Weird Wednesdays: Randyland

Travel 2 Minutes

This month’s weird house is Randyland, the happiest place in PA (Pittsburgh, specifically).

From: Uncoveringpa.com:

Stand outside of Randyland and you might think that it’s a quirky art project and a great way to fix up a once-dilapidated house. However, when I asked owner and creator Randy Gilson what Randyland was, he responded with a very simple answer: “Randyland is a giant heart of love.”

I pulled up to Randyland on a sunny September day. Even without my GPS telling me, I was able to instantly see Randyland from several blocks away.

Sitting on a street corner in a once-dilapidated area of Pittsburgh’s Northshore, Randyland looks like a cross between Sesame Street and the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour.”

Gilson purchased the home now known as Randyland in 1995.

Dipping into his savings as a waiter, he purchased the home and began to clean it up. He had been working on cleaning up the neighborhood for almost 10 years at that point. Removing trash, setting up community gardens, and putting flowers in front of abandoned buildings got him in trouble with the police more than once, but his goal was always to make the neighborhood a better place to live.

Using his knack for recycling goods in unusual ways, Randy set to work creating the colorful Randyland.

Much of the decoration at Randyland is visible from the streets. The large three-story home at the corner of Arch and Jacksonia Streets is painted a bright yellow, with a variety of scenes painted around the home. 

Behind the home, another home is painted a pastel green with several window scenes painted on the outside.

The two entrances are covered with a variety of recycled items that have been repurposed to create a beautiful art piece. When the gates are opened, a slightly-less-than-lifesize cutout of Gilson greets visitors to Randyland.

Walking into the back gardens of Randyland feels like walking into someone’s home. Chairs and tables sit around the yard, and Gilson himself can often be found tending to his kingdom.

When I visited, Randy was high on a ladder painting the pergola in the center of Randyland.

Joining him was another painter who had the appearance of a serious French artist. I would only later find out that this assistant was a homeless man that Randy had hired even though he had never painted before. Despite this, Randy trained him and on several occasions called him, “The best painter I’ve ever had.”

Introducing myself, I made the pleasant mistake of asking Randy a simple question, “So, when did you start Randyland?” Forty-five minutes later, Randy finished answering my question, after telling me about Randyland, his life story, and his philosophy.

It took me just a few seconds, however, to realize that Randy was the embodiment of Randyland. Gilson had a tough life growing up but has turned his life into an expression of happiness and joy, just like the recycled items that he has made colorful.

Randy told me on several occasions that he isn’t a smart man, but the wisdom that he exudes makes it worth visiting. To separate Randyland from Randy really is quite impossible, and that’s what makes Randyland Pennsylvania’s happiest destination. There’s no doubt that after spending a few minutes talking to Randy and walking through his elaborately created domain, you too will experience the beauty and happiness that is Randyland.

SOURCE: UNCOVERINGPA.COM

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Published by pat frederick

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90 thoughts on “Weird Wednesdays: Randyland”

  1. Morning All! no snow on the deck but it 14* out there. we got a sunrise though!

    and…the corn block we put out last night is GONE! hubby will bring in the trail cam later to see what happened, but we suspect a bear. There were a lot of deer here yesterday and all they managed to do is round the corners off on 2 sides! The block is gone. hungry bears waking up can be pretty dangerous.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Good Morning! A very red sunrise @ 31*. Supposed to snow ❄❄❄ a little, then temp get up to 58* later today! Crazy weather. 😊

      Be interesting to see what’s on your trail cam. 🐻

      Take care, God Bless. 🙏

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Good morning! Been busy checking out buying another oxygen concentrator – mine has quit working and, since it was manufactured in France…..you know how that goes! I found a company in CO and can get a full-size home concentrator for $795 w/3 year warranty but I don’t know if I want to spend that much. I’ll think on it.

      Randyland is waaay too out there for my tastes. Far too many distractions and craziness.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Charlotte99

    April 8, 2026 7:08 am

    There are six professors teaching at prominent American universities who are known to be children of Iran’s government officials. While the Islamic regime in Iran enforces strict Islamist rule and publicly denounces the U.S. as “Great Satan,” its “nobleborn” children, known as aghazadehs, enjoy the very Western freedom denied to ordinary Iranians.

    They are as follows:

    – Leila Khatami: A mathematics professor at Union College and daughter of former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.

