PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT!
L’ELISIR D’AMORE, by Gaetano Donizetti, had its debut in Milan, Italy, in 1832. Yet this comedy of phoniness promoted by a charlatan of the highest order remains a grand operatic … Continue reading
MAKE TOMATOES GREAT AGAIN!
MODERN TOMATOES don’t taste as good as they did in the old days. Nor are today’s commercial varieties as tasty as their heirloom counterparts. How come? Is there any hope … Continue reading
MAKE LITHUANIA GREAT, AS USUAL
WHAT WITH recent executive hawking of an apparel brand tweeted and then promoted by an alternative-facted underling, I thought that perhaps my ancestral homeland might likewise profit from similar hype: … Continue reading
MODENA TO FRANKFURT
IN THE COMPANY of Paul Frère, European automotive journalist extraordinaire, I was passenger on a memorable drive from Modena, Italy, to Frankfurt, Germany. I recently came across some scrubbled notations … Continue reading
ONE BAD HOMBRE AND AN UNTOUCHABLE
I WAS thinking about bad hombres with foreign-sounding names, and Al Capone popped to mind. This is not the irrational neurologic activity it might seem: My mother and father, rest … Continue reading
WOODSMAN, SPARE THAT CO2
BURNING WOOD to make electricity? There’s enough controversy in this concept to keep us occupied for awhile, so let’s begin by considering several aspects of the matter, as discussed in … Continue reading
MEN IN HIGH HEELS
RESEARCHING A recent item on the British workplace, Parliament and women forced to wear high heels, I stumbled (could it have been the heels?) on an interesting fact: The most … Continue reading
EV UPDATE: BUT WILL IT MATTER IN THE U.S.?
GLOBAL EV SALES are trending upward by significant percentages. Not that the overall numbers are large, mind. What’s more, the U.S. situation is at best unsettled. It’s a good time … Continue reading
UTOPIA REVISITED
“UTOPIA IN TEXAS” by Glen Newey in the London Review of Books, January 19, 2017, provides counterpoint to my recent review of four dystopian novels here at SimanaitisSays. Not that … Continue reading
THOSE WITHOUT GUMTION NEED NOT APPLY
THERE’S A CONFLUENCE of art and science in the works of 19th-century English painter J.M.W. Turner. London Review of Books, October 20, 2016, contained an article titled “The Chase: Inigo … Continue reading
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