FRATER, CAN YOU SPARE A DENARIUS? PART 1
HAVE YOU STOPPED USING COINS TOO? Credit card and online transactions have all but eliminated my use of metallic cash. I used to collect them in a baggie and, once … Continue reading
XERXES, SERSE, DEFT MARKETING, AND PRONOUNCING THE COMPOSER’S NAME
AWHILE BACK WHEN I TRAVELED a lot, I enjoyed live performances of the Michigan Opera Theatre, including a memorable Magic Flute enjoyed with a bunch of Detroit teenagers. Now renamed … Continue reading
MARY STUART—CRYPTOQUEEN
TUDOR TIMES WERE RICH in skullduggery: Henry VIII’s serial nuptuals, his daughter Elizabeth I’s spymaster Francis Walsingham, and her tough-love/hate relationship with Mary, Queen of Scots. Being a lapsed Catholic, … Continue reading
CUNK ON EVERYTHING
PHILOMENA CUNK HAS CALLED HERSELF a cultural ambassador. I call her portrayer Diane Morgan a British wit who has worked with satirist Charlie Brooker to produce zany off-kilter humor. In … Continue reading
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT—WITH A LOT OF REWRITES AND AD-LIBS
IN 1940 HIS GIRL FRIDAY WAS ORIGINALLY perceived as merely a remake of The Front Page, a 1931 (i.e., pre-Code) screwball comedy: “A bold-faced reprint of what was—and still remains—the … Continue reading
ONLINE ADS
LIKE MOST OF US, I spend a goodly amount of time online, amidst what turns out to be a highly complex environment of advertising. I learned elements of the latter … Continue reading
WILL THE REAL HERACLES PLEASE STAND UP (AND TAKE A BOW)
REUTERS RECENTLY REPORTED “Roman Sewer Works Reveal Statue of Emperor Posing as Hercules.” Not long ago, Daughter Suz and I watched Pacific Opera Project’s U.S. premiere of Ercole su’l Termodonte, … Continue reading
UNIVERSAL DESIGN REDUX
“RESTORING A HOUSE FOR EVERY BODY,” by Penelope Green, The New York Times, January 29, 2023, rekindled my interest in “Universal Design,” as described in SimanaitisSays back in 2014. Penelope … Continue reading
THE POWER OF WORDS AND CLAY PART 2
AN INVITATION TO THE 78th Scripps College Ceramic Annual got me interested in the article “Speaking Volumes: Pottery and Word,” by ceramicist Paul Mathieu. Today in Part 2, Mathieu discusses … Continue reading
THE POWER OF WORDS AND CLAY PART 1
A NEAT POSTCARD ANNOUNCES the 78th Scripps College Ceramic Annual at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery in Claremont, California. Bless their hearts; the Gallery has me on its mailing since … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 