Articles Archive - Page 110 of 154 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

In the last Ice Age—10,000 to 110,000 years ago—what is now the Monongahela River flowed north across Pennsylvania into the St. Lawrence watershed. At some point, an ice dam gave rise to Lake Monongahela, which was 200 miles long, 100 miles wide and hundreds of feet deep. Now, a series of locks and dams largely …

Life on the Monongahela Read More »

Environment

Clouds gathering over Pittsburgh

by Nick Keppler

As his rowboat swept over Penn Avenue, Charles H. Allard looked for the bronze tablet on the Horne’s building. The object commemorated the high water mark of the Flood of 1907, previously the most severe flood to ravage Pittsburgh. Allard, reporting for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 18, 1936, couldn’t see it. Allard and two …

Clouds gathering over Pittsburgh Read More »

Travel

New Zealand

by Douglas Heuck

Like everyone else who saw the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, I was somewhat stunned by the dramatic beauty of New Zealand. But I’d never seriously considered visiting until Christmas 2014, when my oldest son was home from Shanghai and said, “Let’s go fly-fishing together in New Zealand.” I’ve always loved fishing, but not …

New Zealand Read More »

Innovation

Beyond difference

by Katie Booth

Even before the performance of “Land of Oz” begins, it’s obvious that different rules apply here. Eyes dart around the auditorium and settle down in focused “listening”—sight is the primary way people here share information. To get someone’s attention, wave a hand in the air. To ignore someone, at which the high schoolers are particularly …

Beyond difference Read More »

Education

The Year of Humanities

by Ben Schmitt

A multicolored logo flashed over Heinz Field’s immense scoreboard on a bright fall day as a booming voice declared 2015-16 the University of Pittsburgh’s “Year of the Humanities.” The crowd of 45,000-plus fans cheered loudly. Whether they were celebrating the academic year proclamation or the fact that Pitt’s football team was beating up on the …

The Year of Humanities Read More »

Science

Transhumanism

by Tom Imerito

It was my first interview with an artificial intelligence—a talking head without a body. The conversation was awkward, but considering that Bina48 is an android, it went better than I expec-ted. Bina48 is a synthetic replica of a real woman named Bina Rothblatt. We met at a Juniata College conference called Our Transhuman Future. The …

Transhumanism Read More »

Opinion

Our New Downtown

by Douglas Heuck

I was dining the other night at Poros, the fourth Downtown restaurant opened by Yves Carreau. The elegant new space connects PPG Place and Market Square, and as I watched passersby outside the wall of windows, I was struck by how much Pittsburgh has changed. Soon the ice rink at PPG Place will reopen and …

Our New Downtown Read More »

Arrivals

Howard, Bairnsfather, Hand, Li, Riley, Fullerton

by PQ Staff

Christopher Howard will become president of Robert Morris University on Feb. 1. A native of Plano, Texas, Howard comes to Pittsburgh from Farmville, Va., where he has been president of Hampden-Sydney College since 2009. Howard previously was vice president for leadership and strategic initiatives at the University of Oklahoma, and has worked for General Electric’s …

Howard, Bairnsfather, Hand, Li, Riley, Fullerton Read More »

Opinion

A New Kind of Volunteering

by PQ Staff

As many consider year-end charitable gifts, one old Pittsburgh company with a new name is spurring new ways to build a better community. Covestro—until this year Bayer MaterialScience—is investing in a new concept called “skills-based volunteerism” designed to benefit nonprofits as well as companies and their employees. The idea is that Covestro, and hopefully other …

A New Kind of Volunteering Read More »

Birds

The Eastern Bluebird

by David Liebmann

Sometimes winter brings surprises. Some are massive, like a burying storm; and some are almost unnoticed, like an unexpected bird on a branch. Now is the season to look for the Eastern Bluebird, whose flash of color can be as brilliant as a winter sky after a big snow or as delightful as an early …

The Eastern Bluebird Read More »

Nature

Helen B. Katz Natural Area

by Thomas Saunders

Although colder temperatures and snow are upon us, there are still many things to do and places to see in our beautiful western Pennsylvania landscape. One is the 284-acre Helen B. Katz Natural Area near Meadville in Crawford County. Part of protecting our region’s rivers and streams is conserving the surrounding land in key locations. …

Helen B. Katz Natural Area Read More »

