Thanks to Cotter for this. He says:

this sh*t is the weirdest, but don't know if anyone sent you this before

As a swimmer, mini pony fan, former driver of Japanese vehicles prior to moving to NYC (Honda) AND someone who studied French for 13 years, I'm pretty stunned that I haven't seen this yet. The premise is that Toyota cars are much more novel than a swimming class with mini ponies. To which I'd rebut...yeah right.

Video below:

Thanks to Dawn for this. She says:

Holy sh*t, psamp... CHECK OUT SCOOBY BOO'S SHOES!  Jsrbgjhsrbi

OMIGOD I AM SEEING THEM AND THIS IS THE BEST! Scooby Boo has the freshest kicks in the game. And you better have your shoe game tight if you gotta wear four at a time.

Thanks to Dawn for this, which she sent over on Thanksgiving but we're using now as a belated holiday blessing.

I mean, Thanksgiving was less than a week ago and we've only published ONE mini pony here on PSAMP since, so we can still slip this November holiday picture into early December. PLUS LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE TICO AND ZIPPY ARE.

Big thanks to my bud Lowell for sending this over. He caught it at CONSOL Energy Center during Islanders-Penguins two weeks ago when Sidney Crosby notched his 250th career goal. And since the Pens play the Isles in Hempstead tonight, we might as well relive this horror.

From Lowell:

I don't even know where to begin with this maybe Gabe's had a sale

I'm having trouble finding a place to start as well. Somehow, an entire number got left off the back of this sweater. I thought maybe this was just a horrible Mullen/Malkin mixup considering Joey's wearing of said number 7, but this is clearly a current-generation Reebok EDGE sweater whereas the American Mullen wore CCM sweaters in Pittsburgh. I guess it could also be a Malkin/Martin mixup since Paul wears the number now. Who knows?

So I'm just gonna quote The Venture Bros. instead:

Henchman 21: Hank you should totally grow one of those! You look like Green Arrow. Or like the "Mirror, Mirror" version of Hank.

Hank Venture: Yeah, Evil Hank.

Henchman 21: Yeah, Evil Hank, completely.

This sweater was obviously for Evil Geno. Makes more sense now.

Thanks (?) to Amanda and SportsnWhatnot and Spenser and Cory and Blake and Patrick for this, from The Atlantic.

These headless, miniature pony robots are the future of military tech

I put that question mark in there because I'm not sure how well this will go over when one day in the immediate future we are all inevitable slaves of the T-1000 mini pony army. Then, thanks will hardly save us.

There are a number of reasons why I waited four days to publish a recap of the Steelers' most recent game against the Baltimore Ravens while the football-mad readers likely gorged on the post-game writeups at some of my more immediate colleagues like so much stuffing and turkey.

To start, there was the loss itself, and my own emotional hell during such happenings. We also had just done a recap days prior with the short week that a Thursday night game brings. THANKSGIVING was in everyone's faces making any recap have the reach of about two readers due to family squabbles and tryptophan. Plus, Thanksgiving led directly to the weekend and yeah right like I'm gonna think about that loss with words on the Internet on the weekend.

But mostly, with a record that now sits at 5-7, I wanted to wait until the majority of the games finished this weekend to see how the Steelers' precarious playoff position stands after certain games shook out. 

22-20 Ravens

And on a personal level, that picture above helped keep me away from my recap for a little. The immediate gnashing of teeth over if Mike Tomlin intentionally interfered with Jacoby Jones' long retun sort of drowned out some of the scarier happenings in that game, such as Le'Veon Bell being knocked out by legal headhunting and the Steelers losing their second reliable starter of the season.

So I'm choosing to forego the standard "rate a few players" MMCNY recap style because CRUSHING LOSS and I'd feel like a butcher rating Le'Veon Bell for his incredible game and nice-looking stats when he was nearly decapitated and obviously concussed late. It sort of puts the maniacal emphasis on stats in perspective when guys are almost killed by two helmet-first-launched missiles in a play protected by the rulebook. Plus, I couldn't be a complete poser and skip writing a "recap" after a loss. So this is more or less a record that the game happened, the Steelers lost and playoff hopes may have evaporated with Fernando Velasco's placement on the IR and Le'Veon Bell's helmet flying to the stratosphere.

