ALPHABETICAL "MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH"

Lynne Kiesling

I am finding unknown literary treasures in my perusals of web sources related to Pittsburgh, including this A-Z essay entitled "My Mysteries of Pittsburgh" from Stuart O'Nan, a writer. For example, under I:

For Isaly's, an ice cream company with a chain of neighborhood restaurants with soda fountains that have pretty much disappeared. Their specialties were distinctly Pittsburgh -- chip-chopped ham and whitehouse ice cream (vanilla with maraschino cherries). They also made the Klondike which, not having evidence to the contrary, I boast was a Pittsburgh invention. They licensed other companies to sell it--or did they pay another company to sell their own version? Is my history wrong, slippery, suspect? I can't imagine my grandmother with a shotgun. In any case, if your Klondike had a pink center, you got another one for free. If it had a green center, you actually won a dollar.

If O'Nan's name rings a bell, he's the co-author with Stephen King of Faithful: Two Diehard Boston RedSox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season.

I s'pose since the RedSox are in the AL (which is not real baseball, by the way), he's allowed to like them.

Another neat work of photographic art that brings back some nostalgia is The Pittsburgh Signs Project, a series of photographs of signs from around town. Very cool.