Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
Two weeks ago, on October 29, the US officially became the fourth G-7 nation, after Germany, Japan and France, to come out of recession. After shrinking for a year, the US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent during the third quarter of 2009. That was great news. The Guardian described Britain’s envy at what was partly the … >>
First grade started as the world was about to end. A siren went off at the school, and hundreds of us kids were led down to the basement. We were stunned to find ourselves in a vast concrete cavern lined with barrels of water and big boxes of crackers. This fallout shelter would keep us alive if Pittsburgh were destroyed. … >>
Some Americans who live on the coasts, or travel between them, refer to the middle part of their continent as “flyover country”. The states where most of the farming and mining take place aren’t, in their view, worth seeing from the ground. Last week we learned that Minneapolis, Minnesota, definitely belongs to flyover country. A Northwest Airlines plane to that … >>
Would you believe that Angelina Jolie is a close personal friend of mine? Or that I spent the weekend with Lucy Liu, Chevy Chase, and Paris Hilton? Or that I’ve shared a laugh with Bill Cosby and Sacha Baron Cohen? One of the great things about being a journalist is that you get to talk to famous people from time … >>
When we were schoolkids, our teachers loved to tell us a little white lie: that anybody in America could grow up to be president. We didn’t believe them, because they couldn’t name any female or black presidents. However, we did believe George W. Bush in 2001, when he told students graduating from Yale University: “To those of you who received … >>
It all seemed too much to ask: choosing the home city of an American president as the location of the Olympics, at a time when that president, if re-elected, would still be in office. Barack and Michelle Obama went all the way to Copenhagen to personally make the case for “Chicago 2016” to the International Olympic Committee. But their city … >>
“I wonder where we go when we die,” Calvin, the cartoon character, says to his friend Hobbes. Hobbes guesses: “Pittsburgh?” Calvin asks, “You mean if we’re good or if we’re bad?” The emptiness of that medium-sized city during the G-20 conference last week made me think I’d missed the Rapture or maybe the swine flu. Imagine everyone gone, except for … >>
Halloween has come early to Pittsburgh this year. The decorations are already up on the neighbors’ houses: jack o’ lanterns, dried cornstalks and scarecrows are scaring away evil spirits five and a half weeks before October 31. The Halloween colors, orange and black, have also appeared a lot downtown. They’re used on signs that announce road construction, detours and inconveniences … >>
Ask any American to name a cultural event in Germany, and you’ll get a quick answer: Oktoberfest. If five to seven million people are going somewhere to drink beer, word’ll get around. But this has, I think, a lot to do with the fact that America itself is a beer-drinking country. Sure, fine wines are produced along the West Coast … >>
It’s sobering to realize that eight years have passed since New York and Washington, DC, were attacked on September 11, 2001. Something that happened that long ago, and is already the subject of numerous documentaries, is history. The more time passes, the more the official version of events is accepted, and the less plausible any alternative version becomes. This fact … >>