Overheard in Pittsburgh

Currently, the best way to submit entries to Overheard in Pittsburgh is to e-mail overheardinpgh AT gmail DOT com. Anyone who used the apparently haphazard form over the past few days should re-submit, should the mood strike them.

Just about everything is in order now, and Overheard in Pittsburgh is running relatively smoothly. I’m still getting moved into the new site, unloading boxes and assigning categories.

The best news right now is that I can say for certain that Overheard in Pittsburgh will be updated about twice a day again. I have finally gotten to the backlog of great entries, many of which are from Overheard in Pittsburgh veterans like TheConnor, M.Davies, and Ka-CHANG, all of whom have continued to pump their awesome directly into OiP’s bloodstream.
Thanks,
Chris

I want to thank everyone who has mentioned Overheard in Pittsburgh in their blog or even blogrolled it.

I would really appreciate it, however, if those awesome people would update the links to direct here. The move has affected the Overheard in Pittsburgh’s google ranking/readership, and I had to delete the Blogspot version entirely because it is preventing search engines from finding this site.

Unfortunately, it turns out that deleting the Blogspot version simply meant terminating my access to those files. They’re still up, drawing attention from search engines, and Blogspot won’t let me do anything about, nor will they provide a way to contact any sort of support staff — one of the numerous reasons I finally left that service.

This is really important to Overheard in Pittsburgh. There are hundreds of sites that link to OiP, and I would appreciate any help you could give in terms of letting people know that the site has moved.

Thanks,
Chris

So now you know reason for the unfortunate recent lag in posting entries: After more than a year and nearly 500 posts, Overheard in Pittsburgh finally looks like it wasn’t made on a Commodore 64.

In addition to not making your eyes hurt, this new site allows you to browse entries by location, as well as by subject. Want to read only about Squirrel Hill? Done. Want to read only about children or upsettingly sad old people? Double Done. Additionally, I expect to have a webform running that will make submitting easier, so you don’t have to scour the site for my e-mail address, which, only during the final closing of the old site, I realize had disappeared from the front page. The comments system is awesome, and the RSS and Atom feeds should work fine here.

Blogger was an alright place to start, but it was high time I got out. Blogger is slow and clunky, and it crashed an awful lot. Using Blogger was like living in your parents’ basement and trying to flirt with truckers on a CB radio. Using WordPress is like having access to some sort of “SuperWeb™” in a castle made out of candy and dreams. I’d like to thank all of the readers, particularly Robin H, Sophie, TheConnor, McArdle, Tia, Pharout, M. Davies, and the other submitters who have kept this site running. Without them, the Overheard in Pittsburgh would just be transcriptions of the sounds of my tears. Hilarious tears.

More news is coming, although I am not allowed to share just yet. So stay tuned: Overheard in Pittsburgh is getting better and better.

Today is the first day of the second year of Overheard in Pittsburgh.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, and thanks to my readers for sticking with me, particularly through the rationing of the past few months; it looks like Overheard in Pittsburgh is one more thing that wakes up in the City of Colleges when the academic year begins again. (Plus, I’ve been sleeping on couches for the past few months.)

Already, the amazing regular contributors like Rotzi, Pharout, TheConnor, McArdle, Zelda, Ka-CHANG, and many others have inundated me with loving anecdotes about drunk college students and the like, and so I can again increase the number of submissions to three or so a day. I have to warn you: For the next few weeks at least, you should be prepared to envision a lot of red plastic Dixie™ cups.

The long-promised prettification of the site will appear soon; I’ve decided to do forgo the help of someone who might know what they are doing and affix the site to the internet with nothing but cello tape, thumb tacks, and shame. Hopefully, you won’t be able to notice the tape and tacks.

Thanks again for sticking around; it’s about to stop being awesome and start being super-awesome again.

Stay Alert,
Chris

From time to time, I like to thank the great people I find recommending Overheard in Pittsburgh online, while at the same time stroking my ego by re-posting their kind words.

The following people have linked to OIP recently:

Kyana
PghKitten
rothslovechild
Rotzi
Rufus Honker IV
Sailblades
Venangago-go (incidentally, from my hometown of Franklin, Pennsylvania.)

emzabelle — “fun stuff. enjoy.”

Somewhere in Between — “Fucking Hilarious”

Ikiterunda.com — “It made my morning. I love people.”

Bobbo — “This site is very funny and I recommend yinz check it aht.”

Awesomejuice — “There are some really nerdy CMU quotes on there. Maybe one of them is you!”

PGH Jezebel — “If you live in Pittsburgh and you haven’t visited Overheard in Pittsburgh yet, you are really missing out … It’s addictive and funny.”

Amy Kay — “I love it. I think I lost at least an hour reading through the pages and pages of silly things that people have said while they thought no one was listening.”

