Goldie, Part III

No military plan survives the first contact with the enemy. von Moltke the Elder I’m describing how a lawyer conducts a gold inventory, just in case some of my readers might need help with their bullion in the future. Previously in this series: The Routine of Gold After we completed the inventory at the little bank …

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Quest for Cake

A birthday celebration calls for a birthday cake and gifts. As far as I’m concerned, forget about the gifts, but keep the cake. My love affair with birthday cakes began when I was four. Each morning on his way to work, my Uncle Eddie drove his two aunts and my mom to their jobs and …

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What Was that White Bird?

The first time I saw the white bird flying overhead, I thought I’d gone slightly mad because large white birds are not common in the Ligonier Valley. I was riding my bike on a rural road between two cow fields, a herd of black-angus eyeing me warily. I pedaled slowly, watching what I presumed was …

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The Routine of Gold

When Goldie asked me to conduct the gold inventory for her, I’d simply assumed that her gold was stored in the vast vault under the Credit Suisse headquarters building on the Bahnhofstrasse in downtown Zurich. After all, she’d been a good customer of the bank for decades. Previously in this series: GoldieI’d planned to walk …

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McGinnis, Bucci, LaDuke, Rescher, Simmons, Beck, Posvar, Reichblum, Donley, Rocco, Snyder, Rierson

Gerald “Jerry” McGinnis, 89A celebrated biomedical engineer, McGinnis turned a fledgling medical device company founded in his kitchen in 1976 into Respironics, a global empire that was later bought by Royal Phillips for $1.5 billion. He was the inventor of the first mass-produced breathing machine — a device now used worldwide for sleep apnea and …

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Financial Literacy: What’s it Worth?

Editor’s note: We asked a group of local financial leaders to weigh in on this question: How important is increasing financial literacy among our society and your potential customer base and what programs do you have to educate citizens in making responsible financial decisions, whether on mortgages, insurance products, loans, investments or savings?   VINCENT …

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Goldie

“The Golden Rule: She who has the gold makes the rules.” The Wizard of Id (paraphrased to modify the gender) Quite some years ago I had a remarkable client I’ll call Goldie. Goldie was then in her late sixties and looked exactly like a lady in her late sixties: gray hair pulled back in a bun, …

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TVs in the Sky

When John James Audubon went about portraying the biggest American birds, he took advantage of the double elephant paper that made his enterprise unique. At 26 by 39 inches, the huge sheets lent themselves to nearly full-scale images of our largest avifauna. Take his “Turkey Buzzard,” for example, an old name for the turkey vulture. …

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The Origin of the World (and the End of the Tours)

Being the college guide sounds fairly straightforward, but in fact the job was full of pitfalls – landmines in every direction. The first pitfall arose out of the fact that I could never know who was going to be on my tour. It might be sensible people who thought the Orozco murals should be nuked, …

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Livable Luxury

Interior designers Lindsey Longacre and Kate Tomalis became close friends while working at Restoration Hardware. They discovered they shared a similar aesthetic, and as their friendship grew, so did the requests for help from customers that went beyond the scope of the store. “Clients continued to ask us to work on projects beyond picking furniture,” …

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Painting the Audience: Quantum’s “Scenes from an Execution” is Artistic Theater

Although we can’t prove that Freud said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” we certainly can admit the wisdom in this adage, especially as it concerns the theater, where interpretation has turned into an industry for directors, dramaturgs, audiences, and especially, critics.  So rather than write a quotidian, interpretive review, our critic decided to …

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“Go to the People”

Inspired by childhood memories of accompanying his physician father and nurse mother on medical calls, Dr. Jim Withers began providing medical care to Pittsburgh’s homeless in 1992. Initially dressing as a homeless person and accompanied by a savvy formerly homeless man, “Dr. Jim” started making regular nightly rounds in alleys and under the city’s bridges. …

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Lockett’s Short Stories Provide Authentic View of Appalachian Life

Learning an obscure Mauritanian language may not mean much around his central Pennsylvania hometown of Phillipsburg, but for Michael Lockett, now a transplanted North Sider, his time in the Peace Corps led to humility, empathy, and understanding different perspectives. Those three qualities color his narrative approach throughout a standout debut collection of short stories, In …

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Touring with the Big Shots

The typical family unit on my tour was a mom, a dad, and a 17-year-old kid who was a prospective student. But one day an unusual unit showed up – a kid and his gorgeous older sister. Well, well, well, I thought. Previously in this series: How Not to be a College Guide The third …

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How Not to Be the College Guide

As a scholarship boy I was expected to get a summer job, save lots of money, and apply it to my tuition for the fall semester. Except nobody was hiring. It was now late in my sophomore year and I scurried over to the Financial Aid office to let them know my summer job prospects …

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Ghost Park

Ghost Park The dog took off near the backhoe stuck in its rutand I followed through tan brush,watching his white shape zip up the mud path. A plateau halfway up the city mountain:an abandoned basketball court,chain-link strangled by vines,backboard standing indecisive abovea spread of soggy beer-cases, broken bottles, crinkled cans.Of course, a used condom here …

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Pittsburgh Hopes to Finally Get a Team Worthy of its Ballpark

Editor’s note: This piece was written and originally published prior to the Pirates getting off to the second-best start of the 30 Major League Baseball teams.  Sixteen. That’s how many teams have won the World Series since PNC Park opened in 2001. Another five have gotten to the big autumn show and lost. That’s 21 …

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Baseball’s First Great Jewish Star

On April 15, 1947, Hank Greenberg played in his first game in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform.  He doubled in the only run of the game as the Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs 1-0 at Wrigley Field.  A few hours earlier Jackie Robinson had trotted onto the infield at Ebbets Field and integrated baseball.                                                                              Greenberg, baseball’s first …

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And the Winner is…Us (The U.S.)

“There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere.” — Buzz Lightyear Last week we looked at countries that are likely to suffer the most as America abandons its role as world cop. This week let’s take a look at countries which are likely to fare best. Previously in this series: China’s Future ProblemsBut remember …

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The Fine Collection Follows and Augments a Long Line of Pittsburgh Benefactors

Andrew Carnegie provided the means to establish the Carnegie Institute, but he believed that it should be supported by those who use it. He wasn’t much of an art collector, so he left it to others to buy or give the grand building’s objects. The art museum’s collection grew very slowly at first, with purchases …

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What Do I Know? Guillermo Velazquez

My story begins in Mexico City. I am the youngest of eight children, and my father passed away from liver disease when I was 11. When someone in your life dies while you are still young, you don’t really understand what’s happening. All I knew was that I saw my father working, and then he …

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Created by the Glaciers

There are only eight natural lakes in western Pennsylvania. Among the most beautiful is Lake Pleasant, in central Erie County between the towns of Waterford and Wattsburg. It’s wonderful for exploring, particularly for canoeing and kayaking. These lakes were formed by retreating continental glaciers, about 20,000 years ago. Tremendous blocks of ice were left behind …

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