Articles Archive - Page 44 of 158 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

After lagging most of the nation for decades, Allegheny County has managed to meet the minimum federal health standard for one of the most harmful of the major air pollutants, county health department data suggest. Levels of fine particulate pollution, known as PM2.5, averaged 11.1 micrograms per cubic meter of air over the last three …

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Food & Wine

A Passion for Cheese

by Barbara Eichenlaub

Frequently in life, the people who are most successful are those who have a passion for what they do. When you cross the threshold of Chantal’s, the tiny cheese shop across the street from Children’s Hospital in Lawrenceville, the passion is palpable. These are people who love cheese! Anaïs Saint-André Loughran was born and raised …

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Creative Capital

A Strange Request

by Greg Curtis

My checkered performance during l’Affaire de la Limousine had apparently put me in the Copperweld-Imetal doghouse, because I received no more assignments on that matter for a long time. Previously in this series: “A Humbling Start: Baron Rothschild and Me, Part II” I’d nearly forgotten about the takeover when I received a call from the …

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Health

How Much Exercise Is Required to Reap Health Benefits?

by Joseph A. Luxbacher

Question: “I realize that exercise is good for us. How much daily exercise is required to get positive health benefits?” Here is what we know for sure: An overwhelming amount of evidence points to the fact that a physically active lifestyle provides a variety of positive health outcomes. Participating in regular exercise, whether it be …

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Regional Annual Report

Baby Boom, or Bust?

by Julia Fraser

After a major power blackout left New York City in the dark in 1965, the New York Times suggested it led to a citywide baby boom, citing a surge in births at local hospitals. After Boston was hit with a blizzard in 1978, the Boston Globe predicted it would result in a baby boom. In …

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Profiles

Just Askin’… Susan Jaffe

by PQ Staff

Q: What’s the most interesting thing about your job? A: The most interesting part of my job is working with the dancers and creating programs to enrich the dancers and the audiences’ experience of dance. Q: What’s the best advice anybody ever gave you? A: The best advice that was given to me was to …

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Creative Capital

A Humbling Start

by Greg Curtis

As I entered the huge corner suite occupied by the head of the litigation group, I strolled by his secretary’s desk saying, “I assume he’s expecting me.” Previously in this series: “Baron Rothschild and Me” “Not likely,” she said. “He’s in New York.” I stopped dead. “But…” I stammered. “He doesn’t want you — I …

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Regional Annual Report

2021 Economic Outlook

by Stuart Hoffman & Kurt Rankin

Economic recovery prospects in the Pittsburgh metro region are challenging for 2021. Government-mandated business closures and capacity limitations have sunk the metropolitan area’s labor force into steeper-than-average declines, undermining the ability of existing household consumption and business expenditures to reignite economic gains in the near term. New stimulus from the federal government may well provide …

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Books

Short Takes: “Further News of Defeat,” “Hallelujah Station and Other Stories”

by Patrick McGinty

When Autumn House Press began in 1998, they published poetry. In 2008, the Pittsburgh-based press expanded its offerings to fiction, and over the past decade, few small presses can claim to have published a catalog of work as reliably entertaining and artful. In the fall, Autumn House Press published two new story collections from up …

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PQ Poem

Intersections: Poetry, Photography and Pittsburgh

by Joan E. Bauer & Michael Parillo

In a 2006 lecture at Scripps College, art critic and L.A. Times reviewer Leah Ollman spoke on the overlapping aesthetic qualities used in photography and poetry, stating that “Each has a multiplicitous nature, and like any medium, resists a singular definition. Photography is said to be a slice of reality, a distortion of reality; a …

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Creative Capital

Baron Rothschild and Me

by Greg Curtis

I had passed the bar exam and was working for a very large law firm in Pittsburgh. I was still so new I would get lost on my way to the men’s room. But it was wildly exciting for a working class kid from a dying mill town to be associated with such a prestigious …

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History

Finding Jakie Lerner

by David S. Rotenstein

“805 was a burner. where the hell is Jakie Lerner?” That was former racketeer Sam Solomon’s recollection of Aug. 5, 1930, the day when seemingly all of Pittsburgh bet on a single number: 805. When 805 hit, the city’s numbers bankers scrambled to pay the winnings. Many simply didn’t, and some skipped town to avoid …

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Health

The Importance of the Warmup and Cooldown

by Joseph A. Luxbacher

Question: “I fit my aerobic workouts into a very tight schedule. How important is it to spend time warming up before and cooling down after exercising? I often do neither.” Warming up prior to engaging in more vigorous exercise serves several important functions. From both a mental and physiological standpoint, it prepares the body for …

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Special Reports

Pittsburgh Today and Tomorrow 2021

by Pittsburgh Today Staff

To view a PDF version of Pittsburgh Today and Tomorrow 2021, click here.

Regional News

Pandemic Saps Confidence in Jobs Outlook, Economy

by Jeffery Fraser

Concern about their jobs and the local and national economies is widespread among people in southwestern Pennsylvania as the COVID-19 pandemic drags into its second year. In January, their confidence in all three fell to some of the lowest levels since the region’s first case of the coronavirus was reported 11 months ago, a new …

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Regional News

Getting Vaccinated Gains Popularity

by Jeffery Fraser

Supplies are short and the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine is slow, but the willingness to get the shots is sharply rising across southwestern Pennsylvania, a new survey suggests. And hesitancy over getting vaccinated is fading the most among non-whites. Some 60 percent of southwestern Pennsylvanians said they were ready to get the shot in …

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Creative Capital

How Sharpe Is Your Ratio?

by Greg Curtis

“The Sharpe ratio is oversold.” — William F. Sharpe If the Sharpe ratio didn’t exist, I swear the financial industry would have to shut down. Originally developed by William F. Sharpe in the 1960s, he called it the “reward-to-variability ratio.” Sharpe first described the ratio in a paper published in the Journal of Business in …

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Sports

Pittsburgh’s First Great Boxing Rivalries and the One-Punch Wonder

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

While the Pirates may have given Pittsburgh its first major sports championship when they defeated the Detroit Tigers in the 1909 World Series, its boxers gave Pittsburgh its first claim to the title City of Champions. In the first half of the 20th century, there were nine boxing champions with ties to Pittsburgh and the …

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Nature

Exploring the Appalachian Shale Barren

by Thomas Saunders

An interesting, out-of-the-way place to explore in western Pennsylvania is the Sideling Hill Creek area. The Sideling Hill Creek valley is located in southeastern Bedford County and southwestern Fulton County, about a two-hour drive from Pittsburgh. Its watershed is framed by the sandstone-capped Town Hill mountain to the east, and Big Mountain to the west. …

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Nature

Mysteries of the Porcupine

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

This is how a porcupine attacks. It turns its back, displays the black line running down the middle of its tail, edged with white quills visible in the dark. Its body shivers. The jaw clenches, incisors vibrate, and the teeth clatter. It emits an odor. Quills become erect. These are mere warnings. If not enough …

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Opinion

Letting Go

by Elizabeth Wiethorn

It was bound to happen sooner or later—Joe’s going off to college. I got a stay of execution for five months, given that his university didn’t open up campus for the first semester. You’d think I would have been ready. He was chomping at the bit to leave and kept himself busy for the past …

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Health

Harness the Power of Habit to Achieve Fitness Goals

by Joseph A. Luxbacher

Question: “One of my 2021 goals is to lose a few pounds and get in better shape. However, I am hesitant to go to a gym because of the pandemic, and I am simply not into exercise classes. What is the solution?” The process of changing outcomes begins with changing habits. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines …

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