WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS
“WE’LL ALWAYS have Paris” is more than a line from Casablanca. It’s an affirmation of civilization. Here are four recollections of the City of Light, from 1931, 1954, 1962 and … Continue reading
LULUS ON MY MIND
I SEEM to be encountering an inordinate number of Lulus in my life. SiriusXM “Radio Classics” just broadcast “Too Many Crooks,” a segment of Orson Welles’ The Lives of Harry … Continue reading
STUTZ AT LE MANS
LE MANS 24-hour races in the late 1920s were dominated by British Bentleys: They won 1927 – 1930. However, at the same time, the American carmaker Stutz set a Le … Continue reading
VIRTUAL REALITY—30 YEARS ON
CYBERSPACE HAS attracted me since I first heard of it in William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer. The concept gained academic cred in another book, Cyberspace: First Steps, a 1991 collection … Continue reading
DE SEVERSKY—A REAL FIGHTER
TODAY’S TITLE is multi-tasking. There’s Alexander de Seversky, the Russian-American aviation pioneer. And there’s his P-35, a precedent-setting aircraft that showed the best and worst of government procurement processes. The … Continue reading
BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A CURLICUE? I’M A LITTLE SHORTHANDED HERE
AT A recent book exchange, I swapped six bags of my literary has-beens for one bag of treasures. (The affair was enlivened when I mistakenly put a copy of the … Continue reading
OPERA—THROUGH OLBINSKI’S EYES
IF YOU’RE into opera, it’s likely you’ve seen an album cover, poster or set design by Rafal Olbinski. Works of this Polish-born American artist have earned many awards from his … Continue reading
SAY AGAIN IN “ALICE”
ENGLISH MATHEMATICIAN Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll really started something 150 years ago with his 1865 publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. There have been many movies, including the … Continue reading
DUESENBERG HORSEPOWER—BUT WHICH ONE?
CLASSIC DUESENBERGS were powerful automobiles, but how powerful? How does horsepower circa 1930 compare with today’s measurement of automotive power? Yesterday’s tale at this website continues. When E.L. Cord bought … Continue reading
DIFFERENT HORSES—BUT FOR DIFFERENT ERAS?
A COLLEAGUE asked about horsepower measurement, specifically for classic cars like the Duesenberg Model J built between 1928 and 1937. As I happen not to have a Model J in … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 