    – Zahra Mohaghegh Damad: A faculty member at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and daughter of high-ranking cleric Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad.

    – Zeinab Hajjarian: A professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and daughter of Saeed Hajjarian, a key figure in the IRGC and intelligence apparatus.

    – Ehsan Nobakht: Son of former deputy health minister Ali Nobakht; associate professor of medicine at George Washington University.

    – Eissa Hashemi: Son of Masoumeh Ebtekar (a key spokesperson during the 1979 hostage crisis); associate professor at the Chicago School in Los Angeles.

    – Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani: Formerly a cancer specialist at Emory University; she is the daughter of Ali Larijani, a former speaker of the Iranian parliament.

    https://nitter.poast.org/visegrad24/status/2041829745445175460#m

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Charlotte99

    April 8, 2026 7:10 am

    The axe attack in Spain seems to have been an Islamist terror attack. Spain’s state-owned news agency EFE now reports that the migrant told the police: “I heard the call of Allah and all Christians must die”

    https://nitter.poast.org/visegrad24/status/2041797001369563161#m

    Charlotte99

    April 8, 2026 7:11 am

    Reply to  Charlotte99

    In Riofrío, a 45-year-old Moroccan migrant who had recently arrived in the town went into the street early in the morning armed with an axe and attacked people at random. One man and two women were hospitalized. One of the women, airlifted by helicopter, is in serious condition.

    https://nitter.poast.org/visegrad24/status/2041230560542990387#m

    Liked by 2 people

      1. i think he saw they were putting innocents around the targets and couldn’t bring himself to do it. Either he is relying on other countries to do it–after all Iran is still firing stuff at Kuwait and Israel, or he’s waiting till they drop their guard and then he’s going to strike. jmo

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Charlotte99

    April 8, 2026 7:45 am

    Call Kim Jong Un a “fat, ugly pig” to prove that you are not from North Korea

    During a job interview at a U.S. IT company, a candidate was asked to call Kim Jong Un a “fat, ugly pig” to prove he wasn’t from North Korea.
    The candidate decided life was more important and walked out. North Korean workers sometimes join U.S. companies remotely, then steal sensitive data or leave security vulnerabilities in the code.

    https://nitter.poast.org/visegrad24/status/2041545379771044183#m

    Liked by 2 people

  10. hubby looked at the pictures on the trail cam. a few minutes after midnight, a black bear came to the block, stood up and grabbed it off the holder on the tree stump and walked off with it. The blocks are 20 pounds and the deer had only managed to round the corners off the top 2 sides…

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Henry
    @HenryFrank02
    https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/svg/1f6a8.svg HOLY CRAP! Senator Cruz CONFIRMED that Biden’s FBI wiretapped Susie Wiles during a PRIVILEGED CALL with her lawyer without the consent of EITHER party. 

    To make it HORRENDOUSLY worse, they then tried to HIDE evidence of their actions by marking the file “prohibited.”

    This makes Watergate look like CHILD’S PLAY. Accountability is not optional. These people MUST be held accountable.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Just The News: “Clay Fuller, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, won a special election in Georgia Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.

    Fuller won with 54% of the vote compared to Democrat Shawn Harris, who secured 46% at time of publishing, with 45% of the vote counted. 

    Fuller and Harris placed in the top two positions in a March special election, leading to Tuesday’s runoff. The district is heavily Republican and Fuller was the solid favorite to win the seat.

    Fuller’s arrival in Congress is expected to prove a boost to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has struggled to maintain unity within the narrow Republican majority.”

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Liked by 1 person

        1. Wellll…..the ones I got to know from Egypt were trustworthy…..I can’t speak for all 9 of the Egyptians since I only really got to know a few of them but I would trust them. But they were only casual Muslims so…..🤷‍♀️

          Like

  16. Problem is that Israel is still attacking….

    “The Dems/MSM are Desperate to Contain Trump’s Victory”

    Clandestine, Apr 07, 2026

    “The propaganda machine is out in full force, trying to rewrite history. Here’s what actually happened:

    Trump killed Iran’s leadership, deleted their Air Force and Navy, then gave them a deadline to capitulate, otherwise he would blast them to the Stone Age…And they folded.

    Under no circumstances did Trump lose in any capacity. Trump just wiped out Iran’s military capabilities, without putting boots on the ground, made them cry uncle, and forced them to stop sabotaging global oil markets, while they finish negotiating their surrender.

