We're trying really hard to keep ourselves laughing through these hard times whenever possible, and we figured our readers could use a laugh, too. That's why we're sharing this week's cover design, illustrated by City Paper's own Abbie Adams, as our gift to you: A downloadable print-at-home Coronavirus Is A Jagoff poster to hang in your window!


Want it as your phone background instead? Check out our Instagram account, where we'll be sharing a version in our stories for you to screencap and save to your smart phone.

We also got a kick out of asking our friends and followers what other expressions they would have put on this week's cover. Here are some of our favorites:

We're not sure we believe it ourselves, but we got another print issue out the door this week. It's smaller than usual, but we haven't given up yet.

Last week, we launched our Pittsburgh City Paper Membership Campaign, and the support we've been getting from the community has been, as I mentioned to Mother Jones, "really pretty much the only thing keeping us going right now." 
As long as we're able, we'd really like to keep putting out a print issue. We can tell from our page views that more of you than ever are reading us online, and we promise to continue to bring you new daily coverage here for free. But, print is where we started and we really want to continue to have a way to reach everyone in our community, even those who aren't able to login to a computer every day. According to the last U.S. Census, 12.4% of Allegheny County households don't have a home computer, and 18.5% don't have a broadband internet subscription. Now that the libraries are closed, getting a printed newspaper off the street might be someone's only source of news. And we want to be able to keep bringing it to them.

This week's print issue will be available in all street boxes, as well as all regular Giant Eagle locations. Other high traffic stops include:

Shop N Save, Lawrenceville • A1 Sunoco Gas, 51st and Butler streets, Lawrenceville • La Gourmandine, Lawrenceville • Little Bangkok, Strip District • Cork Factory • West Penn Hospital • Starbucks, Liberty Ave., Bloomfield • Shur Save Market, Bloomfield • Shop N Save, Noblestown Road, Crafton • Holiday Inn Express, Greentree • Pop n Beer Warehouse, McKees Rocks • Pittsburgh International Airport, Visitor Center/Sunoco Gas Station • Cash Market, Coraopolis • Kiku Restaurant, Station Square • Hard Rock Café, Station Square • Monticello's Pizza locations in Wexford and Babcock Blvd. • Hampton Inn, McKnight Road • El Campesino, McKnight Road • Patron, Fox Chapel • Curb Side Coffee, Blawnox • Mad Mex Locations • Slice on Broadway Pizza, East Liberty, PNC Park, Carnegie, and Beechview • Shop N Save, Glenshaw • Sewickley Valley Hospital Crazy Mocha • Whole Foods, Route 19 (café area is closed but papers still accessible at this location) • Dana's Bakery, Homewood • Humane Society, Homewood and North Side • Peppi's, North Side • Modern Café, North Side • Max's Allegheny Tavern, North Side • Quick It Chicken, North Side • Sidelines, Sewickley • Roma Pizza, Sewickley • Square Café, Regent Square • D's Six Pax and Dogz, Regent Square • CoGo's, South Side • Fat Heads, South Side

If you own a take-out restaurant, or another open business who isn't on this list and would like to receive copies of Pittsburgh City Paper delivered for your customers, please email your name, business name, and address to [email protected]. (Or, if you see a location on this list that does not have papers delivered this week, we'd love to hear that too so we can keep this list accurate.)

Not leaving the house today? Flip through our digital issue!

If you don't have to leave the house today, but are privileged enough to have a home computer and internet connection and still want to flip through the pages, check out our digital issue here:

By now, you may have noticed that Pittsburgh City Paper has launched a Membership Program in the wake of what has happened in the economy since the coronavirus has started affecting our side of the state. A program we were hoping to launch later this year to help build up the City Paper connection to the readers and try new projects has now become an imperative business sustaining effort.

In the last two days since launch, we have seen an amazing outpour of support that has quite literally brought a lot of us to tears, and the testimonials that have refueled our editorial staff’s souls while they continuously write and update on a topic that is, well, it’s just not fun and has few positive affirmations at this point. You know the anxiety you are feeling about the unknown? Imagine being a journalist having to dissect every piece of this unknown to keep us, the public, informed. Despite the gloom, they still write on and continue to show a guiding light through all of this: the survivors in our economy, the restaurants that have acted quickly to evolve (some even delivering their wine, thank you), our cultural district that is finding ways to still have arts to fill our hearts from home, our musicians giving us live performances, supporting each other and their promoters working tirelessly to reschedule and refund shows, and all of our learning institutes that are providing tours and guides to keep us sane and learning while quarantined. All of these little pieces of good in our community being highlighted by our staff to help these businesses and non-profits continue to connect with Pittsburgh giving everyone a fighting chance. With all of those stories, we continue to stay on top of real-time reporting of what is going on in Allegheny County from the health and updates standpoint giving our readers resources and helping to outweigh misinformation.

