FUN AT WORK
EONS AGO, IN A summer intern during undergraduate school, my boss advised, “Don’t expect to enjoy your work; that’s why they call it work.” What with teaching at the College … Continue reading
PRACTICING ONE’S FRENCH PRONUNCIATION
“SUFFICE IT TO SAY these curious verses were part of the meagre collections of one François Charles Fernand d’Artin, retired school teacher…” So begins the Foreward of the charming French … Continue reading
A CHAT WITH STIRLING MOSS
IT WAS THE 1993 Copperstate 1000. The event, the third running of this classic car rally through Arizona, was a particularly special one with famed race driver Stirling Moss and … Continue reading
CARUSO AND THE EXTORTIONISTS
IN HER BOOK A Mad Love: An Introduction to Opera, Vivian Schweitzer offers fascinating tidbits about famed tenor Enrico Caruso. One is that “… when Caruso sang the aria [“Vesti … Continue reading
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND DAVOS SKI-RUNNING
DOCTOR JOHN H. WATSON’S literary agent, a fellow named Arthur Conan Doyle, helped to make skiiing popular in Davos, Switzerland. Details are given in Harry Mount’s “How Conan Doyle Pioneered … Continue reading
HOW PARIS AMUSES ITSELF, 1903
HOW COULD I NOT read a book from 1903 with the title How Paris Amuses Itself? The book is one of those available new “selected by scholars as being culturally … Continue reading
A.D.B. ILLUMINATION COMING OUR WAY
IT’S SORTA DÉJÀ VU all over again. In the late 1970s, the U.S. caught up with the best of European automotive headlighting. And, come 2023, we’re likely to do so … Continue reading
ALFA ROMEO VERSUS FERRARI—THE 1951 GRAND PRIX SEASON PART 2
YESTERDAY, CORRADO MILLANTA introduced us to Alfa Romeo and Ferrari Formula One cars of the 1951 season. Today in Part 2, we see results of their contrasting technologies. Monza 1951. … Continue reading
ALFA ROMEO VERSUS FERRARI—THE 1951 GRAND PRIX SEASON PART 1
NINETEEN-FIFTY-ONE WAS only the second year of F.I.A.’s sanctioned World Drivers’ Championship. Grand Prix regulations were essentially the same as those in 1938: Supercharged engines were limited to 1 1/2 … Continue reading
THE BEST OF…
GEE, THIS BOOK SORTING in the garage is fun. I pulled out The BEST of Everything, 1980, to see how hopelessly outdated its choices were. However, I was now missing … Continue reading
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