Ok, I know the Penguins are playing for the Stanley Cup right now and it still counts as hockey season but… Warner Home Video just released a new Steelers DVD that you probably will be interested in.  It came out Tuesday and I think we’re all pretty good at multi-tasking so we can root for the Penguins and take a very nice look back at the Steelers’ run to the Super Bowl.

So why this DVD?  This one contains 4 games..the entire game.  So you get a very important Week #15 game against Baltimore.  You get both playoff games (San Diego & Baltimore) plus Super Bowl 43.  These are the entire broadcast games, not just highlights.  I just re-watched the Super Bowl and I got goosebumps watching the James Harrison interception, and the Santonio Holmes catch in the end zone to win it.  It was probably the best game in Steelers history, and easily a top 3 Super Bowl.

The folks at Warner Home Video were nice enough to send us a couple extra copies of the DVD as well and we’re giving them away to our Facebook friends for the next 3 Fridays.  If you like a chance to win one, click on over to our Facebook page to find out how.  – Dave R

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dave-Dave/43175520702?created#

So on a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon, we drove up Route 65 into Beaver County to visit the original Hank’s Frozen Custard in New Brighton.  There are a few differences between the two locations.  This location uses a newer machine to make the frozen custard, and you can’t really taste the difference.  But the big difference comes on the menu.  The location in Conneaut Lake pretty much sticks to just frozen custard.  In New Brighton, they have lots of food to choose from, including a substantial selection of Mexican food.  Yes, Mexican food.  Seems strange but they’ve been doing it for decades and it seems to work just fine.

My favorite touch is the original sign which is two paint brushes with the pallete of paint.  No, they don’t sell paint supplies.  The “paint” is supposed to represent the different flavors of frozen custard they offer.  Oh, that makes sense now.  You can see the new machine is a little more user friendly than the older machines.  Jeff Kohlmann is the owner now and bought it from the family that started the business way back in 1947.  We had some Black Raspberry Cheesecake (with real cheesecake pieces) and it was really good.  Big thanks to our Twitter friend Bree Ramsey who brought us a box of Oram’s donuts.  My daughter Delaney is now hooked and I will now probably be driving to Beaver county to procure these delicacies for her.  You know, we really have to roadtrip to Beaver County more often! – Dave R

Here’s a short video of our trip to Hank’s Frozen Custard in Conneaut Lake. Scroll down for a couple more blog posts about Hanks. – Dave R

Ok, so I wore a Browns jersey on our trip to Hank’s Frozen custard.  Does that make me a bad guy?  Can’t a guy embrace his enemies, even if they stink like the Browns.  Dave H doesn’t think so. – Dave R

It was a beatiful sunny day as we wound our way up I79 to Conneaut Lake.  Why Conneaut?  For frozen custard of course.  Hanks’s has been churning out this delicacy since 1952 (not 1951 like Dave H would have you believe!).   So what is frozen custard?  Well, it is a lot like ice cream except it has a higher content of butterfat and egg yolk which makes it thicker and creamier…and healthier right?  It has eggs, those are healthy!

Ryan Hild is now the owner – the 3rd generation to run Hank’s.  If you go up, you’ll probably meet his mother Linda who works there quite often and they have a special flavor for every day of the week, in addition to the usual vanilla and chocolate.  The day we were there, they were featuring a special flavor called “Cake Batter.”  Cake batter?!?  Yeah, that’s what we said.  Well, let me tell you, it tasted like yellow cake batter, but better.  In fact, it was awesome.  Now in case you were wondering, there is another Hank’s Frozen Custard in New Brighton, Beaver County.  They are related, but not really, and we’ll explain that in our new show, Eat Pennsylvania 2: The Second Course.  It’s our new statewide show that will be premiering on PBS TV sets across the commonwealth in the fall of 2009.  Stay tuned to our website for more info and stay custardly Pittsburgh!  – Dave R

For more info about Hank’s Frozen Custard – visit their very handy website at http://www.hanksfrozencustard.com/

Hi, it’s Dave H. and I just want to reach out to one special viewer, the sister of Renee Knippling Coon who lives in the Pittsburgh area and watches our show.

