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Flash: The coke king is (still) dead

It would be remiss of me, while on the topic of the Connellsville Coke Region, to fail to mention the centennial of the death of Henry Clay Frick.Frick, a native West Overton, was a little shy of 70 when he died at his palatial Fifth Avenue home in New York City.Having amassed one of the ...

In the land of coke: Three takeaways

In the land of coal and coke, the H.C. Frick Company reigned supreme, which is not to say the company had the entire Connellsville Coke Region, stretching from Latrobe to Fairchance, to itself.There was, for instance, the Oliver and Snyder Steel Company, which operated, early in the 20th ...

Once upon a time: the land of coke

I suppose it takes a half generation or so for the collective memory to slip. I recently asked the person I was sitting with at a high school basketball game if she recalled the nickname formerly used by Connellsville sports teams.Today, itĢƵ the Falcons. Before the Falcons, it was ... ...

On Pontius Pilate and impeachment

Donald Trump sent a terse letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Last Tuesday.It was a six-page, 2,774-word diatribe that supposedly presented TrumpĢƵ defense against the impending impeachment proceedings that engulf his presidency.It was a doozy.ThereĢƵ been some speculation that the letter ...

This Christmas give a book or two

In recent months I’ve had occasion to mention two books by the great Rick Atkinson, a former newspaperman and a Pulitzer winner for his reporting of the first Iraq war.More about The British Are Coming and The Guns at Last Light in a moment.But first, with Christmas just days away, I thought ...

ItĢƵ impeachment time!

<em> “My friends, itĢƵ a sad state of affairs when truthtellers have no place in TrumpĢƵ Washington.”</em><em>-- Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-NY), during a floor speech on Dec. 10</em>Last Tuesday was a momentous day in the presidency ...