    Trump just pulled off one of the greatest negotiation moves of all time, and the result should be a unanimously celebrated, regardless of what side of the aisle you are on.

    However, the Left/MSM will take part in any level of metal gymnastics to avoid admitting this. They will lie, make excuses, and repeat talking points until they are blue in the face, but no matter how much they try to spin it, this is objectively a massive victory for Trump, and the world, and they know it.”

    Liked by 1 person

  17. EXCERPT: “More than a year into the second Trump administration, the Republican chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says his staff is combing through nearly 11 million pages of documents to unmask the full extent of the Biden administration’s “cover-up” of COVID-19 vaccine side effects to maximize shots in arms.

    “We’re going to continue to dig, but I think […] we’re just scratching the surface in terms of what they covered up,” Chairman Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, told Just the News, No Noise this week.

    Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “trying to get the agencies to respond” to the committee’s targeted document requests, but thus far he has only been able to give Johnson’s staff a “huge data dump,” which even with AI requires them to “know the exact search terms” to find nuggets, Johnson said.

    That’s how congressional investigators discovered the prior administration’s vaccine safety surveillance system had picked up “statistically significant safety signals for ischemic stroke” in elderly people as early as November 2022, he also said.

    White House officials responded to the signal by “wordsmith[ing]” the draft warning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration, Johnson said. The original language described a “moderately elevated” stroke risk following COVID vaccination, but the White House changed it to a “slightly elevated” risk.

    FDA and CDC researchers also found an elevated stroke risk following co-administered COVID and flu vaccines, but their leaders disavowed it.

    The exact nature of mRNA vaccines is “only one of the things they lied to us about,” Johnson said. “I can’t bring myself to call them vaccines anymore” because mRNA technology actually “turned your cell into a manufacturing site for the most toxic part of the coronavirus” and sent those spike proteins throughout the body, “literally […] creating havoc.”

    Regarding Pfizer’s cancellation of its clinical trial for the latest COVID vaccine for lack of interest, Johnson said it’s a “good, good thing that people are wising up to the fact that, yeah, I don’t think I’m going to be a guinea pig on this thing.”

    He referred to a Rasmussen Reports survey three years ago that found more than a quarter of Americans believe they know someone who died of COVID vaccine side effects…..”

    https://justthenews.com/government/congress/sen-johnson-says-staff-untangling-biden-coverup-covid-vax-injuries-across

    Liked by 1 person

  19. NYP: “President Trump on Tuesday denied Tucker Carlson’s bombastic reporting that he was considering nuclear war on Iran, blasting the controversial commentator in a phone call with The Post.

    “Tucker’s a low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what’s going on,” the president said. “He calls me all the time; I don’t respond to his calls. I don’t deal with him. I like dealing with smart people, not fools.”

    Liked by 1 person

  20. This highlights how truly ridiculous this birthright citizenship situation is – a child born of US citizens unexpectedly while on vacation in a foreign country is NOT a citizen of that country!!! No other country in the world allows this!!!

    EXCERPT: “To borrow from comedian Jeff Foxworthy’s famous redneck schtick, if you were born on a flight over U.S. air space, you might be a U.S. citizen. 

    The latest birthplace debate underscores just how insanely stupid sweeping birthright citizenship has become in the modern age. And it’s another example of why the U.S. Supreme Court needs to fix a flawed 130-year-old interpretation of the Constitution. 

    ‘A Child Born on a Plane’

    Multiple corporate outlets had some fun reporting on the “stork” story of a passenger who gave birth over the weekend during a flight from Jamaica to New York City.  The Caribbean Airlines flight “landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy international airport with one more person than it took off with,” the liberal Guardian guffawed.

    As the cheeky piece explained, the citizenship status of the newborn remained up in the air because officials had yet to make clear the citizenship status of the parents — “and where the plane was at the exact moment the baby was born.” The child would, of course, automatically be a U.S. citizen if either parent is a U.S. citizen. If not, it depends on precisely where the birth occurred. If the answer is within 12 nautical miles of the U.S. coastline, the newborn just won the U.S. citizenship lottery. 

    “… [A] child born on a plane in the United States or flying over its territory would acquire United States citizenship at birth,” the State Department’s rule states. 

