Overheard in Pittsburgh is a blog by Chris Griswold and the people of Pittsburgh. It began in September 2005 as an attempt to bring the format of In Passing, the original “overheard” site,* to Pittsburgh, a city with its own word for “nosy”. Since then, publications such as the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Pittsburgh Metropolitan, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Winnipeg Free Press, and the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star-Tribune have written about Overheard in Pittsburgh.
Overheard in Pittsburgh entries can be funny, weird, shocking, and sad; they represent Pittsburgh as it is now in the words and actions of the people on the street. Readers are students, office workers, artists, and government employees, and they come from countries as far away as Romania, Australia, and Japan. Pittsburgh expatriates write frequently to say that Overheard in Pittsburgh satisfies their homesickness.
In December 2006, the Pittsburgh City Paper announced Overheard in Pittsburgh as the best Pittsburgh Web site for 2006 in its annual “Best Of” issue, saying that the site represents a trait of Pittsburghers, that of being “nebby.”
Overheard in Pittsburgh is the only major site in its genre to have an editorial staff of one.
* That’s right: In Passing is the original, not the other one.
About Chris Griswold:
Chris Griswold is a nonfiction writer from Franklin, Pennsylvania. He studied journalism at the University of Pittsburgh, where he won two Keystone Press Awards as an editor for The Pitt News. Chris interned at the Mattress Factory, where he helped plan the Urban Garden Party, and KDKA-TV2, where he hunted for dead bodies late at night and interviewed Boy George. In addition to writing, Chris is an Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre-trained actor who performs and teaches improvisational comedy. Chris is a producer for Friday Nite Improvs, Pittsburgh’s longest-running theater/comedy show, and a former administrator for Wikipedia.