the Diva Platform

We had to make a quick trip to Pittsburgh this week to attend the funeral of Sir’s dad.  It was a little unexpected, but we were glad we went (and if you need a guy to do a eulogy, I might be able to get one.  Sir’s younger brother did an amazing job and was incredibly cool and collected throughout the speech.  Heck, he even improvised–the priest almost forgot the eulogy, and the brother said he’d hoped divine intervention was playing a role).

I also got to check something off my master “to do” list:  Visit a Giant Eagle.

I’d heard of Giant Eagle grocery stores before, and really, they’re just another grocery chain, with “Giant Eagle” instead of “Jewel” plastered on the Peanuts fruit snacks.  But they’re in Pittsburgh, and I’m not, so visit them, I had to.

I didn’t even think about it until we were on the road, and then I had one of those “a ha moments.”  ”Giant Eagle!  Can we go to Giant Eagle while we’re there.”

The Boy was nice enough to humor me.  ”If we have time and can find one,” he said.

Oh, we found two!

I wandered the aisles, looking at all the East Coast brands that we don’t get in Chicago:  Heluva Good cheese (which apparently is in Illinois–I just don’t buy enough cheese to notice it).  Tastykakes.  Pittsburgh Pretzels.  Herr’s chips.  I loved how the pierogi was enough of a food group to make it on the aisle label, e.g.–Aisle 7: (frozen foods) Entrees, French fries, Pierogies, Pizza, Sweet Goods.  Perhaps they were arranged alphabetically, but I’d like to think that pierogies were a better seller than pizza, therefore getting a better billing on the sign.

I was curious as to why beer wasn’t sold there, and Pennsylvania seems to have some wacky alcohol laws that we didn’t have time to get explained to us.  We wanted to find Three Stooges beer.  We went to a Giant Eagle that advertised “wine and spirits,” thinking that beer was included.  Apparently, to buy beer in Pittsburgh, you need to either go to a bar, or you go to a “beer distributor,” (i.e.–beer store).  We went to the latter and discovered that the distributor only sells cases.  Thank goodness for variety packs!  They didn’t have the Three Stooges, but we did get some microbrew, which we’re looking forward to trying.

Now we have a little bit of Pittsburgh in our house, and it’s kind of nice.  The Tastykakes aren’t horrible, the pretzels are good, and I understand the Giant Eagle just a little bit more.