Articles Archive - Page 74 of 154 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

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

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. After succumbing to Alan Perlis’s …

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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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Profiles

John Kasich, Government Leader

by Jeff Sewald

I was born and raised in Mckees Rocks, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh. It was a working-class, blue-collar town, but it was a positive place. I loved it there. As a kid, I played a lot of sports, and learned a great deal from that, about working together and trying hard. I was also blessed …

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This Week’s Astrology: Dec. 6–12, 2018

by Judi Vitale

Everyone’s wheels will come unstuck, in a manner of speaking, when Mercury Retrograde ends this week. By and large, you will feel some relief from the communication, technology and travel travails that have been in your way these last few weeks. The blessed event will occur on Thursday, so you’ll be able to celebrate the …

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Regional News

Housing Prices Rise

by Julia Fraser

Housing prices in the Pittsburgh region continue to climb, but not at the same rate as the hot real estate markets in some of Pittsburgh Today’s benchmark regions. Houses in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area appreciated 6.23 percent from the 3rd quarter in 2017 to the 3rd quarter this year, according to data from …

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Spotlight

Soda Tax Works in Philly, but Officials Here Aren’t Sure They Can Do It

by Julia Fraser

Taxes on sugary beverages seem like a sweet deal with their potential to whittle down obesity and diabetes rates while boosting city revenues to help pay for things like better schools and parks. Yet, they require broad public and political support to adopt over industry opposition. Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle and several other cities …

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Creative Capital

Firing Your Financial Advisor, Part III

by Greg Curtis

Now that we know why we’re going to fire our financial advisor, let’s talk about when to do it. Obviously, if any of the issues I detailed in my last post are operating, the time to fire your advisor is ASAP. But even if no hot-button issues have raised their ugly heads, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all is …

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Innovation

Alan Perlis: The First Computer Scientist

by James H. Morris

I was a teenager in 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnik. In the national reaction to it I was inspired to pursue science. I was all set to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the California Institute of Technology to become a physicist, when the Carnegie Institute of Technology offered me a full …

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Arts

Carnegie International Opening Weekend Through the Lens of an Outsider

by Casey Kelbaugh

Though my visits to Pittsburgh have been few and far between, I’ve always known that my family had deep roots in the Iron City. Along with that came a vague whisper of prominence verbally imparted by my grandparents. But until my visit to the opening weekend of the Carnegie International in October, I had no …

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The Pulse

Airing Concern

by Jeffery Fraser

Historically lower ozone pollution levels in southwestern Pennsylvania do not impress residents of Allegheny County whose concern is rising over the quality of the air they breathe. Seven years ago, air quality wasn’t a problem in the minds of 47 percent of county residents. Today, only 32 percent of Allegheny County residents share that view, …

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