Articles Archive - Page 9 of 152 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Charitable Giving: Why Does it Matter? Read More »

Editor’s note: In this season of giving, we asked some of the region’s nonprofit leaders to answer a simple question: Why is charitable giving so important in our society? Tim Parks, Life’sWork of Western Pa.I begin with another question: How can I, as an individual, make a positive difference in society? On reflection, I recall …

PQ Poem

Interstate Five

by Ryler Dustin

Interstate Five What remains of these lost deltasafter the mills shut down: an artof disappearing, black-windowed bars,the towers of a closed factorystill blinking their red lights to hideno work’s inside. For yearsI drove past these roadside dinerscarved out of rain, trailer parks linedwith European trees, the truck stopwhere cigarette smoke driftsinto the air like a …

Interstate Five Read More »

Opinion Pittsburgh Immigration

Pittsburgh Tomorrow

by Douglas Heuck

When I came to Pittsburgh in 1985, it was a great city — the late David McCullough called it “the essential American city.” But it was a great city in shock. The massive industrial economy had collapsed and 150,000 to 200,000 mainly young people were leaving for greener pastures. I expected to stay for my …

Pittsburgh Tomorrow Read More »

The Oxford Companion — a Drinker’s Bible

The Oxford Companion — a Drinker’s Bible Read More »

“What whiskey won’t cure there is no cure for.” — Irish proverb Maybe you’ve noticed those annoying people who conduct all their video calls in front of a carefully curated bookcase full of impossibly erudite volumes that no one – including them – ever actually reads. What you won’t find on those carefully curated bookcases …

Food & Wine

Warm the Cockles of Your Heart with Chestnut Soup

by Lidey Heuck

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” — it’s an image that instantly evokes crackling logs and the warmth and cheer of the holidays. But how often are chestnuts actually on the menu? In Italy, where many of the chestnuts sold in the U.S. are grown, they’re popular in the fall and early winter, roasted by …

Warm the Cockles of Your Heart with Chestnut Soup Read More »

Arts

Combining the Political and Artistic

by Vicky A Clark

We live a media world, constantly bombarded with unprecedented information delivered on various platforms. It can be next to impossible to separate fact and from, but everyone has the right to an opinion. Many still believe that the art museum, the so-called palace of culture, should remain steeped in the beautiful and provide an escape …

Combining the Political and Artistic Read More »

Arts

Barebones’ “American Buffalo” is Stunning and Revelatory Theater

by Stuart Sheppard

In trying to describe the essence of strong writing – and ultimately, all art — the poet Wallace Stevens said, “A grandiose subject is not an assurance of a grandiose effect, but most likely, the opposite.” What we have in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” (1975) is the embodiment of this ethos, as the play brings …

Barebones’ “American Buffalo” is Stunning and Revelatory Theater Read More »

Face the Facts About a “Multipolar” World

Face the Facts About a “Multipolar” World Read More »

“It is simply a myth that the world is anywhere close to multipolar.” — Jo Inge Bekkevold, Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies Previously in this series: Europe’s Shrinking RelevanceWhy is it that so many commentators insist that we live in a multipolar world? Part of it is simply ideological blindness. The university community, like it …

People

An Evening with Rosalynn Carter

by Ray Werner

It was December 9,1979. The White House was decorated for Christmas, with its majestic, towering Christmas Tree, all ready for the annual lighting that day. What a great welcoming sight. How could this be happening to us? We were there to film First Lady Rosalynn Carter. She had agreed to do some public service commercials for …

An Evening with Rosalynn Carter Read More »

Nature

What Would Rachel Carson Say?

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

On a Tuesday morning late last August, I turned out of my driveway onto Route 711 to drive into Ligonier. Route 711 is a two-lane state road, a main north-south corridor, designated as the Laurel Highlands Scenic Byway. I passed, heading in the other direction, two large white trucks, one of which had a long …

What Would Rachel Carson Say? Read More »

Europe’s Shrinking Relevance

Europe’s Shrinking Relevance Read More »

“As a result of the accelerating decline in Europe’s global influence and reach … the overrepresentation of Europeans in global institutions is the greatest flaw in the international architecture.”Walter Russell Mead Previously in this series: Failing to Get Rich Before They Get too Old“The EU is a construct perfectly adept at standardizing phone chargers … but …

People

Turner, Loevner, Fisher, Benedum, Wishart, Savran, Harrell

Turner, Loevner, Fisher, Benedum, Wishart, Savran, Harrell Read More »

Tracey Turner, 60 Turner was artistic director of I Dream A World, taught at Point Park University and was the director of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s Black and White Festival and various productions at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. Turner was especially fond of Shakespeare, receiving praise for her portrayal of the traditionally …

Failing to Get Rich Before They Get Old

Failing to Get Rich Before They Get Old Read More »

As we saw last week, President Xi understood (as observers in the West did not) that China’s growth model was exhausted and that the only known strategy for continued growth was to transition to a Western-style consumer-led economy. That had been the strategy used by other now-wealthy Asian societies. But Xi knew more than that …

Obituaries

Machamer, Introcaso, Murphy, Botos, Lagattuta, Nelson, Frank

Machamer, Introcaso, Murphy, Botos, Lagattuta, Nelson, Frank Read More »

Peter Machamer, 80 A dedicated oenophile who penned a wine column for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for 14 years, Machamer was a professor and chair of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Pitt for almost 40 years and the author of more than 100 publications and books. A Galileo Galilei and René Descartes scholar, …

Avoiding the Demographic Cliff, Pt. III

Avoiding the Demographic Cliff, Pt. III Read More »

Editor’s Note: We’ve asked the Presidents of this region’s colleges and universities to respond in 250 words or less to the following question:Given that attracting young people is critically important to this area and your institution, how will you overcome declining enrollment trends and how might civic efforts help you do that?Pt. II SUSAN TRAVERSO, …

The New World Order

The New World Order Read More »

“The vaunted China model … has entered its death throes.” — Michael Schuman in “The Atlantic” Following the end of World War II we lived in a bipolar world, with the US and USSR vying for domination. When the Soviet Union collapsed around 1990, we entered a unipolar world with the US as global hegemon. But then, …

Opinion

Stronger than Hate? We Need to Prove it Now

by Douglas Heuck

Five years ago, Pittsburgh was shocked by the horrifying acts of a hate-filled gunman who murdered 11 people and injured many others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill. On October 7, just 20 days before the five-year anniversary of that mass killing in Pittsburgh, the world was shocked when Hamas terrorists savagely …

Stronger than Hate? We Need to Prove it Now Read More »

Opinion

Broken Politics is Hardly Limited to Allegheny County

by Mark Schwartz

I agree with Editor Douglas Heuck’s piece entitled “The Broken Politics of Allegheny County.” I moved across the state in 1986 to the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, in part because I was tired of the political scene in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County; not that it’s proven to be any better here. Obvious and commonly …

Broken Politics is Hardly Limited to Allegheny County Read More »

Education

Avoiding the Demographic Cliff, Pt. II

Avoiding the Demographic Cliff, Pt. II Read More »

Opinion

How Much Do Voters Care About the Future of Allegheny County?

by Douglas Heuck

(This story appeared in the Fall issue under the headline: The Broken Politics of Allegheny County.) I was on vacation in Michigan this summer, walking down a path to collect my daughter’s dog, when two old friends said hello from a cottage porch. One, from Cincinnati, gets the magazine and asked what the subject of …

How Much Do Voters Care About the Future of Allegheny County? Read More »

VA Conclusion