Tunesmith & Anthony would like to congratulate Lawrenceville’s own Paul Donaldson for being named Acting Police Chief for the City of Pittsburgh. With this appointment, Mr. Donaldson joins Frank Gorshin and Tunesmith on the small list of Lawrenceville’s sons who have achieved great success.

Billionaire and Mt. Lebanon native Mark Cuban said yesterday that only a “moron” would purchase the wildly popular online site YouTube. This coming from the man who has expressed an interest in buying the Pittsburgh Pirates? Ha!

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato will veto a bill that prohibits smoking in restaurants, bars and other workplaces if the ban does not apply to the Pittsburgh slot machine casino. Onorato’s spokesman Dark Helmet made the announcement of the Chief Executive’s intentions by simply stating, “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”

National City and the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium are inviting people to name two polar bears who will soon take up residence at the zoo’s new waterfront exhibit. You can log on to http://www.nationalcity.com/polarbear and complete a contest form. We highly suggest that members of the vast T&A readership complete a contest form and submit “Tunesmith” and “Anthony” as the names for the bear duo.

There have been a couple mean-spirited comments left here this week that I thought were worth bringing to the vast T&A readership’s attention. One is directed towards me (which isn’t all that rare especially when the topic of Rachael Ray is involved), but the other concerns my favorite meteorologist and that ain’t cool.

Someone calling himself “the killer” left the following comment in response to the infamous post in which Tunesmith and I debate the merits of Rachael Ray:

Anthony, You are so gay and stupid. Not to mention a mindless hump. You are so condescending. Are you tunesmiths rump ranger?

Comment by the killer — September 26, 2006 @ 5:13 pm

I have to admit, I do like the word “hump”used in this manner. But to answer your question, Jerry Lee, I am not Tunesmith’s “rump ranger” as you call it. Now go back to your job at the Carson Palmer House of Ladies’ Dresses.

The more offensive comment was left by someone named Rob in response to a post in which I mentioned the genius of WTAE meteorologist Don Schwenneker:

Schwenneker is not a genius, at least he doesn’t show it when he’s on the air. Cropper is more focused on the weather than Schwenneker is, but does that even count in local TV anymore? In some markets it does, but not in Hollywood, err, I mean Pittsburgh.

Comment by Rob — September 27, 2006 @ 7:54 pm

To paraphrase U.S. Representative Charles Rangel’s (D-New York) response to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for his derogatory remarks made at the U.N. about President Bush, you don’t come into my blog, you don’t come into my television market and you don’t condemn my meteorologist. What kind of mindless hump could talk trash on Don Schwenneker? He’s like the Tom Bosley of Pittsburgh meteorology. I’m talking Mr. Cunningham, man. Plus, Don’s the only meteorologist to ever leave a comment here at T&A (that I know of), so he’s obviously a cool dude.

Rob, you and your kind make me sick. I’ll see you in hell.

I was reading over the bios of the Channel 11 news team at WPXI.com this evening, and I learned that Alan Jennings has received more than 30 awards, many for Investigative Reporting, including several Golden Quill awards, Associated Press awards, Ed King Memorial awards, and named the Best Reporter in America by United Press International. Good job, Alan! That’s quite impressive.

The vast T&A readership may recall my disdain for Rod Stewart. To refresh your memory, here’s what I wrote in February 2005 after he finally won a GRAMMY:

I can’t believe Rod Stewart won in the “Traditional Pop Vocal Album” category. This bitter old queen hasn’t done anything remotely original since the 1970’s, and every chance he gets he bitches about not being as highly regarded as the other Brit rockers of his generation. His idea of originality is using his left hand to wipe his ass. This is his first GRAMMY. He’s the Susan Lucci of music, perhaps in more ways than one. Have you seen the songs on the CD that he won the GRAMMY for? The CD should be renamed “Rod Stewart’s Karaoke Favorites.” And it’s volume III in the “Great American Songbook” series! He’s squeezed out one of these turds every year over the last 3 years and people keep buying them! What is wrong with this world?! “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square” is the last track on the GRAMMY award winning CD. I wonder if his version is as good as the Affordable Floors’ version. I doubt it–Rod can’t touch KMZ.

Well, the bitter old queen has another one of his karaoke albums coming out on October 10th called “Still the Same…Great Rock Classics of Our Time.” Sadly, I’m sure this album will be another hit as 50 year old women will surely get moist over Rod’s interpretation of the Bread classic, “Everything I Own.”

What draws such a venomous reaction from me is that Rod Stewart once had musical integrity. He was in the Faces with Ron Wood as well as the Jeff Beck Group. He had a few hits of his own in the early 1970’s. Clay Aiken can get away with this shit because really, what else does Clay Aiken have in him? (Don’t answer that.) I suppose after Rod realized he could have hits without breaking a sweat by covering other peoples’ songs such as Van Morrison’s “Have I Told You Lately” and Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” he figured he would go all out and do these heinous cover albums.

Take a gander at the tracks on this new album touted as Rod’s “triumphant return to his rock n roll roots”:

1. Have You Ever Seen The Rain
2. Fooled Around And Fell In Love
3. I’ll Stand By You
4. Still The Same
5. It’s A Heartache
6. Day After Day
7. Missing You Stewart, Rod 4:18
8. Father & Son
9. The Best Of My Love
10. If Not For You
11. Love Hurts
12. Everything I Own
13. Crazy Love

“Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”, “Day After Day”? I’m sorry, but you do not fuck with CCR and Badfinger.

Rod should take a nod from Billy Joel: be proud of the original work he put out years ago and gracefully retire instead of embarrassing himself by pumping out these lame karaoke albums. On the bright side, this album is sure to provide at least a few “Worst Cover Song of the Week” entries.

Here’s a commercial for Rod’s upcoming release. I apologize in advance.

Even though I smoke cigarettes, I hope that Allegheny County Council passes the public smoking ban today because it will go into effect in roughly 90 days, just in time to vex all of the pain in the ass amateurs on New Years Eve.

If you believe that this proposed smoking ban is about protecting the health of bar and restaurant workers, then you probably believe that Al Capone was prosecuted for tax evasion because the Feds really wanted to crack down on tax cheats.

As a smoker, I receive a lot of great unsolicited advice from nonsmokers such as, “you should try to quit” or “I thought you were smarter than that.” I wonder if these same people go up to fat people at McDonald’s or the line at the bakery and give the same advice.

If you’re overweight and someone approaches you this week while you’re taking a big bite out of a Big Mac and says, “I thought you were smarter than that,” it’s just me showing my concern.

I wish Allegheny County Council would pass legislation banning the making of microwave popcorn at all workplaces. I know microwave popcorn does not present any health risk to me, but no one can seem to make it without burning it, and that shit smells.