McClatchy’s Errors Plague Pirates
My great-grandmother used to say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Wonder what she’d think of my annual cockamamie optimism as the Pirates trudge — inexorably, it seems — toward their 14th straight losing season? Isn’t there some law against cruel and unusual punishment that applies to Major League…
When crossing the 40th Street Bridge into Lawrenceville, I’ve noticed a large green building with an orange sign that says “Heppenstall” on it. What went on there?
“Examine the axle on your locomotive, the shafts that drive the propeller of your ship, and the propellers of your airplane,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trumpeted in 1936, “and you will find that they are either manufactured by the Heppenstall Company or from its … dies.” Even for those who didn’t own their own ships —…
A Conversation with Con Engels
April is National Kite Month and this is not lost on Con Engels. The Baden resident, a carpenter and a professional disc jockey, runs Windstar Kites of Greater Pittsburgh North (www.windstarkites.com) and is the vice president of the 15-year-old Fly Pittsburgh Kite Club. Engels is avidly into “power kiting,” which means he can…
The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels who Challenged America’s Newfound Sovereignty
Like the Teapot Dome scandal or “54-40 or fight,” the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s is a chapter in history most Americans forgot after high school. That goes even for Pittsburghers who drive along Bower Hill Road or who attended Fort Couch Middle School … two names that recall key locations in the…
Above All, All of the Above
Terrance Hayes enters the box-like Duquesne University classroom as unobtrusively as can a 6’5″ man with a mohawk. Instructor Benji Jones has her back to the door; when she turns she’s startled to see her guest, standing by the lectern and smiling broadly above his soul patch. He’s wearing a long navy woolen overcoat, a…
Megan Reilly
This CD has been criminally overlooked since its release last month, yet there are many reasons why regular readers of this paper should pay attention to the melancholic country-pop of Megan Reilly. For starters, sheer name-dropping alone should pique hipster interest. The album’s production is top-notch, thanks to John McEntire (Tortoise)…
Looker
The five songs on Looker’s new self-titled EP balance rock ‘n’ roll energy with mopey urbane nostalgia, oversaturated Jesus and Mary Chain guitars with singsong melodies and rich harmonies courtesy of the group’s three “lookers”: Boshra AlSaadi, Nicole Greco and Rachel Smith. It’s the tension that emerges from their juxtaposition of churning distortion with the…
United 93
Virtually everybody has already seen a movie about the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Simply watching the various tragedies of that morning unfold on television was an experience akin to a film: at once visual, personal and communal. Less than five years later, it’s a history that remains vivid, even fresh, as ancillary…
Inside, Outside
Highlighting this year’s Russian Film Symposium are issues of race and ethnicity, themes inspired partly by the rise in racial and ethnic conflict in that country over the past decade. The six-day symposium, co-presented by the University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, begins Mon., May 5, and offers 13 films, to…
Arena Quest Hijacks Slots Question
During two days of hearings held April 18 and 19 to help award Pittsburgh its lone slots license, two words were spoken more than any others, and they weren’t best and proposal. They were Penguins and arena. Comb through every page of the legislation that legalized slots, and you’ll never find either of those…
Menandabortion.com Fills Long-Time Need
Men who accompany women to abortion clinics are often starved for information … so much so that a local clinic director has co-authored a new Web site just for them: www.menandabortion.com. Claire Keyes, director of East Liberty’s Allegheny Reproductive Health Center, and Arthur Shostak, sociology professor emeritus at Drexel University in Philadelphia, launched the…
Same-Sex Marriage Fight Threatens More Than Gays
A proposed state constitutional amendment aimed at eliminating any possibility of gay marriage is creating opposition from people of many stripes … not least from straight seniors and those trying to curb domestic violence. The amendment, House Bill 2381, defines a valid marriage in the state as strictly “between one man and one woman.”…
Camp Out Brings Out Africa Activists
Camping out in Market Square one evening will be nothing compared to what kids in Uganda experience every night. So say local participants in the April 29 Global Night Commute, who will gather in the center of Pittsburgh and 130 other cities around the world … part of an effort to publicize the plight…
New Moon Fusion Restaurant
Location: 20 E. General Robinson St., North Side. 412-321-3525 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 4:30-9 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 4:30-10 p.m.; Sat. 4-10 p.m. Prices: Starters $4-9; noodle & rice dishes $10-14; entrees $16-21 Fare: Asian fusion Atmosphere: Understated swank Liquor: Full bar Smoking: Designated sections Today we know it as PNC Park, but…
Tomorrow Is Another ‘Day’
The looming artificial-holiday glut begins with deceptive quiet this week, as the 10th annual Day of Silence gets underway on April 26, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. In America’s high schools and colleges, gay students and their allies will try to speak loudly by abstaining from the conversation. Then, when the…
Straight Dopes
I suppose not all those against gay marriage are homophobes. But I suspect the ones who aren’t make up a tiny fraction. And others are absolute fatheads. Take state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Butler, please. His recent op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had the usual asinine arguments promoting a Pennsylvania constitutional amendment banning gay marriage,…
