Articles Archive - Page 85 of 157 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Information technology and robotics lead the region as the most active sectors for business deals and jobs in the Pittsburgh region, according to the 2017 Allegheny Conference on Community Development Business Investment Scorecard. The scorecard is an index which considers the number of new deals in the region, capital investment, and jobs created and retained …

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Books

Sheryl St. Germain Muses on her Son’s Overdose in “The Small Door of your Death”

by Fred Shaw

According to the National Institute of Health, more than 115 people in the United States die every day from opioid overdoses, adding up to well over 40,000 deaths a year. And while statistics lend a sense of scope to this epidemic, it’s often the tragic aftermath of a single death with its unanswered questions that …

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Creative Capital

How to React to a Hillbilly

by Greg Curtis

Last week we tried to imagine how Professor Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize-winning author of “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” would react if he saw a couple of hillbillies coming into his store. This week we’ll re-look at that situation, pretending that Kahneman isn’t a Nobel Prize winning professor at all, but a lowly department store clerk. …

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Nature

The Secret to Finding Morels

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

“I can’t seem to give ’em up I just like morels too much I like other ’shrooms and such But I just like morels too much Oyster mushrooms mighty fine Seafood and some nice white wine Chanterelles’re tasty too In a wild mushroom ragout Storebought shrooms can be a crutch but I just like morels …

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Travel

Escape to Gateway Lodge in Cook Forest

by Barbara Eichenlaub

If you find the heat and noise of “summer in the city” oppressive, escape it all in an under-two-hour drive from Pittsburgh. Take the scenic trip to Cook Forest State Park, and stay at the Gateway Lodge. Built in 1934, the Gateway Lodge is the perfect combination of woodsy charm and contemporary amenities. The family-owned …

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Education

Protecting Free Speech on Campus

by PQ Staff

For this special feature, we invited the presidents of the region’s leading institutions of higher education to respond to the following: The American Civil Liberties Union has written that “An open society depends on liberal education, and the whole enterprise of liberal education is founded on the principle of free speech.” Yet surveys suggest that …

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Health

A New Way to Fight Overdose

by Nick Keppler

When Dave Lozier campaigned to be the district attorney of Beaver County, one topic dominated conversation at every meet-and-greet and campaign stop. “I was up in rural Darlington Township and down in Monaca and the [more populated] river towns and everyone kept asking, ‘What can we do about these overdoses?’ ” recalled Lozier, a former …

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Arts

An Ear for Music and Life

by John W. Miller

On a Tuesday morning in Squirrel Hill, Ceinwen (pronounced Kine-Win) King-Smith taps out notes on her piano. I stumble along, up and down the scale, straining my voice to match pitches. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”140″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″] Ceinwen listens. She’s been blind since birth, and is so good at listening that according to her daughter she …

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Birds

The Elusive and Beautiful Green Heron

by David Liebmann

The green heron lay cradled in the crook of Bob Mulvihill’s arm like a baby, or at least that’s how I remember it. He blew on the bird’s belly and a cloud of powder down swirled forth, an adaptation that in all likelihood adds some moisture-shedding resistance to the wing feathers of this water-loving species. …

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Money

Three Questions on the Markets

by PQ Staff

Each year in our Summer issue, we ask a group of the region’s leading financial experts to help our readers by responding to a question. This year, we’ve asked three. Part I of this four-part series begins below. Question 1: Why has market volatility spiked in 2018? Do you expect markets to remain volatile? LINDA …

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Nature

Fleeting Blossoms of the ’Burgh

by David Aschkenas

April showers bring May flowers, but May showers can quickly destroy the delicate blossoms on flowering trees. Sometimes the blooms only last a few days before a sudden downpour—of which Pittsburgh has been experiencing often these days—washes them away. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”244″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″] In this collection of images, Pittsburgh photographer David Aschkenas captures the …

