1. More info about Vanessa German

Speaking of Rick Sebak…

Ever wanted to watch Bill Peduto pick up trash?  

2. I’m not the only person to notice the Groundhog Day effect.  Gabe Rosenberg of the Post-Gazette feels it too.

“Is Pittsburgh the next Portland?” (Spoiler alert: nope.)  Blah blah blah.

“Should everyone in Brooklyn move to Pittsburgh? (Spoiler alert: blah blah blah.)

God bless whoever wrote this Clickhole article: “Is Pittsburgh The New Austin? The Austin We Hoped And Dreamed Of, The Austin That Was Foretold?”

Most Liveable City 2005

Most Liveable City 2009, 2010, 2014 

2012 Forbes Article/”Comeback City”

That time Sienna Miller called us “Shitsburgh,” part 1 (the headline itself is a delight), part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

4. An online version of “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather, which is set in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  Pitt students: the Hotel Schenley is now the William Pitt Union.

I mentioned Ellen Litman, who wrote a book about Squirrel Hill called The Last Chicken in America.  If you’re interested, or from SH, it’s definitely worth reading.

5. Here is a Facebook group page dedicated to Steelers tattoos.

6. Want to learn more about Chatham University’s Words Without Walls program?

A beautiful success story: Eric Boyd, who was a student in the WWW Program, won the PEN Prison Writing Award and is now editor of the Pittsburgh Anthology, which features a number of Pittsburgh writers I listed in the article.

7. The four undergraduate literary journals at Pitt are: The Original Magazine, Three Rivers Review, Collision, and Forbes & Fifth.

9. Here is a lovely interview with Sherrie Flick.

13. One of the coolest articles I ran across in my research was the history of the once-Byzantine church at 401 Atwood Street (which is now the Sphinx Cafe hookah bar).

17. Parton’s article also included this zinger, which I’ll present without comment: “As to the men of Pittsburg, there is not an individual of them who appears to take the slightest interest in his clothes.”

18. In the first three drafts of this article, I included this wonderful letter about the petty, media-generated “controversy” over Bill Peduto’s UB appearance, but I took it out because it basically repeated what I said in #1.

27. A link to Katie Booth’s writing, including work she did for for Pittsburgh Magazine.  Also, I asked a number of people about Pittsburgh and writing.  Here’s what Geeta Kothari said: “I do think Pgh was, when I came here in the dark ages, an excellent place to find silence–no internet, no FB, meant that it was a relief for me, a refugee from NY publishing and the hype of the Brat Pack at that time. I wrote without care, which I couldn’t do while I was in NY working in publishing.”