Articles Archive - Page 9 of 158 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Sailing is a big part of the culture in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where I’ve spent 63 straight summers. And some might say that from an early age, I earned the dubious distinction of being a kind of “Jonah” of sailboat races. I’ve never seen myself as that ill-fated shipmate of yore, but the case could …

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Education Nonprofits

College Town Pittsburgh

by PQ Staff

Editor’s note: We thank the top leaders of this region’s universities for penning a response to the following question: Given continuing enrollment declines and our civic need to attract and keep young people, is it desirable to significantly build on fledgling programs to get students off campus and engage them in this region’s amenities, thus …

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Nature

Tryon-Weber Woods

by Thomas Saunders

There’s a great place to go for an autumn road trip where you can take a deep-forest hike and feel the awe of old forest trees. About 90 miles north of Pittsburgh in western Crawford County, the 100-acre Tryon-Weber Woods area originally was protected by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1976 and enlarged in 2017. …

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Obituaries People

Anderson, O’Brien, Cohon, Roddey, Miller, O’Reilly, Johnson, Zockoll, Ostrowski, Wecht, D’Andrea, Szabo, Kopf Jr.

by PQ Staff

Barbara Anderson, 89Her career as an award-winning costume designer, professor and associate dean of Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts spanned more than 45 years. She worked on numerous theater, television and film productions and co-wrote the definitive textbook on costume design with her late husband, Cletus Anderson, whom she met while getting an MA …

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American Spirit People

Waiting For…

by John Beale

So many people waiting. In Monroeville, paramedic Dave Sherman was waiting to respond to another emergency call. In Indiana Township, Lucas Goeller was waiting for a life-saving liver transplant. In Mt. Lebanon, Emily Eagleton and Laura Handy were waiting to become parents. In East Deer Township, dozens of motorists were waiting in a construction zone. …

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Home & Lifestyle Homes

Fun in the Sun

by Marylynn Uricchio

Though they had lived in Manhattan for 20 years, being stuck in an apartment with two children during COVID caused a young couple to consider a change. They had often visited his parents in Naples, Florida, and enjoyed it even more during the pandemic when the husband worked remotely. “We realized this could be our real …

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Books

All Things Random, Edible and Odd: Essays on Grief, Love and Food

by Fred Shaw

Until the closing of Carmody’s Restaurant in Franklin Park after 62 years, turtle soup remained a fixture on its menu. Once a staple of fine dining, turtle soup typically came paired with a shot of sherry to both sweeten and thin the stew-y broth. For local writer Sheila Squillante, a first bowl of this dated …

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People Pittsburgh Immigration Profiles

What Do I Know? Khara Timsina

by Jeff Sewald

I was born in a small village in southern Bhutan, the second of nine children — five boys and four girls. Luckily, my siblings and I, and our parents, were able to emigrate to the West in 2009. My father died here in Pittsburgh in 2021, and my mother still lives locally, in Brentwood. But …

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Travel

A Garden for All Seasons

by Barbara Eichenlaub

Western Pennsylvania is about to be invaded by massive bugs, but unlike the spotted lantern fly, these insects will be welcomed by throngs of visitors. “Big Bugs + Pollinators” is an installation of 10 gigantic, anatomically accurate sculptures of pollinators, insects and spiders that will be on display from June 15 to Sept. 15 at …

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Obituaries Profiles

Judge Jeffrey Manning Broke the Mold

by Mark Schwartz

We lawyers who go to court participate in what amounts to a contact sport, choosing sides in an all-out adversary process. Too bad if the other side loses. Winner takes all. Justice done. Over and out. Judge Jeffrey Manning passed away this month. Back in the mid-1970s only 3 or 4 years out of law …

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Books

Miss Me Forever Hits “Home” with Bhutanese Protagonist

by Fred Shaw

Tulsi Gurung is in a jam. that could be the abridged version of Erie native Eugene Cross’s latest novel, Miss Me Forever, in which his likable protagonist gets put through the paces. A more nuanced look at this highly readable story, set in Erie and Pittsburgh, might be that the orphaned Nepalese immigrant who arrives …

