GOLD IN THAT THAR CREEK!
“THE FIRST U.S. GOLD RUSH was started by a 12-year-old boy,” reads the Interesting Facts website. What? Not James Marshall at Colonel John Augustus Sutter’s Mill? Well, no. And indeed, … Continue reading
ROENTGEN ARCHITECT’S TABLE
THE ARTISTRY OF DAVID ROENTGEN was unknown to me until an ad in The New York Times, January 28, 2024. What a splendid combination of marquetry and mischievousness. How else … Continue reading
MENUS AROUND THE COUNTRY
“AFTER YEARS OF PLEXIGLASS DIVIDERS, CURBSIDE DELIVERY, masked servers and, yes, QR codes,” say The New York Times writers Priya Krishna, Tanya Sichynsky, and Umi Syam, “one thing was immediately clear: … Continue reading
GRAND OPERA ON (AND OF) THE AMAZON
FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS is an opera of many superlatives: It’s the first Spanish-language work performed by the Metropolitan Opera in almost 100 years; and it’s the first Met opera … Continue reading
THE FIRST BROADWAY SMASH HIT!
WAS BROADWAY’S FIRST SMASH HIT THE GERSHWINS’ LADY, BE GOOD, 1924? Or maybe Vincent Youman’s No, No, Nanette, 1925? Or Jerome Kern’s Show Boat, 1927? No. If we’re talking “smash … Continue reading
TWO BOOKS AND A NAPIER-RAILTON
I HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY WELL-GIFTED this past Christmas. Here are brief details. Snails & Monkey Tails: A Visual Guide to Punctuation & Symbols, by Michael Arndt, Harper Design, 2022. Snails … Continue reading
TRUMP, PAUL HARVEY, AND PLAGIARISM BORDERING ON BLASPHEMY
RECENT TRUMP BEHAVIOR OFFERS CHILLING INSIGHT into the man. He or likely his sycophant suppliers of Truth Social drivel have perverted, many times word for word, an essay of the … Continue reading
AHOY YE MATIES!
TRUTH IS, I’VE HAD ONLY A FEW sea-faring adventures, but its lore seems to attract itself to me. Here are a couple more tidbits together with some St. Thomas recollections. … Continue reading
AWARDING THE SIMSEZ
WE BEGAN THIS YEAR’S SIMANAITISSAYS with celebrations of friendly cities and historical automotive achievements. It would be fun to continue with such niceties. But recent news resurrects my inverted elephant … Continue reading
ON BERKELEY, DEL RÍO, AND WELLES—TOSS IN PARSONS AND HEARST AS WELL
BUSBY BERKELEY WAS RENOWNED for kaleidoscopic choreography. Dolores del Río with a career spanning 50 years was the first major female Latin American crossover star in Hollywood. Orson Welles was … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 