РУССКИЕ БИТЫ
I’M NOT SURE what prompted my purchase of Barron’s Russian at a Glance, 2001. I had already experienced a significant Russian adventure in 1990, visiting the crumbling Soviet Union, as … Continue reading
RUN IT UP THE REM AND SEE WHO SALUTES
THERE YOU’D BE, just entering REM slumber enticed by your smart speaker playing a Chopin nocturne. Inexplicably, though, you dream that Ivory is 99.44-percent pure—it floats. Or that Budweiser is … Continue reading
DOING RIGHT BY ART
IT’S NEVER TOO late to remedy art abuses, whether perpetrated for evil means or just triviality. Two examples come to mind: One involves the Nazis and French Vichy collaboration, a … Continue reading
WHERE’S NINA?
YOU WOULDN’T THINK that crow quill pens would be all that common, but in less than a week I’ve encountered a second famous artist who employed them. Theatrical caricaturist extraordinaire … Continue reading
THE FIRST HUMANS/DIE ERSTE MENSCHEN
RECENTLY I ENCOUNTERED the first humans, at least metaphorically. Here are tidbits about the Dutch National Opera’s production of Die Erste Menschen, a 1920 opera by German composer Rudi Stephan. … Continue reading
SCIENCE TIDBITS—WITH AVIARY AND POLITICAL CONNECTIONS
“EVERYTHING CONNECTS TO everything else,” said Leonardo Da Vinci. And I get a sense of this while reading Science, published weekly by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. … Continue reading
PANHARD JUNIOR SPORTS—LESS THAN AN MG
“NEW SPORTS CAR models of all types and sizes have been introduced on the American market during the past few years. One thing they all had in common—a price higher … Continue reading
SCADS OF DATA ENHANCE HUMAN DECISION-MAKING
HOW DO WE make a decision? To perform a particular action. To buy a product. To elect a person. Predictions and analyses of decision-making are research areas in both the … Continue reading
SWISS ADVENTURES
ENJOYING FRANCIS DURBRIDGE’S “Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery,” I got to thinking about other Swiss adventures. Here are tidbits about a couple of my own Swiss adventures, augmented with … Continue reading
GOREY’S SPOOKY PEN AND INK
EDWARD GOREY’S WHIMSICALLY spooky credits for PBS’s Masterpiece series have entertained me for years. And Rosemary Hill’s recent “How Peculiar It Is,” London Review of Books, June 3, 2021, adds … Continue reading
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