Bishop's Beauties
First, I'd like to wrap up a loose end from last week's diary. I'd been so busy pulling together last week's issue that I'd forgotten to send a draft of my diary article to those who'd attended the May dinner meeting of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. As a result I didn't manage to publish these images of some nice toned type coins brought to the event by Steve Bishop.

Pittsburgh Bound
My plans this week expanded gradually. Originally I planned to take off work Thursday and Friday to visit my sister in Pittsburgh and take in the PAN Show. Then I made plans for the PAN Banquet Thursday night and added Wednesday so I could still see my sister. As the date got closer I looked at the calendar and realized Monday was the Memorial Day holiday, so I decided to take Tuesday and have the whole week off.

I had no particular plans for Tuesday, but after reading a Washington Post article and learning about the city's new AI Strike Team I reached out to the group's Executive Director and soon I had a lunch meeting planned for Tuesday. I'd worked at Pittsburgh's first artificial intelligence company, a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff. In the intervening years AI's star waned and waxed again, and today there's a big tech presence including Google, Duolingo, Nvidia and several startups. Many of the firms congregate in Bakery Square, a development of office and commercial space built in and around an old bakery building.

So Tuesday morning I drove straight to Bakery Square and had a lovely lunch where I reminisced about my career path and we talked about the new cohort of Pittsburgh tech and AI companies and organizations. I helped make some introductions and may come back for an event in September.

The Carnegie Museums
The rest of my visit was all for fun. I drove straight to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History where I met up with my E-Sylum assistant Garrett Ziss. He recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and is staying in town where he'll start a Master's program in the fall. The dinosaur hall is not to be missed, and we went there first check it out. It's humbling and awe-inspiring to see close-up the massive size of these ancient creatures.

And guess what? Today (June 1st) happens to be National Dinosaur Day in the US. So happy National Dinosaur Day.

But our main destination was the art collection. I was Pitt student myself and spent a lot of hours between classes at the museum. My focus was math and computer science, but I was one class away from having a minor in Art History. I learned a lot in my art classes that's helped inform my understanding of numismatics.

Here are some of the works I enjoyed seeing - some with a numismatic form or other connection.

This next group is all from the ocean liner Normandie.

Some of the art was pretty fishy...

The Magritte reminded me of a medal.

I'm a sucker for Tiffany stained glass.

Touring Pittsburgh's East End
After the museum we drove around my old stomping grounds, first visiting the neighborhood where I bought my first house - Highland Park. Just a block or so away is a hidden little one-way street with this unusual home the locals call "the Witch's House".

Although it started to rain again, we stopped to see the large reservoir in Highland Park itself, and I was excited to see this bronze art deco drinking fountain still in service with its delightful fish motif. The numismatic connection is that this was designed by sculptor Frank Vittor, who also designed the iconic Gettysburg Half Dollar.

Based on an article I wrote about Vittor I got my 15 minutes of numismatic fame by convincing Redbook editor Ken Bressett that Vittor was from Pittsburgh, not Philadelphia - changing a single word that had been incorrect since the first edition in 1947.

For dinner we went to another old stomping ground, a local bar in the next neighborhood over, Morningside. A few blocks from the house where I grew up, it was called Petrilli's then. From around age 10 or 12 my father would take me there with him on Saturday afternoons, where I'd drink a Pepsi while he had beers with his buddies. There was a pool table in the back room where his buddies taught me to shoot. On New Year's Eve the owners threw a party with free food for the regulars, and our whole family would attend.

After changing hands a couple times the place is now called the Bulldog Pub, and it's not the neighborhood shot-and-a-beer steelworker hangout it was back in the day. Serving a wide variety of draft and craft beers and a good menu of food, it's a popular spot today. There were only a few people there when we arrived around 5pm, but it was packed by the time we left and I saw an Uber drop off a group of four young adults from elsewhere in town.

I just had the salad... and a couple drafts and a little sandwich...

To walk it off we drove a couple blocks and got out at the bottom of one of Pittsburgh's ubiquitous city steps. Up, up, and up we walked until we were on a street a few blocks above. Then at Garrett's suggestion we walked even higher up that street to see what we could see.

What we found was a commanding view of the Morningside neighborhood, Highland Park, the Allegheny river and the suburbs beyond. Well worth the hike up and back.

Senator John Heinz History Center
Wednesday morning I worked on The E-Sylum a while at my hotel before heading to the Senator John Heinz History Center. I'd made arrangements to meet up with Bob Stakely who works at the Center and does a great job running the Kids' events at PAN Shows.

We talked for a while in front of one of the first-floor displays, a car from the Racer rollercoaster at Pittsburgh's Kennywood amusement park. It was nice to be near a museum exhibit that one is allowed to touch. It's a classic rollercoaster, and well worth riding.

Here's sampling of the exhibits I saw. Some are numismatic.

The exhibit label states, "George Fleck used this wagon to move his family and belongings across the Allegheny Mountains in Western Pennsylvania in 1784. At that time most families traveled west on foot, using ox carts to carry their possessions. Conestoga wagons were commonly used to transport large shipments of goods and were considered the tractor trailers of their day."

As a coin collector I know that coins easily last thousands of years and as a bibliophile I know books have already lasted hundreds of years. But more utilitarian items wear out and get broken up for parts or thrown in a dump once made obsolete by new products. I was floored that such an artifact survived to the present day.

Drawn by two horses, these luxury carriages were built in Pittsburgh.

Before moving on I bought a soft drink at the Center's cafe, and the young woman manning the checkout was the same one who'd accepted my payment for admission when I arrived up front earlier in the morning. My next stop was the gift shop, and there she was again. "What are you, twins?," I asked. I later learned from Bob that when a staffer goes to lunch, others rotate into their position, and I just happened to time it right to follow the young lady around. At the gift shop I looked for a copy of the book on Pittsburgh's steps, but it was out of stock.

There was a steady rain when I stepped out of the building. I opened my folding umbrella and headed to Condado Taco near the Pittsburgh Convention Center, where I'd had a great lunch at the last ANA show there. I had a nice meal and got a kick out of the generic restroom signs.

Amid the steady rain I walked across the old Seventh Street Bridge (now the Andy Warhol Bridge) to the Andy Warhol museum. It had opened shortly before we moved our family from Pittsburgh, and I'd never gotten inside. Time to change that.