LLOYD STEARMAN, WICHITA AIRMAN
THIS TITLE may sound as though I’m channeling a Glen Campbell song, but indeed I’m celebrating an aviation great who played a role in earning Wichita, Kansas, the title “Air … Continue reading
CELEBRATING SIR HARRY FLASHMAN
IN THESE complex days of heroes and antiheroes, it’s fun to celebrate a downright scoundrel. Not just any downright scoundrel, but Sir Harry Paget Flashman, VC KCB KCIE. Sir Harry … Continue reading
DARL’MAT SPÉCIAL SPORT ROADSTER
EMILE DARL’MAT apprenticed with French aviation pioneer Clément Ader and, thus, could have been an aircraft builder. But, instead, Darl’Mat chose automobiles. He started in 1923 with an auto repair … Continue reading
THE TRAIPSING ROCKS OF RACETRACK PLAYA
A MYSTERY for more than 70 years has been solved: What prompts rocks, some weighing hundreds of pounds, to move across Racetrack Playa of Death Valley? Racetrack Playa is a … Continue reading
REAL FOLK
THERE WAS a time, not that long ago if you’re “of a certain age,” when folk music was all the rage. And when I say “folk music,” I mean the … Continue reading
GRUMMAN’S (AND MAUREEN O’HARA’S) GOOSE
THE GRUMMAN Goose sure did ok for itself. Designed in 1936 for well-heeled Long Island commuters, this amphibious aircraft was Grumman’s first monoplane, its first with twin engines and its … Continue reading
WHAT’S STYLISH FOR GM IS STYLISH FOR THE COUNTRY
MY TITLE is a paraphrase of a misquote, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” What Charles Edwin “Engine Charlie” Wilson, ex-GM CEO and Eisenhower Secretary of … Continue reading
ARTFUL BUGATTIS
ONE COULD say that all of Ettore Bugatti’s automobiles are works of art, but here I’m thinking about the models, miniatures and sculpted versions of this famous marque. Over the … Continue reading
EATING BRIT-STYLE, THE 1940S
SOCIAL HISTORY, nostalgia and curiosity are all wrapped in my recommending a cookbook with a particularly narrow focus: recipes for today taken from the context of World War II Britain. … Continue reading
PRIMAL FUN
PRIME NUMBERS, those divisible by no others than 1, are the building blocks of the natural number system, so let’s have some primal fun. In doing this, I celebrate the … Continue reading
