facts here.

Steelers trivia

You can find the entire story of the Terrible Towel, as written by the legendary Myron Cope here. However, according to about.com, the OFFICIAL Terrible Towel was created because stores were annoyed that black and gold hand towels were selling at a higher rate than the matching bath towels and wash cloths. True? I'm skeptical.

http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/steelers/a/trivia.htm