Unified Theories — “One of my Pittsburgh blogs that I love to read is Overheard in Pittsburgh. I couldn’t tell you if they got the idea from the NYC blog for certain, but it’s possible. That doesn’t matter, though, because ours is BETTER. And today they sealed the deal on just how much better they truly are by mentioning DEGRASSI: TNG.” [This post is located here.]

raphrat deserves some special thanks because he has been pimping out Overheard in Pittsburgh like it owes him money. Thanks, raphrat.

Overheard in Pittsburgh has found a constant home on the blogrolls of the following sites:

Bobbo
weill.org
caiticat87
isabe-ette
Lou’s List
Ohligarchy
PittDems.org
Murder Show
Flying Oyster
The Cereal Port
Meigan’s Madness
Dwight Supremacy
Natural Attachment
Somewhere in Between
Pittsburgh Cacophony Society
The Commentary and Adventures of an Italian Girl … in the Burgh!

1. Apologies about the lack of post today. Much of this week was spent trying to find a home for the Best Dog in the World, found Monday night on Ellsworth. Scrawny and with matted fur, the poor thing was wandering the mean streets of Shadyside in a filthy collar that given another half hour might have gotten her thrown out of the neighborhood for being too tacky. We like our homeless dogs to at least try to look classy in Shadyside. Taking care of her and finding a place to live has been a long and taxing ordeal, too long to bore you with the details. Suffice to say, the staff of Animal Friends, Pittsburgh’s no-kill animal shelter, tried their best to help us out, but they are completely out of space at the moment; and a very nice lady in Warren, Ohio got a great new family member tonight.

2. A reader asked about the donation button on the side. I decided that the ads I had up were annoying to look at and they weren’t really paying off. I figured, hey, the PayPal donation button is smaller, and if someone wanted to send me a buck sometime, they could do so.

3. As the weather has gotten colder, the submissions this blog relies on have slowed to a trickle. This is the part where I beg you please, please, please, baby, send in some more Awesome. Be sure to tell your friends and enemies about the Overheard in Pittsburgh. More submissions means more fun for you in between checking your e-mail, ESPN and The Onion.

4. Oh, look: I just got one!

Don’t worry about being funny.

All I need is the Overheard; I add the headline myself. The headline’s the toughest part of the whole process, but you don’t have to worry about it.

Set the scene.

In addition to the dialogue, we want to convey the situation.

Be specific.

Where was it said? If it’s outside, which intersection? If it’s in a building, which department/office? If it’s a dorm, which floor? If it’s on a bus, which one, where is it?

Be descriptive.

What were the people wearing? Every little detail helps paint the picture. While some of your description might not make it to the site, it’s better to be verbose in your submission than to give too little. Some of the submitters can attest that I have checked back with them to make sure I get everything right.

Be accurate.

Try your best to get the dialogue as close to what was actually said as possible. It might be tough, but - again - try your best. While it may have been a real incident, the Overheard doesn’t work if it doesn’t feel true. Accuracy also means the submission examines the speakers and not your biases, so focus on what was said, rather than your reaction to it.

Don’t submit something you said.

Vanity submissions are really easy for me to spot: the way the dialogue is structured and the way the situation is described give it away pretty quickly. They feel more clever than true, and while there are lots of places for you to share anecdotes to prove your wit, Overheard in Pittsburgh is more concerned with little slices of reality bumping up against each other.

Let me know how you want to be credited.

Just because your e-mail address is in your name doesn’t mean your submission has to be. If you have a preference, let me know how to credit you, and if you want, I can come up with a name for you.

Finally, all submissions become the property of Chris Griswold and Overheard in Pittsburgh.

I look forward to reading everyone’s submissions, and I thank you in advance.

Remember, send your submissions to: overheardinpgh AT gmail DOT com.

Stay Alert,

Chris Griswold
Overheard in Pittsburgh

We want to thank the authors of the following following blogs for mentioning Overheard in Pittsburgh:

Ales Rarus
di5k0_infern0
kickouttheiambs
PGHBloggers

Thanks also to the following for adding OIP to their blogroll:

2 Political Junkies
Daisy Land
Grabass
Jo Janoski
Moose J. Finkelstein
Sneak Peaks
Socially Inept

We also want to thank the Pittsburgh City Paper for the mention in this past week’s “Yinz blog. We notice.”

And finally, thanks to all the people who have been sending in stuff they overheard, submitting Overheard in Pittsburgh to sites like del.icio.us, setting up subscriptions at BlogLines, and passing the links along on message boards and Instant Messenger.

Stay Alert,
OIP

In Pittsburgh, this city of college students and work-a-day joes, of arts and beer and unreliable public transportation, it’s hard not to overhear little bits of other people’s lives.

In line at a fast food restaurant, a man yells into his cell phone.

He’s yelling for you.

On the bus, two girls gossiping about a celebrity couple.

They’re gossiping for you.

In class, a professor says something he really oughtn’t.

He’s saying it for you.

Welcome to Overheard in Pittsburgh, a collection of impromptu little public performances, reported and displayed for your enjoyment.

Overheard in Pittsburgh:
We’re not eavesdroppers; we’re active listeners.