LAST SUNDAY'S Jimmy Buffett concert at PNC Park was not a Cheeseburger in Paradise moment. Although the concert itself went well, and cheeseburgers were no doubt consumed, getting into the ballpark was hellish for many of the laid-back singer's flock of fans, the Parrot Heads (their ruffled feathers appeared in Thursday's Weekend Mag letters section). It was Margaritaville meets Muddleville and the blame could be spread around like suntan lotion. Clearly, this wasn't a well-organized event and the Pirates bear the responsibility for that. Some in the crowd were not regulars at the park and opening more gates and giving better directions could have improved the situation (it did not help that 19,000 tickets directed concert-goers to enter at the Home Plate Rotunda.) That said, the well-lubricated Parrot Heads didn't do themselves any favors. Fans can't expect to gain easy admittance if they nibble on sponge cake and watch the sun bake and then arrive at the gates in the thousands just before the concert starts. It's the early bird that gets the worm -- and it's the early Parrot Head who sees the start of the concert.

THEY ALSO SERVE who only stand and wait, according to another saying, but the travelers in the security line at Pittsburgh International Airport are more likely to feel like ill-served Parrot Heads during peak travel times. Indeed, it turns out that the wait in Pittsburgh is longer on Monday mornings than at the busiest airports in the country. It's a maximum of 45 minutes here, according to data from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, compared with 28 minutes in Chicago and 25 minutes in Los Angeles. But relief may be on its way, although perhaps not until early next year. The TSA has approved the Allegheny County Airport Authority's plan to add four more security lanes at the airport by using the vacant commuter terminal. This won't come a moment too soon. Wasting away in Margaritaville is one thing; wasting away in an airport security line has nothing to recommend it.

LONG LINES at concerts or security lines at airports are modern frustrations but sometimes a tragic event occurs to give us all an old-fashioned sense of perspective. Such is the story of homelessness and despair that is the life of 50-year-old Howard "Donnie" McKinney Jr. About 10 days ago, with his family's meager possessions in one old car, he stopped at a weigh station for the night on I-79 in Cranberry with his wife, Cheryl, 47, and their basset hound Rocky. Sometime in the early hours of June 24, the dog got away from the car and was struck and killed on the highway. Cheryl McKinney went out to recover the dog's body and she in turn was killed by a hit-and-run driver. While nothing can give back this man what he has lost, we should all hope that his long line of misery will eventually end in some inner peace.