FREEZER CLEAN-OUT GUMBO
I HAVE several gumbo recipes, some so wonderfully authentic with Andouille sausage, filé and the like that I daren’t serve them without a couple Abita brews. Another is FCO (Freezer … Continue reading
WHAT’S MODERN?
I CONFESS, I don’t usually read Elle Decor. However, its September 2015 issue caught my interest: “What’s Modern Now?” Being a sometimes Luddite who still likes to think I’m edgy … Continue reading
SIMANAITIS SAYS, SON OF THE SEQUEL
THIS BEGINS the fourth year of SimanaitisSays.com. Many thanks to those who have made its composition so very satisfying. Today I offer a selection of past items and accompanying videos … Continue reading
I’VE GOT (MORE THAN) ONE LITTLE LIST
LEPORELLO’S LIST in Mozart’s Don Giovanni got me thinking about other lists of people. Who are they? How did they get on the list? This clearly calls for some research, … Continue reading
PUT IT IN THE MONITOR-TOP
“IT IS almost like having an Aladdin’s lamp,” the manual read, “and not knowing the right way to rub it.” The year was 1927; the event was introduction of the … Continue reading
A GRAPHIC NOVEL FROM 1930
THE MODERN term “graphic novel,” especially Japanese manga, conjures up vibrant images of mayhem, graphic in both the pictorial sense and also in explicitness. I offer here a historical counterexample, … Continue reading
IMPRESSIONISM, SACRÉ BLEU AND CADMIUM-SULFIDE YELLOW
THIS IS triply a celebration of an era, a book review and a scientific tidbit. The era is the Belle Epoque, 1871 to the outbreak of World War I, when … Continue reading
THE SCHÉHÉRAZADE OF DIAGHILEV (AND BAKST)
“IMPRESARIO” CONJURES up the image of a larger-than-life individual, not just an artistic director of something or other, but one whose influence extends considerably further. Serge Diaghilev, founder of the … Continue reading
FROM LITHUANIA, WITH LOVE
I HAVE been remiss in scant praise of my ancestral homeland, Lithuania. Alas, when I toured nearby during especially historic times (see “He’s Got a Lot of Balts”), the pesky Russkies … Continue reading
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE SAM!
THE TALE of our Uncle Sam is oft-told, but not completely inappropriate on this, the 239th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Uncle Sam is a … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 