Sweating out Pittsburgh's worst intersection

In the heat wave of July 1996, as part of a package on traffic lights, I hung out on Route 28, where commuters had been backing up at a six-way intersection every workday rush hour for decades.

In the mid-1990s, when newspapers were still rich and relevant and readable, the PG's Peter Leo came up with the idea for 'Close Encounters,' a different kind of first-person, you-are-here, deadline story with a news hook, a subjective spin and lots of color. I supported the idea 100 percent and did a bunch of them. This was one of my favorites. This one about a bunch of school kids grilling the Mayor of Pittsburgh in his office was another one. So was my Close Encounter with the great race car driver Mario Andretti. This kind of red-light/traffic package combined serious journalism and a first-person piece with a great photo on an excellently designed front page. It was something the Post-Gazette did often.