Articles Archive - Page 92 of 155 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Freedom is better, even when it’s worse. We might think about experts the way we think about stop signs (bear with me on this…) To understand the expert-stop sign analogy let’s begin with Arthur C. Brooks, who has written (in “Foreign Affairs” and elsewhere) about what he calls “the dignity deficit,” which he believes cost Mrs. Clinton …

Democracy, Populism, and the Tyranny of the Experts, Part VIII Read More »

Education

3 Not-So-Simple Questions, Part II

by PQ Staff

Editor’s note: This is part two of a feature that began in the pages of the Fall issue of Pittsburgh Quarterly. We invited the heads of the region’s top independent schools to address three important questions, in 200 words or less for each. The first of the questions is below, along with the answers. For …

3 Not-So-Simple Questions, Part II Read More »

Events

Riverlife Celebrates a Party at the Pier

by PQ Staff

Curious onlookers from inside Rivers Casino couldn’t resist watching the festivities unfolding outside in the amphitheater on the evening of August 25. Of interest? A sold-out crowd of 1,000 that was toasting Riverlife’s Party at the Pier. “What a gorgeous night,” said president Vivien Li. “This is absolutely beautiful. I think every time people come …

Riverlife Celebrates a Party at the Pier Read More »

Sports

Steelers Rundown: Progress Report After Two Preseason Games

by Matthew John Milligan

The Steelers are halfway through the preseason, and all signs are pointing to another electric season on both sides of the ball. Here are a few notes from Pittsburgh’s victories over the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants, as well as some training camp observations from Latrobe. Watt Strong through two games It didn’t take …

Steelers Rundown: Progress Report After Two Preseason Games Read More »

Creative Capital

Democracy, Populism, and the Tyranny of the Experts, Part VII

by Greg Curtis

Viewed through the lens of “the tyranny of the experts,” it’s easy to see that in the last election Hillary Clinton was the candidate of the experts, while Donald Trump was the candidate of people who were tired of being tyrannized by them. Clinton is an expert herself—she’s a lawyer who practiced with The Rose …

Democracy, Populism, and the Tyranny of the Experts, Part VII Read More »

American Spirit

Thrifty Tom and His Peanut Butter

by Kate Benz, photography by John Altdorfer

The 52-ounce can of Planter’s Peanuts came from Sam’s Club. Because they’re the best, really. Extra Large Virginia Peanuts. You’ll never find a bad one in the bunch. And the food processor? Well, yeah, originally it rolled off some assembly line at GE with an outrageous price tag, but here’s the secret: buy them at …

Thrifty Tom and His Peanut Butter Read More »

Birds

Give a Little Whistle

by David Liebmann

It’s not until chapter 10 of Harper Lee’s famous novel that we are told of the magic of mockingbirds. Atticus Finch, lawyer and father extraordinaire, says, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Benevolent Miss Maudie explains, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing …

Give a Little Whistle Read More »

Business

The Union Project

by Lori Jakiela

“Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread.” –Studs Terkel When my friend Sara asks me to work a catering gig, a hipster-ish wedding in a rehabbed church called The Union Project, I say, “I am so in,” and she says, “Really?” as if she expected me to say no. …

The Union Project Read More »

Regional News

Cokeless Steel?

by Mike Wereschagin

Power companies aren’t alone in their shift away from coal. Steelmakers, industry groups and the federal government are spending millions looking for a way to make steel without coke, the carbon-rich form of coal used to fuel blast furnaces. Like coal-fired power generation, coke production is a major source of air pollution, and its processing …

Cokeless Steel? Read More »

Regional News

Petrochemical Alley

by Jeffery Fraser

Shell Chemical Appalachia’s petrochemical complex has begun to rise from a dusty Beaver County brownfield that follows a slow bend in the Ohio River near Monaca. It took hefty tax incentives to secure it. The nation’s largest zinc smelter was razed to make room for it. More than 7 million cubic feet of earth were …

Petrochemical Alley Read More »

Regional News

Energy’s Big Shift

by Jeffery Fraser

A decade ago, as Consol Energy’s 150th anniversary drew near, top executives began to take stock in where the company stood as a leading producer of coal and where that path would take it. Coal was in what CEO Nicholas DeIuliis called a “supercycle.” It was the workhorse of the national power grid and less …

