DOUBLING DOWN—AND REMINDING ME OF AN OLD JOKE
SPEAKING, UNDER OATH, ONE WOULD ASSUME, before a Congressional committee, Kristi Noem outdid herself in the Trump administration’s practice of doubling down. Examples of this are offered in “Noem Sticks … Continue reading
THAT MOVIE STANK! PART 2
YESTERDAY, LETTERS TO LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS encouraged me to research olfactory cinema, movies with accompanying aromas (besides popcorn and perhaps stale seating). Today, specifics are addressed with a brief … Continue reading
THAT MOVIE STANK! PART 1
BUT MAYBE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO STINK. A recent “Letters” column in London Review of Books, February 19, 2026, follows up on a citation of mine: Susannah Clapp’s reference to … Continue reading
CELEBRATING TWO TEENAGERS, THE BECHDEL TEST—AND MAYBE A NEW PARLOR GAME PART 2
YESTERDAY, TWO TEENAGE GIRLS ENCOURAGED their Illinois state legislators to include climate change in public education. Today in Part 2, Good Energy applies a test devised by cartoonist/memoirist Alison Bechdel … Continue reading
CELEBRATING TWO TEENAGERS, THE BECHDEL TEST—AND MAYBE A NEW PARLOR GAME PART 1
THE GOODGOODGOOD WEBSITE POSTS TWO FASCINATING ITEMS: Kamrin Baker’s “A New Law Requires Illinois High Schoolers to Learn About Climate Change. It Was Written by Two Local Teens,” and Meghan … Continue reading
LIGHTING OPERA
GIVEN THAT IT WAS A TEENAGE AMBITION OF MINE, I read with interest Anthony Freud’s “Illuminating the Stage,” Opera With Opera News, February 2026. In this article, he speaks with … Continue reading
THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY PART 2
HERE IN PART 2, WE CONTINUE WITH Wikipedia’s most informative history of this 19th-century political aberration. Or is it only of the 19th century? An 1855 Ohio Know Nothing Party … Continue reading
THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY PART 1
NO, PERHAPS NOT WHAT YOU THINK. This is an historical essay, not a collection of today’s headlines. Sorta and mainly, even as it expands into Parts 1 and 2 today … Continue reading
CNUT REDUX
BACK NEAR THE CLOSE OF TRUMP 1.0, SimanaitisSays recounted “King Cnut’s Bad Rap,” September 11, 2020. As noted back then, Wikipedia recounts, “He is popularly invoked in the context of … Continue reading
BELIEVING WHOM?
THERE WAS A TIME, DEAR READER, when we believed our government. We—and it—were exceptional in this regard, we thought. Alas, not anymore. The Bullshitter-in-Chief TACO and his cohorts have taught … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 