During lunch on Saturday I went walkabout in downtown Pittsburgh in search of a place to eat that wasn’t already overrun with NRA members.  One good sign was that most of the businesses in the area had signs welcoming NRA members.  I think most of the them were happy to have us because of the money we were bringing (I overheard one NRA staffer in the elevator who said that it was estimated that the NRA meeting was bringing $7 million into the Pittsburgh economy; I don’t doubt it, given how expensive everything was).  The only people who seemed unhappy with us were the protesters (more on them later).

But as I was walking down Liberty Avenue (at least I think it was Liberty, I’m a bit fuzzy now on which street it was), I came across this:

It took me a few seconds to overcome the cognitive dissonance of a guy with a donkey in downtown Pittsburgh.  It turns out that he and the young woman next to him were out to advertise the opening of a new smoothie shop on Tenth (across from the Westin).  I’m not sure what a donkey has to do with smoothies, but it definitely got people’s attention.