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Events

Maecenas XXXIV Brings Contortionists to the Opera

by PQ Staff

Pittsburgh’s best-dressed celebrated at Pittsburgh Opera’s 34th annual Maecenas Gala on May 12th in a crowd of 250. Local performing arts patrons Pat and Michele Atkins were presented with Pittsburgh Opera’s Maecenas Award. Pittsburgh Opera awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award to Honorable Tom Wolf, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which was accepted on his …

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Creative Capital

The Stubbornness of Culture

by Greg Curtis

In 2013 J. D. Vance graduated from Yale Law School, an accomplishment he shared that year with the following fraction of his fellow Americans: 0.00000063. I deduced this remarkable statistic very simply, by dividing the number of students in the Yale Law School class (208) by the population of the United States, which, at this …

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Sports

Steelers Add Key Players Who Should See Playing Time

by Matthew John Milligan

The 2018 NFL draft is in the books. The league again elected to feature a number of former NFL players to make team selections, perhaps to quell the booing of Commissioner Roger Goodell. It didn’t make a difference. It did, however, produce a very emotional draft moment. To a roaring crowd, linebacker Ryan Shazier walked …

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Events

Pittsburgh Public Theater’s “Bon Voyage!” Bids Ted Pappas Farewell

by PQ Staff

“Bon Voyage!” a red carpet event celebrating Ted Pappas and Pittsburgh Public Theater, took place on Monday, April 30 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown. This August, Ted will say goodbye to the theater after 18 years at the helm and more than 450 well-wishers were on board to bid him farewell. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”242″ …

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Creative Capital

Don’t Even Think About Crossing a Hillbilly

by Greg Curtis

We’ve talked about several obstacles to success in middle class Ohio for migrants from southeastern Kentucky: they had horrible accents and they tended to dress funny. But the biggest obstacle was the most difficult to overcome: their behavior. As I’ve noted, Scots-Irish immigrants to America brought with them a constellation of characteristics. These included an …

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Arts

Play Unlimited: The Public’s Ambitious “Hamlet” Rewards on Many Levels

by Stuart Sheppard

“The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” is a monster of a play: at about 4,000 lines, it’s Shakespeare’s longest—full productions can easily run past four hours. (Hamlet himself has 1,500 lines, which alone would constitute an entire drama). And it’s monstrous not only in word-count, but body-count. By the end, the prince has been …

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Business

How My English Degree Helped Build a Tech Company

by Chris Allison

When I was 26, my dad got sick and asked me to take over as CEO of the tech company he started. I was armed with my English major from Allegheny College and a couple of years in a retail management training program. In other words, I didn’t have a clue. Or so I thought. …

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Creative Capital

Don’t Dress Like a Hillbilly

by Greg Curtis

Last week we discussed one of the major hurdles recent immigrants from southeastern Kentucky faced when they tried to assimilate into middle class society in Ohio: they talked like hillbillies. This week we’ll look at a second hurdle: the matter of dress. In “Hillbilly Elegy,” J. D. Vance notes that his Papaw wore the same outfit every …

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Events

Behind-the-Scenes of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Season Finale

by PQ Staff

This spring, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT) joins in international centennial celebrations for choreographer Jerome Robbins and composer Leonard Bernstein with an all-Robbins program featuring three company premieres. “UPMC Presents West Side Story Suite + In the Night + Fancy Free” with the PBT Orchestra takes the stage May 4-6, at the Benedum Center. In addition …

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Business

The Agency Game

by Evan Pattak

Pipitone Group, an ad agency in Pittsburgh’s Observatory Hill neighborhood, counts Vitro Architectural Glass as one of its largest clients. For the Cheswick-based company, which purchased PPG Flat Glass in 2016, Pipitone manages advertising and web strategy. Yet when Vitro wants to develop and implement a public relations initiative, it brings to the table another …

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Nature

The Allegheny River

by Thomas Saunders

In many ways, the Allegheny River is the centerpiece of our region. It traverses landscapes from wilderness to urban and provides recreational opportunities in many different places along its course. One of the most spectacular parts of the river is the free-flowing 125 miles of the middle Allegheny from the Kinzua Dam in Warren County …

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