Articles Archive - Page 29 of 153 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

2022 Winter

Jazz Renaissance

It’s hard to play the alto sax when you’re wearing a mask, so Tony Campbell simply cut a hole in his and played right through the pandemic, appearing at any number of venues from Wallace’s Whiskey Room + Kitchen in East Liberty to a concert on the lawn at a private home in Forest Hills …

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Creative Capital

On Agency

by Greg Curtis

“Agency” is a small word, but it has large meanings. In my day job in the financial industry, for example, “agency” issues refer to the differences in interests between investors (the principals) and their financial advisors (the agents). The classic example of a conflict between the interests of these parties involves stockbrokers. An investor can …

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Culture Opinion

Famous Last Word

by Ray Werner

I decided a few years back, as I approached the magic number 80 that it would be a good idea to die at home. Dying at home, I figured, surrounded by my children and grandchildren, in the house where Susan and I raised our three sons and daughter, would be a storybook ending to a …

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Books

An Alternative History of Pittsburgh

by Fred Shaw

Pittsburgh has been labeled variously as a “mosaic,” “hell with the lid off,” and “the Paris of Appalachia.” The East Liberty-born poet Jack Gilbert describes the city in his poem, “Searching for Pittsburgh,” as being made of “brick and tired wood/ Ox and sovereign spirit/ a consequence of America.” Those characterizations loom as well-played section …

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A farm life

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

From photographs I sent to expert tracker Linda Spielman, she was able to tell me wonderful little stories about what animals on our farm were doing last winter. At the top of our hill, a mouse bounded across deep snow, its hind feet sinking into holes made by its front feet. “Lots of animals do …

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Creative Capital

Are We All Actually Immortal?

by Greg Curtis

“There is a realm the laws of physics prevent us from accessing.” — Ryan Mandelbaum Previously in this series: On Consciousness Part VII: Entering Unitarity “Death, be not proud.” — John Donne We are discussing the phenomenon of unitarity, a core feature of quantum physics. Last week we noted that, in the mid-1970s, Stephen Hawking argued that unitarity …

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PQ Poem

After A Pitcher of Beer at Antlers Pub, I Believed I Was Brave

by Lori Jakiela

After A Pitcher of Beer at Antlers Pub, I Believed I Was Brave And walked with my friend Mike to the State Street Pier. Mike was funny, a good drinking buddy, and fearless. He pissed from the edge of the pier, then pole vaulted over the railing and landed hard with both feet, right on the lake below. …

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Nature

A Refuge for Wildlife-Watching

by Thomas Saunders

About an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh, Interstate 79 is the 120-acre Cussewago Bottom Conservation Area in Crawford County. The preserve provides an opportunity to explore forests, wetlands and wildlife near a tributary of French Creek. Cussewago originates from the Seneca Indian word meaning “big belly.” Cussewago Creek flows south from Erie County for 35 …

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Creative Capital

Entering Unitarity

by Greg Curtis

“Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” — Socrates Previously in this series: On Consciousness Part V: Is It All Predictable? “I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens. –Woody Allen The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) states, simply, that “An individual who has sustained either (1) …

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Homes

An Urban Farmhouse

by Marylynn Uricchio

Like many couples, the owners of this Shadyside residence decided to sell the sprawling home they had lived in since 1972 when their children were grown and gone. That was 20 years ago. “We were early with the downsizing,” the wife says with a laugh. But they retained an acre of prime property next to …

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Birds

Keep Warm and Watch for Flickers

by David Liebmann

Forty below zero isn’t cold if you dress for it. I learned that in the Wyoming backcountry when I spent three weeks winter camping one February. We ate high-calorie diets, slicing butter into hot cocoa for the extra fat, and built thick snow shelters to pass the frigid nights. When it dropped below zero, we …

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Regional News

What the New Mayor Faces

by Jeffery Fraser

Sophie Masloff became mayor as the city of Pittsburgh was mourning the death of her popular predecessor, Richard Caliguiri. Tom Murphy was elected to the office in 1994, when the city teetered on the brink of financial calamity as the region scrambled to reinvent itself after the collapse of its steel industry. The mayors who …

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Ilkin, Stabile, Weizenbaum, Harper, Wholey

by PQ Staff

Tunch Ilkin, 63 The Steelers two-time Pro Bowl tackle, team captain and longtime broadcaster on the Steelers Radio Network died of ALS. He played 13 seasons with the Steelers and one with the Green Bay Packers before retiring in 1993. Ilkin was also vice president of the NFL Players Association from 1989 to 1994. He …

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Creative Capital

Uh-oh! Free Will Pulls Vanishing Act

by Greg Curtis

“I do not believe in free will.” — Einstein Previously in this series: On Consciousness Part V: Is It All Predictable? “There is no absolute or free will.” — Spinoza We are investigating my claim that free will is an illusion that grows out of our ignorance of the factors – the prior interactions – that engender …

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Nonprofits

Stepping into the Breach Pt. III

by PQ Staff

JANE WERNER, executive director, Children’s Museum of PittsburghWe have been amazed to see the commitment of our visitors and community in keeping kids safe while they explore joy, curiosity, creativity, and kindness at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. As challenging as this year and a half has been, and while we were waiting for younger children …

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Culture Opinion

What’s in a Name?

by Marianne Dougherty

It’s only been a couple of decades since we kept our contacts (names, addresses, phone numbers) in leather-bound address books. Old-school, right, but that’s what we did before we were tethered to technology: Outlook on our computers, Contacts on our iPhones or Androids. My mother sent Christmas cards to dozens of people each year, and …

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People

Hanna, Haley, Fu, Smyrnes-Williams, Brendel

by PQ Staff

Howard Hanna Sr., 101With an initial investment of $40, which may have included the plywood for his desk, Hanna started a real estate company in 1957 that now has more than 13,500 employees and more than 400 branch offices in 11 states. Today Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the largest independently owned real estate …

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Sports

Date With Destiny

by Vince Guerrieri

The Washington & Jefferson football team had its work cut out for it on Jan. 2, 1922. The Presidents had gone unbeaten that year, taking on powerhouses such as Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Syracuse. They were invited to play the University of Detroit in a postseason matchup, and after winning that game, touted as a …

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Creative Capital

Is It All Predictable?

by Greg Curtis

“Pretend that you have free will. It’s essential that you behave as if your decisions matter, even though you know they don’t.” — Ted Chiang Previously in this series: On Consciousness Part IV: Is Our Consciousness so Special? “Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.” — Arthur Schopenhauer Does free will …

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Books

Christmas Eve Disaster

by Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt

A dozen years ago, my mother told me that my Grandpa Kuffner’s cousin had died in a Pittsburgh streetcar accident. She thought it happened in the early 1900s, but didn’t know the cousin’s name, gender or age. Reading library microfilm, it was clear that pedestrians used to be hurt or killed daily by streetcars, horses …

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Nonprofits

Stepping into the Breach, Part II

by PQ Staff

AUGIE CARLINO, president & CEO, Rivers of SteelWhile there have been many memorable experiences that demonstrate meaningful reciprocity between Rivers of Steel and our communities throughout the pandemic, one, in particular, stands out—our relationship with Mon Valley artist Kathleen Ferri. In mid-2020, after news of Rivers of Steel’s new Vice President Amy Buchan Baldonieri reached …

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Creative Capital

Is Our Consciousness So Special?

by Greg Curtis

“If all phenomena are determined by physical laws … then life itself becomes little more than a string of kinetic experiences.” –Walter Pater Previously in this series: On Consciousness Part III: What Do We Know About Time? “Je suis, donc je pense.” — What Descartes should have said It seems likely that nothing exists except in …

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