SPRECHEN SIE/PARLEZ-VOUS/HABLA USTED ROTWELSCH?
I HADN’T HEARD of Rotwelsch until I read Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim’s “The Secret Code That Threatened Nazi Fantasies of Racial Purity,” her review in The New York Times, October 13, … Continue reading
A NEW TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LOW PART 2
THIS TIME AROUND, a new Trump low is achieved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and its “improved” version of the civics test administered to aspiring U.S. citizens. Today … Continue reading
A NEW TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LOW. PART 1
NO ONE EXPECTS Trump to admit he’s a loser. But his actions and those of his lame-duck administration have reached a new low, quite an achievement given abysmal behavior thus … Continue reading
ELEPHANTS ARE THANKFUL FOR TWO EL CENTRO LADIES
ONE OF THESE stories is as timely as today’s headlines; indeed, it recently was in the headlines. The other part of the tale, rather more obscure, involves Wife Dottie when … Continue reading
ON MISINFORMATION PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE BEGAN an analysis of misinformation in its many nuances, all prompted by two Danish researchers, Vincent Hendricks and Mad Vestergaard, and their book, Reality Lost: Markets of Attention, … Continue reading
ON MISINFORMATION PART 1
IT STARTED WITH “alternative facts,” as proclaimed by Kellyanne Conway, former counselor to the president. Two days after Trump became president, she used this term to defend his boasting about … Continue reading
CITIES FROM THE AIR
FLIGHT GIVES US a unique perspective of cities, their configurations, and special attractions. Here are several cities from the air, gleaned from a book at the nexus of two genres, … Continue reading
ХОЛМСА, УАТСОН, ДОЙЛ, И КРЕМЛЬ
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH of London, August 18, 1959, had the definitive word on Sherlock Holmes, his chronicler Dr. John H. Watson, Watson’s literary agent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the … Continue reading
MUM AND DA IN VICTORIAN TIMES PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, Susan Pedersen’s London Review of Books article about Emma Griffen’s Bread Winner: An Intimate History of the Victorian Economy yielded tidbits that Mum and Da weren’t … Continue reading
MUM AND DA IN VICTORIAN TIMES PART 1
A RECENT ARTICLE in the London Review of Books enriches my understanding of Victorian life (I suspect this interest is a byproduct of my Sherlockian enthusiasm). “Mothers Were Different,” by … Continue reading
