The Burgh's Birthday

November 24, 2008 10:41 PM

Pittsburgh celebrates its 250th birthday today (warning: audio). It's too late to see the Festival of Lights, but Fort Pitt Museum has a full day of activities scheduled (and cake!). Historic Pittsburgh offers texts, maps, and 10,000+ photographs of the city and its people.
posted by Knappster (18 comments total)

Cool, it's been about twenty-five years since I last saw the city of my birth, and I still miss seeing fireworks reflected off the river(s).

I just saw the slightly clumsy semiquincentennial used to describe it in print, and I'm wondering if quadramillenial would work instead.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:53 PM on November 24, 2008

If you missed Pittsburgh's Diwali festival, but still plan a visit in person, then this link needs visited. By you.

(for 250 years, I prefer sesquiheximillenial)
posted by kurumi at 11:12 PM on November 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

You Yinz can't keep an Iron Arn City down! Happy birthday, PGH!
posted by not_on_display at 4:50 AM on November 25, 2008

i'm a thousand miles away--i've gone from being a yinzer to a yat--but i da burgh. it's the first city i ever went to, i saw some great music there (anyone else miss the stanley theater & the syria mosque?), used to love going to the zoo. great city, great people. happy b-day!
posted by msconduct at 5:16 AM on November 25, 2008

Happy birthday, PGH.
posted by fixedgear at 6:42 AM on November 25, 2008

If you're going to Piiiiiiiiittttsburgh
Be sure to wear lots of um, black and gold?, in your hair.
If you're going to Piiiiiiiiiitttsburgh
You're gonna meet some lovely people there.

Happy Birthday, place where I grew up.

(And if you are going to Pittsburgh in the next couple months, be sure to check out the Carnegie International.)
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:01 AM on November 25, 2008

Happy Birthday to the home of both Kennywood and the Terrible Towel. Yoi!
posted by Spatch at 7:52 AM on November 25, 2008

Yay and we're going to celebrate by having a crippling transit strike! It's going to be so much fun.
posted by octothorpe at 7:59 AM on November 25, 2008

The cake? Yeah, you know what the cake is.
posted by rusty at 9:01 AM on November 25, 2008

I did my undergrad in Pittsburgh and recently moved away for grad school, and I miss it more than I ever thought I would. I feel like for people who have never been there for any length of time, Pittsburgh is seen as a sad, gray city or the butt of some joke, but I think that most people who have lived there can agree that it has its own sort of charm and that there's plenty going on in Pittsburgh to be proud of. Happy Birthday, Pittsburgh! *sniff, sniff*

Um, I mean... Go Stillerz!
posted by rebel_rebel at 10:28 AM on November 25, 2008

It's Nineteen Eighty-Five ... Pittsburgh's Number Oooooooone

Oh Pittsburgh. A beautiful city with an inferiority complex that rivals that of most Middle-Eastern countries.
posted by xthlc at 12:18 PM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

yay pittsburgh! i'm going there tomorrow.


posted by Shike at 2:23 PM on November 25, 2008

The cake? Yeah, you know what the cake is.
posted by rusty

A pierogi?
posted by msali at 2:35 PM on November 25, 2008

home of both Kennywood and the Terrible Towel.

and Clemente (warning: sound) and Chicken on the Hill with Will, and Bradshaw and Franco and Lambert, the Liberty Tubes, Dawn of the Dead, Joe Grushecky, the Gateway Clipper, the Incline, the zoo, Forbes Field, the original Bridge to Nowhere, and the incomparable Steeler Baby. Sure do miss it.

If I may be permitted a self-link. Double-yoi!
posted by stargell at 2:44 PM on November 25, 2008

Happy birthday, Pittsburgh!
posted by box at 4:25 PM on November 25, 2008

Have fun, yinz guys!
posted by amicamentis at 5:01 PM on November 25, 2008

The cake? Yeah, you know what the cake is.
posted by rusty

A pierogi?
posted by msali

With fries in the middle, Primanti-style.
posted by amicamentis at 5:05 PM on November 25, 2008

Also, this is as good a place as any to link to the majesty that is The Great Pierogie Race N'at.

While Primanti's is nice, I quite nearly found religion the first time I bit into a Southside Slopes¹ at Fatheads.

[1] (grilled kielbasa and pierogies with cheese, onion and horseradish on a roll <3>
posted by xthlc at 9:52 PM on November 25, 2008