CONNING CAPONE
COUNT VICTOR LUSTIG was the greatest con man of the 20th century. I cannot say “of all time” because implications of recent events have yet to play out. Lustig’s credentials … Continue reading
MARNIE—BOOK TO MOVIE TO MET
THIS PAST WEEKEND, I enjoyed the Metropolitan Opera’s Met HD production of Nico Muhly’s Marnie. I’m seeing it again tomorrow, November 14, 2018, with Wife Dottie as a Met Encore. … Continue reading
TRUMAN ON READING, THE PRESIDENCY, AND TRUTH
THE MORE I learn about Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the United States, the more I admire him. He was an omnifarious reader. He made difficult decisions after considerable … Continue reading
PUCCINI’S WORLD TOUR PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE began Puccini’s World Tour in Nagasaki, Japan. Today, it’s in California during the Gold Rush and Peking, China, in a Middle Age fairyland. La Fanciulla del West, The … Continue reading
PUCCINI’S WORLD TOUR PART 1
RICHARD WAGNER VISITED the underworld Nibelheim and the upperworld Valhalla in his epic Ring Cycle, but a much more practical world tour is offered by Giacomo Puccini in his Madama … Continue reading
ON POLITICAL BRILLIANCE
WHAT WITH this being Election Day, and indeed one of the more important elections in our nation’s history, I offer thoughts from three Americans of unalloyed brilliance: Mark Twain, Will … Continue reading
CHARLES FLETCHER LUMMIS—NOT A STEREOTYPICAL LIBRARIAN PART 2
YESTERDAY, IN SimanaitisSays, Charles Fletcher Lummis left Harvard early, married his first Mrs. Lummis, walked across the U.S. in knickers and tomato-red knee socks to a job with the fledgling … Continue reading
CHARLES FLETCHER LUMMIS—NOT A STEREOTYPICAL LIBRARIAN PART 1
I REMEMBER HAVING a crush on my junior high school librarian. She was tall, lithe, and wore glasses and a shirtwaist dress. Alas, or maybe fortunately, the affair came to … Continue reading
TINTYPES—MAKE THE AMERICAN MUSICAL GREAT AGAIN
IF EVER THERE was a Broadway musical revue that’s ripe for revival these days, it’s Tintypes. The Tintypes revue was originally produced by the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. It … Continue reading
EXPANDING ON ENGLISH MYTHS PART 2
ST. GEORGE, HIS DRAGON, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men are familiar myths. Yesterday in Part 1, an article in the London Review of Books got us started with … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 