Redundancies

Yeesh. It's been a long time since I posted a blog. Unfortunately, this one will be short. It's nearing end of the month, and that means that many people will have funds for Halloween festivities tonight at midnight.

I have been eating Ramen noodles and cereal for the last week. I need my paycheck. However, I heard someone say, "I could really use money now." Well she definitely deserves the money now because she can "really use" it, while I can only use it.

Also, it's a GPS unit, not system. GPS stands for global positioning system. We don't need global positioning system systems.

What other extraneous words bother you?

Pittsburgh Pirates honor Homestead Grays

Gray might be the Pittsburgh Pirates' lucky color.

The team is paying homage to the Homestead Grays for the Pirates' Heritage Weekend by wearing the Grays' uniforms in the series against the Kansas City Royals.


With two wins and four home runs so far, the Pirates are doing a sensational job honoring the Grays, who won more Negro League World Series titles than any other team.

The Grays won three championships, including the last one before the league disbanded in 1948.

The previous year, Jackie Robinson played his first game as a Brooklyn Dodger, making him the first African-American to play in the white-only major leagues.

At Friday night's game, fans received free commemorative Grays baseball caps. Some tried to answer a trivia question about the Negro League.

Like many of the other attendees sporting those "G" caps, my knowledge of the Pittsburgh's black baseball teams was minimal.


Unknowing of the Grays' success, I wondered why they were being honored since Pittsburgh had its own team in the Negro National League, the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Their successes weren't comparable. Even though the team showcased five Hall-of-Famers during its run, the Crawfords never saw a championship game.

The navy blue hat with an embroidered "G" gave me more than just something to fiddle with during the game's slow times. It gave me something to think about.

There isn't much of a lesson in this blog except to remember those who struggled for acceptance.

And if the Pirates have seen a little further, it's by standing on the shoulders of Grays.

This might have helped the Pirates too.



Let's go Buccos!

White men can't jump? Black men can't skate?: Ethnic excuses for athletic ability

Three hours before the beginning of game seven of the Stanley Cup, I paced around the set of "Warrior" nervous about whether the director would wrap the scene before the puck dropped - I committed to being an extra before I realized that the series would go on for seven games.

It seemed like everyone was eager to get out; the crew moved the start time from 8:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. and dozens of crew members wore their Penguins gear. Some even had the moxie to wear Detroit Red Wings jerseys around Pittsburgh's North Hills Senior High School, where some of the movie's classroom scenes were shot.
While I was standing in a hallway waiting to enter the classroom, I heard a girl laughing and telling people why she couldn't like hockey.

"I don't follow the Penguins. Sure, I smile when they win, but I don't watch hockey. I'm black, and black people don't watch hockey. They just don't. My race doesn't let me watch hockey," she said.

I had to jump in. I told her that there are fewer Asians in the National Hockey League than black people, but my ethnicity doesn't keep me from watching hockey or football. Her excuse was just a cop out.

She tried to tell me off saying that the black people in the NHL were Canadians and not Americans so they aren't "black." That argument got tired out during Barack Obama's run for president. She couldn't name a black player in the league and yet she knew that their families didn't go through the struggle.

Well they are going through a struggle. They're overcoming stereotypes of their race. Perhaps their parents pushed them to pick up footballs, basketballs or at least baseballs, but they were happier with hockey sticks in their hands.

Mike Grier had a stint with youth football, but he soon realized that he was in the wrong sport. He became the first African-American to play in the NHL when he joined the Edmonton Oilers in 1996, with the support of his parents. However, growing up in "Hockeytown, USA" might have helped.

Willie O'Ree became the first man of African descent to play in the NHL in 1958, but he's Canadian.

**I have to put a plug in for the charitable, vegetarian, anti-fur, hockey-fight-extraordinaire Georges Laraque, who hails from Montreal but is of Haitian descent. I have to say that is seems like his Web site got an Obama-style makeover. You've got to love the blue gradient.

I told the girl that most hockey stars are not American, whether black, white, yellow or brown. The Canadian Ray Emery, Russian Evgeni Malkin, Canadian Manny Fernandez and the first player of Asian descent to captain a team in the NHL, Paul Kariya, who was born in Canada, have many things in common. But there's one glaring similarity: they weren't raised in the United States.

**Don't mind if I put in another plug. Paul Kariya had a cameo in D3: The Mighty Ducks, which is all about a diverse group of youngsters who outplay the contentious and preppy varsity team that believes ducks don't belong. Plus, his Japanese father played rugby, and his mother is Scottish. The Kariyas broke boundaries left and right.

Paul Tetsuhiko Kariya

If anything, the girl could have partially blamed her lack of interest in hockey on the country's and networks' lack of support since the lockout, pushing games on to more obscure networks and giving Conan O'Brien preference over the Stanley Cup finals.

But anyone who has interest in any sport, despite his or her color or culture can find a way to follow it, even if it's not on cable television.

The same goes for playing the sport. Physical superiority only goes so far; the only thing that can stop an athlete from playing the game is his or her mind.

To the nonbelievers, I have this video for you.

Penguins on parade

Enough of this "march of the penguins" talk. I was happy to see the Penguins ride today.

The victorious Pittsburgh Penguins waved at their fans from the back of pickup trucks at the team's parade Downtown.

