Pittsburgh’s a rival at the rink, but a cousin in culture
They call this The Steel City, or they did. But just as Ottawa left behind its early days as a rough-and-tumble lumber town, then earning and outgrowing a reputation as The City That Fun Forgot, Pittsburghers agree that their Rust Belt notoriety is an outdated misconception, with high-tech and medicine now far eclipsing industry.
So for those considering the trek to Monday night’s second Ottawa-Pittsburgh tilt, or later games if needed, we offer a primer. It won’t make you perfectly fluent in Pittsburghese, but hopefully you won’t look completely dumbfounded if someone in the checkout line at Jine Iggle axsts you if you have a gumband, or if your Airbnb host says you can use their Pittsburgh toilet.
POPULATION
Ottawa: Amalgamation in 2001 helped shoot Ottawa’s urban population to today’s 930,000-plus, while the metropolitan area is only slightly larger, at about 1.3 million. Pittsburgh: The city proper is just over 300,000, but its urban and metropolitan head counts are considerably higher than Ottawa’s, at 1.7 and 2.3 million, respectively
MOTTO
Ottawa: Advance Ottawa En Avant. Pittsburgh: Benigno Numime, or By Divine Providence.
COLOURS
Ottawa: Blue and green. Pittsburgh: Black and gold.
RIVERS
Ottawa: 3 (Ottawa, Gatineau and Rideau) Pittsburgh: 3 (Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela). Not unrelated, Pittsburgh is known for its nearly 450 bridges.
ARCHITECTURE
Pittsburgh’s industrialists, including Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Oliver and Andrew Mellon, loved to build great monuments to their posterity, and the city’s downtown core is rife with gorgeous towers, churches, art deco federal office buildings, a neo-medieval courthouse and jail, mansions, filigreed arches, menacing gargoyles and the like. It’s like walking around Lower Manhattan in New York, with structural wonders around each corner.
But Ottawa is very nice, too.
NICKNAMES AND REPUTATION
Ottawa: Bytown. The City that Fun Forgot. The cleaning-up of Ottawa began sooner than Pittsburgh’s, largely via Jacques Greber’s city plan of 1950, which moved the city’s heavier industry and associated railway tracks, etc., out of the core. So Ottawa’s reputation as a grimy city has had more time to heal. Meanwhile, the Ottawa’s reliance on the public service, while still huge (or “youdge” in Pittsburghese), has lessened as high tech and other innovative sectors have grown. Pittsburgh: The Steel City. Iron City. The City of Champions. The Burgh. Birmingham of America. City of Bridges. The Smoky City. “Even into the 1970s,” says longtime resident Tom Enscoe, “you’d put your white sheets out on the line to dry, and when you brought them, they’d be even dirtier.”
Dave Thomas notes that when he attended University of Pittsburgh nearly a decade ago, officials cleaned its famous 92-year-old, 42-storey Cathedral of Learning building of the black soot it had accumulated, and residents hardly recognized it. “And that’s how Pittsburgh was. But now the city has redefined itself. It’s clean and friendly, and welcoming. If you were stuck on the side of the road in Pittsburgh, within five minutes someone would stop and help. Or if you knocked on a door, you would find people who would welcome you in and serve you a meal.
“To me, that’s just what I’ve always known, but I think it’s a Pittsburgh thing.”
LANGUAGE AND EXPRESSIONS
Ottawa: Ottawans are guilty of using such common Canadianisms as “eh?” (at the ends of sentences) and “aboot” (about). Thrown into the mix is a lot of Bureaucratese, such as “moving forward” and “deliverables,” and, in outlying areas, such popular Ottawa Valley expressions as “youse” (as in “youse guys”) and “two-four” (a case of beer). Pittsburgh: Pittsburghers cherish their Pittsburghese, which draws out names and smooths over rough consonants. According to Enscoe, one favourite is “yinz,” the bluecollar equivalent of “youse.” Many Pittsburghers, in fact, self-identify as “Yinzers.”
Mark Diamond, a guide at Pittsburgh’s Senator John Heinz History Center, notes a few others. A local beer, Iron City, is simply called “Arn” when ordering (similarly, a tire iron is a tahrarn). The Giant Eagle supermarket chain is referred to as Jine Iggle. The Pittsburgh Steelers football team is, simply, the Stillers. A rubber band is a gumband. Some people in Picksburgh live dahntahn, while some others live on the sahside. The worsh gets done in the worshing machine, and in the City of Champions, winner comes between fall and spring.
Coincidentally, though, the two cities share some expressions. While most Americans drink soda, Pittsburghers and Ottawans prefer pop. And the Ottawa Valley expression reddup, or red-up — to wash the dishes after a meal — works here, too.
Meanwhile, in the basement of Enscoe’s home, and indeed in many older area houses, is a Pittsburgh toilet. “It’s just a toilet in the basement,” he explains. “Because the workers would come home from the steel mills or the mines and they’d be filthy, and so they’d have to change first in the basement. They don’t put them in new homes now, but most of the older ones have them.”
DIET
Ottawa: Peculiar to Ottawa are Beaver-Tails — deep-fried and sugared dough — and shawarmas also rule here like nowhere else in Canada. Pittsburgh: Perogies abound, while Primanti Bros. sandwiches, with meat, coleslaw and french fries, are a Pittsburgh invention (Pittsburgh salads, also with fries in them, eventually followed). The Heinz Company was founded in Pittsburgh, and the Bic Mac was invented in Pittsburgh, but I understand that both became somewhat popular in other places, too, including Ottawa.