Articles Archive - Page 74 of 155 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Get set to welcome the post-holiday, “true” beginning of the new year with a lot of hope and new-found energy. Mercury’s move into Capricorn on Friday will assist you in organizing that long to-do list you may have made out for 2019. The eclipse of the sun/new moon that takes place on Saturday will encourage …

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Arts

The Peak of Its Powers

by Teake Zuidema

The No. 1 seat in the grand stage box is the best place to be at Heinz Hall. And that’s exactly where I sit with my noiseless camera. All the other seats in the concert hall are empty. On stage, the musicians are tuning their instruments as conductor Manfred Honeck makes his entrance. I’ll be …

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Creative Capital

Spitting Into the Wind, Part III

by Greg Curtis

I’m perfectly well aware that Noel Coward once remarked that reading a footnote is like having to stop making love so you can go downstairs to answer the door. But what did he know? I love footnotes. In his (much over-praised) book, “Infinite Jest,” David Foster Wallace included almost 100 pages of footnotes, which was terrific. Unfortunately, he …

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Obituaries

Remembering Prominent Pittsburghers Who Passed Away in 2018

by PQ Staff

From Adam Lynch to Barbara Luderowski, we’ve said goodbye to many influential Pittsburghers this year. Remember those who have passed away and their impact on the region—and the world—in this compilation of our Last Chapter department. Nadine Bognar, 87: The co-owner of Bognar and Company, a supplier of coke and coal for the steel industry, …

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This Week’s Astrology: Dec. 27, 2018–Jan. 2, 2019

by Judi Vitale

The end of 2018 will be comparatively peaceful, but there are things to watch for if you want to create a good, clean start to 2019. For starters, the moon will go void of course on New Year’s Day, and you’ll want to time your resolutions and intentions just right. Mars’ move into Aries will …

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American Spirit

Abby’s World of Cut and Curl

by Kate Benz

Yesterday was crazy. Like, insanely crazy. Flat irons straightening and curling irons curling and shears cutting and the coloring and shampooing and highlighting. All—day—long. “My bun started off here,” Abby Fitzer laughs, pointing to her head, “And as the day went on, it just started to flop around a bit so that it eventually ended …

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Innovation

Herbert Simon: 20th Century Galileo

by James H. Morris

James H. Morris is a retired professor of computer science and dean of the School of Computer Science as well as the Silicon Valley campus of Carnegie Mellon University. In a series of blogs for Pittsburgh Quarterly he writes about some of the computing pioneers he encountered during his career. Although he was less approachable …

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Regional News

Local Jobs Growing Slowly

by Julia Fraser

Employers in southwestern Pennsylvania continued to add to their payrolls as 2018 comes to a close. But they did so at a slower pace than most other peer regions. The seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area gained 10,000 jobs between November 2017 and November 2018—a .9 percent year-over-year increase, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. …

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Creative Capital

Bloggy, Blog Blog…

by Greg Curtis

We’re talking about my blog—blogging about blogging, talk about a navel-gazing exercise—and also about the book of blog posts that I just published. Selection criteria Since there exist, as of this moment, well over 300 of my blog posts, averaging 1,000 words each, I couldn’t simply publish all of them. That would result in a …

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Books

Dear Mr. President

by Jody DiPerna

My stepson worked in President Obama’s mailroom when he was in college. He referred to it as the “mailroom of the free world,” which made Jeanne Marie Laskas burst out laughing. She had never heard anybody say it that way. Though my knowledge of the minutiae of my stepson’s days there is scant, Laskas wants …

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Innovation

Raj Reddy: Modern Circumnavigator

by James H. Morris

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Obituaries

Ross, Vandermade, Limbach, Brinkman, Colville, Fisher, Watson, Lexie, Russell, Gorman, Capobianco

by PQ Staff

Eunice Mercedes Latshaw Ross, 94: Blazing a trail for women in the field of law wasn’t easy for Ross. She became an Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas judge in 1972, when few women held such positions. She was an expert in probate law whose opinions were considered masterful. But when she reported that soon-to-be …

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Opinion

The Dangerous Necessity of Beauty

by Samuel Hazo

At one time I took for granted the traditional definition of beauty—id quod visum placet—that which when seen pleases. Eventually I came to see that this was much too narrow a definition. It did not include what could be called beautiful when heard, touched, tasted, felt or otherwise experienced. That is why Robert Frost’s saying …

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This Week’s Astrology: Dec. 20–26, 2018

by Judi Vitale

This week, as winter makes its official arrival, we come to understand why all the holidays celebrated at this time of year involve the shining of light. At the winter solstice, which takes place on Friday evening, the sun enters the sign of Capricorn, and begins its journey back toward the light of spring. Of …

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American Spirit

Mary and the Laundromutt

by Kate Benz

Right now, Rudy the Doodle is on the grooming table. Mary is giving him the Full Groom. “Everything,” she says, snipping away at his curly, toffee colored fur with a pair of Japanese shears, which are also her favorite kind. Snip. Snip. Snip. “Hair trimmed.” Snip. Snip. “Combed his head.” Snip. Snip. “Did his nails …

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Travel

A Pittsburgher Goes to Florence

by David Aschkenas

Take a quick international trip to Florence, Italy with Pittsburgh photographer David Aschkenas. In this photo collection, Aschkenas explores the Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens, the eclectic La Specola natural history museum as well as a few churches, including Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella and the Duomo. View more of David Aschkenas’s work at www.daschkenasphoto.com.

Creative Capital

Spitting Into the Wind

by Greg Curtis

The first blogging software hit the market in 1999, but it was a technology in search of a use. I never even heard the word “blog” until the early 2000s, and didn’t focus on it until, in 2004, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary selected “blog” as the Word of the Year. (It’s a truncation of “web log.”) Even then …

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Regional News

The Quality of Life Survey Results Are In

by Jeffery Fraser

Allegheny County residents say their quality of life has improved since they were last surveyed seven years ago, with more of them reporting rising incomes and expressing greater confidence in the local economy. Pittsburgh’s bid to become Amazon’s new headquarters gets a thumbs-up from a majority of county residents, who also favor loosening the reins …

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Innovation

Allen Newell: The Lone Ranger

by James H. Morris

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Homes

Green Acres

by Marylynn Uricchio

We used to have 20 chickens. Now we have two!” laments the lady of the house, citing coyotes and foxes as the culprits. “We did have two mini attack donkeys that were supposed to keep the predators away from the chickens, and they did a good job. But when they were out to pasture the …

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Arts

Art or Fashion?

by Vicky A Clark

The Frick Pittsburgh continues its recent foray into fashion with exuberance, exhibiting a group of contemporary paper recreations of iconic outfits from the past. Ranging from the era of the Medici to the early 20th century with costumes from the Ballets Russes, “Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art From Paper” though (January 6, 2019) seems tailormade …

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Health

Take as Prescribed, with Care

by Darian Carrow

Medications prescribed to treat illness do unintended harm to an alarming number of patients in the United States each year. While advances in drug therapy have resulted in improving treatment for many diseases, nearly 700,000 patients end up in the emergency room each year as a result of overdose, medication errors, or other reactions to …

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