Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

Monthly Archives: November, 2023

R&T’S MOGGIE TRIKE TEST, MOTTA’S ILLO, AND MY BRIEF DRIVES

HERE’S A TRIO OF MORGAN TRIKE TIDBITS gleaned from several sources: R&T March 1957, R&T December 1965, SimanaitisSays May 4, 2013, and my own memory bank. A Classic Trike. Back … Continue reading

November 20, 2023 · 2 Comments

TURING’S BOMBE; HOLMES MEETS HARRY NILE 

TALK ABOUT SERENDIPITY: November 30 marks publication of Alan Turing’s 1936 paper “On Computable Numbers, with Application to the Entscheidungsproblem.” The November 2023 issue of BBC HISTORY recounts this idea … Continue reading

November 19, 2023 · Leave a comment

EARLY AIR MAIL SNAFUS PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE CAUGHT UP WITH the latest valuation of a rare “Inverted Jenny” air mail stamp. We also began the tale of Lieutenant George Boyle helping to inaugurate air mail … Continue reading

November 18, 2023 · Leave a comment

EARLY AIR MAIL SNAFUS PART 1

IT’S INTERESTING ENOUGH that a philatelic screwup complicated early U.S. air mail, so too did prenup nepotism. Here in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow are tidbits especially focusing … Continue reading

November 17, 2023 · 1 Comment

A PRE-COMPACT FORD

COMPACT DOMESTICS WERE STILL TWO YEARS AWAY in 1957 when R&T noted “What Dearborn doesn’t have, Dagenham does.” The car tested was the English Ford Consul II, a downsized rendering … Continue reading

November 16, 2023 · 4 Comments

SCRIPTS REDUX PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE LEARNED OF A RECYCLED SCRIPT going from play to movie to Broadway musical to movie of the musical. Today, the recycling continues, even to including an original author … Continue reading

November 15, 2023 · Leave a comment

SCRIPTS REDUX PART 1

SOME TALES ARE SO GOOD that they’re worth repeating. Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. La Bohème and Rent. The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz. Here, though, I’m … Continue reading

November 14, 2023 · Leave a comment

ALPHABETS, SYMBOLS, AND OTHER SQUIGGLY STUFF

ONE OF MY MORNING RITUALS, after 6:00 a.m. Pacific BBC World Service and a final reading/editing of the day’s SimanaitisSays, is Voice of America News. Each day VOA includes its … Continue reading

November 13, 2023 · Leave a comment

TOYOTA ENTHUSIASMS

WHEN A GUY IS A CAR NUT—and his name, sorta, is on the building—enthusiasm filters down. And so it seems with Akio Toyoda, current chairman of the board and past … Continue reading

November 12, 2023 · 1 Comment

A VERTICAL TOUR

BRITISH ASTRONOMER FRED HOYLE GOT ME THINKING about the sliver of atmosphere making life possible on Earth. Here are tidbits about this, sourced from one place and another, including SimanaitisSays. … Continue reading

November 11, 2023 · 1 Comment