• In my on-going efforts to test the boundaries of the so-called “No Judgement Zone,” I’ll today show up to exercise at the Planet Fitness wearing just my Speedo. • For better or worse, I fear the way we become acquainted continues to coarsen. We used to withhold judgement. Now we scour the internet for […]

Pittsburgh Magazine in 2004 asked to write a cover story about Joe Hardy, founder of 84 Lumber and Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. Flawed and controversial, I remember him as one of my favorite interviews ever. He died yesterday, his 100th birthday.Joe Hardy: The Billionaire Who’s Bound to Die BrokePittsburgh MagazineBy Chris RodellIt’s become fashionable for cheeky […]

                                        (792 words)Our daughters’ reactions to my provocation were so visceral, so instantaneous, and so homicidal I remember being glad the girls don’t pack heat.We’d just finished watching some pleasant-looking young lady, a talent show contestant, belt […]

 The picture above depicts exactly how I imagine these being consumed/read by you and your loved ones, You take turns reading all 161 outloud with the rest of the listening family roars with laughter.It’s really presumptuous of me thinking anyone would want to read ANY of them.But if you want to browse, I put my […]

 • There oughta be a litmus test for the number of times a lazy reporter can declare a non-scientific judgement a litmus test• Our daughter is studying ancient times in the hopes of becoming a future historian, an aspiration that I believe must involve some sort of time travel. I imagine we’ll one day be […]

 (767 words)The question caught me by surprise. One of my oldest buddies had made the drive from Pittsburgh to Latrobe to spend the day drinking, joking and generally ditching the world of common responsibilities.So it was pretty much like we’d time traveled back to high school for a day of carefree hookie.Then he asked me […]

• Women age distinctly; men uniformly. As a woman ages, she becomes more individual — her hair color, her laughter, her manner of dress — all put her in sharp relief from other women. All men age the same. We lose hair, gain weight and generally stumble thru life w/ the bewildered expressions of men […]

(587 words)I’m a guy with plenty of time on his hands so I wonder about the passing of time pretty much round the clock.Speaking of clocks, historians say the first one was built in the year 1270. Catching a bus before then must have required infinite patience.It sounds simplistic, but I wonder how they decided […]

                                        • I live in a house with 3 sassy women. I teach a class of undergrads raised to be hyper-sensitive on any number of topics. And I’m under a constant barrage by boneheads eager to engage […]

 (683 words)I couldn’t tell whether the stranger was mocking me or we were on the verge of bonding over my breakfast beverage of choice.“You don’t see many grown men who feel secure enough to order one of those in a crowded diner,” he said.We were sitting at the counter in the Youngstown Grille, just up […]