Smells Like Mister Rogers

Mister Rogers stepped out of the passenger-side door of a white sedan that had pulled up in front of the building where I stood. I was smoking a cigarette at the top of a concrete stairwell, staring down below at a struggling bird that had broken its wing. It was my third day as an intern at _Pittsburgh_ magazine, which shared a building with the studio that filmed _Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood_.

As I took a drag on my cigarette and looked down at the bird—which was on its side and flopping around in circles like a half-lit firecracker—I thought, Read more