Thursday, November 26, 2020
Soured: Pittsburgh pickle balloon popped when it was being installed for the holiday season
TribLIVE.com: 2020 continues to deflate.
A giant pickle ornament that was supposed to be the perfect backdrop for a selfie in Downtown Pittsburgh was canned before its planned debut Friday, according to the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
The ornament was being tested Wednesday for a final time when installers heard a loud pop.
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3 comments:
This headline made me immediately think of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons, so I am not surprised that this balloon came from the same company that many of those balloons come from. I was interested in what that company, Raven Industries, does besides make balloons, so I looked them up. They are a manufacturing company that specializes in agricultural products and weather balloons, so I’m not surprised that they also have a department that does decorative balloons. I knew that Raven wouldn’t be a commercial fabrication shop like the places we looked at in TD3 because vinyl balloons sound like they take a lot of speciality equipment to make. I can totally understand the shift from weather balloons to agricultural technology, and seeing that those markets still might not cover financial margins, also adding in parade balloons feels like a good move. I wonder if the damage done to the pickle is something Raven would be willing to fix as a change order or if it's covered by any insurance.
Reading the title “Pittsburgh pickle balloon popped” caught my attention but also really confused me. Why does Pittsburgh have a pickle ballon? Why is it for the holiday season? Reading the article kind of answered those questions for me but I’m still a little confused by it. It says that it’s based off of the German-American tradition of hiding an ornamental pickle on the family christmas tree, and that the installation was made possible because of a gift from Kraft Heinz. I still kinda question why of all things and traditions they could have chosen from they went with a pickle, but I suppose maybe it was intended to be something lighthearted and funny in the face of 2020. Which if that’s the case it just becomes yet another metaphor for this whole year. Also, the photo they included of the deflated pickle ornament at the beginning of the article looks so sad and pathetic just laying there on the ground; but kinda humorous still that they just have it sitting there instead.
I really don't know what I was expecting from this article. I thought maybe this was some random pittsburgh tradition that was canceled for the year. I find it sad that this attempt at this start of a possible holiday tradition was ruined by the balloon popping. You would think that a smaller 30ft balloon would be much sturdier than the ones they do at the macy's thanksgiving day parade, but I am not really an expert on giant inflated balloons. I foud this article quite tiring with all of the puns, they were especially odd coming from the spokesperson, but I don't really know what I expected from an article about a deflated giant pickle balloon. I would have thought the author of the article would use all the puns, but know it was the person being interviewed. Also I have heard of this tradition of the pickle in the tree and have ever participated. Although at hallmark had little baby pickle ornaments, it might be something that the folks do up here north.
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