Author: Bob Benz

My brother Jeff came to vist last week, en route to the NASCAR race a Bristol. NASCAR was a sport we never thought about growing up. Not sure where he got this addiction, but it definitely has hit him. He had a buddy with him, a shaggy guy named Joe, complete with a Jeff Gordon T-shirt. Joe’s favorite epithet is “jagoff,” one of the pillars of Pittsburghese, a language all its own. Joe’s use of jagoff is so persistent that when he calls the house, my niece announces: “Jagoff Joe’s on the phone!” Listening to the two of them jabber in Pittsburghese and swill Coors Light brought back a lot of Burgh memories. If only we could have had Iron City instead of Coors …

Found a cool site that features a bunch of movie vignettes with an elevator theme. “Take the Stares” is pretty creepy. This is a neat use of video on the web. Short, sharp and very well designed. It all sticks to the elevator theme …

One of my favorite pages of the newspaper is the letters to the editor. It’s a fascinating, sometimes frightening, look into the soul of the unwashed masses. A letter writer in this morning’s paper had a great idea for how to solve all of California’s fiscal woes. (It’s the third letter on the page.)

Go ahead, California. Be like Tennessee. If you dare.