MOCK THE PRESIDENT-IN-WANTING?
RECENT NEWS has it that President-in-Wanting Donald Trump’s communications director Sean Spicer complained on national television that people should stop mocking his boss. Pobrecito! I suspect Spicer missed my earlier … Continue reading
MASSIVE DIAMONDS, PART 2
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD wrote a novella about a diamond the size of a mountain. However, the massive diamonds discussed here yesterday aren’t fictional. These Type II diamonds are real, with … Continue reading
FOOTBALL AND A DOXOLOGY
I WAS ENJOYING this year’s BBC World Service Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, and this led me directly to high school football in the 1950s. … Continue reading
RIFFING OFF
I CONFESS TO being sometimes a little behind the identification of trends. For example, in the November 3, 2016, issue of the London Review of Books I learned the term … Continue reading
THINKING–AND THE TURK
HOW DO WE think? In these days of artificial intelligence, not to say unexpected political outcomes, this question is a non-trivial one. A new book on this, and more, is … Continue reading
PATATAS, PIMIENTOS Y LANGOSTINOS
HERE IN THE U.S., the Spanish word langostino describes the squat lobster. It’s neither prawn, nor shrimp, nor a lobster, actually closer to the hermit crab. But our local Trader … Continue reading
WHAT’S UP THERE ON THE MET’S PROSCENIUM ARCH?
DAUGHTER SUZ AND I are regular opera-goers, thanks to the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD presentations in movie theaters around the world. The view of the Met’s Lincoln Center home … Continue reading
PARLY TRAINS
THE UNIQUELY English parly trains, short for parliamentary trains, say so much about this wonderful country. Today, let’s celebrate their history and a link with the gentle humor of Michael … Continue reading
ON STAGE AT SCRIPPS COLLEGE
THE RUTH CHANDLER WILLIAMSON Gallery of Scripps College in Claremont, California, has a beautiful exhibit titled “On Stage: Japanese Theater Prints and Costume (Kabuki, Bunraku and Noh)” running through December … Continue reading
I LOVE THREE ORANGES
SERGEI PROKOFIEV’S OPERA The Love for Three Oranges had its first performance in Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre on December 30, 1921. The story traces back to a 17th-century Italian fairy tale; … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 