He has no weather radar, no weather maps, and no wind speed meters, yet Punxsutawney Phil is the most famous weather forecaster in the land. Others, like Staten Island Chuck from New York City, General Beauregard Lee from Lilburn, Georgia, and Buckeye Chuck from Marion, Ohio have tried to swipe some of Phil’s forecasting fame. Phil is an original. He is often imitated, but never
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The Christmas tree at the Point, department store window displays, and the decorated Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh are a few of the must-sees during the holiday season in Pittsburgh. A new destination was added a little over a decade ago: The Pittsburgh Creche. Unveiled in 1999, The Pittsburgh Creche has quickly become a beloved Christmas observance for residents and visitors alike. Located
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Pittsburgh was diverse before that term became a buzz word. Early immigrants to the city primarily came from Europe, while today’s immigrants come from all over the world, making the city a proverbial melting pot. When new arrivals settled here, they were faced with a dilemma: how to assimilate yet retain a connection to the culture they had left behind. One way to preserve their
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An examination of the long history of the Jewish people reveals immigration to many lands across the globe. Over the millennia, whether by force or by necessity, that Diaspora has left the world with communities of Jews scattered all over the world. Pittsburgh is no exception as Jewish people have lived here since the 1800’s. The exact time when Jews began to come to Pittsburgh
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Opinion by Julie Long Drive a half-hour outside of downtown Pittsburgh and you’ll find yourself in the country. It’s one of the wonderful things about Pittsburgh, in my opinion, that we can enjoy the rural life and still be so close to the city (or vice versa for you city dwellers). If you head north on Rt. 28, then west on Rt. 910, you’ll come
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Not long ago, the U.S. Census bureau released information indicating that Pennsylvania leads all states in the share of homeowners who have lived on their property for more than 30 years. A statistic even more revealing of Pennsylvanians’ propensity for sinking deep roots finds that 78 percent of the state’s residents were born here. In this category, we rank second to Louisiana. Having never been
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Liz Dunn, 25, had always been an active person. “I snowboarded and played soccer,” said the Warren, Pennsylvania native, and she still is even though a car accident five years ago left her with a spinal cord injury. On September 12, Liz will compete in her first 5K race, the 15th Annual President’s Challenge Run/Walk/Wheel, hosted by the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association (WPTLA). The
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In 2003, CBS News ran a segment on a California wine called Charles Shaw that was selling phenomenally well. The reason? Prior to the report, Charles Shaw’s Shiraz had beaten out 2,300 other wines to garner the gold medal at the Annual International Eastern Wine Competition. The wine was pretty tasty and cost a mere $1.99 a bottle. When CBS spotlighted the inexpensive wine, its
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It was a warm, bright morning on Memorial Day of 2014. The sky was unblemished, and the inhabitants of Windber filled the streets waiting for their annual Memorial Day parade. More people than in past parades squeezed together on sidewalks and lined the streets that surged with excitement. The parade would be different this year. Loud cracks of the snare drum snapped through the air,
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Pittsburgh may be most associated with black and gold, but when it comes to the Irish in the area, they’d paint the city green. Almost from its founding there have been Irish in Pittsburgh. The first arrivals were the Scots-Irish in the 1700s, and then later in the 1800s the Irish Catholics began to arrive. Near the middle of the 1800s, The Great Potato Famine
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