THE NEAR FUTURE: LET’S GET REAL
MEDIA ARE filled with predictions of a personal-mobility future. It’s “Soon we’ll commute by helicopter!” all over again, and in as few as four more years. Let’s get real. Despite … Continue reading
FRANCE FOR THE MOTORIST, 1927
CHARLES L. FREESTON legitimately appended F.R.G.S. to his name. Indeed, he was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences. In the … Continue reading
HOME THEATER, FIFTIES STYLE
MY PARENTS, rest their souls, were home-theater hip in the 1950s. This was a half-century before movie streaming, Amazon Fire, Hulu, Netflix and the like, but our shared experiences remain … Continue reading
STEERING WHEELS I’VE LOVED
I DON’T PARTICUARLY like modern steering wheels. What with their buttons for everything from sound system to phone to navigation to cruise control to voice activation, not to say their … Continue reading
BRITS GRITS—HOLMES STYLE
FOR A WHILE there, like two millennia, Great Britain was not highly regarded for its cuisine. Even Sherlock Holmes had trouble detecting a decent repast. The Sacred Writings, as Dr. … Continue reading
WHALE CHAT
“CALL ME ‘MOBY-DICK.’ ” Melville didn’t begin his novel with these words, but the latest cetacean research may suggest he should have. Divers are recording and videoing sperm whales as … Continue reading
GOVERNING BY WORD
WHAT WITH our being in the midst of highly divisive presidential campaigns, it’s a good time to discuss the etymology of words that are associated with how people rule themselves—or … Continue reading
ROMAN VILLA FOUND IN BRITAIN
THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 27 BC – 395 AD, extended as far as the British Isles. And, as recently as last week, a huge Roman villa was discovered in Tisbury, Wiltshire, … Continue reading
FACING UP TO IT
“DID HE really say that??” Maybe yes, maybe no. Facial video manipulation is technically fascinating, potentially beneficial and yet terrifying. The concept builds on human sensitivity to red, green and … Continue reading
THE MERRY WIVES OF LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI
AS DESCRIBED in the recent HBO documentary “Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper,” one of Gloria’s three husbands was conductor Leopold Stokowski, noted for his recordings of Bach’s … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 