We lost power for a near 24-hour period thanks to high winds and rain. Somehow our block had minimal tree damage. The block east of us, however, got slammed. Some 8 or 9 trees knocked over on that block. Including one that took out a transformer (and a car and part of a house). So the 3 inches of water in the basement because the sump pump wasn’t on seems relatively minor. A good part of my day will be bleach washing the basement surface and getting rid of a bunch of kids toys (not exactly the plan I had to get rid of a lot of old toys, but I’m going with it).

In the meantime I figure on sharing this e-mail that got forwarded to me from a reader. It came to me from Yardbarker’s managing editor, who received it — and was quite confused as to why it came to him. This really is an actual e-mail from an actual person.

I was given your name by Jerry Micco, Sports Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  I wrote to him expressing concern about the Pitt Blather column which is published in the Post-Gazette.  He responded by saying that the column is a publication of FOXSports.com so I am forwarding my concern to you.

I like the content of Pitt Blather very much, but I don’t like the name “Pitt Blather”.  According to the dictionary, blather means non-sensical talk.  What kind of a name is this to assign to a serious blog about Pitt football?  The names of the blogs for Penn State (Black Shoe Diaries) and WVU (The Mountaintop), which also appear in the Post-Gazette, are dignified and pertinent, but Pitt Blather is not only off-target but also demeaning.  I am hoping that you will find a way to have the name of this column changed to something that is more appropriate.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of my request.

Sincerely,

[Name redacted]

If you ever wanted to know why corporations were wary/parnoid for so long about including hyperlinks and sidebars to outside content, meet Exhibit A.

I’m mostly amused, but for the suggestion that this is a “serious blog about Pitt football.” That kind of depresses me.

When I was trying to decide on the name of this blog the runner-up to “Pitt Sports Blather” was “The Babble Pitt.” To this day I still second-guess the decision.