May 19, 2018• Donora Smog Event
Four people are sometimes listed as having perished in smog, but for many reasons finding definitive information on them has proven...
March 27, 2018• Donora Smog Event
Susan was having trouble breathing that morning, but she kept ironing nonetheless. She also had a headache that wouldn't go away. She had...
March 5, 2018• Just Me
I know virtually nothing except that I can identify a wide variety of women's shoes. (Slingbacks, kitten heels, open-toed pumps — don't...
February 21, 2018• Donora History, Donora Smog Event
He strapped on the oxygen tank he kept at home, the green one, labeled TO BE FILLED WITH COMPRESSED OXYGEN ONLY, and walked out the back...
January 19, 2018• Uncategorized
After numerous tests and bunches of conversations with my wife that went something like this: Her: Could you let the dog in? Me: What? Her:...
January 18, 2018• Donora History
Cancer was once a word uttered soto voce, a word so dangerous it would conjure demons and visions of the Spectre of Death. A barely-known...
January 11, 2018• Uncategorized
"The word thus coined is a contraction of smoke and fog — 'smog' — and its introduction was received with applause as being eminently...
January 7, 2018• Donora Smog Event, Just Me
If even a slight breeze had strolled through the Donora valley that week the smoke would have broken up, giving residents some respite....
December 23, 2017• Uncategorized
To his friends, co-workers, and extended family, my father was friendly, even gregarious, charming, polite, and an intelligent...
December 4, 2017• Donora History, Donora Smog Event, Just Me
It seems that not everyone received a death certificate in 1948, or, if they did, it was lost or never archived. Marriage applications,...
November 7, 2017• Donora History
Most people know Donner, if they know him at all, as the founder of Donora, a town with a name unlike any other in the world. They might...
June 7, 2017• Donora History, William Donner
Donora, Pennsylvania, would likely not exist today if town founder William H. Donner hadn't finally persuaded Margaret Heslep, a...
June 7, 2017• Donora Smog Event, Just Me
With the EPA undergoing extensive downsizing and the Trump administration wanting to open previously protected lands to oil and shale...
May 1, 2017• Donora History
If you've ever wanted to start your own town, there may be no better formula for it than the one William H. Donner used to start Donora at...
April 8, 2017• Donora History
You can see the gravesite from the Stan "The Man" Musial Bridge, but you would find it unremarkable. It is an odd gravesite, sitting as it...
March 27, 2017• Uncategorized
Lots of big dogs in here today, I thought, as I sat in the waiting room of the Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center in Leavittown...
March 27, 2017• Donora Smog Event
"People would come to the town, and they would say, 'What’s that smell?' And people who lived here would say, 'What smell?' And my...
March 26, 2017• Uncategorized
Create Your Own Visited States MapThe map above shows all the states I’ve visited for one reason or another. Most of the reasons...
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