Today’s sports news brings both happiness and sorrow, although chances are you’ve already heard both items by now.

First, go outside right now, head to Oakland and burn a couch, the Pirates are over .500!  As of this writing, the game being played now has no score, so we can still celebrate this fleeting whiff of mediocrity!

Second, sadly, the Cotton Candy Man has passed away.  Ken Geidel, who also sold Lemonade at Pirates Games, was a Pittsburgh staple.  And, in a very classy move, the Penguins put up a news story about it.  How many cities professional sports teams care like that?  Read the Pen’s article here, and go to WTAE’s coverage here, which includes two videos of Geidel in action.

The Rachel Maddow show visited Pittsburgh for the NRA convention.  She had this to say:

The NRA held its convention this year in Pittsburgh, a city that is way more beautiful than it gets credit for.  Pittsburgh also has way worse traffic than it gets credit for with 70,000 extra people in town for the NRA who would not otherwise be there.

She then took a ride with City Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess as they discuss the gun violence in Homewood.  You can watch the video here.

What I love, is watching them leave downtown and head past the Strip District and then turn onto the East Busway.  Government cars, as well as emergency vehicles use the busway all the time, although it was a little strange to watch, I’m used to being higher up on the back seats of the bus, it was fun to watch him pass the stops that I’ve become so familiar with.

Some kind of accident at Liberty and Seventh.  Buses are running late, lots of emergency vehicles and flashing lights.  Stay away if you can.

It’s been a very long two weeks, with no end in sight, but that’s okay, I guess, I don’t really need the sleep.  Anyway, yesterday, I was working a golf fundraiser for work.  Now, my experience with golf is in the miniature fashion.  I don’t really understand real golf.  But in the two years I’ve worked this event, here’s what I’ve learned:

• Apparently, sometimes (but not for our event), you can buy mulligans.  That seems strange to me that you can buy a better score.
• Some people do wear funny plaids.  Most don’t.
• More people need to wear funny plaids.  And big berets.
• There are some really awesome golf club covers and umbrellas.
• Hot dogs injected with cheese and jalapenos are awesome!
• Golf courses aren’t designed to soak up as much rain as we’ve been getting lately.
• Golf course managers are very good at reading radar maps and keeping everyone safe (thanks!)

I still don’t know what club you use for what, or really how the game works, but when it wasn’t pouring or threatening us with lightning bolts, it was a fun day, I even got some work done outside between rounds.

Also, the staff at Cedar Brook are amazing, and the food was excellent, if you’re down near Route 70 and 51 (and throw 981 in there as well), stop in, it’s worth a trip!

Yesterday was the last day of Anthro Con, so the furries have come and went, once again, leaving us all wondering.  For some fun speculation, check out Franktuary’s blog.  Could it be that our Commander in Chief is a furry?  Frank Discussion is on the case!

I found some pictures, check them out:

Holy crap!

More after the jump

Why do they all dress as the same animal?  Maybe you can get fox/dog things at a discount?

She’s totally working it!

See more pictures from the Parade here.

And of course, no coverage of Anthro Con would be complete without this brilliant piece from xkcd:

Winter beers and a santa hat on the delirium elephant.  Who could ask for anything more?

People of Public Transportation is one of my favorite blogs.  They recently released some statistics, and Pittsburgh shows up as having the second worst fashion.  But hey, at least we didn’t end up on one of the funniest categories: Cities where people refuse to use U-Haul.

Check out the list of “awards” here.

You’ve probably heard about this story already.  And no, I’m not talking about the next Batman movie, although I will be discussing that later this week.  McDain’s in Monroeville has banned children under six from coming to their restaurant.

It’s been really funny watching my Facebook feed (I don’t have enough friends yet on Google+) explode with reactions to this.  Some praise it, others want to storm McDain’s with torches and pitchforks.  And as you can imagine, the reactions are drawn along lines of those with and without children.

For the sake of argument, here’s my reaction.  When I was younger, my parent’s were considerate (not to say that they aren’t now, because they are, but they were then as well).  If we could not behave in a mature enough fashion for a venue they wanted to go to, they either got a sitter and went out, just the two of them, or we didn’t go.

Now, if we went to a place like Chuck E. Cheese or the Ground Round, where you expect to have a “family” atmosphere, and, especially those two, entertainment geared towards children, that is another story.  Chances are, all the kids in the restaurant aren’t mature enough to go to nicer restaurants: that’s why we were where we were.

So, I guess I agree with McDain’s.  And here’s a radical idea.  If you’re not happy with their decision, don’t go there.  You don’t have to storm the place and riot.  You aren’t losing your rights as a person.  For goodness sake, it’s a restaurant at a driving range…in Monroeville.  There are plenty of other options you can go to.  Heck, walk across the street and get an MTO.  I highly recommend the mint chocolate smoothie thing.

Head on down to the Cultural District for tonight’s gallery crawl: Cosmopolitan Pittsburgh.  Afterward, starting at 9 at the Bally’s Building is the part, including live entertainment, dancing and drinks.

I have a friend who is down there as we speak, and his Facebook updates have been pretty awesome, so head on down to Liberty Ave and collect your passport stamps as you see some awesome art!

I’m at the waterfront to see Harry Potter, and Barnes and Noble has a special cafe pairing for each house.  Pictured here, is the Hufflepuff, my house.  Although the Ravenclaw sounded good too!