Renee tells me you don’t believe we went to Seton-LaSalle High School together?

We did!

Please join us on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dave-Dave/43175520702

So now that it’s April and we have taken over WQED’s Neighborhood channel this month, you may be visiting our website and our blog for the very first time.  If so, welcome, take your coat off, put your zebra-striped snuggie on and stay awhile.

First off, since 4 of our 1 hour specials are airing during April, the first thing you should know is you can find links, web-exclusive video clips, and photos for each show by clicking on the SHOWS tab from the left side of the page.  There are some fun clips that we couldn’t fit into the show so check them out.

Next up, we have over 40 videos on demand on our “video Ipod” and you can get to that by clicking the VIDEO button.  There are a number of videos that never made a Saturday-night show, so scroll through the list for some fun stuff from the archives.

And for our last two shows, Strange Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh N’at, we have lots of behind-the-scenes posts in this blog.  Look on the right side of the screen under ‘categories’ to find a show, or just keep scrolling through to see all of our ramblings.

If you’ve ever wondering when something was going to air, or when we will be out and about in the area, just bookmark our main page because we always have our schedule listed.

For more twisted information, click on the DOSSIER and you’ll be able to learn fascinating tidbits like what 3 things are in my fridge and what Dave H’s favorite color is. 

And for twisted bits of wisdom, check out our cameraman Frank’s words of wisdom on the left side of each page.  It’s called Frank’s Corner.

So enjoy and as always, if you have any questions, comments, or facts about Guam, let us know by clicking on the CONTACT button or by visiting us on Facebook or Twitter. 

You may now return your tray tables to their upright position.  – Dave R

So this is the end of March Blogness, but please, don’t be so sad.  Actually, writing 10 posts in 10 days was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I now have a new appreciation for the folks who do this everyday.  Thank god I didn’t go with my original idea of 30 in 30 or I’d be in the loony bin.  So for this last post, I’ve been struggling to come up with something to write about.  Do I write it like a season finale and end with a cliff hanger?  Do I just write something and stop in the middle with a cut to black like the last episode of the Sopranos?  Can I get the rights to use a Journey song?  Oh nevermind.

Well, I didn’t want to end like it this but, there is one thing going on right now that is pretty important.  Governor Ed Rendell has decided to zero out funding for Pennsylvania PBS stations in his new budget proposal.  Not cut funding – ELIMINATE IT.  So that may not seem like a big deal but if it happens, that means WQED will lose $1.1 million dollars.  Let me tell you, $1.1 million dollars is a HUGE deal.  Think about your home budget and then subtract $1.1 million dollars.  How do you make that up?  Take a guess.  If this goes through, there will be some big changes coming to this building, and one of them will probably be the end of our show.

If it wasn’t for state funding, we would not have produced our 3 statewide specials Eat Pennsylvania, Offbeat Museums, and Strange Pennsylvania.  State funding is a huge factor in making OnQ possible and if OnQ isn’t around, neither is Dave & Dave.

So I know the economy is in the dumps right now and everyone needs to make cuts, but is this really the place to do it?  You know how much it costs you in taxes to keep QED around?  Take a guess.  It costs you 10 cents.  10 cents for crying out loud!  And at least you can turn on your TV anytime you want and see where your 10 cents is going.  Good luck seeing where else your state tax dollars are going.

So I didn’t want to end this all doom and gloom but there is something you can do about it and it’s very easy.  The final budget won’t be passed for a few months so until then, drop a quick e-mail to the governor and say you want funding to remain for WQED and the other PBS stations around the commonwealth.  Let your voice be heard.  Here’s his address governor@state.pa.us.  If you know the emails of any of your state senators or congressmen, drop them an email as well.  If you’re like me and you’re not sure who your representative is, click here and find out -http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/find.cfm.  I’ve worked at QED for over 15 years now, and it seems like we have to go through this every couple years.  Some bureaucrat decides he doesn’t like something he saw on our channel so he tries to send a message by cutting our funding.  But I believe (and since I work inside here I know for a fact) that public television is one of the best values you can get for your tax dollars.  I won’t go on and on about why PBS is so great, but if you like our little show, help us out and let the state government know.

