Articles Archive - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Steering through Chaotic Markets Read More »

Editor’s note: We asked a group of leading Pittsburgh-area wealth managers to give their answers to two questions facing investors. Each expert answers one of the questions below. Question 1: The Trump Administration’s often-chaotic tariff policies have caused a significant decline in U.S. stocks. Should investors lighten up on stocks in anticipation of more turmoil, …

75 Years Ago the Renaissance Began Read More »

75 Years Ago the Renaissance Began

by L.E. McCullough

The official start to Pittsburgh’s long-cherished ambition to become a Most Livable City took place on the grey-skied afternoon of May 18, 1950, and it was noisy. At a shouted signal from Pennsylvania Gov. James Duff, an 1,800-pound wrecking ball slammed into a 103-year-old vacant brick warehouse on Exchange Way between Liberty and Penn avenues …

The Time It Takes Between the Takes

The Time It Takes Between the Takes Read More »

In his celebrated writing workshop of the early 1990s, editor and literary guru Gordon Lish taught that one of the best ways to create an effective agon is to place divergent characters in a confined space – and let them act on their own volition, without smothering them in authorial intent. And that’s exactly what …

Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. IX

Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. IX Read More »

To celebrate the beginning of our 20th year, we’ve set out to catalogue the contributions that Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania have made to the world. The list has grown and grown, and despite our best efforts, we know we’ll leave out key contributors. I think you’ll find that this small city at the confluence of …

Opinion

An Opportunity for Each of Us

by Douglas Heuck

It’s been 23 years since the saga of the discarded toilet. I lived in Squirrel Hill then, and each day as I drove Downtown to work at the Post-Gazette, I followed the same path as thousands of other motorists, coming through Oakland, exiting the Boulevard of the Allies down and to the right via a …

An Opportunity for Each of Us Read More »

Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. VIII

Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. VIII Read More »

Obituaries People

Lange, Maher, Garber, Linaberger, Bowers, Burnett, Wettick, Effort, Gaines, Veale, Rayvid, Blank

Lange, Maher, Garber, Linaberger, Bowers, Burnett, Wettick, Effort, Gaines, Veale, Rayvid, Blank Read More »

Mike Lange, 76He spent 46 seasons as the play-by-play voice of the Pittsburgh Penguins, creating some of the most memorable sayings in the process. “It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh!” he would announce during a career that chronicled Mario Lemieux, Sid Crosby and the history of the franchise in Pittsburgh. A Hockey Hall of Famer …

Kinetic Theatre’s “Embers” Tells All

Kinetic Theatre’s “Embers” Tells All Read More »

That Kinetic Theatre Company’s “Embers” is such a moving play should be counterintuitive: it violates one of the most basic rules of art, “show don’t tell.” This is a work that shows nothing and tells everything, which is doubly ironic, as its principal character, who does most of the telling, does not trust language. Based …

My PTSD (“Post Traumatic Suit Disorder”) Read More »

It’s frequently assumed that looking and seeing have the same meaning. In fact, the difference between them is crucial. To look means essentially to perceive in three dimensions and to confirm and name what confronts our vision. Its ultimate benefit is to permit us to identify by name the world around us. It focuses on …

My PTSD (“Post Traumatic Suit Disorder”)

by Mark Schwartz

Reading Clayton Touter’s recent story in Pittsburgh Quarterly — “Buying A Suit. A Primer” — took me back to being traumatized by Brooks Brothers at 13 in the mid-sixties… Per his quote of Michael Bastian of Brooks Brothers which invented the “off the rack” suit: “If you don’t know your proper size, the first thing …

PQ Poem

The First Years

by Sara Henning

The First Years Locals call it the gates of hell, craterin the Turkmenistan desert burning forty years. The longest-burning fire begansix thousand years ago—an Australian coal seam in New South Wales ignited by lightning,smiting the biome into barren trails. But I always come back to the coal seamblazing under Centralia, Pennsylvania, where a trash fire …

The First Years Read More »

Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted Read More »

I was fortunate to attend another remarkable boundary-blurring performance recently: the world premiere of the long-lost “Markus Passion” by Bach. A joint-effort by Chatham Baroque, Renaissance Baroque, The Sebastians, and Joseph Marcell — based on archival interpretations and recreations of a vanished manuscript from the Bach corpus — the performance of this fusion of libretto, …

Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. V

Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. V Read More »

Pittsburgh Opera and Chatham Baroque Blur Performative Boundaries

Pittsburgh Opera and Chatham Baroque Blur Performative Boundaries Read More »

These are certainly synergistic days in the arts. Theater companies are staging operas, operas are staging plays, dancers are speaking in ballets, and everyone is projecting video. Museums are mixing it up, too, but then, they always have. It’s certainly been a win for audiences – at least in Pittsburgh – where we have so …

Home & Lifestyle Travel

The Amazing (and Unforgettable) Bayernhof

by Barbara Eichenlaub

Tucked away on a cul-de-sac in residential O’Hara Township is a museum you’ve likely never visited. The Bayernhof Museum is the culmination of the vision of Charles “Charlie” Boyd Brown, III (1934-1999), a quirky eccentric who left a legacy for generations to enjoy. Brown obtained his wealth by founding and running Gas-Lite Manufacturing, which made …

The Amazing (and Unforgettable) Bayernhof Read More »

Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. IV