    All of this drives home the point that the expansive view of birthright citizenship is a bastardization of the law — and it needs to end. This Supreme Court has a chance to bring sanity to more than a century of manipulation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, twisted to appease myriad monied interests……”

    https://thefederalist.com/2026/04/08/mid-air-birth-flies-home-how-stupid-birthright-citizenship-is/

    Liked by 1 person

      1. There were previous conflicts between them. You know he won’t! He got a group of his “buddies” together to beat him up. IDK how many were illegals but at least some of them, I expect.

        Like

  23. Rex Heuermann, the suspected serial killer linked to the Gilgo Beach murders, pleaded guilty to killing eight women on Long Island in a Suffolk County court on April 8, 2026. 

    • Heuermann, 62, admitted to strangling victims including Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, as well as four other women whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach and elsewhere. 
    • The plea deal, accepted by Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney, results in three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, with no possibility of parole. 
    • As part of the agreement, Heuermann must cooperate with the FBI regarding the investigation and faces no further prosecution for these eight victims. 
    • While Heuermann had previously maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to seven counts, he entered the guilty plea for the eighth victim, Karen Vergata, whose remains were identified in 2023. 
    • Reports indicate that Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter attended the hearing, while victims’ families expressed satisfaction with the resolution. 

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Problem is it was an agreement between the court and him – plead guilty and no death penalty. I hate that shit!!! There should be NO compromise and it’s despicable that the American taxpayers pay for these cretins’ upkeep!!!!

        Like

  24. “Iran’s battered navy has reportedly warned foreign ships on Wednesday that they will be “destroyed” if they attempt to cross the Strait of Hormuz without permission from Tehran. “You must receive permission from Iranian Sepah navy for passing through the strait. If any vessel tries to transit without permission, will be destroyed,” an Iranian official was heard saying in audio shared with the Wall Street Journal by a crew member.

    The threat comes despite President Trump announcing late Tuesday that Iran agreed to the “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz,” through which over a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil flows annually.

    The problem here is two-fold, but simple. First and foremost, there is no clear, defined leadership. Secondly, there are too many hard-liners still left in positions of some power, and they can and most likely will act on their own in defiance of the ‘truce’. 

    Add to those facts the reality that these guys are power-mad, lying zealots, and there’s a safe bet somebody somewhere is gonna do something stupid. Juss’ sayin’…”

    Liked by 1 person

  25. “Yeah – what’s the problem? It’s about time we had a guy in charge of shit who talks like we talk, ain’t it?”

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Hear, hear!!!!

    EXCERPT: “In a piece in Le Figaro Histoire entitled “Why do we never talk about the responsibility of Africans in the enslavement of their own people?” Marie-Claude Mosimann-Barbier calls for Africans to acknowledge the role they played in the slave trade “as suppliers, intermediaries, or organizers.” She also calls upon Western institutions such as the United Nations, to stop skirting the issue.

    The article comes in the wake of the UN General Assembly resolution adopted last month that designated the Atlantic slave trade and its involvement in the slavery of Africans as “the most serious crime against humanity.” According to a UN statement, it seeks an order that “confronts historical truth while building mechanisms for equitable futures.”

    However, the clear involvement by various African and Middle Eastern nations in the African slave trade continues to be “taboo,” often disallowed from the conversation entirely, writes Mosimann-Barbier, who is an honorary lecturer at the École normale supérieure de Paris-Saclay, member of the GRER (research group on racism and eugenics) at Paris-Cité University.

    As Mosimann-Barbier points out, “since the beginnings of the trans-Saharan slave trade in the 7th century, Africans had been selling slaves to Arab Muslims,” and as demand grew from the New World centuries later, ethnic Africans happily met it. “Long before the arrival of Europeans and the development of the Atlantic slave trade, internal slavery was a structural reality in most African societies,” she writes.

    The Arab slave trade involved the enslavement of approximately 1 million White Europeans across Europe’s vast coastline. There was also ample involvement of the Arabs and Persians in the African slave trade. According to scholars, any non-Muslim could be enslaved according to Islamic doctrine, and prior to the 20th century, the number of slaves numbered between 12 and 15 million, which substantially dwarfs the number of slaves in the United States, which reached 4 million at its height.

    Even in the modern era, there are an estimated 40 million slaves worldwide, and almost none of these slave networks exist in Western nations.

