MY GARBLED TALE OF STRAVINSKY’S DUMBARTON OAKS
STRAVINSKY’S JAUNTY CONCERTO in E-Flat had just been broadcast on SiriusXM‘s “Symphony Hall.” And I thought, how neat that he composed it for that big-deal conference at Dumbarton Oaks. What … Continue reading
GLUBB PASHA—A SECOND LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
SIR JOHN BAGOT GLUBB was a British soldier who trained and led Transjordan’s Arab Legion between 1939 and 1956. Controversially, the Legion had several victories against Israel in the 1948 … Continue reading
DEADLY CONS PART 2
YESTERDAY’S CON WAS a Ponzi scheme expanded to absurdity. Today in Part 2, a man’s death is related to something as seemingly innocuous as his Twitter hand. Handles For Sale. … Continue reading
DEADLY CONS PART 1
I’VE WRITTEN LIGHTHEARTEDLY about cons, including Guiseppe Balsamo aka Cagliostro, whose 18th-century antics inspired the modern opera The Ghosts of Versailles.. There are, though, modern cons with horrible outcomes. Here, … Continue reading
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRIVING
A TOYOTA PODCAST, part of the company’s Toyota Untold series, is devoted to “The Psychology of Driving,” June 21, 2021. It features two researchers, both psychology Ph.D.s, discussing their work … Continue reading
MOTHERS’ MUSICALE
OPERA NEWS, PUBLISHED monthly by the Metropolitan Opera, had a particularly entertaining collection of Mother’s Day tidbits earlier this year. Here are several that remain in mind, even now in … Continue reading
AN ELECTRIC CAR PARADE PART 2
HERE IN PART 2, we’ll continue our timetables of automaker transitions from internal combustion to one form or another of electric propulsion. Our survey today includes a recent automaker merger, … Continue reading
AN ELECTRIC CAR PARADE PART 1
NICOLAUS OTTO IS likely spinning in his grave, crankshaft in hand. Here we are, 145 years beyond patenting the Otto four-stroke, and demise of the internal combustion engine is threatened. … Continue reading
996? 855? 933? Or?
WHAT’S THE OPTIMAL work week? The Chinese have been complaining about the 996; 9 a.m.-9 p.m., six days a week. The traditional American 40-hour work schedule has been 8-5, with … Continue reading
A.I. AND GOD
LINDA KINSTLER IS a doctoral candidate in rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. And in The New York Times, July 18, 2021, she asks, more than rhetorically, “Can Silicon … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 