Former senator from Penn Hills (when it suited him at least) Rick Santorum is slated to begin his bid for the Republican nomination June 6, from a local coal field.

While I don’t expect the campaign to last, seeing as he has been in the low single-digits in most recent Republican polls (but if your name isn’t out there, you don’t get the FOX news contracts after the race), it will certainly be shameful to once again watch this man in the national media.

Miley Cyrus, of all people blasted Santorum and Urban Outfitter’s support of his campaign.  Now this will be a dumb question, but wasn’t there some Pittsburgh/Miley Cyrus connection a year or so ago?  Someone marrying a Penguin player?  Or am I totally mixing things up in my head?

I’ve posted before about an awesome local blog called 101 Achievements, but I need to post this one as well, seeing as I busted out laughing:

And then Michael decided we would play a game called 'baby Jessica stuck in the well.' Except that baby Jessica's well wasn't freaking HAUNTED.

Love it.  Check out the blog for more Pittsburgh awesomeness.

Fleeting Pages is a pop-up indy book store.  It opened yesterday in the former Borders in East Liberty (a short walk from the Busway), the idea behind the project is to take a former big-box book store, and create, for a month, a place where independently published books, magazine and works of art can flourish.

Their calendar is quickly filling up with free workshops and open mic nights, and it’s staffed by a slew of volunteers.

I’m really sad that this isn’t happening in November, this would be an awesome place to have NaNoWriMo write-ins, but I’ll be sure to go visit before their lease is up.  I’ll post some pictures from my trip, I just need to find the time.

Find out more information about Fleeting Pages here.

Cool article from Slog about an actual conversation from a bus operator (original emphasis left intact):

“I hope you have the best day you can possibly imagine, and I hope you can’t possibly imagine the limits of your imagination. The fare is $2.50.”

I certainly have a couple operators I can imagine saying the same thing.

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!

Some more beer related news for you: you can become a capitol-investor of East End Brewing!  East End is raising money to move to a much larger space (still not that accessible from the East Busway, sadly), and is offering a new program which basically lets you pre-order your beer.  However, you also get VIP passes, exclusive invites to events, tours and a t-shirt.  Pretty awesome!

I love East End’s beer, and if I had the money, I would certainly do it, but sadly, it is just not going to happen right now.  If you want more information about it, check it out here.

East End has also teamed up with local app creator, Levlr, and now has a mobile site (through Beerby) that allows you to quickly find the hours and beers on tap at each location.  Check that out here.