CHEAP GAS—2016
THE U.S. CONTINUES to have the cheapest gasoline anywhere in the world I’d want to live. On July 18, 2016, Bloomberg.com offered “Gasoline Prices Around the World: The Real Cost … Continue reading
JET LAGS I HAVE KNOWN
IN CASE YOU EVER wondered, Joanna Klein explained, “Why Jet Lag Can Feel Worse When You Travel From West to East,” in The New York Times, July 15, 2016. Klein … Continue reading
MID-ENGINE INDY RACE CARS—THE EARLY YEARS
THE DEMISE OF classic front-engine Indy roadsters began in 1961 when Jack Brabham’s mid-engine Cooper-Climax broke their ubiquity with a 9th-place finish. Jim Clark’s 1965 win in his Lotus-Ford hastened … Continue reading
HAPPY 75TH, JEEP!
THE JEEP is 75 years old; its conception, traceable to freelance designer Karl Probst, is a year older. The editors of Automotive News assembled a celebration of these events in … Continue reading
FOUR THINGS LOGICIANS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW!
WELL, IT ISN’T that they don’t want you to know. (And, by the way, do you too find these “don’t want you to know” headlines a bit ludicrous?) Rather, it’s … Continue reading
THE BARONESS OF DADA
TALK ABOUT a great book blurb: MIT Press described Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven as “a neurasthenic, kleptomaniac, man-chasing proto-punk poet and artist.” Gee, I’ve got to learn more about this Baroness … Continue reading
FIDO’S ANCESTORS
THE DOG EVOLVED from the wolf. It was man’s first domesticated animal, accomplished before humankind’s domestication of farm stock. Details of canine domestication are still controversial. However, part of the … Continue reading
THE WEEKEND
VIOLET CRAWLEY, Dowager Countess of Grantham, delivered a wonderful line at Downton Abbey: She asked, quite innocently for once, “What is a weekend?” The Countess was responding to Matthew Crawley, … Continue reading
AUTOS BY THE NUMBERS
TWO STATISTICAL STUDIES described in Automotive News, July 4, 2016, caught my eye. One has to do with new car quality; the other, with a car’s country of origin. This … Continue reading
FAIRIES IN THE GARDEN
THERE’S NOTHING particularly new about recent reports of a likely faked Everest photograph or another showing a mysterious hand in an image from 1900. Back in 1920, Sir Arthur Conan … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 