    What Mosimann-Barbier says is most alarming is that the resolution was the brainchild of President of Ghana John Mahama, who demanded reparations, formal apologies from slave-trading nations, and the return of looted cultural artifacts to address the lasting, systemic inequalities of slavery. Mosimann-Barbier notes that the Ashanti Kingdom, located in present-day Ghana, were one of the ethnic groups responsible for enslaving and selling slaves. Congo, Cameroon, Benin, and Nigeria were other nations known to have been home to active slave traders, ethnic Africans. She also noted the very robust slave (and ivory) trade in East Africa, run by Arab-Muslims…..”

    https://rmx.news/article/new-un-resolution-on-slavery-omits-african-and-middle-eastern-slave-trades-ignores-millions-enslaved-by-islam/

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Isn’t it??!!?? I love having 2 grills at different heights! I used to do London Broil on the grill with a grill pan of cubed potatoes with tarragon, garlic and butter on the top shelf.

        Like

  30. Shoshone man, circa 1912

    When no one is around, Whiskers likes to read Tolstoy, in the original Russian, of course.

    Caracals (Caracal caracal) family Felidae, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

    On the lonely ice

    Liked by 1 person

  31. when i talked to Mom this morning, she was on her bandwagon this morning about toilet paper. She would like to have a fresh roll in the bathroom, with an extra role in the bathroom cabinet just in case. She hates that she needs to walk down to the desk and ask for toilet paper. I offered to bring her a 4 pack that she can keep in her closet and put one roll in the bathroom cabinet when she needs it.

    She said no…I pay to be here…it’s the least they can do.

    I kept changing the subject, she kept bringing it back to tp.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. LOL – you find yourself saying “uh-huh” and “yes” over and over and over….on the other hand, you can always say “either accept my offer or stop bitching.” I could get by with that with my Mom but somehow, I don’t think your Mom would take it quite as well! ROFL

      Liked by 1 person

      1. well my (insert expletive here) brother hasn’t brought her a tv yet–even though he told her he has 5 extras at his house, so her conversation topics are limited. I try to understand.

        Liked by 1 person

  32. “Artemis sends supposed high Def video of lunar surface – fools think we won’t notice the “Earth” in the background is bisected horizontally instead of vertically?”

    “Imagine having to drive past it every day after that…”

    Datsun 240z……

    Liked by 1 person

  33. Hussain Abdul-Hussain

    @hahussain

    Oman is savvy enough to understand that imposing fees on ships passing through Hormuz violates Law of Sea (UNCLOS) and creates enemies for Muscat, especially among its Gulf neighbors. For the first time in years, Oman says no to the “winning” Iran regime, which said it will levy $2 million on each ship, share half the proceeds with the Omanis (and Tehran also said that it had discussed it with Muscat that has agreed). If Oman doesn’t play, the only way for Iran to control Hormuz is by continued piracy or drone attacks, neither that says ceasefire.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. “A science teacher decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his lesson on healthy living. Four worms were placed into four separate jars. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol. The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke. The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup. The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.

    At the conclusion of the lesson, the teacher reported the following results:

    The first worm in alcohol . . Dead.
    The second worm in cigarette smoke . . Dead!
    Third worm in chocolate syrup . . . Dead!
    Fourth worm in good clean soil . . Alive!

    So the teacher asked the class, “So, students? What did you learn from this demonstration?” One student, sitting in the back, quickly raised his hand and said . .  “As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won’t have worms!”

    Liked by 1 person

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  46. A captured German DFS 230 assault glider rests on a North African airfield after falling into Allied hands, 1942

    Is that white car an Oldsmobile?

    Slo Mo

    Liked by 1 person

  49. Good night, Pat! I was able to order a replacement charge cord for the O2 concentrator – hopefully, that will fix the problem. If not, the original seller is supposed to be contacting me w/in 48 hours. If they don’t or they don’t resolve the issue, I am to contact Amazon again….sigh.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Good Night Filly!

      Is this a portable one that you can take with you –like shopping? or one you use at night?

      hubby was renting both kinds. the big machine for overnight rents at $35 a month but the portable one was $10.66 a month. When they came for maintenance on the overnight one, they took back the portable one, because he wasn’t using it.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I only have a portable one but I talked to a guy today with the company in CO and can get a whole-home one for $795 w/a 3 yr warranty. So I will be doing that eventually, once I get my CC paid down some.

        Liked by 1 person

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