Did anyone else get a text this morning (from a 412 number) about free food at McDonalds in celebration of the death of Osama?

Was this a wide ranging thing, or am I just part of a special spammed group?

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?

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!

A crew testing a new Boeing plane flew from Seattle to Pittsburgh…to get Primanti’s.  Not that I blame them, of course.

Shank told the paper: “Everybody loved it. They were all like, ‘Who would have thought to put fries and cole slaw on a sandwich?’ It was comfort food for me, something that reminded me of home.”

The test director is from the Ligonier area, but didn’t get coleslaw on his sandwich.  Sacrilege!

The county government is considering selling naming rights, advertising space and sponsorship rights (whatever that means) to bridges.

The plan also allows for the same type of naming rights at the county parks and the airport.

Bridges already named for famous citizens (such as the three sisters bridges of Clemente, Carson and Warhol) are “unlikely” to be renamed.  The “unlikely” part has me worried.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’d probably look at whatever banner is above the bridge I’m going over, we already see them for community and ethnic festivals.  And hanging them off the sides (hopefully better than the protesters did at G20), wouldn’t be too bad.  But renaming bridges I don’t think will work.

It’s been, what, nine years since the Homestead High-Level bridge was renamed.  And even though I love that it was named for the Grays, we all know that ‘Burghers give directions by what used to be there, not what currently resides in any location.

I doubt we’ll be calling the West End Bridge anything other that just that, at least anytime soon.  Just ask Star Lake.

If you turn into KDKA (and probably the other news stations as well), you’ll be seeing shots of Fifth Avenue Place which comes from Ken Rice (@kenricekdka):