2025 Spring

The Amazing (and Unforgettable) Bayernhof

Tucked away on a cul-de-sac in residential O’Hara Township is a museum you’ve likely never visited. The Bayernhof Museum is the culmination of the vision of Charles “Charlie” Boyd Brown, III (1934-1999), a quirky eccentric who left a legacy for generations to enjoy. Brown obtained his wealth by founding and running Gas-Lite Manufacturing, which made …

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Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. IV

To celebrate the beginning of our 20th year, we’ve set out to catalogue the contributions that Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania have made to the world. The list has grown and grown, and despite our best efforts, we know we’ll leave out key contributors. I think you’ll find that this small city at the confluence of …

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Flick’s Rough and Tough Feminism Fits Pittsburgh

Though the dictionary definition of feminism — “the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes,” — remains elusive, Sherrie Flick, author of the autobiographical essay collection Homing: Instincts of a Rustbelt Feminist, offers a more regional take in her essay “Instincts.” “Yet Western Pennsylvania is where my own particular feminism took root, …

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Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. III

To celebrate the beginning of our 20th year, we’ve set out to catalogue the contributions that Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania have made to the world. The list has grown and grown, and despite our best efforts, we know we’ll leave out key contributors. I think you’ll find that this small city at the confluence of …

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Welcome to Wildcat

When asked in an interview with writer Deborah Kalb about the significance of the title to his recent novel, Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance, Jeffrey Dunn points to the village of Braeburn, Pennsylvania, where “there is a road called ‘Wildcat Hollow Road.’ It’s a good Appalachian name: free but threatened, just like the wildcats whose coughs, …

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Wild Apples

A summer apple tree in the front yard is a wondrous thing. I can sit on the front porch and watch apples fall to the ground, listen to the “plunk” as they hit the grass, and wildlife come right to me. A squirrel climbs the tree, plucks an apple from a branch and runs away …

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Myron Cope: The Man Behind the Terrible Towel

For a Steelers fan, watching 60 minutes of football at Acrisure Stadium without a sea of Terrible Towels is hard to imagine. In the mythology surrounding Pittsburgh’s most popular sports franchise, a playoff game against the Baltimore Colts at Three Rivers Stadium on December 27, 1975, marked the first appearance of the “gimmick” that would …

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Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World, Pt. II

To celebrate the beginning of our 20th year, we’ve set out to catalogue the contributions that Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania have made to the world. The list has grown and grown, and despite our best efforts, we know we’ll leave out key contributors. I think you’ll find that this small city at the confluence of …

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Pittsburgh’s Contributions to the World

To celebrate the beginning of our 20th year, we’ve set out to catalogue the contributions that Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania have made to the world. The list has grown and grown, and despite our best efforts, we know we’ll leave out key contributors. I think you’ll find that this small city at the confluence of …

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Calm and Collected

Then designer Betsy Deiseroth walked into her Fox Chapel home 24 years ago, she faced a daunting challenge. Though situated on a quiet road surrounded by a leafy lot, the house itself cried out for renovation. An 1870s cottage married to a 1950s ranch, it was charmless at best. “I walked in, saw the living room …

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Total War Over Cocktails

If there’s a miracle in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s current performance of the 1962 Edward Albee play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” — it’s that two well-educated couples can argue drunkenly for over three hours and never once broach the subject of politics.  (And these couples are of different generations, no less).  Of course, this would …

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Magnificence Along the Clarion

A beautiful place to hike and explore in northwest Pennsylvania is Dutch Hill Forest, along the Clarion River in Heath Township, Jefferson County. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has protected more than 32,000 acres along the Clarion River, which was highly polluted decades ago but is now largely restored and a federally designated Wild and Scenic …

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What Do I Know? Dr. José-Alain Sahel

I was born in Tlemcen, Algeria, a small city on the border with Morocco. My family is Jewish, of Spanish ancestry, and had been in Algeria for centuries. Both sides of my family were poor and struggled often just to eat. My grandfather on my father’s side was severely injured during World War II and …

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Blocking Pittsburgh Growth: A Tyranny of the Minority

I didn’t grow up in a union household, but I’m steeped in union lore and stories. They’re part of America’s fabric and spirit. In the movies, there’s Norma Rae where Sally Field plays a courageous union textile worker. Matewan portrays the dramatic 1920 coal miners’ battle in West Virginia. And one of the best movies …

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A Skiing Reverie

When life events overwhelm me — family health issues, major expenses, needless arguments — I dream about skiing. For me, there is no better escape than soaring down a slope with nothing on my mind other than my next rhythmic turn. Skiing is great therapy, even in a dream. But I’ll probably never ski again. …

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