Articles Archive - Page 27 of 156 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

When southwestern Pennsylvania’s steel mills began falling like dominoes in the 1980s, some 3,400 workers turned to publicly funded workforce training programs for help shifting careers. One was a robotics training course offered by the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and its partner, Westinghouse Electric Corp. Federal dollars flowed to CCAC to pay for …

The Workforce Training Swamp Read More »

Creative Capital Money

Stefan Lorant, The Conclusion

by Greg Curtis

Although disaster had been briefly averted, the key word was “briefly,” as we’ll see in the final episode of this series, which I’ll call: More Trouble in Lenox Previously in this series: Stefan Lorant Part VI, Of Charm and Disaster Lorant and I were passing through the kitchen on our way out the back door …

Stefan Lorant, The Conclusion Read More »

American Spirit People

The Promise of a Car

by Steve Hellberg

I was the only sibling to be born in Detroit during our family’s five-year stint (1958-1963) in the Motor City. I was told I started talking “late” for my age, but when I did start, I surprised my parents during car rides by correctly calling out the make, model and year of every car on …

The Promise of a Car Read More »

Arts Culture

Art and Intention

by Nicole Renee Ryan

Growing up on a farm in Mercer County, surrounded by expansive fields and wooded hills, I spent much of my childhood either outdoors exploring or inside reading. I was (and still am) particularly fond of stories that explore hidden worlds, like the poems and drawings of Shel Silverstein and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden.” …

Art and Intention Read More »

Culture PQ Poem

Freight: Passing Through

by Dora Odarenko

I resonate over banks of the Ohio cense with soot the river straitjacketed between walls built for restraint. I cast my voice out over Neville Island intertwine with suspect air. In haste and power I slice with authority the boredom of the highway, its hum a faucet left unchecked. A presence inescapable, I penetrate the …

Freight: Passing Through Read More »

Creative Capital Money

Charm and Disaster

by Greg Curtis

Following the fiasco of the “crystal palace,” I decided to take sterner measures with Lorant. I called him up and told him that unless we could resolve the problem of the purloined photographs, it was unlikely the fifth edition of the Pittsburgh book would ever see the light of day. I also told him I …

Charm and Disaster Read More »

Fireflies: A Great Flourish of Evolution

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

“Male fireflies are like teenage boys,” said Lynn Frierson Faust, who wrote the book, Fireflies, Glow-worms, and Lightning Bugs: Identification and Natural History of the Fireflies of the Eastern and Central United States and Canada. “Males want to be seen, as flashy as possible, advertising their fitness. Look at me, they say!” One species, for …

Fireflies: A Great Flourish of Evolution Read More »

Birds Sports & Outdoors

A Lesser-Known Pittsburgh Raptor: the American Kestrel

by David Liebmann

As far as shopping plazas go, the Waterworks Mall in Fox Chapel is pretty typical. A Five Guys and a Chipotle. Party City. A Barnes & Noble that still carries… books! A Giant Eagle, the kind that sells groceries, not the feathered kind that have begun to nest again just up the river in Harmarville. …

A Lesser-Known Pittsburgh Raptor: the American Kestrel Read More »

Nature

Exploring the Islands

by Thomas Saunders

One way to see Pennsylvania’s natural landscapes is to paddle a canoe or kayak down its rivers and streams. Many of our regional lakes, creeks and rivers provide scenic views, wildlife habitat and remote experiences along their forested banks. Quietly passing closely along a stream shoreline and depending on the time of year, paddlers may …

Exploring the Islands Read More »

Food & Wine Home & Lifestyle

A Fresh Take on a French Classic

by Lidey Heuck

Salade Niçoise, that most famous of French salads, has become ubiquitous far beyond the reaches of the French Riviera. It is both a humble and elegant dish: a collection of everyday ingredients — tomatoes, olives, hard-boiled eggs, and often anchovy fillets or canned tuna — arranged beautifully and simply. Variations abound, and for good …

A Fresh Take on a French Classic Read More »

Creative Capital

Of Crypts and Art Thieves

by Greg Curtis

My next story about Lorant is a short one, but memorable, at least to my wife and me. We’ll call it: Tale from the Crypt Previously in this series: Stefan Lorant Part IV, Read All Over the World My wife, Simin, is half-Czech, and Stefan seemed to be deeply infatuated with her. Or maybe he …

Of Crypts and Art Thieves Read More »

