LA FAMILLE SOMMER—L’ESSENCE PROPRE
LIKE ENGLISH, French is amenable to multiple meanings, puns, if you will. To describe the Sommer men, father Roger and sons François, Raymond and Pierre, I sought the French equivalent … Continue reading
AN OVERTURE IN BASALT
GEOLOGY AND MUSIC seemed like a strange mix. Until, that is, I learned more about Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 26, The Hebrides, which is also known as Die Fingalshöne, Fingal’s Cave. … Continue reading
BOHEMIAN LEGS, OPERA-WISE
WHILE LISTENING to the Metropolitan Opera’s Mary Jo Heath commentate on Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, I got to thinking about operatic legs. Today an operatic mainstay, this tale of bohemian life … Continue reading
SEVERAL MORE MILHOUS TREASURES
BOB AND PAUL MILHOUS knew how to collect neat stuff. And, back in 2012, Bob, then 75, and his brother Paul, 73, also knew how to bring pleasures of their collection … Continue reading
ODD BEDFELLOWS: NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND IRAN
POLICY AIMED at reducing the world’s nuclear weapons has led to odd international liaisons. In particular, the U.S. Department of Energy is buying 32 tons of heavy water, D2O, from … Continue reading
AND THEN HOLMES SAID…. OR DID HE?
THERE ARE lots of memorable utterances of Sherlock Holmes, and a goodly number of other ones attributed to this world’s greatest consulting detective—but incorrectly. Here’s a sampling from each category. … Continue reading
THE ULBRICHT CAPER
FROM TIME to time, stories on the electronic currency Bitcoin appear in the media. On May 2, 2016, for example, BBC News reported that “Australian Craig Wright Claims to be Bitcoin … Continue reading
PORTSMOUTH AEROCAR, PART 2
THE BEAUTY OF a good hobby is never knowing where it might lead. And so it is with my GMax/Microsoft Flight Simulator hobby and the Portsmouth Aerocar. Yesterday I offered a … Continue reading
PORTSMOUTH AEROCAR, PART 1
THIS IS a tale of post-World War II aviation optimism, the independence of India and, seven decades later, serendipity of the name Portsmouth in researching my GMax/Flight Simulator hobby. This … Continue reading
CRETORS POPCORN AND PEANUT WAGONS
LAST SATURDAY, I ate popcorn during the Metropolitan Opera’s HD presentation of Strauss’s searing Elektra. What’s more, the popcorn came from a theater concession directly related to this fetching bit … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 