SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ENDORSES JOE BIDEN
THE EDITORS OF Scientific American declared, “We’ve never backed a presidential candidate in our 175-year history—until now.” “This year,” the editors wrote in Scientific American, October 2020, “we are compelled … Continue reading
HUGO PICTOR’S SELFIE
IT’S RARE TO know authorship of an 11th-century manuscript. However, thanks to Christopher De Hamel’s Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, the Oxford University’s Bodleian Library’s Bodley 717 is an exception. Tidbits … Continue reading
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL—GLOBALIST PART 2
COMPOSER HANDEL WAS quite the globalist in an era when many folks only rarely left the villages of their birth. By his early 20s, he had already resided in Halle, … Continue reading
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL—GLOBALIST PART 1
FOR A VARIETY of reasons, the pandemic one of them, bullying nationalists another, “globalism” is almost a pejorative these days. However, reading about composer George Frideric Handel, I found a … Continue reading
KING CNUT’S BAD RAP
APART FROM HIS name offered as Canute, the medieval King Cnut got another bad rap from history. You know the story: The king planted his throne at the seashore and, … Continue reading
BBC PROMS 2020
THROUGH BBC WORLD SERVICE, I am virtually taking part in a British tradition, The Proms concerts. And, most appropriately, Diverted Traffic 115, London Review of Books, September 6, 2020, reprinted … Continue reading
AN INSPIRATIONAL OPERA INDEED
OPERAS CAN INSPIRE—but enough to create a country? Yes, the history of Belgium is woven into the obscure La Muette de Portici, The Mute of Portici, an 1828 opera by … Continue reading
YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE
I’VE BEEN ENJOYING Nick Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’s Time. Its theses are two-fold and clear: You can’t please everyone. And critics write for … Continue reading
LETTERS AS ENCOURAGEMENT
I WAS READING the Letters column in the August 13, 2020, London Review of Books, with nary a serious thought in my head. Then I encounter several communications that didn’t … Continue reading
CHURCHILL’S COOK PART 2
YESTERDAY Georgina Young chose kitchen service as scullery maid no. six in a fairly grand household. Today, she marries, learns from, and thrives with chef Paul Landemare. And has wartime … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 