Thanks, and hopefully next March we’ll be around to figure out how to fill out 10 more blog posts in 10 days.

No big TV stars with the same first name of a locally produced show were harmed in any way during the writing of this blog.  Well, there is a little carpal-tunnel thing going on, but its not too bad.  – Dave R

Welcome back to the latest game show craze overtaking the country – Who want to be a Millionaire and a 5^th Grader?!   That’s the working title for now.  Before we get to today’s questions, let me first give a plug for the book that I’m stealing all these questions.  The book is called Ultimate Pittsburgh Trivia by Dane Topich and it is awesome.  We actually used questions from the book when we did our “Is Pittsburgh Smarter than a 5^th Grader?” show.  And, if you wanted a copy of this book for your very own, we just happen to offer it on the WQED website.  How’s that for cross-promotion baby!?!  Click here to check it out – http://www.wqed.org/genl/shop/pgh_books.shtml

Ok, time to get on with the show.  Here are 5 more questions to test your knowledge of Da Burgh.

1.  What does WPIAL stand for?

Answer:  You know I’ve seen these initials all my life and never even thought about it.  I actually guessed at this one but I was wrong.  The answer is not “women playing in a lake” or “worldly people in atrocious leggings.”  The real answer actually is Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League.  Yeah, that makes sense.  It was formed in 1906. 

2.  Why are all the fire hydrants within the city of Pittsburgh painted either red, yellow or green?

Answer:  I never noticed this before so I decided to ask my dog Jake since he pays closer attention to fire hydrants than I do.  He knew the answer but I couldn’t understand what he was saying.  The colors indicate the size of the main waterlines that feed the hydrants.  That way, firefighters know instantly how much water pressure is at a particular hydrant.  For example, green indicates a 24-inch line.  How about that?  My dog was right.

3.  In what year did Pittsburgh have its highest population?

Answer:  We are constantly bombarded by the media telling us how much our city is shrinking and how everyone is moving away.  On the positive side, the lines at the Penn Brewery are a lot shorter now.  Pittsburgh was most populated in 1950.  There were 676,806 people who lived here back then.  In 2000, that number was down to 369, 879.  By now it’s probably like 26.

4.  How many stories tall is Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning?

Answer:  Before we get to the answer, construction of the building began in September of 1926 and wasn’t finished until 1937.  Apparently, Frank Lloyd Wright thought the building was hideous, but who’s he?  One other thing, the building is missing a floor.  Apparently it has no 39^th floor.  Man, it would be fun to tell some freshmen on their first day of class that their classroom in on the 39^th floor.  Anyhoo, the answer is 42 stories tall.  That’s a lot of stories.  Here’s another fact about the Cathedral – I haven’t been to any of those stories and I work about 3 blocks away.  I really have to get out more!

5.  Which university has the largest endowment?

Answer:  Ok, the question should be who had the largest endowment in 2004, because I’m sure with the economy the way it is, their endowment probably sits around 10 bucks now.  The answer is Pitt which had $1.4 billion in their endowment in 2004.  CMU was 2^nd with $815 million.  So why do they raise tuition every year and why is a text book $50 bucks?!?  One last question, does this mean that Pitt is well-endowed?  I’m jealous.

Once again, a big thanks to Dane Topich and his book Ultimate Pittsburgh Trivia.   Did I mention you can buy this book by simply clicking on the following link?!?  http://www.wqed.org/genl/shop/pgh_books.shtml.  Isn’t technology wonderful?  Tomorrow, it’s the grand finale of my 10 blog posts in 10 days.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I can hear the crowd at the finish line.  I can see fireworks…well, it’s Pittsburgh, of course I can see fireworks.

No Pittsburgh steel barons were harmed in any way during the writing of this blog.  It’s probably because they’re all dead, but I’m just sayin.

- Dave R