SEVERAL HELPFUL PHRASES
TRUTH IS, I’M NOT REALLY INTO SELF-HELP (this, despite those who might suggest otherwise). However, I was impressed by Catherine Pearson’s “8 Phrases to Help Your Relationship Thrive,” The New … Continue reading
DOES ANYONE BELIEVE TRUMP??
RECENT HAPPENINGS AT THE U.N. and back in Washington, D.C., questioned more than Trump’s truthfulness (climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” inflation “defeated,” grocery prices … Continue reading
A.I. PRIMERS
HERE I MEAN “PRIMERS” in the short-i sense; Merriam-Webster: small books for teaching children to read. And, in the fast-developing world of artificial intelligence, we’re all children needing to learn … Continue reading
BRIBES? LET’S CALL THEM “GIFTS”
I WAS RESEARCHING THE PASSAGE OF CASH in CAVA bags, and what better source than Brewer’s Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics? Brewer’s Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics: An A–Z of Roguish Britons … Continue reading
OPERA AND COLONIALISM PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE BEGAN WITH TIDBITS OF SIMON BANK’S ARTICLE “Terra (In)Cognita” gleaned from Opera with Opera News, the latter a part of my Metropolitan Opera membership. Today in Part 2, … Continue reading
OPERA AND COLONIALISM PART 1
MY LATEST OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS contains “Terra (In)Cognita,” by Simon Banks. He “highlights shifting attitudes towards colonialism as reflected in opera across the centuries.” Surely an interesting topic. Indeed, … Continue reading
THE BIG LIFT AND TRUMP’S DEMOCRACY
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES RECENTLY SHOWED THE BIG LIFT, a 1950 Hollywood drama centered around the Soviet blockage of Berlin and the allies subsequently successful support of the city by air … Continue reading
IS THAT OCTOPUS A RIGHTY OR A LEFTY? NEITHER; SORTA OMNIDEXTROUS.
NICOLE DAVIS WRITES “Octopuses Prefer To Use Different Arms For Different Tasks, Scientists Find,” The Guardian, September 11, 2025. The creatures, Davis recounts, favor front arms for most tasks, though … Continue reading
A TRUMP/GATSBY TIME CAPSULE FROM 2017/1925 PART 2
YESTERDAY WE BEGAN EXPLORING A TRUMP/GATSBY TIME CAPSULE prompted by “A Short History of the Trump Family,” by Sydney Blumenthal, London Review of Books, February 16, 2017, and its linkage … Continue reading
A TRUMP/GATSBY TIME CAPSULE FROM 2017/1925 PART 1
IN AN ART DECO APPRECIATION about a week ago, “Art Deco, The Met, The Polish Brigade, Trump Tower and Truth,” February 23, 2017, was cited; and therein resided reference to … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 