Culture History

Defying the Odds

by Jason Vrabel

On opening night a century ago, velour drapes accentuated the auditorium doors and Juliet balconies. A newfangled ventilation system filtered smoke from a cigar lounge. And beneath an ornate plaster ceiling, Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce president Marcus Rauh dedicated the Manor Theater before a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 1,500. Bookended by pandemics, the “photoplay” theater …

Defying the Odds Read More »

Arts Culture

Quantum’s “The Cherry Orchard” is Brilliantly Inscrutable

by Stuart Sheppard

Often in theater, the more mundane the plot, the more iconoclastic the drama. Thus, if “Hamlet” is essentially about a man who cannot make up his mind, and in “Waiting For Godot” we watch nothing happen, twice, then “The Cherry Orchard” offers us four acts about the refinancing of a mortgage in arrears. What could …

Quantum’s “The Cherry Orchard” is Brilliantly Inscrutable Read More »

Obituaries People

Lackner, Titus, Kessler

by PQ Staff

Judy Lackner, 98She was the senior school librarian for 22 years at Sewickley Academy, where her voracious reading habits and steel-trap memory caused her to serve as the “book whisperer.” A lifelong learner, Lackner went back to school when her children were grown to get a master’s in library science from Pitt. After graduating from …

Lackner, Titus, Kessler Read More »

Creative Capital

Read All Over the World

by Greg Curtis

Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City was ubiquitous in Pittsburgh. It seemed as though everybody who was anybody had a copy, and some people had copies of every edition. Previously in this series: Stefan Lorant Part III, Charming and Impossible But what was remarkable was how well the book was known outside Pittsburgh. The first edition …

Read All Over the World Read More »

People

What Do I Know? Ed Gainey

by Jeff Sewald

I have to say that it feels good to be the mayor of my hometown, to be connected to the place where I was born and raised. My family is from the Hill District, but I was actually born in South Oakland. We were only the second black family to live on Lawn Street. My …

What Do I Know? Ed Gainey Read More »

Arts Culture

Now and Then: Artemesia Genteleschi and Kehinde Wiley at the Frick

by Vicky A Clark

The Frick has gifted us with a rare treat: the opportunity to view an iconic work from the 17th century paired with a major work of our century. The two paintings of the Judith and Holofernes story, created four centuries apart, comprise “Slay” which is on exhibit through Sunday. Artemesia Gentileschi’s version depicts the classic …

Now and Then: Artemesia Genteleschi and Kehinde Wiley at the Frick Read More »

Obituaries People

Ackerman, Johnson, Vidunas, Davis, Herchenroether, Deiseroth

by PQ Staff

Jeffrey Ackerman, 69A founding partner of CBRE, Ackerman was an icon in the region’s commercial real estate industry for decades and served as CBRE’s managing director in Pittsburgh from 2013 until January. He was working at Arnheim & Neely in the 1990s when CB Commercial came looking for an existing brokerage with which to partner. …

Ackerman, Johnson, Vidunas, Davis, Herchenroether, Deiseroth Read More »

Sports & Outdoors

The Pittsburgh Dodgers: In the Wake of Jackie Robinson

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

My memory of going to my first Pittsburgh Pirates game with my father is so vivid that a number of years ago, on a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I asked Tim Wiles, the Director of Research at the National Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, if he could find the box score …

The Pittsburgh Dodgers: In the Wake of Jackie Robinson Read More »

Creative Capital

Charming and Impossible

by Greg Curtis

Stefan Lorant was a dashing, debonaire fellow when he was young, and even in his late old age he remained attractive to women. One 40-year-old divorcée recalls having an affair with Lorant when the latter was in his eighties. “He was impossibly romantic,” she told me. Previously in this series: Stefan Lorant Part II, The …

Charming and Impossible Read More »

People Profiles

Oh, Say Can You Sing?

by Evan Pattak

During the winter months, every executive in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization is thinking about the upcoming season. Chris Serkoch isn’t pondering who’ll bat clean-up, whether a platoon will work in left field, or how she can line up the bullpen. Her concerns, though, are just as vital. Serkoch is wondering who will perform the national …

Oh, Say Can You Sing? Read More »

Health Health

What Can I Do to Slow or Prevent the Onset of Osteoporosis?

by Joseph A. Luxbacher

Question: I was recently informed that I may be suffering from osteoporosis or weakening of the bones. What if anything can I do to improve my bone health? Take some solace in the fact that your situation is not uncommon. Osteoporosis, which literally means “porous bone,” is a condition where the quality, quantity and strength of …

What Can I Do to Slow or Prevent the Onset of Osteoporosis? Read More »