HURRAH FOR TILLY SHILLING—ENGINEER, RACER, AND MORE PART 1
I LEARNED ABOUT Beatrice “Tilly” Shilling while researching yesterday’s SimanaitisSays on the Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine. This engine played a major role in Britain’s and the Allies’ defeat of the … Continue reading
THE ROLLS-ROYCE MERLIN—REFINEMENTS REWARDED
ENGINEERING IS a process, not a result. An excellent example of this is development of the Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine, renowned for powering the Avro Lancaster, de Havilland Mosquito, Hawker … Continue reading
THE ATLAS OBSCURA EXPLORER’S GUIDE
THIS BOOK IS subtitled “For the World’s Most Adventurous Kid,” and it is a fine addition to my collection of guidebooks, Baedeker’s and all. “For ages 9 and up,” it … Continue reading
THE MURPHY-BODIED, R&T-FEATURED, KATHARINE HEPBURN-DRIVEN BUGATTI TYPE 38
INTERESTING CARS OFTEN have fascinating histories. I was inspired to write about the Murphy-bodied Bugatti Type 38 when I rediscovered its Salon article in the March 1956 issue of R&T. … Continue reading
IS HE AN INSTIGATOR OR AN INCITER? AN ETYMOLOGICAL DISCUSSION
RECENT VIOLENCE in the U.S. and around the world raises the question of whether Donald Trump’s rabble-rousing rally pronouncements have a deleterious effect. Is he an instigator, an inciter, or … Continue reading
ON NORWEGIANS, A MAZE, AND A PARTY FOR “MATH’S NOBEL”
NORWEGIAN MATHEMATICIAN Hans Munthe-Kaas helped to design a new botanical garden at his institution, the University of Bergen. As reported in Science magazine, October 12, 2018, “The result debuted on … Continue reading
TOSCA’S (AND HARE’S) ROME PART 2
IT IS PERHAPS coincidental that my copy of Hare’s Walks in Rome was published in 1905, only five years after the premiere of Puccini’s Tosca at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi on … Continue reading
TOSCA’S (AND HARE’S) ROME PART 1
MY COPY OF Augustus J.C. Hare’s Walks in Rome is its Seventeenth Edition, published in 1905. Even in 2018 it’s still a charming guidebook for visiting the eternal city. And … Continue reading
EXPANDING ON ENGLISH MYTHS PART 2
ST. GEORGE, HIS DRAGON, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men are familiar myths. Yesterday in Part 1, an article in the London Review of Books got us started with … Continue reading
EXPANDING ON ENGLISH MYTHS PART 1
MYTHS ARE ur-memories, tales of our striving for one thing or another. The London Review of Books, October 11, 2018, discussed two English myths that even us ’Mericans recognize: St. … Continue reading
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