Articles Archive - Page 26 of 157 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

With kidnapping and murder in the storyline, a “whodunit” often ensues. But like the Coen Brothers film masterpiece, Fargo, sometimes the crimes are less interesting than how the characters react to their circumstances and the events that led them astray. Stewart O’ Nan, a Squirrel Hill native and Pittsburgh’s preeminent novelist, uses this tactic to …

Consequences of Love Read More »

Creative Capital Money

Looking at Vaccine-hesitant People

by Greg Curtis

I want to bring this series to an end with a couple of essays on a delicate subject. Vaccine hesitancy, or what some prefer to call the “anti-vaxxers,” has been a seriously divisive issue during the pandemic. I can’t tell you how many times people said to me (Blue people, that is), “It’s those stupid …

Looking at Vaccine-hesitant People Read More »

Pittsburgh Today

Unlike Pittsburgh, Detroit is Waging an All-Out War Against Blight – AND WINNING

by Jeffery Fraser

Her city was in trouble when Tammy Daniels joined the Detroit Land Bank Authority in 2015. Detroit’s population had cratered 65 percent from its peak in the 1950s. Well-paying jobs had melted away when the auto industry that defined the city contracted. Foreclosures reached a crisis following the Great Recession. Vacant properties claimed as much …

Unlike Pittsburgh, Detroit is Waging an All-Out War Against Blight – AND WINNING Read More »

Arts Culture

The Pinnacle of My Time at Quantum

by Karla Boos

Dear reader, I think you may benefit from a pitcher of Bloody Mary’s. Or a pot of coffee. Or a screened-in porch with an ancient comfortable chair for a September afternoon, whatever your version of support props. This story has twists and turns that challenge one’s staying power. But I appreciate your lending an ear …

The Pinnacle of My Time at Quantum Read More »

Culture PQ Poem

Colonial Tea Room

by Catherine Doty

At 5 AM you’re buttering the bagels and waiting for your city sewer man to heave himself out of a hole in Barclay Street and bring you a breakfast order for his crew. The list is smudged and long and flush with desire: burned bacon on a jelly-smeared bialy, cold brisket on a kaiser, side of gravy, and Flop …

Colonial Tea Room Read More »

Creative Capital Money

Listing the CDC’s Failures

by Greg Curtis

Last week we discussed the bad science at the WHO and CDC, which ignored asymptomatic spread of COVID – the primary transmission mechanism. The CDC should have recommended that all Americans get tested regularly, whether we had symptoms or not, but they didn’t. So we didn’t – we were following the science. Previously in this series: Panic …

Listing the CDC’s Failures Read More »

Culture History

What Happened to Youngstown?

by Vince Guerrieri

It’s a hell of a thing to know your birth coincides with a line of demarcation in your hometown. On one side is prosperity. On the other, ruin. I was born in Youngstown in 1977. At the time, it was an industrial city, known for its steel production and a variety of attendant industries. The …

What Happened to Youngstown? Read More »

Nature

Enjoy Hiking the Improved Trails in the Laurel Highlands

by Thomas Saunders

People in Western Pennsylvania are fortunate to have the beautiful Laurel Highlands nearby as a destination for hiking, fishing, hunting, boating and all kinds of exploring. One of the many great places in the Laurel Highlands to escape and explore is Bear Run Nature Reserve, a 5,100-acre natural area owned and managed by the Western …

Enjoy Hiking the Improved Trails in the Laurel Highlands Read More »

Sports Sports & Outdoors

How Baseball Saved My Life

by Ray Werner

He dove into a garbage dump exploding with flies to avoid shrapnel from a Commie mortar bomb, lobbed just over the hill in North Korea. Diving into that dump may have saved his life. But what really saved his life was diving after a long fly ball and making an impossible catch. Well, not impossible …

How Baseball Saved My Life Read More »

Creative Capital Money

Asymptomatic Spread

by Greg Curtis

We’re going over examples that demonstrate how difficult it is to “follow the science,” especially in the early months and years of something as novel and complex as COVID. Let’s take a look at the phenomenon of: Asymptomatic spread Previously in this series: Panic is a Virus Part V: Bad COVID Science When we say …

Asymptomatic Spread Read More »

Culture Opinion

A Pittsburgh Wedding

by Douglas Heuck

It all started in March of 2020, when my daughter’s boyfriend flew to Pittsburgh for lunch to ask for her hand. Liking him a great deal, I said yes, not knowing that, thanks to the vagaries of COVID, we would have 30 months to think and rethink the wedding, and experience all the drama accompanying …