Books

4 reads for the Pittsburgh winter

by John Allison

Theresa Brown, a nurse from Point Breeze, is already nationally known for her 2010 nursing memoir “Critical Care” and years of writing online for The New York Times about her profession. Brown’s new book, “The Shift,” should cement her reputation as a reliable and compassionate explainer of modern American heath care for the general public. …

4 reads for the Pittsburgh winter Read More »

Travel

The shrine on Troy Hill

by Barbara Eichenlaub

The story of how St. Anthony Chapel in Troy Hill came to house the largest collection of Christian relics outside of the Vatican begins in the 1850s with a young man from a wealthy Belgian family. After attending medical school, Suitbert Mollinger became a Catholic priest who followed his vocation to America. By 1868, he …

The shrine on Troy Hill Read More »

Food & Wine

Millvale’s Grant Bar

by Joseph Sabino Mistick

Amidst the worldly comings and goings, observe how endings become beginnings,” says the Tao Te Ching, the Chinese book of philosophy and religion from 6th century BC. Despite the separation of millennia, the ancient author could have been inspired by the comings and goings at Grant Bar in Millvale. Since 1933, Frank Ruzomberka and his …

Millvale’s Grant Bar Read More »

Architecture & Neighborhoods

Monsignor Rice’s trampoline

by Christine O'Toole

To understand how I, a lapsed Catholic from the East, came into possession of a small, slightly cracked trampoline that used to belong to Pittsburgh’s most famous “labor priest,” you must begin, as South Hills summers always do, with the St. Anne’s Fair. Glimpsed from a seat on the outbound Castle Shannon T, the fair …

Monsignor Rice’s trampoline Read More »

History

Light in Darkness

by Steve Hecht

I can’t really say if I found Ernie, or if Ernie found me. When I volunteered for a writing project at the Pittsburgh Holocaust Center in 1992, he was the first person I met. An engaging, bespectacled gentleman in his early 70s, Ernie was one of about 200 Holocaust survivors living here at the time. …

Light in Darkness Read More »

Health

Stroke Alert

by Kelly Casey

It was around 10 p.m. on a summer evening a year ago. Kelly Pieczynski of North Braddock was chatting with her 21-year-old daughter about her day at Kennywood. When Pieczynski went to kiss her goodbye, she thought she was saying, “I love you. Drive safe.” But all that came out was mumbling. Her daughter, in …

Stroke Alert Read More »

Opinion

Time for a change

by Lara Bruhn

I can see the eye roll coming. How did I become the old shrew? Was it the cumulative effect of all those times I naively worried that an absent employee had been in a car wreck only to have them show up 30 minutes late with a mochachino in hand complaining about the line at …

Time for a change Read More »

Obituaries

Bron, Gaffney, Conniff, Waldman, Ebbert, Ellis, Robertshaw, Miller, Walsh, Blum

by PQ Staff

Klaus Bron, 86 Dr. Bron was a pioneering visionary in interventional radiology and angiography. After studying the nascent field of minimally invasive angiography in Sweden, he came to Pittsburgh in 1964 and .became chief of vascular and interventional radiology as well as chief of radiology at Presbyterian University Hospital. His work created the conditions that …

Bron, Gaffney, Conniff, Waldman, Ebbert, Ellis, Robertshaw, Miller, Walsh, Blum Read More »

History

Wabash Park ice skating, 1917

by Jennifer McNulty

On the wintry afternoon of Jan. 20, 1917, pittsburghers of all ages enjoyed ice skating at Wabash Park in Pittsburgh’s West End. Regularly a grassy swath, it was apparently flooded and frozen for the season. The park is still there, as are a number of the park-facing homes along Wabash Street. An icy Sawmill Run …

Wabash Park ice skating, 1917 Read More »

Regional News

Going Long

by Julia Fraser

In the city where the Pirates’ Roberto Clemente opened the door for generations of Hispanic ballplayers, employers ranging from local corporations to government are taking a cue from the sports industry’s most celebrated hiring policy to diversify a workforce that is among the least racially and ethnically diverse in the nation. Allegheny County government and …

Going Long Read More »

Opinion

Building a Stronger Region

by Douglas Heuck

Creating a diversity survey for the Pittsburgh region is a tricky business. First, in this day and age, how should we define diversity? There’s racial and ethnic diversity as well as diversity of religion and of sexual preference, which has grown from “LGBT” to “LGBTQIA” (you can look it up). Should women fall under the …

Building a Stronger Region Read More »