Articles Archive - Page 74 of 155 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

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

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. Raj Reddy began life in …

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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 …

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

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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Events

Pittsburgh Mercy’s 15th Annual Reindeer Ball Raises Nearly $100,000

by PQ Staff

On Sunday, Dec. 9, at The Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh Hotel, more than 200 children along with their families and friends welcomed Santa’s Christmas Circus to town at Pittsburgh Mercy’s 15th Annual Reindeer Ball. Dressed in their holiday finest, children and their families mingled with some of their favorite characters and enjoyed “Santa’s Christmas Circus,” …

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This Week’s Astrology: Dec. 13–19, 2018

by Judi Vitale

A calm that might seem unusual at this time of year could add to your seasonal enjoyment and generally make life easier. There won’t be a lot of planetary action, although there will be many interactions you may want to seize upon so they can be used to your advantage. Sunday and Monday will seem …

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American Spirit

A Barbershop That’s Hair-Raising

by Kate Benz

It’s 10:30 on a Saturday morning, there are already four guys waiting in line for a haircut, and no one knows where Tony is. “He’s not here?” Dante Folino Gallo asks, holding the door open for his father, Salvatore, who uses a walker to shuffle past a towering, 40-year-old Schefflera plant, a millennial buried in …

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Regional News

Paychecks on the Rise

by Julia Fraser

Wages in southwestern Pennsylvania are rising steadily. In fact, the rate of increase was greater than all but two of the 15 Pittsburgh Today’s benchmark regions in the second quarter of 2018. The average weekly wage in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area was $1,042 in the second quarter of 2018, according to the latest …

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Creative Capital

The Dear John Letter (to your Financial Advisor)

by Greg Curtis

For many people, the worst part of the process of terminating an advisor happens at the very end, when you finally have to tell the guy the relationship is over. Think about that love affair that just wasn’t right. You knew that he/she was wrong for you, but actually breaking off the relationship filled you …

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Books

An Elegy of the Marcellus Shale region

by Fred Shaw

When U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler visited Pittsburgh on October 24 last year, his first order of business was to visit a Range Resources well-pad outside Washington, Pa., announcing that the EPA would continue “removing regulatory barriers and leveling the playing field for American companies.” Politicians, billboards and commercials on local TV …

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Innovation

Robert Taylor: Demanding Coach

by James H. Morris

James H. Morris is a retired professor of computer science and dean of the West Coast 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. As I struggled with the rigors of being an assistant professor at University …

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