A BEWILDERING SWIRL OF LIFE
THERE’S AN ecosystem at least as significant as the Earth’s rainforests in its richness, diversity, sustenance and epochal importance to mankind. Because of the miniscule character of its constituents, though, … Continue reading
QUENTIN CRISP—A LIFE OF STYLE
QUENTIN CRISP was the 20th century’s Oscar Wilde. He was a man of extravagant lifestyle and immense wit. Paraphrasing the Noël Coward song title, Crisp referred to himself as “one … Continue reading
MYSTERIOUS DODGE MINIVAN ROAMING SOCAL
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is finally catching up to northern California and the New York City area. Yesterday in a local mini mall parking lot, a dark hued Dodge minivan mingled with … Continue reading
STANGUELLINI—FROM TIMPANI TO MACCHINE SPORTIVE
REGIONE Emilia-Romagna is rightfully known as Motor Valley. This northern Italian region begat Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and the wonderfully passionate famiglia Stanguellini. In Modena, an ancient town of the region, … Continue reading
HAMLET—A GRAPHIC TALE
I WAS rereading Hamlet the other day. Not in The Annotated Shakespeare, but my Classics Illustrated comic book, a version that introduced a lot of us to “Stories by the World’s … Continue reading
THE GAME’S AFOOT, KIDS (AND GROWNUPS TOO)
NORTHBOUND DRIVERS on Interstate 5 in Santa Ana, California, encounter an outsized canted cube, the DiscoveryCube Orange County, a wonderfully interactive kids’ museum. The DiscoveryCube is also a destination this … Continue reading
RACING ON THE BOARDS
JUST AS roads of wood planks had their heyday, so it was with race tracks surfaced in this same material. In fact, the first board track in the U.S. was … Continue reading
ROAD & TRACK, PLANK AND BOARD, RESPECTIVELY
IN THE infancy of automotive travel—and racing—California was the home of a road—and a track—made of wood. Today, I share tidbits of plank roads; tomorrow, of a board track. The … Continue reading
ROBERT MERRILL: BARITONE AND MAN OF LETTERS
BARITONE ROBERT Merrill must have been a hoot as well as a Metropolitan Opera stalwart from 1945 to 1976. Well, there was the time in 1951 when the Met’s high-toned … Continue reading
TARUFFI’S BISILURI
PIERO TARUFFI was a race driver—and also a dott. Ing. This Italian doctorate, equivalent to the English MEng degree, gave Taruffi the ability, and ambition, to design his own competition … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 