The New York Times spends 36 hours in Pittsburgh, and likes what it finds: …old stereotypes die hard, and Pittsburgh probably doesn’t make many people’s short list for a cosmopolitan getaway. Too bad, because this city of 89 distinct neighborhoods is a cool and — dare I say, hip—city. There are great restaurants, excellent shopping, …
Category Archives: Miniblog
Terms of Use
You may wet hard copies of these stories and wrap them on your self and let them dry, like papier-mâché. Afterwards the stories will have taken on the shape of your body. From “Terms of Use” at Distorte
Goddess energy
My friend Madhu, who has studied, written about, and painted Indian goddesses for many years, suggests these steps to "Experiencing the Goddess Energy": Become familiar with various goddess images. Choose your favorites. Know her myths; understand the meaning of her symbols and the cultural background in which she historically emerged. Focus on her visual image …
Tom Waits’ True Confessions
Over at the NPR website, they’ve got Tom Waits interviewing Tom Waits: I must admit, before meeting Tom, I had heard so many rumors and so much gossip that I was afraid. Frankly, his gambling debts, his animal magnetism, coupled with his disregard for the feelings of others… His elaborate gun collection, his mad shopping …
Nonrequired reading for your weekend
A biting and entertaining column this week from Heather Havrilesky: “Hope Takes a Holiday!” in Salon. Barbara Walters and Michael Crighton are the main targets, but Katherine Harris gets a bit of a sideswipe too. Well worth a read.
Defining irony
From Monday’s Post-Gazette: Meanwhile, Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, said this morning that there’s a “confidential draft” of a statewide bill that would throw out Philadelphia’s smoking ban. Mr. Fumo said Philadelphia and any other town or county in Pennsylvania should be allowed to enact their own laws, a process called “local option.” He said he …
Arnie Barnett explains how to improve the U.S. electoral process
One of my favorite professors at MIT was Arnie Barnett. He’s the George Eastman Professor of Management Science, but more to the point he’s a wizard of statistics, able to make statistics understandable (and dryly funny to boot — as tired as I might be, I always made a point of attending his lectures). He …
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Not a knee-jerk, just a jerk
At the end of this Post-Gazette quickie story summing up voting results so far, there’s a quote from a guy I’d like to to have a little heart-to-heart with: Dave Price, 65, a Republican in Bellevue, cast a vote early today for Mr. McCain. But he said that’s not necessarily the way he will go …
Pittsburgh bloggers wanted
Lindsay Patross of I Heart Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Metroblogging writes: I am looking to recruit some new writers to Pittsburgh Metroblogging – http://pittsburgh.metblogs.com Pittsburgh Metblog is part of the international network of Metroblogs – so there is access to authors of blogs around the world. We are looking to recruit regular bloggers who can post …
Better blogging tips
I don’t read a lot of the top-shelf bloggers, but today Norm Huelsman highlighted a post on Seth Godin’s blog that advises how to “Write like a blogger.” It’s a great list, not only because it’s short and to the point, but because it rings more true for me than many other “how to blog” …