The parade began on Grant Street at noon and proceeded down the Boulevard of the Allies and onto Stanwix Street, where the team showed off the Stanley Cup and thanked their supporters.

For those of you who were trapped at work, out of town or want to relive the excitement, I made a slideshow from the parade. Some highlights of the parade were seeing game-seven-hero Maxime Talbot clean shaven and joking around, a few local high school bands with black and gold colors, Marc-Andre Fleury next to Sidney Crosby and the Stanley Cup and, of course, Vladimir and Natalia Malkin. Unfortunately, I wasn't close enough to see Evgeni Malkin holding the Conn Smythe Trophy dressed up in a penguin (not Penguins) hat.

And here's a video of the MVP himself, Malkin. The crowd chants his nickname, Geno, as rides with the Conn Smythe Trophy.



Hopefully, we'll get to see the Penguins ride again soon.

City of Champions

The morning after the "next generation" of Pittsburgh Penguins hoisted the Lord Stanley's cup above their heads, the Strip District was ready to honor the city's newest set of champions.


Saturday mornings at the Strip District are usually busy, but yesterday's crowd seemed a little different than usual. Vendors took the taunting shirts off the tables and made room for official Stanley Cup champions shirts and unofficial "City of Champions" shirts. People gave equal time to chat about Maxime Talbot, the scorer of the only two goals in the final game, as they did to the most valuable player of the playoffs - and possibly the season - Evgeni Malkin. Talbot got his number (and age) drawn on a black and gold cookie, which enjoy plate time next to the youngest captain to win the Stanley Cup, Sidney Crosby, 21.



Some vendors ran out of Marc-Andre Fleury shirts and smaller shirt sizes less than 12 hours after the final buzzer sounded in Detroit. Patrons interrogated vendors about when the locker room shirts, hats and other merchandise would be coming off the trucks.

It was how I envisioned the Pittsburgh in the early '90s after the Penguins won back-to-back championships: happy, buslting and confident in their teams. Plus, people were buying newspapers!

It was a great day to be a Pittsburgher, and Monday will be too. Check back for lots of pictures from the victory parade Downtown.

Saving the rainforest with orange juice

Ahh. That's the refreshing sound after drinking a refreshing drink of sweet Tropicana orange juice. That delicious, healthy goodness is not only good for you, but it can be good for the earth too.

I saved 200 square feet of rainforest today, and I've saved 700 square feet of rainforest so far with Tropicana.

Tropicana's campaign in conjunction with Cool Earth tries to combat these negative effects by rewarding people who purchase their juice, no matter what the size. Even the 12 oz. bottle offers the lush land some peace.

By saving rainforests in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, Tropicana preserves the trees necessary for turning CO2 into oxygen. Tropical rainforests shelter more than half of the world's population of plants, animals and insects. Aside from the taking away habitats and trees that filter the air, the act of deforestation also sends great clouds of CO2 into the air.

Purchasing the product isn't enough though. This is what separates the people who really care from the casual consumer. While many companies will donate a few cents to charities just for purchases, Tropicana requires people to sign up and enter 11-digit offer codes.

I think I know what you're thinking. Here's the answer: Tropicana will NOT spam your inbox with offers.

Keeping codes and entering them online is a leap, especially for people who won't take the time to sort out recyclables. However, it's worthwhile because Tropicana donates more funds to take land away from loggers than other companies give to charities.

Take Starbucks for instance. If you sign up for a Starbucks (Red) card and remember to bring it, Starbucks will donate $.05 per purchase to the Global Fund to give medicine to people in Africa. That's great, but $.05 is insignificant considering that most drinks at Starbucks cost $4.

If a person buys a drink from Starbucks every day for one year, he will contribute $18.25. Though I believe it's good to take a little money away from a wealthy corporate chain to benefit the needy, this is no incentive to go to Starbucks more than usual, especially since it takes 53 gallons of water to make one latte. Read here.

Next time you go to the grocery store or to 7-11 for a cool refreshment, consider purchasing Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. And remember to hold on to the bottle cap or code until you get the chance to go online. Your email, Facebook and favorite blog will be there but that spot of rainforest that you could have saved might not.

Check out the Tropicana rainforest Web site.

Couples looking alike: The Sarkozy case

Though opposites attract, there's evidence that people tend to choose long-term partners with qualities that match theirs. These similarities sometimes translate into physical features. For example, men and women who have more testosterone in their bodies exhibit more masculine physical qualities (have larger muscles, pronounced chins and high foreheads). Here's a story that explains the biological reasons behind the whimsy.

While some couples start off looking like each other...

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in 2001

others tend to look more alike as they grow older...



Because of the similar-physical-features-similar-personality-traits complex, couples that look like each other tend to last longer -- ignoring the Spears-Timberlake example, of course.

Now, is it improper for me to point out that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have kindred qualities? They are both tall, slender, intelligent individuals who know how to command a crowd. With their winning smiles, President Obama and his wife might be the most similar looking first family; though they have stiff competition.

First Lady Martha Washington and President George Washington

When the Obamas met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cara Bruni earlier this month, the Associated Press captured a revealing moment for Sarkozy. The president, who has been divorced twice, might not look like his singer and former model wife, but that doesn't mean that he's not trying. ;)

(Notice Sarkozy's feet )
Palais Rohan in Strasbourg, France, Friday, April 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)