NOT SO SILENT
MY FAVORITE TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES are from the pre-Code Thirties, though I confess to enjoying the occasional silent film. Indeed, a couple of the latter are real keepers having been … Continue reading
HÉLÈNE DUTRIEU—AVIATRIX AND MORE
I FIRST LEARNED ABOUT HÉLÈNE DUTRIEU from my Minute Epics of Flight, a book that begins with ancient Babylon and Etana’s flight on the back of an eagle and brings … Continue reading
WHAT MAKES FOR A PERFECT TWO-SEAT COMMUTER?
BACK IN DECEMBER 1983, R&T WROTE “The 1.5-liter CRX is the most fun you can have on four wheels for less than $7000.” Cover blurbs blurbed, “Lotus Turbo Esprit: blindingly … Continue reading
JONATHAN MILES’ (AND MY) RIVIERA
LIESL SCHILLINGER QUOTES SOMERSET MAUGHM’s French Riviera as “A Sunny Place for Shady People” in her review of Jonathan Miles’ The Once Upon a Time World: The Dark and Sparkling … Continue reading
YOU CAN COUNT ON US
I’M TALKING ABOUT THE CENSUS, not just matters of communal reliance. Indeed, John Lanchester offers 6500 words in “Get a Rabbit,” London Review of Books, September 21, 2023. Here are … Continue reading
BRINGING ZHUZH TO THE PADAWANS
LEXICOGRAPHIC PALS MERRIAM AND WEBSTER bring 690 new entries into their dictionary, two of them utterly new to me and included into today’s title. Here are tidbits about them and … Continue reading
CANDY MATSON—SAN FRANCISCO SLEUTHETTE EXTRAORDINAIRE
DURING THE GOLD AGE OF RADIO, a number of sleuths were Californians. Sam Spade’s encounters with Casper Gutman were in San Francisco, indeed twice: with the Maltese Falcon and the … Continue reading
AUTOMOTIVE BRAKING 101
CABLES ACTUATED THE EARLIEST CAR BRAKES. Indeed Ford continued with them until 1939. As you might imagine, maintaining equal actuation at all four wheels was a non-trivial matter. Replacing cables … Continue reading
ON CANINE AUDITORY PROCESSING
“WHO’S A CUTE PUPPY?” ASKS AAAS Science, September 15, 2023, in a Research item titled “Auditory Processing.” The item is based on a paper by Anna Gergely et al. published … Continue reading
OLDS CUTLASS SALON—EQUAL TO EURO LUXURY SPORT SEDANS AT A BARGAIN PRICE?
FIFTY YEARS AGO, IMPORTS WERE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED in the U.S. market. Not just sports cars and VW Beetles, but even at the luxury end of the market. In February 1973, … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 