BENJAMINS, MAJESTIES, GATES AND BRIDGES, AND OUR NATIONAL MUSHROOM
I GOT STARTED ON THIS with the Interesting Facts website saying, “Only One Building Outside Washington, D.C., is Featured on U.S. Banknotes.” Our National Pyramid. Here’s an architectural tour, starting … Continue reading
LES MORTES DES ARTES
ARTISTIC DEPICTIONS OF DEATH vary from the peaceful to the horrific. This profoundity came to mind in reading “ ‘Lost Demon’ Uncovered in Joshua Reynolds Painting,” by Ian Youngs in … Continue reading
WHO’S COOKING?
“WORLDWIDE, WOMEN COOK TWICE AS MUCH as Men: One Country Bucks the Trend.” This, from NPR reporting on an annual survey by Gallup and Cookpad. What’s more, this survey organization … Continue reading
FAMILIAR WORDS, OLD FASHIONED USES
OUR LANGUAGE, OF COURSE, IS AN EVOLVING ONE. Not only do new words arrive (recently AI has become commonplace), but familiar words also lose context. Here are examples, with descriptions … Continue reading
HAVE YOU GOT THE TIME?
TOM JOHNSON TAKES ON the subject of time—and even the ending thereof—in “Take That, Astrolabe,” London Review of Books, October 19, 2023. It’s his review of Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: … Continue reading
“THAT BUILDING IS BRUTAL!”
I TEND TOWARD RECTILINEARITY in my aesthetic appreciation, and I believe I’ve come upon an extreme of this: Brutalist Architecture. Here are tidbits on this sharply worded genre. Origin. Julia … Continue reading
TIME MACHINE CHATS PART 2
YESTERDAY, SIMANAITISSAYS IMAGINED a time machine capable of linking famous personages past and present. Today in Part 2, we take this theme to a reductio ad absurdum. All in good … Continue reading
TIME MACHINE CHATS PART 1
SUPPOSE A TIME MACHINE EXISTED allowing historical figures to interact with today’s personages or with each other. Which pairings would you find beneficial to society? Which, to its detriment? Which, … Continue reading
POCKETS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY….
WE’VE ALL GOT THEM—EVEN WOMEN THESE DAYS. But, as Alexandra Jacobs says in The New York Times Book Review, “In her nifty ‘Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close,’ … Continue reading
GEORGIAN OUTRAGE!
BRITISH HISTORIAN EMILY BRAND has a keen sense of humor—make that “humour”—in BBC History, September 2023. She shares “The scandals of the gossip-hungry Georgian era” in a modern Brit format. … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 