A Pittsburgh Wedding Read More »

Books

Getting Published at 70

by Chris Posti

I could write a book. we’ve all said it one time or another, whether it’s because we know a lot about a certain topic, or because we’ve had it up to here with our circumstances. But in my case, I wrote a book because I couldn’t find any women’s fiction I liked. I’m not all …

Getting Published at 70 Read More »

Arts

Breaking and Healing

by Christine Swann

Artists begin with one question regarding any new creative work. Most might think artists ask themselves, “What should I create?” But the question really needs to be, “Why should I create it?” Intention. It is the driving force behind any project, plan or goal. Without it there can be no satisfying end result. Without it …

Breaking and Healing Read More »

Creative Capital Money

Bad COVID Science

by Greg Curtis

Last week I reported on the World Health Organization’s pigheaded approach to how COVID is transmitted – by droplets, they said, so we all needed to wash our hands constantly and sanitize all surfaces. Handwashing and sanitizing didn’t kill us – it was hygiene theater – but the panic engendered by WHO’s bad science did kill us. Previously in …

Bad COVID Science Read More »

Birds

The Fledgling Wren that Wouldn’t Budge

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

What must it feel like for a baby bird to fledge? To take a leap (of faith?) and fly for the first time? I couldn’t help but wonder one warm day when I watched a clutch of birds fly off our front porch. I feared, however, that if I wrote about birds’ feelings, I’d be …

The Fledgling Wren that Wouldn’t Budge Read More »

Books

Gabriel Welsch Surveys the Human Landscape with “Groundscratchers” Collection

by Fred Shaw

In the world of landscaping, the term “groundscratcher” is derisive. It’s also the title of Gabriel Welsch’s revelatory short story collection from Tolsun Books. In it, the titular story finds Michael Petrin, ground supervisor of a large estate, at odds with the “maximal Minimalist” Japanese Zen Fusion gardener Yoshi Higashide hired by his boss, the …

Gabriel Welsch Surveys the Human Landscape with “Groundscratchers” Collection Read More »

Books

Expanding the Strike Zone

by Fred Shaw

Baseball, once considered “America’s pastime,” has increasingly begun to feel irrelevant as games routinely last more than three hours and options for bored eyeballs abound on the internet. This year’s 99-day labor dispute over how to best divide billions of dollars in revenue has further alienated frustrated fans, who in Pittsburgh have only had a …

Expanding the Strike Zone Read More »

Creative Capital Money

Follow the Science?

by Greg Curtis

I said, ‘Mr. Purple people eater what’s your line?’/He said, ‘Eating Purple people and it sure is fine!’ Sheb Wooley, 1958 Thanks to Sheb Wooley, we know why there are no Purple people in America. Unfortunately, that leaves only Blue people and Red people, and among the (many) things we all got wrong during the pandemic …

Follow the Science? Read More »

Culture History

In the Mind of the Beholder

by Vicky A Clark

Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis came across an unassuming structure, located at the five-point intersection on Lowrie Street in Troy Hill, where they have a studio. Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation had placed a plaque on the structure, informing visitors that it housed the upper level of Pittsburgh’s first incline, founded in 1887, that …

In the Mind of the Beholder Read More »

Culture Opinion

No Option But One

by PQ Staff

In a letter to his brother Theo in 1886, Vincent Van Gogh wrote: “It seems to me that you have been suffering to see your youth pass like a drift of smoke, but if it springs up again and comes to life in what you do, nothing has been lost, and the power to work …

No Option But One Read More »

Books Culture

When Leadershi* Hits the Fan

by PQ Staff

Leaders have many responsibilities, but if they don’t take the time to help their employees grow professionally and personally, then they have failed. The time it takes to develop employees can be daunting for any leader, as they are interrupted every seven minutes. It’s not practical to eliminate opportunities either as you need to be …

When Leadershi* Hits the Fan Read More »

Sports & Outdoors

Bill Virdon: He Made Everything Look Easy

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

In the spring of 1956, I was a senior at Pittsburgh’s South High and the starting center fielder for the school baseball team. For aspiring high school center fielders, the decade of the 1950s was a great time to be playing baseball and dreaming of a big league career. In the National League, there were …

Bill Virdon: He Made Everything Look Easy Read More »