DID SHAKESPEARE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS?
PEOPLE WHO KEEP track of such things identify only three references to Christmas in all of Shakespeare’s plays. On the other hand, the Bard’s Christmas season lasted longer than ours. … Continue reading
MR. DUNNE’S FLYING WING—IN 1910! PART 2
JOHN WILLIAM DUNNE was more than a pioneer aviator. His D.5 aeroplane displayed the extreme innovation of a flying wing, almost a century before Northrup’s B-2 stealth bomber. And his … Continue reading
MR. DUNNE’S FLYING WING—IN 1910! PART 1
JUST SEVEN YEARS after the Wright Brothers demonstrated controlled, heavier-than-air, powered flight, British aviator John Dunne designed and piloted his flying wing: The 1910 D.5 was a tailless swept-wing craft … Continue reading
TWO SONS’ LEGACIES—ONE OF THEM, THE FERRARI 196 S DINO
ENZO FERRARI’S ELDER son Alfredo was born in 1932. Named after his paternal grandfather, he soon acquired the nickname Dino, short for Alfredino. Were he to have a son, Enzo … Continue reading
ON IMMANUEL KANT ET AL
I WAS PERUSING my secondhand copy of The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, this time around, getting around to reading its editor Clifton Fadiman’s introductory notes (for the first time, … Continue reading
MY EGYPTOLOGY STARTED WITH CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE PART 2
YESTERDAY, I BEGAN sharing tidbits from two entertaining book reviews, both discussing Toby Wilkinson’s A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology. Today’s Part 2 continues digging in … Continue reading
MY EGYPTOLOGY STARTED WITH CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE PART 1
I CAN RECALL encountering Cleopatra’s Needle on London’s Victoria Embankment, just down Carting Lane from the Savoy Hotel. It was during one of my “early retirement” sojourns; I’d stay a … Continue reading
THE DRAMA AIN’T OVER TILL THE CAL PILOT GETS HIS DUE PART 2
YESTERDAY’S TOPIC WAS pioneer aviator John J. Montgomery’s demonstration of controlled flight of a heavier-than-air craft. The year was 1883, nine years before the Wright Brothers opened their bicycle shop, … Continue reading
THE DRAMA AIN’T OVER TILL THE CAL PILOT GETS HIS DUE PART 1
AWHILE BACK I viewed Gallant Journey, 1946, on “Turner Classic Movies.” It was a pleasant enough flick, starring Glenn Ford as California aviation pioneer John J. Montgomery. Little did I … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 