THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK CLICKS ITS HEELS PART 1
A RECENT London Review of Books article celebrates Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in three of their ten classic movies: Top Hat, 1935; Swing Time, 1936; and Shall We Dance, … Continue reading
RACING PEUGEOTS, 1912–1913 PART 2
YESTERDAY, LAURENCE POMEROY’S book The Grand Prix Car and William Court’s piece in Classic Cars in Profile, Volume 4 offered introduction to the racing Peugeots of 1912–1913. Here in Part … Continue reading
RACING PEUGEOTS, 1912–1913 PART 1
WHAT WITH Peugeot’s scheduled return to the U.S. market, let’s celebrate this French automaker’s racing heritage. Highly recommended sources: “The Racing Peugeots, 1912–1914,” Profile No. 73, by William Court, in … Continue reading
CATS ARE SOCIALLY SMART—BUT ONLY IF THEY CHOOSE TO BE
SCIENTISTS ARE CONFIRMING what cat fanciers have suspected all along: Cats are just as smart as dogs. But I can imagine the cat saying, “As if I care…..” David Grimm’s … Continue reading
CODY’S BAA 1—GREAT BRITAIN’S FIRST TO FLY PART 2
SAMUEL F. CODY ENJOYED development work on his British Army Aeroplane No. 1. And I’ve enjoyed GMax/Microsoft Flight Simulator renderings of his developments. Here in Part 2, my sources expand … Continue reading
CODY’S BAA 1—GREAT BRITAIN’S FIRST TO FLY PART 1
THE FIRST RECOGNIZED POWERED, heavier-than-air, controlled, sustained flight in the United Kingdom was accomplished by Samuel F. Cody’s British Army Aeroplane No. 1 on October 16, 1908. As with many … Continue reading
HURRAH FOR PIGEONS!
PIGEONS HAVE made their mark here at SimanaitisSays, in the figurative sense, that is. One pigeon was cited as Nikola Tesla’s close friend: Tesla was quoted as saying, “I loved … Continue reading
KENNEDY, DEGAULLE, SURE. BUT WHAT ABOUT LAMBERT, O’HARE, AND CYRIL E. KING?
THIS TOPIC STARTED when I read that Listerine tycoon Albert Bond Lambert was also known as St. Louis’s No. 1 aviation enthusiast; and hence today STL is St. Louis Lambert … Continue reading
ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM I OWNERS—UNIQUE BLOKES, EVERY ONE
THE 1925 NEW PHANTOM was Rolls-Royce’s second 40/50 model, the first 40/50 coming to be known as the Silver Ghost after its 1907 demonstrator example. There have been successive Phantoms … Continue reading
MEDIEVAL STUDIES HIJACKED
EVEN MEDIEVAL STUDIES has been caught up in a commentary involving our contentious times. Jennifer Schuessler reports “Medieval Scholars Joust with White Nationalists. And One Another,” in The New York … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 