March 24, 2020• Donora Death Fog, Just Me
One of the saddest days of my nursing career happened when I made shift rounds and found that an elderly patient was in the throes of...
March 19, 2020• Just Me, Writing
My writing life hasn't changed while I'm in social isolation, but my mind sure has....
February 12, 2020• Donora Death Fog, Donora History, Donora Smog Event
I thought I had determined the final count of victims from the Donora Death Fog. I was wrong....
October 26, 2019• Donora Death Fog, Donora Smog Event
After Susan Gnora died in the smog, a settlement with US Steel allowed each of her eight children, all of whom were age 20 or older, to...
October 1, 2019• Donora Death Fog, Donora Smog Event
So, who *really* died in the Donora Death Fog?...
September 21, 2019• Donora Death Fog
That’s the working title of the book I’m currently working on for The University of Pittsburgh Press. A nonfiction work, the...
September 21, 2019• Donora Death Fog, London Great Smog
After the smog cleared out of the Mon valley that deadly October 1948, after Dr. William Rongaus’s pleas for people to leave town...
June 13, 2019• Just Me
Air pollution continues to kill people around the world....
April 18, 2019• Just Me
How has the Donora smog tragedy affected the way we live today?...
April 15, 2019• Just Me
We tred carefully through the brambles, weeds, and bushes devouring a hillside cemetery in the north end of Donora, Pa. We step from one...
March 22, 2019• Donora History, Donora Smog Event
This post was updated Feb. 14, 2020, based on information obtained from Stanley Sawa’s son. One of the first stories I heard about...
February 22, 2019• Just Me
I am delighted and honored to join this prestigious university press. Now, to write the book!...
January 22, 2019• Just Me
I am thrilled to announce that I have signed with Bookends Literary Agency for Silver Lining: Clean Air and the Tragedy of a Pennsylvania...
December 3, 2018• Uncategorized
I'm a word guy. I read, I write, I edit. I've grown up with books. I loved The Hardy Boy books, and read a flock of them. (Flock of books?...
November 13, 2018• Donora History, Donora Smog Event
Knowing where each victim lived — and died — can be instructive for several reasons. Consider how many of those victims and their...
November 7, 2018• Donora Smog Event
Ceh and Kirkwood were the first Donorans to die in the Donora Death Fog of 1948. At least 18 more followed, most of them the same night....
October 26, 2018• Donora History
Stacey is right, race relations in the town were indeed strange, but it didn't seem to bother anyone much, apparently not even black...
October 25, 2018• Donora History
For decades during the mid-1900s a Chamber of Commerce sign at the Donora town line read, “NEXT TO YOURS THE BEST TOWN IN THE USA.”...
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