Articles Archive - Page 19 of 156 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Hardy, Cashman, Pearlstein, Thomas, Donahue, Berger Read More »

Joe Hardy, 100 He went out the way he lived, dying on his 100th birthday, still smoking his cigar. Everything Hardy did was marked by flamboyance and an enormous appetite for life. He had eight children and five wives. He founded the billion-dollar 84 Lumber, the world’s largest privately owned building materials supplier with stores in 34 states …

100 Pittsburgh Leaders

We asked 100 top leaders across Pittsburgh to respond in 100 words or fewerto this question: According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 the Pittsburgh MSA had the inauspicious distinction of having the highest natural population loss — more deaths than births — of any metro area in the country. Pittsburgh lost 10,838 people, followed …

Giving Thanks to Mosses Read More »

Nature

Giving Thanks to Mosses

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

We hardly notice them. we trod all over them. Most mosses don’t even have universal common names. Moss experts are few. Yet mosses are among the most ancient of plants — the first to crawl out of the ocean and inhabit land 450 million years ago.I wonder if that’s why I feel as if I’m …

The Life and Death of Moonlight Mushrooms Read More »

“All mushrooms are edible, but some are edible only once.” Philip Hanes, mushroom expert quoted in the New York Times I was just out of law school, working for a huge law firm and still trying to figure out what the practice of law was all about. One day I received a call from the secretary of …

People

Taking Center Stage: Kendra Whitlock Ingram

Taking Center Stage: Kendra Whitlock Ingram Read More »

Kendra Whitlock Ingram is the new Pittsburgh Cultural Trust CEOA native of Scranton and graduate of Duquesne University, the Cultural Trust’s new leader returns to Pittsburgh from Milwaukee where she led the Marcus Performing Arts Center. Q: What’s the most interesting thing about your job? A:A big part of my job is seeing performances of many …

Sports

The School of Social Work Basketball Dynasty

by David M. Feehan

When people think of University of Pittsburgh athletes, the first person to come to mind is probably Kenny Pickett. Some may recall Aaron Donald, or Larry Fitzgerald. But Michael Whitelock? It may be hard to believe, but the School of Social Work once produced a basketball dynasty. Not only that, but there have been several …

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Homes

Putting on the Glitz

by Marylynn Uricchio

It takes restraint and an appreciation for the sculptural lines of modern architecture to let a house speak for itself. Jeff and Erica McIlroy have done just that in their hillside home overlooking a scenic valley in Fox Chapel. There is no clutter, no adornment, no need to gussy up the space with the accoutrements of …

Putting on the Glitz Read More »

100 Pittsburgh Leaders

The Perils of Fed Speak Read More »

Creative Capital

The Perils of Fed Speak

by Greg Curtis

“Our regulators are proving worse than the Bourbons: they have learnt nothing and forgotten everything.” — Martin Sandbu, Financial Times, quoting Talleyrand Previously in this series: Can the Fed be Saved?For nearly three decades the U.S. Fed has followed easy money policies regardless of economic conditions, giving birth to a series of economic crises unlike any the …

Arts

The Intersection of People and Nature

by Elizabeth Castonguay

I knew I was an artist at age 4. at 8, when studying oil painting, I knew I would speak through my art. I have always been passionate about the beautiful palette of human diversity and nature, but also empathetic to the struggles of humanity and the vulnerability of all life forms. My decades-long art …

The Intersection of People and Nature Read More »

100 Pittsburgh Leaders

Nature

The PA Wilds

by Thomas Saunders

Several hours from Pittsburgh, in the north-central counties of Pennsylvania, is the beautiful area referred to as the PA Wilds. It’s a region of deep forests, dramatic hilly terrain, and wild streams. Two wonderful places to explore there are Susquehannock State Forest in Potter County and Elk State Forest in Cameron County. A drive through …

The PA Wilds Read More »

100 Pittsburgh Leaders

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre: On the Threshold of a New Era Read More »

Arts

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre: On the Threshold of a New Era

by Stuart Sheppard

Watching Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s latest production, “Balanchine and Beyond,” reminded me of the first time I saw the work of the visionary film director Sergei Eisenstein, and encountered cinematography as a form of rapture, instead of the mere recording of imagery. PBT’s three-work production — subtitled “The Masters Program” — comprising contemporary, modernist, and neoclassical …

PQ Poem

Highway 491

by Lawrence Wray

If it happens that this road is heaven,close your eyes. On the drive acrosssuch a vast country as heaven must be,the road waves as this one does.Its graceful long arcs lead all the wayto the horizon. And isn’t it sothe road stretches even beyond there?You’ll find you’ve been here all alongon Highway 491. On maps just …

Highway 491 Read More »

100 Pittsburgh Leaders

Can the Fed be Saved? Read More »

Creative Capital

Can the Fed be Saved?

by Greg Curtis

“History will give a full accounting of the grave errors committed [by the US Fed].” Kevin Warsh, former Fed board member “Decennial financial blowups aren’t the stuff of great powers – at least, not for long.” Stanley Druckenmiller Long-term readers of these essays know that I am no fan of the U.S. Fed. In my view …

People

What Do I Know? Tim Parks

by Jeff Sewald

I was born in Louisiana, one of twin boys, in 1950, the product of my father’s second marriage. At the time, my mother was 33 years old and my dad was 61. My father’s father — my grandfather — was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1843 and, as a baby, came to this country to …

What Do I Know? Tim Parks Read More »

Arts

Opera Shines at Maecenas