SWORDSMAN, VIOLINIST, CONDUCTOR, COMPOSER, ABOLITIONIST—AND BACK TO THE SWORD
HERE’S A TALE WORTHY of an opera, heightened by the fact that this swordsman/violinist/conductor/composer/abolitionist was the acknowledged son of a wealthy French colonialist and an enslaved African Guadeloupean. I learned … Continue reading
1951 MUNTZ JET
“HERE’S THE ROAD TEST you’ve been asking for,” proclaimed Road and Track, September 1951. Well, perhaps not exactly you here in 2022 unless you were tantalized by John R. Bond’s … Continue reading
“GOIN’ FOR A RIDE” AND OTHER OBSCURE PHRASES
MOTORING WAS SOMETHING OF a cult activity. We usta go for a ride, just for fun. Like any good cult, we had a lot of cant, the linguistic term for … Continue reading
JOHN R. BOND’S SPORTS CAR
IN RECOUNTING 48,000 MILES in his 1949 Ford Custom V-8, Road and Track, March 1951, John R. Bond said the car was “a ‘sort-of’ test car during construction of a … Continue reading
OUR LANGUAGE’S THEY/THEIR SQUABBLE
I SEEM TO HAVE sidestepped our English language’s non-gender hassle. Indeed, I have LBGT family and friends, though assigning any of them “he/she” or “his/her” never seems to be a … Continue reading
GLAMOUR
I’VE BEEN ENJOYING lots of Turner Classic Movies lately and have become something of a connoisseur of glamor, or as our Brit friends spell it glamour. It probably comes as … Continue reading
PROKOFIEV, THE SOVIETS, AND PLAYBILL
THE WORD “PLAYBILL” is both a generic, an information-filled giveaway to theatergoers, and also Playbill, the monthly magazine, most copies of which are theater- and production-specific. Background. As described in … Continue reading
BOND’S ’49 FORD AT 48,000
YOUNGER READERS: BE AWARE that this particular Bond car wasn’t 007’s. Rather, it belonged to John R. Bond, Technical Editor, when his article appeared in Road and Track, March, 1951. … Continue reading
CONFITTED DUCKS I HAVE KNOWN
CONFIT DE CANARD, duck that’s salt-cured and then poached in its own fat, is a French culinary delight. There are several confitted ducks I have known, and here are tidbits … Continue reading
A META REVIEW—THE WOMEN PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE BEGAN our meta study of a movie review, followed today in Part 2 by a review of a book citing the movie, plus a review of that review. … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 