ENGLISH MAGIC
BETTY WALKER, wife of motorsports great Rob Walker, rest both their souls, taught wife Dottie and me about ancient Glastonbury, a revered site in southwestern England that’s been inhabited since … Continue reading
NEW ARTISANS
LUDDITES FEARED technology would destroy their livelihoods 200 years ago. Today, some researchers claim that we may be losing the “race against the machine” yet again. However, others foresee a … Continue reading
CREATIVE HEARING
AN EAR is a terrible thing to waste. In our family, we use the term “creative hearing” to describe our aural misunderstandings. Maybe your family experiences this communicational chaos too. … Continue reading
A YEAR IN REVIEW
THIS MINI-ESSAY appears precisely one year after the first of SimanaitisSays. As such, it’s devoted to a review of the past year’s activities, the highs, the lows… no, let’s leave … Continue reading
CELEBRATING SIR PETER USTINOV
TO SAY that actor, writer, dramatist, filmmaker, opera director and stage designer Sir Peter Ustinov was a renaissance man does him a disservice. None of the renaissance men I’ve read … Continue reading
A “SPRUCE GOOSE” FANTASY
HOWARD HUGHES disliked the term “Spruce Goose” for what he preferred to call the Hughes Flying Boat. And indeed, spruce was only one of the woods used in the Hercules … Continue reading
LISTENING TO VINYL
ARE YOU back into vinyl yet? Or were you ever into vinyl? B.C.D., Before Compact Discs, the vibrations of sound that we call music were shared by a wiggly spiral … Continue reading
MRS. THORNE AND ORSON WELLES
AN ODD synergy exists between a wealthy Chicago woman, Mrs. James Ward Thorne, and the theater/film/radio great, Orson Welles. It’s all the more curious in that Welles has been called … Continue reading
OPERA CHAOS, ACT III
YES, LADIES and gentlemen, the curtain is going up for Act III of Opera Chaos. Even the most high-toned audience enjoys a snicker, not to say the occasional full belly … Continue reading
MY BOBSLEDS
BOBSLEDDING WOULD be my ideal sport. Run for only a short distance, hop into the bobsled, go like hell and have gravity scare the bejesus out of me. Plus, I … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 