Articles Archive - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Most young couples embarking on a life together might buy a starter home, combine the furniture that survived their single days, and dream about a dream house. But not Alison and Matthew Weiss. They became engaged, bought a plot of land in Upper St. Clair, got married, built a house, and had a baby almost …

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Books

Walter Turns to AI Fiction with Doppelganger

by Fred Shaw

Noted sci-fi novelist and pioneering computer scientist Vernor Vinge wrote in a 1993 paper for NASA that “Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.” If so, this tipping point, which he called a “technological singularity,” is upon mankind, one in which …

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People Profiles

What Do I Know? Rev. Paul Abernathy

by Jeff Sewald

One day, years ago, I asked my congregation in the Hill District where each church member was when 9/11 happened. I remembered where I was, as did most everyone else, and we all shared our recollections. But when the conversation turned to a particular woman, she replied, “I don’t know.” “You don’t know?” I asked. …

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Arts

Quantum’s Sleepy “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”

by Stuart Sheppard

In drama, interiority always triumphs over exteriority. Just look at Shakespeare (even his history plays), Beckett, or Sophocles. And mystery is always stronger than explication. Who wants to be told what to think? But with Quantum Theatre’s new production of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” we find an inversion of these principals, in that the …

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PQ Poem

Beer Money for Almost Nothing

by Gary Ciocco

Beer Money for Almost Nothing “Holdin’ on to sixteen as long as you can Change is coming ’round real soon Make us women and men.” John Cougar Mellencamp, “Jack and Diane” The Rolling Rock Brewery, red brick behemoth, stood just down the street. I’d had some of the palest ale already, but in nineteen-eighty-two I stepped inside. …

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Books

Demystifying Creative Nonfiction

by Fred Shaw

For some, Pittsburgh is french fries on salads, rabid Steelers fans and Iron City beer. For others, it’s Andy Warhol, steel mills and pierogies. For Lee Gutkind, it’s the city where creative nonfiction, that nebulous, energetic literary genre he continues to champion, grew into prominence. In his latest book, aptly titled The Fine Art of …

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Arts Culture

Learning to Fly, Again: Pittsburgh Ballet’s “Peter Pan” Makes Children of Us All

by Stuart Sheppard

Marcel Proust may have needed a sip of lime-flower tea imbued with madeleine crumbs to trigger the memory of his idyllic childhood, but I found myself just as deliciously transported back to my six-year-old psyche as I watched Pittsburgh Ballet Theater’s magical production of “Peter Pan” in the Benedum Center last week. Had this performance …

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PQ Poem

Glendale Lake

by Matthew Ussia

Glendale Lake Summer neck deep on my birthdaydrowning has always been too easyno lifeguard on dutycold currents from the depthsstirred up by distant motorboatscan feel every inch of skinunderneath my clothesfor the next three days Autumn past-peak color on the hillsidesdogs rooting through leaveshoping to surprise a chipmunkthe promise of wintercould separate usfrom our sacred …

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Nature

Pittsburgh’s Future as a Climate Haven

by Dominique Escandon Valverde

If you walked the streets of Pittsburgh’s Strip District in 1924 at noon, you may have needed a lamp to cut through the thick air pollution of the city once described as “hell with the lid off.” With air twice as polluted as bad air days in modern Beijing, Pittsburgh represented the worst of the …

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Nonprofits Pittsburgh Immigration

How Literacy Pittsburgh is Helping to Grow Population and a More Vibrant Economy

by Beth Marcello

This story is part of “The New Americans” series, a project of Pittsburgh Tomorrow. When Mhra Moe arrived in Pittsburgh with her husband and baby daughter as refugees from Myanmar in 2014, she was fluent in Mon and Burmese, but the volunteer teacher knew little English. Despite the trauma of having to flee the only …

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PQ Poem

Vanishing Point

by Valerie Bacharach

Vanishing Point Wind kicks sand, a mist of saltwater layers my skin.I am on Hatteras island, the Atlantic on one side, Pamlico sound on the other. My feet unsteady as waves roll in, shift ground beneath me.I walk and walk, stop to gather a few intact shells, ocher and cream, maroon and gray,what were once …

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People Profiles

The Art of Compromise

by Douglas Heuck

Q. You’ve been a leader in the Pittsburgh community for decades, serving as president of the Mt. Lebanon School Board, managing partner of Pittsburgh’s oldest and most prestigious law firm — Reed Smith, president of the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Academy of Trial Lawyers, board member of several nonprofits and through your private …

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Birds

A Tiny Airborne Hunter

by David Liebmann

You might remember an owl on a Pennsylvania license plate from the 1990s. It was one of those plates for which you pay a little extra to support conservation efforts, featuring an owl with bright yellow eyes, an intense little bird with a bit of a scowl that said, “Who are you looking at?” This …

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Education Nonprofits

College Town Pittsburgh Part 6

by PQ Staff

Editor’s note: We thank the top leaders of this region’s universities for penning a response to the following question: Given continuing enrollment declines and our civic need to attract and keep young people, is it desirable to significantly build on fledgling programs to get students off campus and engage them in this region’s amenities, thus building …

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Food & Wine Travel

Pass the Pasta

by Barbara Eichenlaub

As the hot days of summer wane and we get out our sweaters and jackets, our meals also transition from lighter fare and grilled foods to heartier, cozier options — including pasta.Rebecca Romagnoli has a passion for pasta, so much so that she makes it available to her customers at a variety of “involvement” levels …

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PQ Poem

Our Ark

by Philip Terman

Our Ark If it’s the spruce it must be the mourning doves, the willow— the two blue birds the arborvitaes—robins If it’s the shagbark hickory the red-headed woodpecker If it’s the red oak at the far end of the trail the magnificent male pheasant If it’s the underbrush at the inflow-end of the pond the …

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Education

College Town Pittsburgh Part 5

by PQ Staff

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People Profiles

A Pittsburgher’s Plan to Get America Back on Track

by David McCormick

Editor’s note: Over the past 15 years, when Pittsburghers including Dan Onorato and John Fetterman have run for statewide or national office, Pittsburgh Quarterly has given them the opportunity to share their views. In this issue, U.S. Senate candidate and Pittsburgher David McCormick writes about why he’s running. I’ve always been proud to call Pittsburgh …

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Arts

Serious Daddy Issues: Barebones Delivers a Compelling “Crocodile Fever”

by Stuart Sheppard

One of the most difficult questions a drama critic confronts is how much of the plot should be explicated during a review? I think it’s a disservice to reveal too much of a play’s action, as it denies an organic apprehension of the experience. Imagine seeing the film “Jaws” for the first time with all …

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Education Nonprofits

College Town Pittsburgh Part 4

by PQ Staff

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Arts Culture

Bring the World to Pittsburgh

by Aakanksha Agarwal

In pockets across Pittsburgh, a new and different city is emerging, one in which internationals and creatives are finding a foothold in neighborhoods that long have struggled for new vitality. A prime example of this is in Garfield, where Henry Simonds of Headwater Media envisioned a new kind of social enterprise for his hometown. The …

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Nature

Carpenter Bees

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

We raised our babies in this old farmhouse, wrapped them in swaddling clothes like little cocoons, and protected them as best as we could. We renovated parts of the house, added a bathroom and knocked through a kitchen wall to create more space for a growing family. We fed our children, taught them what we …

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