PINEAPPLE TIDBITS
THE FASCINATING THING ABOUT websites such as Interesting Facts is their encouragement of additional Internet sleuthing. For instance, “Pineapples Were Once So Valuable, People Rented Them For Parties” immediately brings … Continue reading
HAPPY 400TH FIRST FOLIO
THE JUNE 2023 BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE has a fascinating article by Michael Wood on “400 Years of the First Folio.” Here are tidbits gleaned from Professor Wood’s piece, together with … Continue reading
FILLING OUT FORMS PART 2
YESTERDAY, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS contributor Jonathan Sawday introduced us to filling out form A. 2042. Today in Part 2, we learn more of this and other bumf in Brit … Continue reading
FILLING OUT FORMS PART 1
JONATHAN SAWDAY’S “FILL IN THE BLANKS,” London Review of Books, June 29, 2023, shares vignettes of official correspondence employed by the British during the First World War. Like other LRB … Continue reading
RICH GUYS, ETHICS, AND THE LAW
ANATOLE FRANCE, 1921 NOBELIST, wrote in 1894, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal … Continue reading
PURITANICAL PACHYDERMS
H.L. MENCKEN DEFINED PURITANISM as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” G.K. Chesterton wrote, “A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.” … Continue reading
MICKEY D’S COKE
DOES A COKE FROM MCDONALD’S taste better than others? It should. And the allrecipes website tells why. Ray Kroc and Coke. Coca-Cola and the founder of McDonald’s go ’way back: … Continue reading
NOËL COWARD—A NUANCED VIEW
I’VE ALWAYS ENJOYED the wit, whimsy, and artistry of Noël Coward. Indeed, his appearances here at SimanaitisSays include “Noël Coward Says”, “Noël Coward’s Jamaica, and a brief cameo of acting … Continue reading
JUST PHILOSOPHIZING
THOUGH PH.D. TRANSLATES INTO Doctorate in Philosophy, I confess my own degree never represented much knowledge of philosophy per se. Somehow the subject was too dense, too filled with arcane … Continue reading
RAPPIN’ A.I.
WHO OWNS THE SOUND of a voice? Or a theme of music? The concept of copyright is to define “a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 