Winter 2025
Pittsburgh Tomorrow: The Voyage of a Year
At 3 a.m. Sunday, October 20, I bolted out of bed with a thought. Weeks earlier, I’d tried unsuccessfully to attend a Kamala Harris rally to spread the word about the Pittsburgh Tomorrow project. On this Sunday, Elon Musk was coming for a rally — and if I could get in, I wanted to be …
A Pilot Program Flies
Early this year, we wrote letters to the principals of all 88 high schools in Allegheny County asking them to nominate one sophomore and one junior (one boy, one girl) to the initial congress for the Allegheny Conservation Corps, an initiative for high school students to create community projects. The idea was threefold: physically improve …
Noteworthy Winter 2025
(Editor’s note: this story was originally published Dec. 3) Stick Up for U.S. SteelOne thing the U.S. presidential aspirants had in common this year is they all came out against the U.S. Steel/Nippon Steel deal. U.S. Steel chose the Japanese steelmaker because Nippon is willing to pay a much higher price than the other bidder, …
Holiday Nonprofit Guide
Editor’s note: We asked the leaders of key local nonprofits the following question: What is your organization’s mission and what are you most in need of as we approach the holidays and 2025? The answers follow. JANE WERNER, Children’s MuseumOur mission is to provide innovative and inclusive museum experiences that inspire kindness, creativity, curiosity and …
Kinetic Theatre’s “A Sherlock Carol”
Earlier this month I happened to rewatch the 1976 film, “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution” which I had not seen for many years, and was amazed by the interiority actor Nicol Williamson discovered in the character of Sherlock Holmes. In this story, Holmes teams up with Sigmund Freud – talk about an intellectual buddy adventure – to solve …
Holiday Nonprofit Guide
Editor’s note: We asked the leaders of key local nonprofits the following question: What is your organization’s mission and what are you most in need of as we approach the holidays and 2025? The answers follow. WENDY PARDEE, The Children’s Institute of PittsburghThe Children’s Institute provides support and care unlike any other to children with …
Dissatisfied but Grateful
To satisfy and to gratify are often used interchangeably, but they have totally different meanings. To satisfy, or to be satisfied, refers to a variety of human needs that periodically demand to be met and satiated in order to be eased. The need for food, water, sleep, space, companionship, alleviation of pain, or protection from …
What Do I Know? Stanley Druckenmiller
I was born in 1953 in Philadelphia and grew up in New Jersey and Virginia. By the eighth grade, I had attended six public schools before being enrolled at a private day school in the ninth grade. My father, who was a chemistry major in college, worked for Dupont and ended up in labor relations. …
An Owl for All Seasons
I do not recommend birding while driving. Looking up into the sky to determine whether the soaring shape high above is an eagle or just a turkey vulture is generally unsafe. True, I have never veered off the road or crossed into oncoming traffic, but I could have. Hurtling down the highway, I’ve seen red-tailed …
Seasons Saltings
John Tarallo is a happy person. And he seems to infuse his infectious enthusiasm and passion into everything he touches. Raised in Lawrenceville and Bloomfield, he started working at the legendary Groceria Italiana at 13. There, and in his Italian mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens, he watched and learned about food, flavors and cooking. He went …
Nashville, Pennsylvania
After an 11-year exile to Nashville, Tennessee, I finally woke up smelling Pittsburgh. I woke from dreams of flying through the Conemaugh Gap, inhaling the untouched scent of the Laurel and Cresson mountains surrounding my hometown of Johnstown, and continued across Route 22 to the musky smells of the Monongahela and into the mist of bridges …
Explore a Winter Hike on the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail
One of our region’s great hikes is the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail. It runs from the town of Ohiopyle on its southern end 70 miles northward to a vista above the Conemaugh River at its northern terminus. Used by through- and day-hikers and runners, it’s one of Pennsylvania’s most beautiful trails. With steep grade changes, …
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Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Finds Poetry in Dance
I should have known something special was happening Downtown on a windy, wet, early-April evening when I saw a 10-year-old girl literally yanking her mother into the box office of the Benedum Center. I hadn’t seen a child this excited to attend a performance since I witnessed a little boy twirling his red matador cape …
