THE PILOT’S VIEW, EPISODE 1
THE EARLIEST aeroplanes were less than open-cockpit, for they had no cockpits at all. Orville or Wilbur Wright initially lay prone on a padded cradle on the bottom wing of … Continue reading
TONY PALLADINO’S GRAPHIC ART
ART MAKES us think, even if its intellectual prodding is subliminal. Tony Palladino, who passed away two weeks ago at age 84, knew how to prod with typography as well … Continue reading
SELFRIDGES AND A DAY OF SHOPPING
THE BBC series Mr Selfridge is now in its second year of an anticipated three. I’m a fan of it and of the social phenomenon of shopping; to wit, http://wp.me/p2ETap-10O … Continue reading
I RECOGNIZE THAT!—GOOD OR BAD?
THE TECHNOLOGY of image recognition is as old as computers. To wit, consider the CAPTCHA test used to separate our recognition abilities from those of electronic machines. CAPTCHA stands for … Continue reading
BROOKLANDS AND ITS SILENCERS
APPARENTLY THERE’S not enough noise in Formula 1 this year (see http://wp.me/p2ETap-28h). This got me thinking of the opposite problem: Automobile racing is inherently a very noisy activity and, occasionally, … Continue reading
THE SANDS OF TIME—AND OF CARGO
EUROPE AND the U.S. have different standards for measuring cargo capacity of cars and trucks. Ram (what old-timers think of as Dodge Truck) recently corrected overly optimistic claims in the … Continue reading
PITTSBURGH VINTAGE GRAND PRIX 1996
WHEN WE last saw our intrepid vintage racer (yesterday; http://wp.me/p2ETap-298), he and his patron, Jake Jacobson of the Old Spokes Vintage Racing Team, were chasing each other in 1930s sprint … Continue reading
JAKE JACOBSON AND HIS MILLER-FORD
MY VINTAGE racing career, a spirited though brief one, owed a great deal to Jake Jacobson. A fellow member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America, Jake was the … Continue reading
THE WEST INDIES—COLONIAL EDITION
THANKS TO Englishman Algernon E. Aspinall, I offer compelling information here on the Montserrat brogue, John Teach (aka Blackbeard the pirate), a Caribbean counterpart of Forty-Niner’s sourdough, and how to … Continue reading
MONOSPAR WINS 1934 KING’S CUP
IT MAY have been only a handicap race appealing to club pilots flying any old aircraft, but the King’s Cup originated by His Majesty George V in 1922 brought forth … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 