HUGH L. COURTNEY—CHARLATAN EXTRAORDINAIRE
THEY DON’T make charlatans like they used to. I’ve just learned about Hugh L. Courtney while reading “Cheats, Swindlers, and Ne’er-Do-Wells: A New York Family Album,” by Dan Barry in … Continue reading
CAMILLE PISSARRO—A ROOM WITH A VIEW
EXCELLENT EYESIGHT would seem to be an artist’s requisite. Yet many of Camille Pissarro’s finest paintings came after a persistent eye infection affected the way he worked, not only visually, … Continue reading
A THREE-ENGINE TRANSPORT—FROM BOEING
DO I MEAN the 1926 Fokker F.VII in its trimotor configuration? Or the 1926 Ford TriMotor? Them too, but Boeing introduced its Model 80, a three-engine transport in 1928. Yet, … Continue reading
SMART CLOTHES
THE TERM “dressing smart” used to mean a man’s natty decorative handkerchief in a blazer breast pocket or a woman’s fine pearls and simple black dress. The technology of smart … Continue reading
THE ADVENTURE OF FATS WALLER AND BOSTON BLACKIE
JAZZ PIANIST and composer Fats Waller wrote perhaps 400 songs, among them “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Ain’t Misbehavin,” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” Boston … Continue reading
#resistancegenealogy—ONE PERSON CAN MATTER
“IT’S HILARIOUS how easy it is to find hypocrisy,” says Jennifer Mendelsohn. Her hashtag #resistancegenealogy describes her response to hypocritical panderings concerning immigration. One person can matter, especially if she’s … Continue reading
NIPS IN LONG BEACH, LRB REPORTS
LONG BEACH, California, about 20 miles up the 405 from where I live, had an international conference this past December on NIPS, Neural Information Processing Systems. The London Review of … Continue reading
SPORTS CAR RACING—THANKS TO UNCLE SAM
U.S. AIR FORCE General Curtis E. LeMay was a sports car enthusiast, as well as the inspiration for the deranged General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Dr. Strangelove … Continue reading
SILVIO BERLUSCONI: ITALY’S DONALD TRUMP?
WHICH GUY is more insulted by this title? I’ve read that Berlusconi cannot stand the comparison. “Berlusconi is Back. Again. This Time, as Italy’s ‘Nonno’.” by Jason Horowitz in The … Continue reading
ETYMOLOGY: BELLWETHER
IT SEEMS immodest to quote one’s own comment, but I believe I may have originated “Satire is the bellwether of the body politic.” (Googled, this truism cites SimanaitisSays as its … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 