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It's Friday night and we are live with the Friday fearsome foursome. Let me guess Jared and I John a pro from the Post Gazette. John along with the regulars Ruth and Baker Allen Cox and friend Hans Berger ready to dig into the news of the week and just in time for Labor Day weekend. Places of beauty and fun in Pittsburgh backyard. It's a great getaway and it's free. We'll show you where so stay there. Thank you starts right now. Hi and welcome to On Q I'm Karalee SB now people of the Pittsburgh area may

not know it but we've got something pretty rare here. We have beautiful parks and they're right here in the city. Tonight we're going to showcase two of them park and Riverview Park. Now you may want to pay them a visit. After seeing what they have to offer. That's coming up a little bit later. But first Chris Moore and our feature presentation Chris. Well Carol this big Friday night get only me the one thing the Friday for this week or so. Let's start with the guest chair tonight it's John a pro you've seen her byline in the Post Gazette. You've seen her on TV and now we're going to add actress to her resume what is that all about. Well I'm actually opening in a show on the South Side called big bucks next Friday night 8:00 o'clock it runs for two weekends at Veronica's veil auditorium. It's a Southern soap opera comedy Big Book and I play Mama fever mama that if I'm on the right being I want everybody to come out you know usually you mean I'm singing in this. Oh man I love you so we want everyone to come out and see the show. When is it. It opens next

Friday night it runs two weekends Fridays and Saturdays and 8 Sundays at 2:00 in the afternoon. Ironic as Vale auditorium this is a debut for you. It's my return to the stage I'm going 18 years OK. Yeah. Another come back and of course the Friday Regnault Brad was very good he was here last read Hahn's burger of getting a radio and PC NC for it if you haven't done any acting to said you're great at radio show OK. I was I when I played Admiral Ron Schreiber in my high school production of Sound of Music at it I'm the guy who comes to tell Admiral Von Trapp he's got to go back to see what Christopher Plummer than you I was not Christopher Plummer I was the guy that nobody knew and I had to be some fact German guy so I had a baby. They put a uniform on and you go after when it was looted off helmets I really know is it was Navy. Ruth Baker is also here from the Post-Gazette north and Alan Cox from 1 0 5 9 the extra to put on quite a performance every

writer not a lot. We get letters out have to show them to you. All right let's begin with our first topic it looks like the National Organization of Women is going to help Andrea Yates she is the woman who drowned her five children in a bathtub down in Texas and now they are saying that they are going to raise money for her defense to draw attention to postpartum depression. John a pro you cover a lot of police related stories what do you think of this and now's involvement as a fundraiser. A cyclocross I think it's phenomenal now is joined forces with the ACLU. This is clearly a woman who has serious mental problems and I know a friend and I really regret giving me a look. But the state of Texas has unlimited resources to prosecute this woman. She does not have unlimited resources and so I think it's interesting that now and the ACLU have stepped up to the plate to raise funds for her defense. Everybody's clear now. But Alan the reason why is that a lot of red.

Fred hold on just a second. Ruth then you clear your throat and sounding disgruntled already you think this is a bad idea. Yes and so I'm very happy about it not being a real big supporter of the National Organization for Women and for some women. You know they've always had an anti-child agenda and this just really underscores it what a tremendously bad PR move for them. And so you think this is anti-child and well in what way because the children were the victims. Well they've never been real fond or supportive of women who choose to stay home raising their children now women stay home and choose to drown their children there's a little support there but they say postpartum depression is a huge thing in the United States. And people need to pay more attention so women like misstates can get treatment. Well I think until they've demonstrated that it's the postpartum depression that caused it we ought not jump to that conclusion. It could be a

