HE, SHE, HIM, HER, THEY, THEM
UNLIKE MANY OF the world’s languages, English is relatively gender-independent. We don’t have the lady table, la table, at the gentleman cafe, le café. True, we have he/she and him/her … Continue reading
CELEBRATING YOGI-ISMS
YOGI BERRA WAS famed as a baseball catcher and also as a wordsmith of the highest order. He was an 18-time All Star and won 10 World Series championships as … Continue reading
KING FOR A DAY—OR, IN FACT, ON AND OFF FOR YEARS
HERE ARE TIDBITS about how one thing can lead to another… and another…. and another. So there I was, listening at 6:30 a.m. to classical KUSC’s Jennifer Miller comment on … Continue reading
HURRAH FOR OPERA!
AMONG ALL THE performing arts, opera is the most expensive to produce. Consider: It has singers also acting roles. It has musicians performing with them. It has theatrical lighting, scenery, … Continue reading
AUTO SHOWS I’VE LOVED
A CONFLUENCE OF THINGS, especially the Internet and Covid-19, all but put paid to international auto shows. But, as shown by I.A.A. Mobility, a Munich replacement for the traditional biennial … Continue reading
ANNOUNCED: THE 2021 IG NOBELS
THE SCIENCE HUMOR magazine Annals of Improbable Research satirizes serious research, but also suggests that oddities of research often possess scientific significance. This year’s Ig Nobels display this, though still … Continue reading
TREVITHICK’S MERRY ADVENTURES (MULLED DRINKS AND STUFFED GOOSE INCLUDED)
ENGLISH INVENTOR RICHARD TREVITHICK had a novel idea: Why not use steam power to transport people? Here are tidbits on his 1801 steam carriage, a 21st-century recreation of its 1802 … Continue reading
ON SPAGHETTI AND MURAKAMI
HARUKI MURAKAMI’S BOOKS have entertained and occasionally baffled me. They’re typically first-person narratives, with side trips to history, psychology, and fantasy. This Japanese writer came to mind while reading The … Continue reading
LIKE GRANDMA USTA MAKE
WE ALL HAVE immigrant ancestors. In the long term of the Bering Strait, Native Americans have them too. In this celebration of immigrant ancestors, I offer tidbits on one of … Continue reading
LE CAR POPPED STEROIDS
BACK IN 1972, Renault introduced the 5, a competitor to the ubiquitous Volkswagen Beetle, the Austin Mini, and other small four-passenger cars of the era. The Renault 5 did particularly … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 