However, Pittsburgh welcomes the Miami Dolphins to town next week, and their game was one of the few I was watching this weekend to see how it ended. They beat the Jets to move ahead of the Steelers at 6-6, but that record is moot should Pittsburgh win this Sunday. The other Wild Card logjam game I was waiting on was Bengals-Chargers, and San Diego's loss helps the Steelers by dropping Phil Rivers and company to a similar 5-7 record that keeps them below the Steelers in the race for that final playoff spot. It's kind of weird rooting for the Bengals to win such games now with the division crown hopes long gone, but a Chargers loss helped Pittsburgh much more.

A Steelers win over the Dolphins this weekend coupled with a Ravens loss would tie everything back up in that final Wild Card spot and let all those confusing tiebreaking scenarios pop back up and still keep the Steelers out, but I root for chaos and anarchy, which is what we've unfortunately had to witness in this Steelers season through 13 weeks. With all the injuries and crappy games and horrible losses, things could still get interesting over the final four if Pittsburgh can pull out a few wins.

Now I drop this recap like a a failed two point conversion, and move on to Dolphins week. They looked pretty bad against the also-horrid Jets, so maybe Ben and Co. can throw a stick in the spokes of the AFC and see what happens.

To be fair, QB Bobby Layne, (then) of the Steelers, is far from the only one in this incredible LIFE Magazine photograph from 1961. Photographer Ralph Morse was able to get every starting QB in the league together for a once-in-a-lifetime shot. But since this is a Pittsburgh sports blog, we gotta focus on what we do best.

That's Layne near the back-left, in the #22 Black and Gold jersey that became the Steelers' 75th Anniversary throwback from 2005-2011. The eventual Hall of Famer Layne was joined by fellow future Canton enshrinees Bart Starr (Packers #15, back row), Johnny Unitas (Colts #19, back row), Fran Takenton (Vikings #10, front row), Sonny Jurgenson (Eagles #9, front row) and Y.A. Tittle (Giants #14, front row). That's some serious clout before you even get to guys like Don Meredith and Bill Wade.

You can read all about how Morse went about making this photograph a reality at Deadspin, and I sugggest you do so if only for how Morse told Pete Rozelle to get the guys together because they had to do what he said as commissioner.

Thanks to Gracie for these. She says:

evidently mini ponies are a requirement for this town's holiday parade!

Indiana, PA

This goes hand-in-hand with yesterday's Pittsburgh parade mini ponies. Yes, Thanksgiving is tomorrow and we should all be getting real with turkeys and pilgrams and whatnot, but if cities are gonna have early holiday parades and feature mini ponies, well then we're gonna have them up on PSAMP right away.

Plus, Gracie sent the following, shortest, most adorable 3-second video clip of all time:

Super quick clip of mini ponies in the holiday parade. Indiana, PA - Just for psamp

I was trying to take pictures while holding a toddler and videoed instead. So there you have it. They were in costume!

That is well done, even if by accident.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have played 25 games so far in the 2013-14 season. Former longtime-Penguin Rob Scuderi was featured in the first 11 games of the season in his return from a four-year stint in Los Angeles, but he has now missed 14-straight games with a broken ankle. That ankle required surgery, and Scuds is still out indefinitely. Frowny face.

The only upside is that the Penguins will get an established veteran blueliner back at a critical point later in their season, and the team has gotten a chance to give younger D-men like Olli Maatta and Robert Bortuzzo more work.

But even in his absense, Scuds is making sure to remember that he's still a part of this team, while maintaining a smile about his gimpy situation. The above picture was shared by Pens PR Lady Jennifer Bullano, featuring one of Scuds' crutches displayed in his stick spot among the sticks of his teammates.

Meanwhile Cardboard Orpik stands at a team facility vending machine routinely feeding it a rejected, crumpled dollar bill over and over.

Thanks to Steve for this tip on the parade and Contenta for the above pic. Steve had given the heads up about Saturday's downtown 4th Annual Trib Total Media Candlelight Horse-drawn Carriage Parade potentially featuring mini ponies. From the link:

The stunning line-up includes horses of all sizes from majestic Clydesdales to adorable miniatures and mounted riders, along with sports celebrities, the Pirate Parrot, Pierogies, Iceburgh, and Mr. McFeely.

And then Contenta sent along the pic on Sunday:

Parade picture by Andrew Russell of Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Which saved everything. Usually I receive tons of pictures from the area holiday parades, and was bummed when I had not immediately gotten any from the Pittsburgh parade. But all turned out fine as always.

We have another town's parade to feature tomorrow, so remember to tune back in then.