very different kind of mental or emotional disorder. A lot of women suffer from postpartum depression and we don't drown our children well and there are all sorts of other groups that are getting involved to groups that oppose the death penalty and don't want to see this woman die for what she did to her own five children. What do you think about this coalition of groups that's come together resists money. Well there's going to be there's going to be a natural balance here between John and myself simply because I don't think I think it's a little off center to say that now is anti-child because they're pro-woman. I mean I think that there is a I don't think they're pro women. Well they are pro and they're pro their pro their window choice their feminism their pro pro Marxist understand well look those are those are you know those are. You said we don't know if postpartum depression was to blame for what she did. Whatever is to blame is clearly attendant to postpartum depression and I think anything that they can do. Like you said they have unlimited resources in their Texas and

you know there is something to be said for bringing attention to whatever's going on there nobody is sitting back and you know and saying that now is indorsing whatever leads to you know well let's just wipe the slate clean with this woman I don't see that at all I think that they are seeking a stand for someone who clearly cannot do so for herself. It's an obvious tragedy that it came about in this fashion but to say that they're anti child I don't know. You know I don't see that it is the case with our I'm using a tiny bit of hyperbole to underscore a point. And it's only a tiny bit of hyperbole. If she were male and did something like this we you know obviously we don't have postpartum depression to hang it on but if it were someone who were who were driven to this point because he channels voices through his fillings we need to we need to demonstrate that maybe that's not what was wrong with our youth and I think it's a it's clearly that's a terrible analogy. It's not a woman having postpartum depression is is a very real thing that women go through after the birth of

some women go through after the birth of the child. But your example of a man challenging fit some voice is through feelings is not a good example saying because a man wouldn't have the gender specific excuse that this woman is that would you object to. Yes. And the other thing is that we. Going to conclusions because if it's not clearly demonstrated that it's the postpartum depression that caused her to murder I don't know that I do you know if I didn't have that conclude it is known as a Organization of Women certainly not a National Organization for Women. Well whatever and I are raising money for her defense I don't think I haven't read anything that says where they are saying this is what she has. I have I've read all day and there's a good ratio. Well now they say look there are millions and it is a war and bringing attention to the taboo on millions of women who suffer from postpartum depression. They don't take their children one by one and stick their heads under water and drown them in and around about how they don't cheat on them and then or kill them. This woman is a child killer. They should have thought about this when she was so she was indicating some symptoms

after I've read some after her second child by her husband the one that should be on trial he's waiting for that one. I was just me. That were random but nobody is denying they didn't kill her children. That's just saying that fault you know nobody is denying that she chilled her children but to say that but to say that while not all women who have postpartum depression kill their kids. Obviously we know that not everyone who is a schizo phrenic goes out and slit someone's throat. But if there was a case where that were to happen you can't throw this person on the cross then and say we're not going to help them at all. Because Joe I have schizophrenia and I'm sorry and we should be hope at all. They're saying there are consequences to actions only. But these days people like you and John to what even you have cons all would not have never got a right to hold on just a second. It's not about the consequence you're what now says they are raising funds for our defense is to draw attention to this problem not to get her. Yes and yes it is. Yes you have a way they don't want to honk if you don't want to prosecute where where have you really thought I heard Good morning goes on that one of them from the Chicago Sun just whatever they wanted to do.

Criminal justice system system will have to determine if she should be profit they don't want to prosecute this if she was sick. The notion that she's even prosecuted for this is absurd. That's absurd. This woman did and still is that you know we've all we live in was already going to kill all of us for that. That is people are not mentally capable they are not prosecuted. My main point here is not Fred's about the concert actions have consequences but that we are one way jumping the gun if we're sitting here as now has done in their position papers that they're putting out there and saying that she did it because of postpartum depression. That hasn't at all been established to determine that your opinion wouldn't change if they determine that it was posed by our action. Well what it that she should be completely exonerated I know you're not I don't know what he's saying exonerated. You were saying that they have not yet determined it's a heart already. Well I have. It would be in ameliorating circumstance but it wouldn't let her off the hook. Well no I don't but I don't think any of us are saying let her off the hook. We're saying at least John and I are saying there is something wrong with bringing attention to the fact that she may have had a

