More crazy news from Pittsburgh

Thank you to Scott at Blog Beat, for giving me evidence that Steelers fans are indeed crazy.

Here's the cliff's notes version of the story: A high school student in a Pittsburgh suburb named Joshua Vannoy made the mistake of wearing a Denver Broncos jersey to school during the week leading up to last weekend's Broncos/Steelers face-off. It was the day of an exam. His teacher pulled all the desks into a circle, made him sit on the floor in the center of the circle, and gave students extra points on the exam for pelting him with wads of paper. Which they, of course, commenced to do with abandon. When one girl refused, the teacher ripped the paper out of her hand and pelted the kid himself. Whoa. The poor guy was traumatized.

"Joshua said he was so furious his hands were shaking and he could hardly concentrate. He said he was lying flat on the carpet trying to answer essay questions about the Israeli Six-Day War and the Cold War while his face burned with shame."--Pittsburgh Post Gazette

So since I was in Pittsburgh last weekend, I can tell you first hand that the place is crazed for the Steelers. It's like mass hysteria there. Steelers songs play non-stop--not just on the radio, but on the street. Half the people are wearing black and gold. Women have black and gold finger nail polish. Black and Gold ribbons in their hair. Cars are adorned as if they are in a parade. The city is one big pep rally for the Steelers.


According to Sally Kalson, a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the teacher had this to say about the incident:

"We won the game [Sunday] night, didn't we? That's all I was worried about."

You can't make this stuff up, people.