Welcome to (empty) Pittsburgh

Did anyone see the movie "On the Beach"? It was about the aftermath of a nuclear war and the world is pretty much destroyed, except for Melbourne, Australia, which is where the captain and crew of a U.S. nuclear submarine end up.

That scene of eerie, empty streets was what Pittsburgh looked like this morning. Pretty much anybody who was sensible stayed away. Not being known for sensible behavior, I drove into work as usual with hardly any traffic on Route 65 and found the Point Park parking lot looking like it was Sunday. Weird.

Is this the lull before the storm or the lull before the lull?

To break the monotony, a report came in saying that Greenpeace had erected a massive banner on the West End Bridge to protest climate change.

The banner put up outside the Hilton Hotel - Pittsburgh Welcomes the World! - is surely not as interesting. The Hilton banner, which was the subject of furious PG editorials for the hotel to pay its bills and get the thing up, has been erected and looks ... cheesy.

That's my opinion anyway. The best that can be said for it is that it looks cheesy in a Euro sort of way, so I suppose it will serve the purpose.

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Big Cheeses of the World, this is our cheesy greeting.