Articles Archive - Page 2 of 147 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Usually, critics try to bury the lead, but I’m going to say outright that Barebones Productions may be the most authentic theater company in America today. This is not to denigrate any other company, nor to say that Barebones is the best theater company, but what they have done over the past couple of years …

Barebones Delivers a Visceral Portrayal of Working America in “Skeleton Crew” Read More »

PQ Poem

Finny Cora

by Maxwell King

Finny Cora Finbar bolted down a big breakfastand walked with his best humanto the greenwhere he had his morning poop–on the way back twenty paces from homeall four feetwent out from under him . . . heart gone that mercifully quick Cora outlived her mateby three yearsslowing down. . . and down . . . …

Finny Cora Read More »

Profiles

Andy Russell, Businessman and Former Steeler

by Jeff Sewald

I grew up with a father who had come over on the boat from Scotland. We moved around a lot. My parents convinced me that every move presented an opportunity to meet new and different people. By the time I entered college in 1959, my father was running Monsanto in Europe.I got a B.S. in …

Andy Russell, Businessman and Former Steeler Read More »

Creative Capital

Favorite Drinks & Pittsburgh Lore

by Greg Curtis

Hot buttered rum Since temperatures are plunging as I write this series, I cheerfully pass on to you The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (TOCSC) recipe for hot buttered rum: mix one cup of softened, salted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg. This will keep in the refrigerator for a long time. When your fingers are …

Favorite Drinks & Pittsburgh Lore Read More »

Food & Wine Home & Lifestyle

Launch Party in the Strip

by PQ Staff

Join Pittsburgh-native food writer Lidey Heuck on March 13 for a launch party to celebrate the publication of her first cookbook, “Cooking in Real Life.” Lidey is the former assistant to The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, and is a recipe developer for the New York Times who also produces her own blog, lideylikes.com The event is in partnership …

Launch Party in the Strip Read More »

Sports Sports & Outdoors

Radio Rich

by Bill Christine

One night in Pittsburgh, in the middle of a Pirates game, Radio Rich, puffing on his pipe, came up to me in the press box and asked why the San Francisco Giants named their venue Candlestick Park. “Because,” I said, “they built it on Candlestick Point.” Radio looked askance. “Any other reasons?” he said. His real …

Radio Rich Read More »

Creative Capital

Tales from the Bunghole (Not What You May Think)

by Greg Curtis

“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” — Benjamin Franklin, supposedly. Except the first recorded use of the word “bacteria” occurred in 1864 and Franklin died in 1790. Previously in this series: Odd but Essential Booze TruthsSingle barrel and small batch Every barrel of whiskey is slightly different …

Tales from the Bunghole (Not What You May Think) Read More »

Nature Sports & Outdoors

Engineering a Comeback

by Deborah Weisberg

The deep woods of Pennsylvania’s northern tier could be home again to an iconic native mammal not seen in the state in 120 years. The American marten (Martes americana) — a weasel-like creature as prized for its pelt as its cousin, the mink — was gone from the landscape by about 1900 as a consequence …

Engineering a Comeback Read More »

PQ Poem

monkey bars

by Charlotte Pruett

monkey bars it’s lifting your feet as trains pass,holding your breath near graves—it’s hidingshivers as you angel in the snow. it’s filling your rain boots with puddles,water-logged Velcrotoo soggy to stick––it’s gum, decades-old,decayingunder desks. it’s crunching leavesonce they orange;their sound bites like brown-bagged lunch—it’s cartons of milk curdlingin heatwaves. it’s stuffing inch wormsin pocketsand forgettingby laundry day—it’s hanginghand-me-downsyou’re sureare shrinking. it was sitting on daddy’s suitcase,your …

monkey bars Read More »

American Spirit

The Oliver Building

by Scott Holleran

As the Henry W. Oliver building was completed in terra cotta and granite in 1910, columnist M.E. Gable described the scene: “As you make the turn dipping into the throbbing heart of Pittsburgh, the upper reaches of the building burst upon your vision in all their beauty of architectural triumph. As you get nearer to it …

The Oliver Building Read More »

Creative Capital

Odd but Essential Booze Truths

by Greg Curtis

I had so much fun reading The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (TOCSC) that I could continue writing about it for months. But don’t worry, I won’t. Previously in this series: Tennessee Whiskey and the Whiskey RebellionThe book isn’t a work of fiction or nonfiction, of course, but a work of reference. In fact, in 2022 it won …