Energy’s Big Shift Read More »

Architecture & Neighborhoods

The Fate of a Prison

by Charles Rosenblum

For a sprawling building in an ambitious Romanesque style on a conspicuous riverfront site, Western Penitentiary has spent most of its life in architectural obscurity. After an auspicious start, it fell quickly from prominence. Now, it may soon fall to the wrecking ball. Begun in 1879 in Woods Run along the Ohio River and partially …

The Fate of a Prison Read More »

Nature

Seeing Autumn Through a Spider’s Web

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

“I had never paid much attention to spiders until a few years ago. Once you begin watching spiders, you haven’t time for much else—the world is really loaded with them. I do not find them repulsive or revolting, any more than I find anything in nature repulsive or revolting, and I think it is too …

Seeing Autumn Through a Spider’s Web Read More »

Health

Sepsis Alert

by Keith Gillogly

By the time Nancy Schollaert Nichol arrived to see her family doctor after experiencing abdominal pain for five days, the visit didn’t last long. She was immediately sent to the UPMC Northwest emergency department in Cranberry where she found out she’d need emergency gallbladder surgery. When doctors opened her up, they found gangrene and a …

Sepsis Alert Read More »

Arts

What Lies Beneath: The Frick Gets Undressed

by Matthew John Milligan

It’s the first article of clothing you put on and the last one you take off. It comes in all shapes and sizes, colors and textures, ranging from exceedingly comfortable to helplessly imprisoned. It can be sporty, sultry, dull or disturbing, and is quite literally the foundation of the outfit we build onto ourselves. And …

What Lies Beneath: The Frick Gets Undressed Read More »

Leadership

A Question of Leadership

by PQ Staff

Pittsburgh Quarterly asked three local leaders: “What’s the toughest leadership dilemma you’ve ever faced; how did you handle it; and what did you learn from it?” Grant Oliphant, President of the Heinz Endowments Shortly after I started as president & CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation in early 2008 the economy was hit by the Great …

A Question of Leadership Read More »

Regional News

Drilling for Answers

by Julia Fraser

Well pads, compressor stations, diesel truck traffic. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves many moving parts, some of which have the potential to vent pollutants into the air southwestern Pennsylvanians breathe. Fracking doesn’t consist of large, stationary pollution sources, like U.S. Steel’s metallurgical coke plant in Clairton, where emissions are monitored daily, the pollutants they contain …

Drilling for Answers Read More »

Books

Living in Harm’s Way

by John Allison

Lynda Schuster has had quite a life. now safely squared away in Squirrel Hill, she spent the 1980s and ’90s in one danger zone after another. She reported on wars, insurrections and misery in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa for The Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor. After marrying a U.S. diplomat …

Living in Harm’s Way Read More »

Birds

Golden Eagle: High, Wild and Here

by Ben Moyer

Imagine the view from a thousand feet up. Snow-mantled ridges cloaked in barren forest, angling southwestward as far as an eagle can see. On the northwest horizon stands a crisp urban skyline above the glint from three rivers. That’s the view golden eagles survey as they soar along the Laurel Highlands to their wintering grounds …

Golden Eagle: High, Wild and Here Read More »

History

Beechwood School Garden, 1916

by Jennifer McNulty

Over the past 10 years, school gardens have been cropping up across the Pittsburgh region. Spurred by chef-activist Alice Waters’ 1995 Edible School Yard, the school garden movement has been praised for yielding both a harvest bounty and hearty educational benefits. In these outdoor classrooms, students learn about everything from summer squash to science to …

Beechwood School Garden, 1916 Read More »

History

The Egg Route

by Sherrie Flick

My dad likes to reminisce, and after most of our 22 family members had moved to the living room after a holiday dinner to nap or watch sports, I learned how the desire for farm fresh eggs connected my parents to both the city of Pittsburgh and their rural roots in Tionesta, for their first …

The Egg Route Read More »

Books

Short Takes: “Shopping Mall” “North and Central”

by John Allison

Matthew Newton lets you know by Page 10 that he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder as a teenager. These days, he’s a productive and well-adjusted married man and dad, doing great work at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and his skills as an inquisitive writer and thinker are evident from his latest work. But knowing …

Short Takes: “Shopping Mall” “North and Central” Read More »