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When Did Death Fog Victims Perish?
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. Ceh died from sudden heart failure, Jeanie of asthma. Both of their death certificates indicate they died at 2:00 AM on the deadliest day of the smog, Saturday, October 30,…
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The Acceptable Boundaries of Racism in 1940s Donora
Stacey is right, race relations in the town were indeed strange, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone much, apparently not even black residents.
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Our Last ‘Real’ Conversation
To his friends, co-workers, and extended family, my father was friendly, even gregarious, charming, polite, and an intelligent conversationalist. To his children, though, all six of us, my father was, well, kind of a dick.
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Life and Death Meet in a Vet Clinic
Lots of big dogs in here today, I thought, as I sat in the waiting room of the Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center in Leavittown this afternoon. That Bernese mountain dog is huuuge! Two men with a large, black dog, maybe a lab. A woman and her two young children with her cocker spaniel. Only…
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My Best Little Poop Watcher
Our littlest doggie, Georgie, has a detestable little habit of defecating in the dining room. She was a rescue that had been picked off the streets of Philadelphia, which is what we blame this particular nuisance on. IT’S NOT OUR FAULT!
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Typographic Symbols and Their Names
Ever see an odd little symbol and wonder to yourself, Self, what do you suppose that odd little symbol is called? Wonder no more. Here’s a handy list of typographic symbols and their names.
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As Fate Would Have It (A Story of Love Damn Near Missed)
Once upon a time, a lovely couple my wife and I know—let’s call them Brian and Kathy because, you know, that’s who they are—met under the most delightful circumstances, circumstances that might have never happened at all but for a barrage of fateful moments. Moment #1: Let’s Call It ‘The Point of Contact’ Brian, a…
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Eulogy for a Father
So I’m standing in the middle of right field with two outs in the last inning of a Little League game that we were actually — miraculously — winning, and I’m praying, praying, the ball doesn’t come my way. It’s my first year, and my coach — Dad — has wisely placed me in the…
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The Snap That Brings My Mother Back
She has been dead a long time, my mother, more than a quarter century, and I still think of her often. Certain sights, songs, and sounds tend to bring her back, like the explosion that comes from snapping a freshly laundered towel. I’ll bring up a basket of towels from the laundry room, not thinking…
