IN NEED OF A DIVINE COMEDY PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1 WE BEGAN sharing Eric Bulson’s review of Mary Jo Bang’s new translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia. In today’s Part 2, Bulson explores Italian (and its Tuscan … Continue reading
IN NEED OF A DIVINE COMEDY PART 1
READERS BACK TO 2017 MAY RECALL “Dante’s Inferno, a Destination Guide;” this, concerning the first of three parts of Divina Commedia (the other two, Purgatorio and Paradiso). Durante degli Alighieri, … Continue reading
POLITICAL CARTOONS—MY FAVS OF 2025
THERE’S AN ADMIRABLE HERITAGE of political cartooning in our country, stretching back at least 150 years to the Father of the American Cartoon, Thomas Nast (1840–1902). “Is this a republican … Continue reading
A FULL CENTURY OF AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
THE YEAR 1925 WAS AN INTERESTING ONE in the history of the automobile: Ford produced 1,911,706 Model Ts; up from 1922’s 1,301,067 and to dwindle to 1.5 million (its last … Continue reading
A QUITE PROPER MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE—1923 PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE EMBARKED ON A CRUISE around the Mediterranean Sea with Rolland Jenkins’ 1923 guidebook. Today, we continue in Part 2, first with the “sparkling city of Algiers.” Algiers. “The … Continue reading
A QUITE PROPER MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE—1923 PART 1
THEY CERTAINLY KNEW HOW TO TRAVEL BACK THEN. And to write about it as well: Rolland Jenkins noted cogently, “In looking over the material available in the form of what … Continue reading
OUR 친애하는 지도자: TO BE RIDICULED OR PITIED—OR BOTH?
ACCORDING TO GOOGLE TRANSLATE, THE KOREAN IN TODAY’S TITLE IS CHIN-AEHANEUN JIDOJA, “Dear Leader,” an honorific I’ve not yet heard applied to Donald J. Trump. However, recent occurrences bring it … Continue reading
LYNN PECKTAL’S DESIGNING AND PAINTING FOR THE THEATRE PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, WE SET THE STAGE offered by Lynn Pecktal’s seminal book on theater set design. The more I examined his book, the more I understood that my … Continue reading
LYNN PECKTAL’S DESIGNING AND PAINTING FOR THE THEATRE, PART 1
IF YOU’VE EVER DREAMT—AS I DID—OF A CAREER in theater set design, then Lynn Pecktal’s books would have been your required must-reads: Designing and Painting for the Theatre, 1975; Costume … Continue reading
CELEBRATING SADYE MARKS/MARY LIVINGSTONE
I DELIGHT IN THE HUMOROUS WRITING for The Jack Benny Show, as broadcast these days on SiriusXM “Radio Classics.” Favorite quips come from Jack’s interactions with Mary Livingstone, in real … Continue reading
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