Odd but Essential Booze Truths Read More »

Books

Longing for Limelight

by Fred Shaw

Hollywood has been alternately described over the years as “a tissue thin façade full of self-important narcissists” and “a place where dreams come alive.” This year’s winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Kelly Sather, paints her protagonists as dreamy, never-will-bes who dwell in the shadows of fame. The California native and former entertainment lawyer …

Longing for Limelight Read More »

Food & Wine Home & Lifestyle Pittsburgh Immigration Pittsburgh Tomorrow

Bringing Spice to Pittsburgh

by Aakanksha Agarwal

In the heart of pittsburgh, amidst its rivers and bridges, a culinary revolution is taking place. It is a revolution of flavors and aromas, carried on the shoulders of immigrants who have brought their cherished recipes from distant lands. What do burritos, General Tso’s chicken and pizza have in common? They are all delectable creations …

Bringing Spice to Pittsburgh Read More »

PQ Poem

I Could Live There

by Mark Saba

I Could Live There A colonial perchedon a leafy hillside—its yarda backslope of rhododendronand weed, a bit of grasshere and there— I could live there, I thinkas the train rolls by. But then I see a perfect woodof evenly spaced pinesand long to lie on the warmed fallen needles, their scent a relieffrom housekeeping tedium.I …

I Could Live There Read More »

Creative Capital

Tennessee Whiskey and the Whiskey Rebellion

by Greg Curtis

Back in 1981 two songwriters, Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, were sitting in the Bluebird Café in Nashville drinking a lot of Tennessee whiskey. Dillon told Hargrove he had an idea for a song about the whiskey and so, at four a.m., they headed off to Hargrove’s place and wrote “Tennessee Whiskey,” a terrific song. …

Tennessee Whiskey and the Whiskey Rebellion Read More »

Nature

Bentley Run Wetlands

by Thomas Saunders

A beautiful place to hike and explore in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania is the Bentley Run Wetlands, two miles northeast of Union City in Erie County. This 350-acre property is protected by a permanent conservation easement held by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which protects the property from development and allows public access and recreation. …

Bentley Run Wetlands Read More »

Nature

Chanterelles

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

We bought a small section of woods some years ago that came with treasures not spelled out in the purchase agreement: chanterelles. We had no idea the prized orange mushroom would fruit the following summer. I wasn’t even positive what type of mushroom it was — I’d never foraged for chanterelles before — but after …

Chanterelles Read More »

Sports

The American League’s Jackie Robinson

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

Black History Month recognizes and honors the greatness of African-Americans who triumphed over prejudice and hatred and brought about major changes in American culture and society. In baseball, the player most honored during Black History Month is Jackie Robinson, who integrated the Major Leagues when he jogged onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on …

The American League’s Jackie Robinson Read More »

Arts Culture

Pittsburgh Opera Goes Back to the Future with a Moving “Iphigénie En Tauride”

by Stuart Sheppard

The conceit of the “what if” story has always fascinated us: what if Ebenezer Scrooge hadn’t been visited by his ghosts in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” or if George Bailey hadn’t had the intervention of the angel Clarence in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” or if Marty McFly hadn’t gone back in time to make sure …

Pittsburgh Opera Goes Back to the Future with a Moving “Iphigénie En Tauride” Read More »

Creative Capital

Rise of the Fern Bar!

by Greg Curtis

When I first reached legal drinking age most bars were designed to be patronized by men – that is, by people who couldn’t care less what the places looked like. As a result, most bars looked and smelled terrible. (But I quickly got used to it.) Previously in this series: The Mysteries of VodkaBut along …

Rise of the Fern Bar! Read More »

Books

Buying Fragments of God: The Crazy Art World of the 1980s

by Stuart Sheppard

If the 1960s changed America’s consciousness for the better, the 1980s certainly changed American commercialism for the worse. And to have lived during this latter period in New York City was to have felt the first tremors of this change, much like living near the epicenter of an earthquake and experiencing its initial shockwaves before …

Buying Fragments of God: The Crazy Art World of the 1980s Read More »

Sports

Pie Traynor and Dale Dodrill: Lest We Forget

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

When Pittsburgh sportswriters go back into the past, they tend to focus on the glory years of Roberto Clemente and Willis Stargell and of the Super Bowl dynasty, but there are players from earlier eras that richly deserve our remembrance of the glory of their times. There are four statues at PNC Park honoring Pirate …

Pie Traynor and Dale Dodrill: Lest We Forget Read More »