severe I mean not only postpartum depression but something else. But if they determine that in fact she had postpartum depression led her to do this would that change your opinion of this since that is your sticking point. I'm This is not I didn't follow the question Susan. Then you just don't you just say that your sticking point was that everyone's assuming it was post war and oppression they have not yet determined that to be the case. Yes if in fact they determined that to be the case how do you come down differently and it would be in ameliorating circumstance but it would not exonerate her for the crime. Well she should not be found not guilty by reason of. Well I wasn't aware we were talking about exonerated Judge John to say there are laws for that kind of thing. There are tons of people who have this wound going to boil down to insane and not guilty and they put them in places where they can't hurt anyone or breed again. Well that would be up to her and her husband and their job that they would have know that their days do they have conjugal visits in those kinds of places I just I wonder who has a propensity for this kind of illness

be allowed to bear more children and possibly kill them. Should we have abortion. No in the world and then it is going to be this way out of Iraq. I'm going to the issue. Time is marching on here I said. Well it's I think in they I asked about on banks who had a lock box they had a lot box. Well all these are asking for help. Well I see the tears spring up in all the news stories where all these people are sitting in their IRS returns and the hundreds of thousands of them that were destroyed and nobody knows where they are. Martin McGuinness the chairman of the place says we fired one hundred six people. But gee whiz there's something going on here and something's wrong what's going to happen all these people father returns for it rather than what's going to happen to him going to file the returns again. The penalties are going to be waived the IRS says we're going to be nice and this is this a case of incompetence and banks not doing this job anymore I want to move but if it's a case of incompetence why did one hundred six of the people who were fired 50 percent of those people

have found jobs within Mellon somewhere well I better hope that those people are going to cause them problems again. So as I read the newspaper this morning that they knew they were going to be overwhelmed this was like hell on earth as all these checks and returns came in. They hired temporary help but the temporary help that was available because unemployment was very low was the temporary help quality was very low and nobody knew it was going on. So you started ditching bags thrown like the Postal Service does on the road. When I was behind I'm only going to land there but I knew where he is not sending any of of the new economy in the kind of thing you're talking about where people get these part time jobs and everybody's working his Labor Day's coming up this week and everybody's working a series of part time jobs and they're going from place to place to place and not doing all that they should in any of those jobs. I don't know why you're drawing a lot of conclusions off of this. They did what they had to but it was made it was poorly managed. Maybe they didn't set up how many employees they needed made they didn't know how many employees they knew this was just a total mess.

Well sometimes only exercise I get is jumping to conclusions I've heard that's going to let me do that myself. Let's go to baseball and Danielle Monte the Bronx little leaguer who has been found to be a little bit older than his mother's birth certificate went down there as a surprise. You laugh and it moves maybe that 14 your mom was just too big too strong for some of those other 12 year old little league pitchers but is this a case of or his I would say is this a case again of parents not doing the right thing or should Little League baseball play a little price where their recruiting is going down into the Dominican Republic surprising there are curious critters down there I mean the kid the kid was here illegally he was playing for the Bronx he apparently spoke through an interpreter. You know I I happen to be one of those people and I heard someone say it earlier and I'll repeat it. I mean I think Little League baseball is corrupt. Hey you know it's the same damn thing. OK. There are several here I was up anyway yeah it is OK for a little league baseball. I don't have that earlier so I heard earlier today and I really agree

with that I mean I think all of it's become a business. I think it's probably a business nalang. What do you think. Yeah I mean I'm already a liar on that are you know you're like a movie I know all I know is that I sucked in little league so you know that I want to and I have no idea how to have a 14 year old guys pitching against Thomas the only reason that I was like These guys are six to a feather and they don't have time school kid has been in school for year ever and he is smaller entry illegal and legal immigration authorities are just going to be filed against the father and isn't the father he's really exploiting the son here going to first enjoy most well-known attorney going after I was going to said you were going to let her take a life for all players down there. Yeah don't miss our time in the garden. Some are thinking all right they're going to put in an ice rink down in PBG place a space that's not really used except for people walking from place to place or you think that's going to be a great thing.

