Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
Suppose your country were offered unlimited energy for the rest of your lifetime (and beyond). What would it be worth to you? The recent discovery of a way to extract natural gas trapped within layers of rock has the energy industry and the politicians excited. In just the past five years, thousands of gas wells have sprung up above shale … >>
One of the most famous men in Pennsylvania died on Sunday. Joe Paterno, 85, had been the head coach of the Pennsylvania State University football team for the last 46 years. He was one of the most successful college football coaches ever. To sports fans, he was like one of the gods on Mount Olympus. There is even a statue … >>
Bargains are easy to find in the United States. But among the bargains, there is one super-bargain. For only 44 cents (€0.34), you can send a letter anywhere within the US or its territories — as far as from Maine to Guam. If you send the letter to a military address, you can even send it around the world for … >>
What if John F. Kennedy had never gone to Berlin? What if he hadn’t given that speech at the Rathaus Schöneberg in 1963 in which he proclaimed, in his horrible Massachusetts accent, “Ich been ein Bee-leena”? What if he had chosen to side with the Soviets instead? In the most recent world war, the Soviets had been America’s ally. They … >>
The word of the moment is “occupy”. It means so many useful things. You can ask someone: “Is this seat occupied?”, meaning “Is someone sitting here?” Rooms in a hotel can be occupied (meaning used or inhabited), as can office space in a building: “The Pilewski Tower has 70 percent occupancy.” You can be occupied, meaning you have something to … >>
The cold, wet weather that lasted into the early part of August didn’t provide much of an incentive to go outdoors. Fortunately, however, this year has offered some very interesting reality TV. In January and February I found myself watching what I call the Egypt show, a touching soap opera that was on every night. That series ended with a … >>
Regular readers of this column will know that I don’t like to revisit a topic — at least not right away. I like to give you something new every week. However, I can’t let this one go, because I’ve told only two thirds of the story. The cities of England (in reality) and the city of San Francisco (in fiction) … >>
What do you do if your career comes to an end and you have no way of getting a job? You go in search of opportunity — like the millions of Irish farmers who fled the Potato Famine in the 1850s, or like the hoboes who rode the rails during the Great Depression. Joining their ranks will be famous plagiarist … >>
Dear readers, I hope you can forgive me for abandoning two of my principles. The first is not to revisit a topic too soon after having written about it. I thought I was done with tornadoes, but they kept coming. After those in North Carolina, there was the one that destroyed the airport in St. Louis, Missouri. Then a major … >>
When my uncle moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, he no longer had to shovel his driveway. Instead, he almost got hit by a tornado. “One of the first tornadoes touched down just nine miles [15 km] north of us,” he wrote in an e-mail this week. One of the first, that is, of 25 tornadoes that hit the state … >>