New to the team his year, I constantly feel lucky. Lucky to stand behind the Pittsburgh City Paper brand and what it means to this community — standing behind diversity, arts and culture, real news, free information, the alternative. Lucky to work with amazing people, our unwavering editorial staff, our amazingly creative production group, and the kick ass sales and events team I manage day to day. We all take our mission to inform seriously even though we may joke quite often. We are just getting started this year and support from the community means everything so we can continue our growth as a publication, our growing presence in event space and continuing to help advertisers reach clients in a space they love to read. We are asking you to help give us the fighting chance we need.

Launching our public memberships is a great start, but if we are going to make a difference and survive, this is the part where we have to ask the businesses of Pittsburgh that support and stand behind us, to commit to us. To further our campaign, we have launched business memberships; committing to any one of these memberships is committing to the future of the Pittsburgh City Paper. As a community resource that is free both in print and digital, we want to make sure we are available to anyone no matter their background, race, views, or situation through all of Pittsburgh’s moments — the good, the bad, and the coronavirus — and money is what allows us to make that happen. We understand that resources at the moment may not be available and that’s OK; think of us and these memberships when better times come. However, if your business is in a place where it can become a supporter of the Pittsburgh City Paper and its staff and journalism, please consider one of these memberships.

To be connected to a member of our staff to discuss signing up for one of these membership levels, please email [email protected].

$5,000 The Barge Sponsorship Level

Anytime you look over a river in Pittsburgh, you are 64% likely to see a barge creeping down the river. How do we know? Well, we happen to keep a #BargeWatch in our office and a special gong is rang every time a barge passes our windows along Smithfield Street, so trust us. The barge is an important resource, a foundation if you will, transporting important goods to their destination. They may be a small part of our world, but they make a big impact.

---

• Your business name will be listed as a supporter of the Pittsburgh City Paper in print and online weekly
• Private annual event with CITY PAPER Staff including dinner and drinks

$10,000 Three Rivers Sponsorship Level

The three rivers in Pittsburgh flow into one another representing a connected city much like the City Paper bringing people together with shared interests. Like the defining rivers of the city, the Pittsburgh City Paper defines the city with coverage on arts and culture, news, viewpoints, diversity, food and drink, music, and more. It wouldn’t be Pittsburgh without its rivers, and we wouldn’t be us without special businesses like you.

---

$25,000 Pittsburgh Bridges Sponsorship Level

Pittsburgh is defined by its bridges, all 440+ throughout the city. Much like the bridges, the Pittsburgh City Paper continues to strive to bring together all walks of lives, telling stories, and updating news and events from all different parts of the city and its diverse population. A commitment to help us bridge the gap in coverage is a commitment to a stronger, more informed and diversely strong Pittsburgh.

---

Membership lasts for 12 months from start date. Membership payment plans include payment in full on start date or two payments, one in the beginning and another at 6 months. We will work with your company to disperse membership items throughout the year and verbiage and placement for listing portions of the sponsorship. Please note that your support of Pittsburgh City Paper's journalism does not constitute a charitable donation and does not qualify for a tax deduction.

This week's Animal Issue cover features an adorable illustration by Pittsburgh artist Laura Garvin. Known online as "snailberryart," Garvin is a graduate of Youngstown State University and works by day as a graphic designer and an illustrator at night. Pittsburgh City Paper caught up with the artist after her Animal Issue cover hit stands this week.

---

How long have you lived in Pittsburgh?
I've lived in Pittsburgh for a little over a year! I moved here in January 2019 from East Palestine, Ohio (a tiny town southeast of Youngstown).

How did you get into illustrating?
I feel like I've been illustrating my entire life — when I look back at art I made in my childhood, a lot of the themes and ideas are the same as the art I make now. I've been passionate about illustration for a long time and started taking it seriously in college. I found a magical world of illustrators on social media who share their projects and processes and decided I wanted to give it a try. I created an illustration-based Instagram account for myself as a place to share my work, and most of my illustration career success has come from that!

You are both an illustrator and graphic designer … Do you find that your illustrations end up in your graphic design work or that the two overlap in any way?
The two definitely overlap! I always try to incorporate illustration into design projects if I can. I studied graphic design at Youngstown State University and the design skills I learned there have helped me grow and improve as an illustrator.

What inspires you?
I'm inspired by little, sweet moments and connections, bright colors and things that make me feel like anything is possible — I'm a big believer in dreams and I think we can all find our rainbow connection. Anything that makes me feel sunnier and stronger inspires me to draw — and hopefully my art makes other people feel that way, too.

Snailberryart is a combination of three things I love: snails (my favorite animal!), my very cuddly cat Blueberry, and making art.

What is your dream job?
A dream job of mine is to author/illustrate a picture book! Kidlit is my favorite form of storytelling, I love the magic that happens when the words and pictures come together.

Where can people buy and see more of your artwork?
People can find me and my work @snailberryart on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Etsy :)