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

Author Archives: simanaitissays

EALING TIDBITS PART 2

YESTERDAY’S TIDBITS GLEANED from George Perry’s Forever Ealing focused on the earliest days of this British film studio. Today in Part 2, Ealing adds sounds to the moving images, which … Continue reading →

March 28, 2022 · Leave a comment

EALING TIDBITS PART 1

IN 1950S’ CLEVELAND, a TV station not showing the Browns game would entertain us on Sunday afternoons with British cinema. Given it was before frozen TV dinners, my dad would … Continue reading →

March 27, 2022 · Leave a comment

L’EBÉ’S VIEWS PART 2

ETTORE BUGATTI’S LIFE and cars have been oft documented, but seldom in as charming a fashion as in his daughter L’Ebé’s account in The Bugatti Story. Here in Part 2 … Continue reading →

March 26, 2022 · 9 Comments

L’EBÉ’S VIEWS PART 1

DAUGHTERS ARE GOOD as biographers, especially if you’re the biographee. (Suz and Beth, take note.) Assuming they leave the hagiography to others, daughters certainly have first-hand knowledge of their subject’s … Continue reading →

March 25, 2022 · 2 Comments

BIOFUELS—ASSESSED HOLISTICALLY 

BLENDING CORN-BASED ETHANOL into gasoline has been seen as a means of reducing anthropomorphic carbon dioxide emissions. However, “Environmental Outcomes of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., … Continue reading →

March 24, 2022 · 3 Comments

THE PEOPLE’S SONG BOOK PART 2

YESTERDAY IN PART 1 we sang in solidarity for picket lines, against dodgers, and most definitely against Hitler. Today, we continue through The People’s Song Book with songs about congressmen … Continue reading →

March 23, 2022 · Leave a comment

THE PEOPLE’S SONG BOOK, 1948 PART 1

EXAMINING THE PEOPLE’S Song Book, 1948, I’m half expecting an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The book’s Foreward was written by eminent ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who got caught … Continue reading →

March 22, 2022 · 2 Comments

THE ROARING—AND SOARING—TWENTIES PART 2

YESTERDAY IN PART 1, Yvonne Brunhammer discussed 1920s’ ballet, travel, and architecture. Today in Part 2, her focus is on a smaller scale: tableware and furniture, two genres of which … Continue reading →

March 21, 2022 · Leave a comment

THE ROARING—AND SOARING—TWENTIES PART 1

DESIGN OF THE NINETEEN-TWENTIES soared. Artists and artisans, weary of World War I, responded with new perceptions of reality, some of them outright bizarre. Here, in Parts 1 and 2 … Continue reading →

March 20, 2022 · Leave a comment

DECODING THE HIGHWAY CODE (FROM THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD)

FOR US ’MERICANS, AFTER ALL, it is the wrong side of the road. In any event, the British book You Have Been Warned treats its Highway Code with an anatomically … Continue reading →

March 19, 2022 · 2 Comments