City smell not worth threatening to kill

More than three hundred Pittsburghers got really pissed off last week – some to the point… More than three hundred Pittsburghers got really pissed off last week – some to the point of making death threats.

Darby Conley’s syndicated comic strip, “Get Fuzzy,” which runs in 400 papers around the world – but not in any Pittsburgh papers – made a punchline of Pittsburgh when Bucky Katt, a character in the strip, asks a travel agent about “packaged trips based primarily on smell,” and the agent replies, “Have a look at this pamphlet from the tourism department of Pittsburgh.”

Conley reports having been contacted by between 300 and 400 annoyed readers, ranging from friendly reminders that the city is no longer a sooty industrial town to ire-filled missives to death threats.

Apparently Pittsburghers are harder than they seem. The comic’s perceived insult to the city is fairly innocuous and childish. Sure, a response to such a razz is called for. But death threats?

Pittsburghers generally are divided into two camps: those whose blood runs Steelers black and gold, who eat jumbo sammiches when they can’t get to Primanti’s, who use a sweeper when the room needs redd up – and those leave town after graduation. The latter are bemoaned and blamed for the city’s woes. The former are a force to be reckoned with.

While it’s great to see such rabid civic pride, it’s unnerving to think that there are those who would kill – or at least say they’d kill – to defend the honor of our city. And it’s not as if the insult was so dreadful. The comic didn’t say the city smelled bad, it just implied a certain aroma. Sure, that strikes a nerve in light of Pittsburgh’s former fume problems, but is an insinuation of stink really worth threatening a man’s life?

The city is changing. Pittsburgh is up and coming as an artistic haven and a cultural destination, and a lot of hard work has gone into making that happen. So, it’s natural for citizens to resent being called smelly the world over. But making death threats is a stride backwards for the city’s reputation.

A few years back, the Daily Show did a feature on Kennett Square, Pa. – calling it Stinkytown, USA. The town is famous for growing mushrooms, which grow in manure, so the town does stink. Residents there were thrilled to be in the spotlight, however dubious it may have been. It was national publicity for a little town.

Maybe Pittsburgh could take a page out of Kennett Square’s book and be happy to be getting free worldwide publicity.