You know Chris I think it's a phenomenal idea there are some great are some great places on that end of town. There's froggies the river city en route for steak house to be prettily out there it goes to 25 or between the River City and Market Square. You have this vast wasteland occupied by nothing more than the Tomb of the NRC parlor parking just right. We do have roads closed and I thought it might be Lou it's going to have a really vibrant litanies really did a story on channel 2 this week that has got a lot of play and your newspaper should pick it up because she did it she did it she got it got it from us anyway I don't think so she did a piece on what's happened to fifth and Forbes Since all of the above and it's deteriorating. It's robbing stores are closing up merchants are saying we're leaving because we don't know what's going on great put the ice rink in nobody's there and until somebody decides that we need to do something down there you have a nice ice rink. See I don't need you there I think the ice rink is something that will bring people down yes because I mean there's something very bucolic about that and I mean maybe that's cheesy but you know I mean you don't need to necessarily have a bunch of stuff around it to draw people to an ice rink.

I mean I think the ice rink might and maybe they'll open up some skate shop Han's Brinker Seattle Space is not ok. I know how I dash off the Winter Garden is there some cute little shops in that area. It's a wonderful day. I can't believe nobody thought of that before now. I can't I don't I just know it's amazing the right people for the Ethical Treatment of Animals what animals one of the groups is going to put up a billboard I believe we have a piece of video of it here. What does that say you're all right you know what are stacked Yeah and they say it might be revenge. And they point out all the sharks that are killed by these big drift nets and everything else. You think this is kind of insensitive Fred for people to put your foot up in the kid's hometown the kid still in a coma No that's not insensitive that's fine you know it's people for the Ethical Treatment of Animals just makes me want to go out slaughter a pig and have a pig roast and it's here by the way and I am a vampire is not something I don't want to look at it and you know how do you defend the rights of a little of Lady Maisie.

Oh yes. JM about ammo Yeah. How about the mistreatment of eyewitnesses then I'll listen to anything I thought we were animal first out of the fatted calf where I have to take a last look at one nice thing and that is the fact that Fred Rogers has been around for over 40 years bringing the best in children's programs to people but you don't see this kind of gentle wisdom kind of program anymore. It's all Rugrats and all kinds of thing Ruthie and you've got three kids. Are we ever going to see another Fred Rogers again in this day of regret we will ever see of Fred Rogers but he has inspired some programming that's come along behind his trailblazing way that's it. Blue's Clues is just as gentle and they've even perfected way way beyond what Sesame Street did the right way to teach young children if you actually want to know like all those in the financial ruin and Sponge Bob Square Pants. It sounds like a bunch of bums gharana fans and it's I watch that but I'm fine not having children. Well yes I did find it all square.

Yes SET ME WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA Spongebob is the best judge of people around here you can see remember that just like Are you saying right there. I thought I said rather Frova sitting in the guest you had a diet and good luck on your debut one is a game next Friday night 7 o'clock at the Veronicas Vale auditorium on the south side all right and of course read Hahn's where go Also when I'm on an airplane. Fearsome regulars he'll be in the front row center at the play and rounding out the regulars now over on this side. Ruth and Baker and Alan Cox Up next see what you've been missing at Pittsburgh parks and it's not an ice rink after this. Looking ahead to Monday on cue. In

the past couple of weeks we've been showing you the treasures of Pittsburgh parsable so far U.S. Schenley in Highland. Well tonight we want to showcase two more. Park which is in Pittsburgh's East End and river view on the north side. You may be surprised what these parts have to offer. I met the president of the Pittsburgh parks Conservancy today where in a car park is right in the city of Pittsburgh which is one of the things that's so exciting about it. It's a very naturalistic park. Right now it's almost 500 acres. There's a great playground Radek there some play tennis courts there. The great thing to do in a park is to take a walk in the woods. You can do that alone. You can do that with your friends you can do that with your dog. It's just a wonderful place to take.

