A requiem for the pickup truck

Toll 43 crash, originally uploaded by Scott Beveridge.

The relationship with my truck has lasted longer than some marriages.

Therefore, it nearly required preseparation counseling before trading in the 2001 Ford Ranger today for a compact car. And it’s going to take some time to adjust to steering a kiddy car around Washington County after driving a man ride for the past eight years.

I’m going to give props to Ford Motor Co. for this reliable truck model, as mine required hardly any maintenance save for oil changes and tire changes over the course of its 191,000 miles on the road.

That was until its latest inspection Friday, when the mechanic determined it’s nearing the end of its usefulness and would cost too much to put back on the road. It’s no longer safe to drive. But with that kind of miles under its hood, it’s impossible to complain about its demise.

So, “Travel with a Beveridge” will now be traveling incognito in a baby-poop gold Ford Focus and enjoying the savings at the gasoline pumps.

Meanwhile, Amanda next door at the office has decided to wear a black armband Thursday for the truck’s after-work memorial service at Union Grill, where she will perform the funeral Mass.

(Caption: That's my old truck in the distance at a wreck on the Mon-Fayette Expressway in Fallowfield Township)

Twitter doesn't tweet in this room

There is something obscure and wonderful in this designer master bedroom on exhibit at the Home and Garden Show in Pittsburgh.

A newspaper of all things is parked under a teacup a short distance from a rendition of the nude Adam upon his creation at God’s fingertip.

Who would have guessed a modern man or woman "occupying" this space inspired by Michelangelo’s adornments on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling actually pays for The Wall Street Journal and then reads its pages in real time.

Here’s a shoutout to the designer, Karolyn Spagnolo of Spagnolo Design: Nice touch.

Flash back to yesterday when that dead-tree edition had a story about Twitter, the Web "It Girl" who has been spreading the word while old media wasn't watching.

Spagnolo's room has a message for those who tweet: Like it not, some people still prefer to hold onto the real deal to keep up with the world.

Her fancy design can be found among a row of rooms created by members of the Pennsylvania West chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers who were challenged to create them around a famous work of art.

The room is elegant, but it wouldn’t work in my house.

That white carpeting would quickly collect dust bunnies procreating among coffee stains. Within a week, I'd trip over the ceramic dogs and break those expensive phony pets to pieces, only to wonder who put them there in the first place. Really.

The painting is another story.

George Jetson-era doughnuts

It’s hard to believe in the digital age that there isn’t a Web site advertising DeAngelis Donuts, a funky coffee shop at a busy intersection northeast of Pittsburgh.

So newcomers like us are forced to call the business in Rochester boasting a retro plastic sign capped with a giant spinning doughnut to find out when it opens and closes.

The waitress on the other end of the line today said she usually locks up when the donuts are sold out, but will be there until 5 p.m. So much for regular hours at this roadside attraction at one end of the Monaca-Rochester Bridge crossing the Ohio River in Beaver County.

We arrive about 4:30 p.m. to find the inside lights aglow, a chubby customer at the counter, the doors locked and a friendly waitress who ultimately decides to let us inside. I am happy and on a mission to sink my teeth into what the sign outside promotes as “Delightfully Different DONUTS.”

By now, I am craving greasy, sticky arteries-clogging glazed donuts of a heavenly variety. To my surprise, there are several rows of surviving chocolate cake donuts covered in dark sprinkles, those with fancy swirls that pretend to have a French connection and others dusted with powdered sugar in the sour dough family. The doughnut gods are surely smiling down upon us. She bags us a half-dozen assortment that cost just under $5 and we are out the door.

In the end, there isn’t anything special about these donuts. They are kind of small, actually. But that's OK.

It’s the original 1950s architecture, shiny chrome counter stools and giant geometric George Jetsonish sign that make this business a worthy adventure in the New Millennium.

Mellon Arena: Threatened to extinction

Pittsburgh, originally uploaded by Scott Beveridge.

It’s with a bit of irony that Preservation magazine is counting Mellon Arena among America’s threatened landmarks in a city that doesn’t seem to care much about saving the odd building from demolition.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is featuring Pittsburgh’s dome-shaped amphitheater in its current publication’s short list of endangered structures in transition because there isn’t a plan for its reuse.

No one has come forward to offer a strong plea to restore the 48-year-old stadium after it’s main tenant, the Penguins hockey team, moves to its new home next year, not even the city’s Historic Review Commission. It voted in 2002 against giving historic designation to the former Civic Arena.

It would be shame to see this structure disappear because it’s the world’s largest building of its kind, one with a retractable roof that has been likened to a flying saucer lodged in the city’s Lower Hill District.

The civic center designed for Pittsburgh CLO opened Sept. 19, 1961, with a performance of the Ice Capades. Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Page are among the musical legends that have taken its stage. Present Barack Obama even campaigned there last year.

The Trust appears to be fond of the Steel City, as features about Pittsburgh landmarks routinely appear in its magazine. The organization also has a lot of clout, having been instrumental in saving an impressive number of American treasures through its annual list of the nation’s 11 most endangered historic places.

Just maybe the brief in this magazine will catch the attention of a group with enough passion to keep this arena supported by 2,950 tons of Pittsburgh steel on the horizon. Pittsburgh without a stainless steel bowl would be like Seattle sans the Space Needle.

Donora smog check-up

Donora smog checkup, originally uploaded by Scott Beveridge.

The Donora Smog Museum has expanded its hours to accommodate the growing number of people who want to get inside to see its collection.

It includes a great number of old photos that relate to American Steel and Wire Co.'s works in Donora, Pa., where a zinc mill helped to create a deadly smog in 1948.

The new hours at the 595 McKean Ave. museum are:

1 to 3 p.m. Monday
6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday
1 to 3 p.m. Thursday
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday

The Hobbit garage

Walter Rockwell’s love of carnivals could explain his fascination with whimsical architecture.

During his adult life in the early 1900s, Rockwell built several round buildings in the Charleroi, Pa., area, including this fanciful garage behind a mansion on a hill overlooking the borough.

Built at the end of a narrow alley behind Prospect Avenue, it’s floor once rotated with the help of ball bearings and chains so drivers didn’t have to steer backwards for nearly a block to reach the main road.

Rockwell earned the degree of master electrician after having worked for seven years building carnival attractions. He was best known during his time for building the “Crazy House” and “Japanese Bowling Alleys” at Shady Grove Amusement Park in Uniontown, Pa., his birthplace, according to the Charleroi Area Historical Society.

He also was instrumental in building the historic Coyle Theater in Charleroi, a former burlesque house that is about to be restored.

Another identical garage in town has been demolished. It was built for a funeral home’s hearse. The one shown in the photo was designed for the Monier family.

Ironically, he built a mansion with round rooms in nearby Carroll Township for the Coyle family, one that doubles as the Demon House spookfest each fall.