5 things to know today

📬 Pennsylvania officials want to extend the deadline for mail-in ballot deliveries here after a dire warning from the U.S. Postal Service. Here’s how you can help: If you’re planning to vote by mail, make sure you’re registered to vote, request your mail-in ballot now, and get it in asap. (York Daily Record)

🗣 Video of a Black Lives Matter protester being swept into an unmarked van by plainclothes Pittsburgh police has touched off a wave of condemnation. (KDKA-TV / Pittsburgh City Paper)

➡️ The pandemic has been “a great amplifier of inequality” in Pennsylvania, a new report finds. Here’s what that report says the commonwealth should do about it. (York Dispatch)

😷 This is how COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania schools should be handled, according to state officials. (Associated Press)

📈 COVID-19 stats: Allegheny County (9,433 cases), Pennsylvania (124,460 cases), and the United States (5.4 million cases).

5 things to make you smile

🐅 Pittsburgh panthers were real — and we’re not talking about mascots or sports teams. (90.5 WESA)

✍️ How do you illustrate a Pittsburgh Left? Allow North Side artist Nils Hanczar to show you. (Pittsburgh City Paper)

🏠 Just imagine kicking your feet up in this massive historic home in Allegheny West — just don’t look at the price tag. (Pittsburgh Magazine)

🎞 Mayor Peduto photographed a model of Downtown Pittsburgh, and Indiana Jones Twitter rejoiced. (Mayor Bill Peduto on Twitter / Chris Potter on Twitter)

🍗 The Coop Chicken & Waffles has opened a brick-and-mortar location on the North Side. Here’s what else is opening and closing around town. (TribLIVE)

Meet Tierra Thorne and Colleen Peddycord, two social workers with a shared love of charcuterie that has now led to the launch of their own business. That business is called Blanket & Board, and it delivers immaculate, Instagram-ready picnics to you at a time when both charcuterie and outdoor eating are having a moment. They’ve created outdoor picnic wonderlands for anniversaries, birthdays — even graveside visits.

We talked with the pair about charcuterie as a coping tool, what it’s been like opening a business in Pittsburgh, particularly during a pandemic, and where they hope to go from here. Portions of our conversation follow here, edited for clarity and length.

The Incline: So, how did this get started? 

Colleen: We work together as social workers for a childhood trauma treatment center, so we have really stressful jobs. We started spending a lot of time together, and since we’re social workers, and social workers don’t make that much money, when we would travel together we would bring our own charcuterie boards with us. And we decided we should be doing this for other people. It’s COVID-19. Everybody’s stressed out. People need to get outside. And that’s kind of how the business started.

Tierra: I mean, who doesn’t like cheese and meat and wine?

The Incline: In your experience, is Pittsburgh a good place to start a business? 

Tierra: I think so. We joked about appealing to hipsters but then there’s been a lot of older people as well. There have been young people, Black people, white people, Asian people. I love the diversity of the people we’re serving. Also there are a lot of resources in Pittsburgh because we are a minority-owned business.

Colleen: And, as social workers, we’re good at finding those resources.

The Incline: Besides charcuterie, how are you coping in the pandemic? 

Tierra: Being home with my son more. I really enjoyed that time because previously I was working full-time and in grad school. And riding my bike — that’s extremely freeing for me and extremely therapeutic.

Colleen: Blanket & Board has kept me really busy, and it’s kept me outside a lot. I enjoy just being able to go to different parks and see different parts of the city I don’t normally go to or have a reason to go to. And also keeping my female friendships strong — I am always talking on the phone to close friends, and I see Tierra almost every day.

The Incline: What’s next for Blanket & Board? 

Tierra: We’ve been talking about new offerings like grazing tables for bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, and birthdays. Maybe our own dedicated space for events. It’s just kind of uncertain with COVID-19 right now, but I think when we get back to normal we can see ourselves doing that.

The Incline: What about social work? 

Tierra: We would like to continue to work for ourselves, but I know both of us are social workers at heart and that will always be incorporated into what we do in some way, shape, or form. I don’t think any of us could just stop being social workers.

Colleen: No, no we couldn’t.

Cannonball! 

A cache of Civil War-era cannonballs was discovered during construction in Lawrenceville, and you’ve got to see the photos. It’s not the first time this has happened either.

Thanks for reading to the bottom, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.