There is an experiment to how men are. And that's because people love the park so much that they really want to bring their dogs here and have a good time. And there are people who have dogs and love them and think they're under control want to be able to let them loose and free and then people who have either been attacked by dogs or dogs obviously want them to be on a leash. This was an attempt to try to allow both sets of points to have their day. But the whole reason I bought a house on Braddock Avenue right across the street two years ago is because of this park. Even though I live in Squirrel Hill for a few years and I really can't afford very much but when I saw the house so close the park had to come and specially the dog would come every day rain or shine fall winner. It doesn't matter.

We come all the time with the master plan for the park for a lot of attention to the ecological park. I think a very surprise right in the middle of the city. You don't expect to be able to have this. The woodland experience where and three or four minutes you can park your car and get out and then suddenly be in the woods. That's pretty rare and unusual and wonderful. Within a city as big as Pittsburgh Riverview Park is in the north side of Pittsburgh. You can reach it by driving along and turning left on to Riverview Avenue yourself right in the park. Riverview Park is over a hundred years old. If you look up the hill you'll see the observatory at Parkland the barge is right Allegheny observatory is actually operated by the University of Pittsburgh but it

dominates Riverview Park physically from its perch atop the hill. That's really an imposing it was beautiful structures just fine and if you look to the left you'll see the newly redone playground in the park and Riverview Park is a little over two hundred fifty acres and it's mostly wooded and it's extremely hilly terrain. There is really very little level land in the whole park. The types of activities you can engage in at Riverview Park are very this is the park in the city of Pittsburgh where you can go horseback. There is there are two stables near the park and one of them takes riders right into the park itself this year. That's kind of a unique offering. Especially right in the heart of the city. You can also go in the pool at Riverview Park and there is a little place where you could go

and walk along the street and hear the birds singing in the trees and feel that you're a million miles away from town. One of the things that Mr. Parker Spitzer is extremely interested in is working with the city of Pittsburgh to provide opportunities for many people to come and volunteer in the parks to help clean them up and restore them and make them more ecologically healthy. Today it's the Pittsburgh air service on Monday. We have crews of volunteers working here to do a number of projects primarily removal of invasive species which is a problem in all four of our parks all of our parks in the city. They're going to be removing some Japanese knotweed in Norway maple which are very problematic for parks and they're going to be doing some trail stabilization to help remedy some erosion problems.

Today they're going to work for hours to remove just a fraction of the problem. He would really like the people of Pittsburgh to develop a sense of ownership of the park and there's nothing like getting down and dirty and getting in the dirt and pulling out the invasive species to make you feel like you're part of the park. Further the park is really one of the undiscovered park system. The park did a lot of public service to people either over the phone or in writing or by interviewing them in the parks. And it was a surprisingly large number of people who had never heard of or didn't know where it was. It's really a wonderful place limits. I wouldn everyone in the pits to make it a point to go and see

for more information check out the Pittsburgh Conservancy website at Pittsburg parks dot org and you'll find out what they have to offer and how to get there. Another Friday is coming. Thanks for joining us and have a great holiday weekend. Group of who.

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Friday September 28 from 9 to 11 p.m.. For more information call 4 1 2 6 2 2 1 4 6 6 4 loss. The BBC got me on the next evening at Pops. What can you say about this guy. He's a phenomenon he's also one of the most inspiring characters that I know musically because he crosses so many boundaries. I look for things that are common between different types of music because there are many more things that are on the lot base which was so Edgar Meyer on Saturday night at 8:00 here on WQED 13. This September on PBS. It's about where we're from and where we're gonna get back to school for the story of American Education and see if it's never seen before. It's all right here PBS.