CELEBRATING ORNATENESS
HAVING RECENTLY CELEBRATED architectural minimalism, let’s explore the other extreme. The Discoverer Blog is an entertaining website, with lots of helpful information on travel (whether real or of the armchair … Continue reading
DIEGO RIVERA—ART PRODIGY, MURALIST, AND POLITICAL ACTIVIST
MEXICAN MURALIST DIEGO RIVERA briefly appeared earlier at SimanaitisSays as the mentor of aviatrix/muralist Aline Rhone. Her Roosevelt Field 1938 mural celebrated aviation from 1909 to 1927, with more than … Continue reading
BABBLING BABY BATS
WHAT WITH COVID and all, bats have had particularly bad press of late. However, science comes to a rehabilitation of their reputation: It turns out the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx … Continue reading
MUDLARKING—ITS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
A MUD LARK IS defined by Merriam-Webster as “a person who grubs in mud (as in search of stray bits of coal, iron, rope). specifically: an urchin who grubs for … Continue reading
THE ART OF IMPERIAL AIRWAYS
FROM 1924 TO 1939, Imperial Airways linked the British Empire during what in retrospect is termed aviation’s Golden Age. It was a golden age of aviation graphics too, as displayed … Continue reading
A JEOPARDY SETUP (AND AN R&T ROAD TEST)
THE JEOPARDY CATEGORY is “Celebrity Cars.” The setup is “This British-bodied GT coupe is piloted by a driver known by two different names.” Ah. Easy-peasy: “What is James Bond/007’s Aston … Continue reading
ME AND THE SUITS
I’VE NEVER BEEN much of a corporate type. When I left Caribbean academic life for the real world in the mid-70s, Joe Gilbert, rest his soul, was general manager of … Continue reading
HOLMES NOIR?
IT SOUNDS ACHRONOLOGICAL, but was the world’s first consulting detective a noir shamus? Let’s examine this thesis with the help of Merriam-Webster, Sherlockians, and film authorities. Weak Merriam-Webster Evidence. M-W’s … Continue reading
FAMILIAR OPERA SETTNGS
SETTINGS FOR SCENES of an opera are contained in its libretto, “booklet” in Italian. Many librettists offer extreme detail; others give no more than suggestions. Here are tidbits about three … Continue reading
INNES’S GRANDE EPREUVE WIN PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE SET the stage for the 1961 U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Team Lotus’s first Formula One victory, and Innes Ireland’s sole Grand Epreuve win. Today, R&T’s Jim … Continue reading
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