Here's PittGirl wondering when exactly she fell in love with Pittsburgh:Is it the food? The bricks on Grant Street? The Kaufmann’s clock?
The cost of living? The fact that as long as you don’t cross a bridge
by accident and you keep the USS Tower in your sights, it’s very easy
to find your way anywhere downtown? That guy that plays the sax
outside of Saks?
Or is it the people? The real, kind, simple, hardworking, genuine people?
And here's PittGirl on her object of passion, David Conrad:
Lots of awsome photos of David Conrad's apartment n the PG over the weekend, including a picture of his bed.
[thud]
I’m sorry. I think I blacked out there for a minute. Oh, hey look, there’s a picture of David Conrad’s bed!
[thud]
And here's PittGirl...wait a minute. Where's PittGirl?! On November 18th as we check her blog for our daily dose, we discover she's...gone? After our shock reading her final post where she sadly bids farewell, we emailed PittGirl to find out more. First, her comments then the original that was scheduled to run today.
PittGirl to Pop City: I don't know what I can tell you other
than my identity has been compromised and that means shutting it (the blog) down
because of my job. It's important that I be proactive in removing all
traces of my writing from the web if there is any risk of my identity
becoming public.
Therefore, the blog was nuked this morning
after five days of deliberation on my part. It wasn't an easy
decision, but I know that it was the right decision for me. I
can't say who learned my identity because I don't want that person
being the subject of inquiries as to his/her knowledge. It's better
this way.
Pop City: Any final words?
PittGirl:
Final words would be that I'm sad with having to make the decision now, but I'm okay with the decision I made. I am addicted to writing and even this morning I'm reading things going, "Man. Here's what I would say about THAT! "Max Talbot. HAWT!'"
So I'll keep feeding my addiction, but I've got to find another way to do it. A non-anonymous way, I guess. We'll see.
Wow. Three years of writing and PittGirl's final words: "We'll see." HAH!
And then PittGirl,with her trademark wit, signs off after a sincere apology for the sheer abruptness of it all and possibly screwing up our story. Not to worry. Here's the original interview for all those who need one more dose of our PittGirl, tweaked just a bit so it's past tense in parts. sob!
--Editor
Everyone talked about PittGirl. Her daily blog entries were forwarded
around town, she was brought up (often with laughter) in dinner conversation, and her observations were bandied about the bar. Let's face it: Pittgirl (theburghblog.com which has now vanished) just got Pittsburgh. In a perfectly funny way, she talked about what she read online and in the newspaper, the routine craziness that occurs in our local government, the rabid fanaticism of the watchers of all sports (with a particular emphasis on the cuteness of the individual players, a vital fact that the males in our town overlook), the unbelievable hopefulness of Craig’s List personal ads and what was happening on any given day in the ‘Burgh. It made for addictive blog reading. (Now what do we do?)
Here's a recent exchange of emails while PittGirl was still active between Pittgirl (PG) and Admiring Blog Reader (aka me). Little did we know if would be her last word.
ABR: When you start your day, are you focusing on what you will be saying in your blog later on? You are such a keen observer of the immediate – are there some things that just take a bit longer to mull over?
PG: No. I don’t know what I’m going to say on my blog until I read the
newspaper or surf the Internet. Then I know immediately what I’m going to say because I pretty much type the thoughts as they enter my head. I rarely, rarely mull over a post. I never know what I’m going to write until my fingers actually touch the keyboard.
ABR: What motivated you to start blogging?
PG: I started my blog in the summer of 2005. It was just a spur of the moment thing because I read the newspaper every day and there was so much I wanted to say about the things I read. So I took a crack at it, made up the dumbest name ever (Pittgirl) and it stuck. I remember David Conrad was all, “So, you went to Pitt?” Um. No. I’m just an idiot that typed the first thing that came to mind when I was setting up my Blogspot account and it asked for a name.
ABR: Regular readers of your blog can guess this answer, but could you please describe your feelings about our hometown?
PG:
I love Pittsburgh. So much. I love the fact that it’s a small city
with a big city attitude. I love that I can see the same person walk
by me on the sidewalk downtown at least once a week. I love the rivers
and the seasons and the sports. I love coming out of the Fort Pitt
Tunnel and still being awed by the site of my hometown. I love that
the people are genuine and helpful and proud. Very very proud. I love
it for its faults and for its ambition to be better. I love that
somehow this city seems to get into our hearts and stays there,
regardless of where in the world our lives take us. I don’t know of
any other city that can do that.
ABR: Is it possible to share the background of some of the names you
bestow upon local celebrities?
PG: Every nickname I have ever given a celebrity has been a spur of the moment thing. The Duke of Fug and Earl of Gross (Ben Roethlisberger) came about because his own fans got angry that I called him fug and gross, and when they took to a web forum to thrash me for it, one of his minions capitalized the letters to make it Fug and Gross, and I simply wrote that they made it look like his title. As if he was the Duke of Fug and the Earl of Gross. It just stuck after that.
As for Cabbage Patch Cici Donna, that came about when a forum was posting photos of Steelers’ players and their lookalikes, and some genius person posted that Casey Hampton looks like a Cabbage Patch Doll. So I gave the baby a name: Cici Donna. It also stuck.
The Dread Lord Zober started because he was accused of calling up political adversaries and saying “You will be destroyed.” That’s just funny.
ABR: Do you feel as if you have to get out and about more in town because of your blog?
PG: I do not go to events because I want to write about them. I don’t feel the need to as much as the desire to. For instance, the roller derby. I kept hearing so many wonderful things and several of the derby girls are readers, and it just felt right to go and check out what they’re all about. I’m glad I did. Outside of things like that, no, I don’t make plans to do things that I wouldn’t normally do as me.
My life hasn’t changed, nor have my social habits, as a result of writing my blog.
ABR: Obviously, you are a big sports fan (even roller derby)! Would you consider yourself a fanatic about all sports in general or just Pittsburgh sports in particular?
PG: I’ll catch a golf game occasionally. I love Mexican soccer. I love to watch tennis and I worship at the altar of the Olympics, but outside of that, I’m all Pittsburgh sports. There is no other football team I trash, and no other hockey team I give a darn about.
ABR: If the Steelers and the Penguins were on TV at the same exact time, and you had to choose which game to watch, which would it be and why? (if your answer is hockey, is it because the players are cuter?)
PG: I would watch the Steelers. There are only 17 games to their season while I have lots of chances to watch the Penguins play. As for cuteness, the cuteness of Troy Polamalu basically erases the ugliness of the rest of the team. The same can be said for Sidney Crosby.
ABR: Finally, Pittgirl is a great blogging success. Do you have any plans or goals to expand your hilarious take on the world around you via the Internet or other writing endeavors?
PG: I have always written, since I was about 11 years old, and I’ll always write. Ideally, yes, I would like to write for a living at some point, whether that is through a blog, more mainstream media or perhaps screenwriting, remains to be seen. I’m just going to keep plugging away until I figure it all out and hope that I figure it out while I still have my WIT about me.
To read a tribute to PittGirl from another anonymous blogger, click
here.
To receive Pop City weekly, click
here.
This is
Virginia Robertson's first article for Pop City. She was a huge fan of PittGirl and is officially in mourning.
Photographs copyright Brian Cohen