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Birds

Take a Trip, Find a Puffin

by David Liebmann

Summer in Pittsburgh is pretty fine, but it’s good to explore farther afield now and again. That’s how I came to find myself on a bobbing boat beyond the breakwater of New Harbor, Maine. We were cruising out to look for Atlantic Puffins on Eastern Egg Rock, a five-mile trip on what were calm seas. …

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Pittsburgh Immigration Profiles

Tuomas Sandholm: AI’s Benefits Far Outweigh its Dangers- Here’s Why

by Tracy Certo

For Tuomas Sandholm, it’s no contest. The co-director of Carnegie Mellon University Artificial Intelligence (CMU AI) firmly believes the benefits of artificial intelligence far outweigh the downsides. “AI can make better decisions than humans, which will make the world a better place,” he says. To better understand his perspective, look at his track record. In …

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Arts

The Moon is Just a World that Never Heals: Quantum Nails O’Neill

by Stuart Sheppard

It is a precept of Zen art to incorporate the spaces between objects into a creation, and to consider them just as significant as the objects depicted. In flower arrangement, for example, the areas between the branches are just as important – if not more so – than the branches themselves. We find the embodiment …

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PQ Poem

Four Shorts

by Sheila L. Carter-Jones

Four Shorts 1.organic green(for Pat who died too young)when you come back you will leada flock of mallards through novice blueno more brown speckled plumagecourting distorted imagesin stagnant pond water your glossy bottle-green head will burnthe wind jealous-amber as alwaysyour wild feathers so fowllight will follow you 2.Construction Worker(about an eighth grade girl) She could …

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History

You Can Go Home Again

by Samuel Hazo

In 2010, Forbes magazine ranked Pittsburgh as the “most livable city in the United States.” It has fluctuated from three to nine in the rankings since then, but it consistently is among the top 10 with respect to “friendliness, economic opportunity, civic pride” and other positives. In 2010, writers came from across the country — …

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PQ Poem

To My Young Self

by Susan Shaw Sailer

To My Young Self you took up nearly no space so quiet you were never heard or seen see here in the front yard among the mini Japanese maple tree the Oregon grape bush the stained-brown fence beyond you were a piece of beauty bark merely ground …

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Books

Edgy Road Adventures Lift Anne Ray’s Debut Scenic Overlook

by Fred Shaw

Part monomyth, part road-trip adventure, Scenic Overlook, Carnegie Mellon University grad Anne Ray’s debut collection of linked stories has the feel of a throwback. Mostly set in the analog, though not uncomplicated, time of the late 1990s, Ray uses 13 narratives to build something novelistic as her protagonist, Katie Hight, a 21-year-old college student on …

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Books

Is China Invincible?

by Dennis Unkovic

Many in the West are convinced that modern China is an invincible regime. We watched China transition in just a few decades from a poor agricultural society into a manufacturing and industrial colossus. We witnessed Xi Jinping become the undisputed leader of China in 2013 and emerge even more powerful than Mao Zedong at the …

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PQ Poem

The Sea Lion Who Saved The Boy Who Jumped From the Golden Gate

by Jane McCafferty

The Sea Lion Who Saved The Boy Who Jumped From the Golden Gate 1.All my slippery-slick dark life,whether at sea with a raftof sisters and brothers,or on rockssprawled in a colony,I’ve loved the water.Sometimesin the depthsI’ll sleep,then waketo breakthrough water’s skinto look at stars —swallowing them with my eyes.I’ve loved tunnelingtwistingturningcelebratingthe impossible freedomof having no …

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Profiles

Remaking Downtown Pittsburgh, Pt. 6

by PQ Staff

Editor’s note: We invited 13 regional leaders to give their thoughts on how to revitalize and reinvigorate Downtown Pittsburgh. Despite numerous emails back and forth with the communications staff of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey from March 15 to April 20, the Mayor did not offer his thoughts on Downtown Pittsburgh. The responses of 12 other …

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Nature

Poison Ivy Flourishes on Carbon Dioxide

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

One of my husband’s first tasks when we moved to the farm 36 years ago was to remove poison ivy from the trees. He never used chemicals, just his two (gloved) hands. He came home time and time again with poison ivy pustules on his wrists that leaked liquid for three weeks. “A fool’s errand,” …

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