‘Slime Line’ Hooks the Alaska Salmon Industry
Revealing might be the best way to describe Jake Maynard’s debut novel, Slime Line, as the Mt. Jewett native leans on the highs and lows of his big-hearted narrator, Garrett “Beaver” Deaver, to provide inside dope on what it takes to bring a harvest of salmon from sea to table. Maynard doesn’t paint a pretty …
Drue Heinz Winner Explores the Difficulties of Family
Maya Angelou once wrote, “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” Indeed, the relationships between mother and daughter found in literature make for a complicated spectrum, sometimes veering toward melodrama or bursting with profound insight — Amy Tan’s brilliant …
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Changing the American Dream
Francis Ford Coppola’s epic, “The Godfather,” begins with the line, “I believe in America.” The film chronicles the tragic story of the Corleone family and their twisted version of the American Dream. It characterizes our national ethos by believing anyone can attain their version of societal success, regardless of where or into which class they …
New Airport Accentuates Pittsburgh’s Key Attributes
If you’re an old-time Pittsburgher who’s resistant to change, you fondly recall Forbes Field, even with its tiny seats and occluded views of the field. You long to shop in Jenkins Arcade one more time. You cherish the memories of your trips to Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, with its inviting observation decks and concession stands …
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Prints Charming
‘‘I’m not the biggest fan of neutrals,” notes interior designer Molly Singer. That turns out to be a major understatement. The newly renovated home in Fox Chapel she shares with her husband and two children is the definition of exuberance. Color abounds, as does texture and wallpaper. Lots of wallpaper. “I’m a firm believer that you …
Making It Happen
Mention the game of squash and it will likely conjure a traditional image of men in whites, whacking a hard, hollow ball off the walls of an enclosed court in the rarefied confines of a private club, prep school or eastern college. The indoor game with the long-necked racquet and dark rubber ball hasn’t always …
Buying a Suit: A Primer
Long before Covid came along to decimate commercial real estate, there was something called “Casual Fridays.” That one day a week of switching to khakis and polos had tentacles that spread to other days. Suddenly suits were not required attire in many businesses, just as office attendance has widely transitioned to remote work. But there …
Kennywood Crime Scene
According to the website novel Suspects, the police procedural grew out of the growing interest in true crime that began in the 1940s and ’50s, with Lawrence Treat’s V is for Victim being acknowledged as the first to “bring realism to the mystery genre.” With Dick Wolf’s Law & Order TV empire offering an easy …
The Illustrious Order of Makesmiths
It’s like no other place in the world because it exists in only one place — Blawnox. Walk into the just-opened Illustrious Order of Makesmiths and a wonderland of imagination explodes. To call it a store doesn’t do it justice — a gallery of curiosities is more accurate. Makesmiths is the vision of Squonk Opera …
Buying a Suit: A Primer
Long before Covid came along to decimate commercial real estate, there was something called “Casual Fridays.” That one day a week of switching to khakis and polos had tentacles that spread to other days. Suddenly suits were not required attire in many businesses, just as office attendance has widely transitioned to remote work. But there …
My Modest, Idiosyncratic Love of City Living
AN ENTREPRENEUR FINDS HIS NICHEI was lunching with my accountant while examining my assets when he suggested that I buy an office instead of renting. I was living and working at the time in a Downtown high-rise apartment and, as he said, “enriching the landlord, not you.” Soon after, I accidentally noticed an ad for …
Pittsburgh’s Mal Goode: Television’s First Black Broadcaster
On Oct. 28, 1962, the three major television networks interrupted their scheduled programs to broadcast a special report on what would become known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. This was a critical moment not only in American history, but also in the integration of American broadcasting. Just a few months earlier, ABC, at the urging …
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An Ode on Snow Days
When I was young, one of the best two-word combinations in the English language was snow day! When I didn’t have to go to school and could stay in my pajamas and watch tv. When I coaxed myself into bulky pants, jackets, socks and boots—way before fleece, down, and waterproof fabric—and my feet got sopped …
