Wednesday, December 25, 2019
CP Year in Review: Looking back on staff writer Josh Oswald's favorite stories of 2019
Editor's note: As 2019 comes to an end, I've asked Pittsburgh City Paper's editorial staff to select their five favorite stories from this year. Relive staff writer Josh Oswald's 2019 highlights below. — Lisa Cunningham
Figuring out what the hell they sell at Pool City // March 5, 2019
Pool City's biggest sellers are getting drunk and sitting down is one of my favorite stories of last year, because I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of going to Pool City. I was the only customer in there for most of my visit, there was broken glass on the floor, and I wanted to buy 90% of what they were selling.
Yinzer Mingle // Feb. 13, 2019
I came up with the idea for Yinzer Mingle (like Christian Mingle) — a dating app for yinzers — during an editorial meeting where other writers were talking about how awful dating apps were. I knew then, I could make the worst dating app. It was great fun to animate a commercial for the app and create a mockup of how the app would work.
I voted for myself and won // Dec. 9, 2019
This story wrote itself. I wrote myself in for a commissioner’s seat in a local election — mainly because I thought HAD to vote for three candidates and I didn’t know who some were — and I won one of the three seats. When I went to a FedEx to get the election forms notarized for filing, the employees told me they didn’t have a notary and that Google has them listed incorrectly. That’s when another customer, who happened to be a notary with her stamp in her purse, notarized my forms for free. This was meant to be.
Playing the ponies Western Pennsylvania style // May 1, 2019
This story combined two of my favorite hobbies, drinking and gambling. It is also the longest story I’ve written and the most difficult in trying to find a common theme within my visits to different horse gambling spots. And I got to interview Bob Nastanovich, who would have talked about horses for days if we had the time.
Who invited Wendy Bell again?! // Aug. 29, 2019
I wrote this for all the people of Pittsburgh.
Figuring out what the hell they sell at Pool City // March 5, 2019
Pool City's biggest sellers are getting drunk and sitting down is one of my favorite stories of last year, because I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of going to Pool City. I was the only customer in there for most of my visit, there was broken glass on the floor, and I wanted to buy 90% of what they were selling.
Yinzer Mingle // Feb. 13, 2019
I came up with the idea for Yinzer Mingle (like Christian Mingle) — a dating app for yinzers — during an editorial meeting where other writers were talking about how awful dating apps were. I knew then, I could make the worst dating app. It was great fun to animate a commercial for the app and create a mockup of how the app would work.
I voted for myself and won // Dec. 9, 2019
This story wrote itself. I wrote myself in for a commissioner’s seat in a local election — mainly because I thought HAD to vote for three candidates and I didn’t know who some were — and I won one of the three seats. When I went to a FedEx to get the election forms notarized for filing, the employees told me they didn’t have a notary and that Google has them listed incorrectly. That’s when another customer, who happened to be a notary with her stamp in her purse, notarized my forms for free. This was meant to be.
Playing the ponies Western Pennsylvania style // May 1, 2019
This story combined two of my favorite hobbies, drinking and gambling. It is also the longest story I’ve written and the most difficult in trying to find a common theme within my visits to different horse gambling spots. And I got to interview Bob Nastanovich, who would have talked about horses for days if we had the time.
Screencap from Wendy Bell's announcement video
I wrote this for all the people of Pittsburgh.
