THE ARROGANCE OF GENIUS
IT IS generally observed that geniuses have no lack of ego. They’re arrogant. Research has shown this. The arrogance of genius is a recurring theme in literature, theater, movies and … Continue reading
LESS, BUT BETTER
THE NAME Dieter Rams was unfamiliar to me before I read an item in Style Magazine T of The New York Times, September 26, 2014. It turns out, though, that … Continue reading
CELEBRATING SIR HARRY FLASHMAN
IN THESE complex days of heroes and antiheroes, it’s fun to celebrate a downright scoundrel. Not just any downright scoundrel, but Sir Harry Paget Flashman, VC KCB KCIE. Sir Harry … Continue reading
REAL FOLK
THERE WAS a time, not that long ago if you’re “of a certain age,” when folk music was all the rage. And when I say “folk music,” I mean the … Continue reading
WHAT’S STYLISH FOR GM IS STYLISH FOR THE COUNTRY
MY TITLE is a paraphrase of a misquote, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” What Charles Edwin “Engine Charlie” Wilson, ex-GM CEO and Eisenhower Secretary of … Continue reading
ARTFUL BUGATTIS
ONE COULD say that all of Ettore Bugatti’s automobiles are works of art, but here I’m thinking about the models, miniatures and sculpted versions of this famous marque. Over the … Continue reading
EATING BRIT-STYLE, THE 1940S
SOCIAL HISTORY, nostalgia and curiosity are all wrapped in my recommending a cookbook with a particularly narrow focus: recipes for today taken from the context of World War II Britain. … Continue reading
PICASSO SHOULD HEAR IT CALLED “SHMATTE”
NOT FOR the first time, a brief news item has a lot more interest lurking beneath its few paragraphs. The item, appearing on CBS New York, September 6, 2014 (http://goo.gl/epXRAq), … Continue reading
BY THE NUMBERS….
HAVE YOU ever done anything “by the numbers”? Have you ever wondered about the origin of this phrase? Or have you actually ever painted by the numbers? This term “paint … Continue reading
A TRIO OF COOKBOOKS
I’VE BEEN accumulating cookbooks since the early 1960s. Three of them surfaced recently as I looked up recipes. Talk about a diverse trio of cookbook authors! A black chef from … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 