Pittsburgh, PA Sweden's FF thread!

As if the history teacher could ignore a question like that . . .

Pittsburgh has been around for a fairly long time, at least by American standards. The original inhabitants were Shawnee and Delaware Indians. Then in the 1600's along came the French and the British. Located at the juncture of three Rivers (the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio)it was an ideal location for a Fort.

During the French and Indian war (I believe Europeans refer to it as the Seven Years War) the French built Fort Duquesne. Eventually, the British drove out the French and built Fort Pitt (named in honor of William Pitt).

For a long time, Pittsburgh was called "The Gateway to the West" because it was one of the western most cities and many people traveled down the Ohio to the Mississippi. Of course, if you look at a map you will realize how long ago this was, since we are now considered part of the Eastern USA.

In the early 1900's, Andrew Carnegie (an immigrant from Scotland) helped make Pittsburgh one of the main steel producing cities in the US. When the steel industry died in the 1970's, the medical and technical industries began to thrive. Carnegie Mellon University is one of the top robotic innovators in the world.

A nice little tourist info link

Some 'weird' customs . . .

Lenten Fish Frys. Pittsburgh has a very large Catholic population, so during Lent just about every Catholic church and, for an unknown reason, most of the volunteer fire fighter companies have fish frys every Wendesday and Friday. Even non-Catholics go to these for fried fish sandwiches, cole slaw and french fries.

Cookie Tables. At a Pittsburgh wedding it is an important tradition to have a cookie table. A large table covered with dozens of different kinds of cookies, from ordinary chocolate chip to very fancy cookies. Traditionally, the women of the families would spend the weeks up to the wedding making all the cookies. A way to show off their skills at baking.

Zombies. Some of the best zombie movies ever made (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead) were made right here in Pittsburgh.

The accent. Sal mentioned it, but I'd add there is some Southern twang to it also.

Dinosaurs. The Carnegie Musuem had some of the first dinosaur fossils exhibited in the US. The museum is currently redoing the dinosaur hall to include a second T-Rex. Outside the museum is a full sized statue of Dippy the Diplodicus.

Biggest Small Town in America. We are a middle sized city, but most of the folks act like small town (which can be both good and bad).

The roads. In most places, if you make three right turns you will end up back where you started. This is not true in Pittsburgh. Unlike most cities that are laid out on a square shaped grid, we are laid out along a triangle. Add to that few street signs and many one way streets. My theory on the confusing streets are they were created by people who believe if you don't know how to get there you don't belong there. Keeps out invading armies. It also gives the special experience of being able to actually see where you want to be, but be completely unable to get there.

 

Nice job, Greencat!

I am not native to this area. I grew up about 90 miles from where I live now, which is about 45 miles north of Pittsburgh. Yes, there is an accent. It's amazing how much different it is for a relatively short distance. I myself have a twinge of the greater Cleveland-Akron accent.

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. They have arguably the nicest baseball park in the country. I've been to a few games, and even though baseball is not my cup of tea, it is a great experience because the ball park is so beautiful. You can see the river and skyline from inside the park.

Greencat is right about getting lost, though. With three rivers to build roads around and bridges on, it is very frustrating trying to get around there. One wrong move, and you're totally screwed!

Namarie,

 

Found this at theonering.net. Thought I'd pass it along.


New Swedish FOTR Book Coming Soon
7/02/04, 11:43 am EST - Xoanon

Mel writes: The first part of the new Swedish translation of Lord of the Rings is done. Erik Andersson, the translator, has worked for two years on this first part and many of the old names are gone and have been substituted with new names, more fittingly translated. The new Swedish title of Lord of the Rings -The Fellowship of the Ring will be "Ringarnas herre - ringens brödraskap" and will be out this autumn.


Namarie,

 

Oooh I really like the sound of those cookie tables... hmmm... I wonder if I can implement that when (if) I ever get married...

Well, the thing with cities laid out in those square grids is actually not so common here in Sweden... mainly since many of the cities here are old and have been growing slowly for hundreds of years. I live in one of the oldest cities, Uppsala, that has been around for like a thousand years or so. We have streets going all kinds of directions...

American accents... well, I'm sorry, but I'm not really into those. I don't know much of them, I have no idea about the difference between the accent in, say, New York and, say, Los Angeles. But I know a lot about different swedish accents..

Yep, they're doing a new translation of the Lord of the Rings here, which is great, for the old one is HORRIBLE. It's sloppy and with lots of errors, even the title is stupid. The translator decided to call the first part "Sagan om ringen" which means "the saga about the Ring", and nothing about the fellowship... blah. It'll be fun to read the new translation, though, even if I don't think it'll be better than the English original.

 

How commonly is English spoken there?

 

In Sweden? Well, we don't exactly use it in every-day conversation, but almost everyone here is able to speak and understand English... except some older people who went to school a long time ago when German was considered a more imortant language to learn

We don't dub movies and stuff, so you hear a lot of English every day, on tv, songs on the radio, etc. Most people understand it better than they speak it.

 

I think that's true of any second language.

 

Merry Christmas, hope eveyone has a nice Holiday.

 

Merry Christmas to you as well. Yikes, how many pages back did you have to go through to dig this up?

So nice to here from our fellow fans across the ocean.

Happy New Year too!

 

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

 

Merry christmas

 

Merry Christmas! (I just had my Christmas with my aunt and uncle i never see and my other aunt and uncle) and happy New Year!! i can not WAIT for 2005!!!! (particularly the April and May months then July and November!) I hope you all have had a wonderful year, and it all goes well in 2005!