Joseph Sabino Mistick Columns category, Page 8

The old silver coin that was cast to commemorate the election of Pope John Paul I is well tarnished now and still in the frame it was placed in nearly 40 years ago. Quickly dubbed “The Smiling Pope,” Albino Luciani died suddenly in 1978 after 33 days as pope. But...

When a career criminal drove his car into the Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis., recently, he killed six people and injured more than 60. In many places around the country, he shattered the joy of families that were just beginning to feel free to gather and celebrate as the pandemic...

Art Keppel started Thanksgiving early this year, and it lasted for months. When the Philadelphia lawyer retired from private practice in March 2020, the pandemic gave him time to reflect on his life, like many of us. A year and a half later, he embarked on the “Art Keppel Thank...

When it was recently announced in Scotland that Pittsburgh will host the next big global energy and innovation conference in September 2022, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said “the Steel City” has shown how an “industrial-dependent economy can be transformed into a technology and innovation powerhouse.” There are still those...

When Max Cleland died last week in Atlanta, America lost a hero, in this case a man who also left a blueprint for how to live a life of service. Cleland was a U.S. senator, Veterans Affairs administrator, state senator and Georgia secretary of state. And he was a constant...

Despite the instant analysis of the cable news talking heads, Tuesday’s off-year election was not so bad for Joe Biden. But once all the votes were counted, it was not without its lessons for both parties and the nation. And each lesson can be captured by a familiar cliche. History...

In 2017, when Facebook allowed users to react to articles with an “angry” emoji in addition to “like” and other symbols, the change was good for business. The option to express anger kept more users engaged on the social media site. But when Facebook gave more weight to “angry” reactions,...

“Whatever you do, do not run for the school board!” That’s usually the first advice from veteran politicians when young people ask them how to get into politics. It’s not just the minutiae-filled evening meetings that make it the wrong place to start a career in public service. School boards...

In the early days of the Civil War, President Lincoln knew that Washington, D.C., was crawling with traitors to the Republic. Together with Congress, Lincoln required a stronger oath of office that all appointed and elected government officials were required to sign, one version of which was called “The Ironclad...

John Wetzel was the warden of a small jail in Franklin County when he was nominated by Gov. Tom Corbett to become the commonwealth’s secretary of corrections. Wetzel, a former offensive lineman for Bloomsburg University, had started as a part-time corrections officer 20 years earlier, and he was ready for...

Like so many other immigrants before him, Freddie Fu found Pittsburgh, and he fell hard for it. The renowned orthopaedic surgeon and head of UPMC’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery died Sept. 24 at 70, here in the town that he loved and that loved him back. Freddie — everybody called...

Think what you will about Richard M. Nixon, but the guy showed how to lose an election with grace in 1960. The Republican presidential nominee lost to Democrat John F. Kennedy in a squeaker, and charges soon surfaced that Kennedy won because of vote rigging in Illinois and Texas. The...

In the old Soviet Union, the guys in charge often wanted their citizens to forget something that did not fit into their plans or desired image. When Josef Stalin wanted to erase history, his opponents would be erased from photographs, primitively with a sharp blade, and sometimes would disappear from...

Mike Comber was a young associate with a big law firm in Pittsburgh on Sept. 11, 2001. Like many Americans, Comber was changed by what happened that day. He decided to enter public service. Within months, he was appointed an assistant U.S. attorney. Not long after Comber changed jobs, Congress...

It is sure to be an enduring image of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, with his weapon in hand, bathed in the green light of night vision, was photographed climbing the ramp of a C-17 cargo plane. Behind Donahue is the empty tarmac of...

Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone died last Saturday at 61 after battling cancer. Gene always carried a little shirt pocket notebook in which he wrote the names of drug overdose victims in his county. If you were with him when he got the call, conversation stopped as he sadly...

Any discussion of the withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan must start with the recognition of the troops themselves and the essential duty they have met for the rest of us. They were sent there to protect us from another terrorist attack like 9/11, and they did that. They...

“Ferragosto” is traditionally celebrated in Italy on Aug. 15, and our own Pittsburgh version of the Italian holiday will be celebrated this weekend in the Strip District. As with many customs that we have taken from the old country, we have made it our own, and how we do it...

“On the Beach,” the 1959 movie based on Nevil Shute’s novel, is hard to forget if you were a kid when it was released. It’s about a group of people waiting for a deadly radiation cloud to reach them in Australia, the last surviving part of the world, after the...

Not long after the end of his second term in the White House, Ulysses S. Grant left for a world tour, during which he was celebrated by kings and political leaders and common folk. In Germany, after being introduced as the man who saved the Union, Grant set the record...

As Pittsburgh City Council voted on how to divvy up $335 million in covid-19 relief money last week, the people of Wilkinsburg continued to wrestle with a proposal to merge their small town into Pittsburgh. Small towns that are part of a metropolitan area have big-city problems. But they often...

It was a simple question on social media — and I weighed in with over 700,000 others — but it is a sure sign that many of us are breathing a little easier now that the covid-19 vaccines are taking hold. Here’s what triggered the great debate: Should sugar be...

We are all guilty of a little hypocrisy from time to time, usually when we contradict ourselves or when we are caught saying one thing and doing another. But every now and then someone commits grand hypocrisy, so complete and abrupt that it’s breathtaking. And J.D. Vance, the best-selling author...

“All men are created equal” may be the most quoted phrase of the Declaration of Independence and the most American notion ever. It is likely that Thomas Jefferson’s words — sharpened by Ben Franklin — were influenced by his French friend, the Marquis de Lafayette, and borrowed from his one-time...

It’s been decades since an off-duty Pittsburgh beat cop shared a few beers and some stories at the neighborhood bar on the eve of his retirement. When a kid asked if he ever shot anyone during his 30 years walking a beat, the cop said, “I only drew my weapon...