Articles Archive - Page 38 of 158 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

I’ve been lucky to have many close friends. But as I look back, it’s clear to me that, of all of them, my life has been most closely intertwined with that of my friend Chris Bentley. Chris and I were born less than two months apart, in early 1962, and we met before either of …

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PQ Poem

Your 8th Birthday

by Marcus Whalbring

To Lucas I forget the comet’s name I looked for all night but never found. You slept in the tent while I kept the fire going, hoping an arrow of light and dust might pierce the air so I could stir you from your coma and show you. We could’ve seen crumbs of ice dissolving …

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Creative Capital

Surprising the Mayor

by Greg Curtis

In those days, the mayor of Indianapolis was a guy named Richard Lugar. Lugar was an unusual mayor, to say the least. He’d been first in his class in high school and college, had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and was an Eagle Scout. He was as straight-laced and honest as a country parson. …

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History

Norris Beach: “Swim Where You Will Be Welcomed”

by David S. Rotenstein

Ninety years ago, on August 14, 1931, the city of Pittsburgh opened its largest and most luxurious public swimming pool in Highland Park. Opening day was one of great fanfare and pride. However, it was also a day that saw African Americans who tried to enter the pool turned away. When Black citizens returned the …

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History

Flight 93 National Memorial

by Scott Holleran

“Are you guys ready? Okay! Let’s roll!” This is what telephone operator Lisa Jefferson, who’d been on the phone with United Air Lines Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer, says she heard at 9:55 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Four minutes later, as unarmed passengers and crew charged with a food cart and broke into …

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Creative Capital

Joining the Force

by Greg Curtis

One day I arrived at the MP station and saw a new announcement tacked up on the bulletin board. It was notifying everyone that, with the War in Vietnam winding down, nonessential personnel with only a few months left in the Army would be mustered out early. The Army needed to save money. Previously in …

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Health

Must We Gain Weight as We Grow Older?

by Joseph A. Luxbacher

Question: “My middle-aged friends and I watch what we eat and try to stay active, but all of us seem to be gaining weight as we get older. Is getting fatter simply an unavoidable consequence of aging?” Although weight gain is generally considered part of the aging process, there are no legitimate reasons why a …

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History

Remembering 9/11: A Portrait of Shanksville

by John Beale

On Sept. 11, 2001, Judi Baeckel was working at the Shanksville Post Office and talking with a customer about news reports that hijackers had flown jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”396″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″] “At least we know we’re safe in Shanksville,” Baeckel recalls the customer saying. Within minutes, the …

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Regional News

Unemployment Improves but Region Needs More Workers

by Julia Fraser

Employers in the Pittsburgh region added workers to their payrolls in July, but the region’s labor market remained flat, according to the latest Pennsylvania Department of Labor data. Unemployment in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area dipped from 6.3 percent in June 2021 to 6.2 percent in July, but it is still higher than the …

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Creative Capital

MPs on the Job!

by Greg Curtis

Just one more exciting episode from the 226th Military Police Company, and then I can move on to the main part of my story. Previously in this series: “Policing Perils: Richard Lugar, Part I” Hot pursuit Legally speaking, the phrase “hot pursuit” stands as an exception to the usual rules that regulate police conduct, allowing …

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History

Loaves and Fishes

by John G. Hennon

In April 1966, the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment held a routine hearing to consider a plan from four East End churches (Calvary Episcopal, First Methodist, Third Presbyterian and Shadyside Presbyterian) to open a coffee shop for young people at 709 Bellefonte Street in Shadyside. Unlike some board hearings where neighboring property owners angrily opposed …

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Arrivals

Pennell, Gregovits, Pauls, Johnson, Capogrosso, Hutton, Bonham

by PQ Staff

Page B. Pennell, M.D. will become the next chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine on July 1. She comes to Pitt from Harvard Medical School, where she is a professor and vice chair for academic affairs in the Department of Neurology. She also directs research in the …

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Opinion

Finding Boba Fett

by Ron Linden

Looking across the detritus left to us by 2020, we understand that we have lost a great deal: people we knew and loved, people we did not know but admired, our personal mobility, social spontaneity and, perhaps, our confidence about what will come next. But we also found inspirations. We discovered abilities we never knew, …

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Arts

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Myth?

by Stuart Sheppard

In all the productions I’ve attended over the past several decades, I’ve never seen a playwright attack the play he was adapting in the program notes. Jay Ball writes that when director Jed Allen Harris asked him to collaborate on a production of Homer’s eighth century BCE epic poem “The Odyssey” for Quantum Theatre, he …

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Events

Twilight Picnic for the Parks: Back in the Swing

by PQ Staff

Twilight Picnic for the Parks: Back in the Swing made a triumphant return to its in-person fundraising gala Saturday, August 21 under white peaked tents at The Meadow at Hartwood Acres. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”394″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″]This signature fundraiser of the Allegheny County Parks Foundation paused last year to ride out the pandemic but came roaring …

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Regional News

Pittsburgh Metro Loses Jobs in July

by Julia Fraser

The seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area had 7,700 fewer jobs in July than what employers had on their payrolls a month earlier, according to recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “In normal years, a little bit of decline in the middle of the summer is pretty normal,” said Chris Briem, a regional …

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Creative Capital

Policing Perils

by Greg Curtis

Towards the end of my checkered career in the Army, I found myself stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison, a large Army base located outside Indianapolis. I was the Traffic Sergeant for the 226th Military Police Company and we served more like a civilian police force than like a traditional MP company. The reason was that …

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Education

The State of Higher Ed: Pitt, Penn State, La Roche, IUP

by PQ Staff

We asked the presidents of the region’s colleges and universities to answer this question: As we move closer to the end of the pandemic, what strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats have become more apparent to you for your institution than they were pre-pandemic? Lina Dostilio, University of Pittsburgh (Associate Vice Chancellor) The pandemic has heightened …

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Creative Capital

The Last Word

by Greg Curtis

“In the last few weeks, the [FTC] has repeatedly changed policy direction without giving the public any real notice or right to be heard.” —Noah Phillips, FTC Commissioner Previously in this series: “Academics and Europeans: Antitrust Is More Interesting Than You Think, Part XIV” I intended to end this series of posts with part 14, …

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Books

This Johnstown Mob Story Is Business and Personal

by Fred Shaw

The gangster has long stood as an outsized figure in America’s 20th-century mythology, ranging from the brutal Al Capone to the fictitious Tony Soprano. “The Godfather Part I” and “Part II,” as well as “Goodfellas,” rank in the American Film Institute’s Top 100 American Movies of all time, while several others deal in mob tropes. …

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Nature

A Short Raucous Party

by David Macpherson

At night, like us, they stop making noise. Tired, I suppose. All day long they scream for a mate among the millions nearby. They don’t have much time, a few weeks at most, to ensure their brood will arise again. Perhaps their screaming is about that particular problem, a coordinated audible insect protest about what …

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Health

The Many Benefits of Functional Fitness

by Joseph A. Luxbacher

Question: “I’ve read that ‘functional fitness activity’ can help maintain a healthy body weight and provide additional benefits as well. However, I am not sure what functional fitness is all about. Can you explain?” “Functional fitness” activities relate more to a person’s lifestyle than what we consider to be formal, structured workouts. The term generally …

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