HENRY FORD’S AMAZON ADVENTURE
IN THE early part of the last century, Henry Ford’s social engineering achieved a miracle of capitalism: His workers could actually afford the fruits of their labor (see http://wp.me/p2ETap-tH). Later, … Continue reading
BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A BITCOIN?
THE TERM “Bitcoin,” with upper-case B, has been defined as a person-to-person network of payment using open-source electronic protocol. I think of it as electronic kin to the earliest letters … Continue reading
HIATUS
WHEN I started SimanatisSays.com back in August 2012, I envisioned mini-essays—not tiny “blogs”—whenever the spirit hit me on one topic or another. Well, it turns out this is my first … Continue reading
CASABLANCA LORE
CASABLANCA IS my favorite movie of all time; maybe yours too? I think of it as having not a wasted frame, not a wasted look, not a wasted sound, not … Continue reading
TRAINS AND MUSIC
RECENT MINI-ESSAYS here on trains (www.wp.me/p2ETap-1JO, http://www.wp.me/p2ETap-1K2) and on music (www.wp.me/p2ETap-1Jz) got me thinking of trains and music. (And now you know how my mind works.) It turns out my collection of … Continue reading
DIANA BARNATO WALKER
LIKE FATHER, like daughter. Or at least if the metrics are a love of the good life, of adventure—and of things that go fast and make plenty of noise. Diana … Continue reading
OPERA GOSSIP
IT’S TIME to approach once more the “razor edge of absurdity” that constitutes opera. This time around, I’m tapping an entertaining book, Opera Anecdotes by Ethan Mordden, and other gossip … Continue reading
HENRY FORD LORE
WHAT WITH his putting America on wheels, paying his workers enough to aspire to those wheels (albeit controlling the workers’ private lives as well), being strongly anti-war, but also notoriously … Continue reading
ORSON’S WAR AND WORLD
THIS IS the 75th anniversary of The Mercury Theater on the Air October 30, 1938, broadcast of H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds. A tale oft told, Orson Welles’ radio … Continue reading
THE NEW BENJAMINS
THERE’S A new $100 bill entering circulation—not that it matters much to me directly, as even Grants ($50s) make me nervous. Nevertheless, these new Benjamins are accompanied by lots of … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 