“WHEN DID YOU COME TO THIS COUNTRY, DENNIS?” PART 1
IMAGINE: THERE I WAS A (likely) fourth-generation American, and a teacher asked me that question. (I had yet to appreciate sarcasm.) True, as a native-born Clevelander, I spoke a dialect … Continue reading
A GUIDE TO XENOPHOBE’S GUIDES
THESE GUIDES SAY, SATIRICALLY from the start, that xenophobia is “an irrational fear of foreigners, probably justified, always understandable.” Then, removing tongue from cheek, they’re described as “an irreverent look … Continue reading
BEING HEP, LIKE, TWENTY-THREE SKIDOO
A BEAUTY OF SLANG is its etymological appeal. Why “23” anyway? And, y’know, is it “hep” or “hip”? This clearly calls for some research. My sources are multitudinous. With the … Continue reading
NICE NEWS—AN ONLINE SOURCE OF POSITIVITY
THESE DAYS, NEWS NEGATIVITY isn’t hard to come by. But the Nice News website offers a much welcome reason to visit online (as well as a great source for SimanaitisSays). … Continue reading
BRITS BEING SILLY
I LOVE BRITS BEING SILLY. Peter Sellers, Spike Mulligan, and Harry Secombe had The Goon Show on BBC. Gerard Hoffnung brought silliness to the concert hall. Dudley Moore and his … Continue reading
A (BELATED) 10TH ANNIVERSARY
AGG!! IT SLIPPED MY MIND back in mid-August, but this celebrated the tenth anniversary of SimanaitisSays—count them 10! And they said I’d run out of things to say. Ha. Here, … Continue reading
WANTED, IN THE OLD WEST, AND IN VICTORIAN THEATRE AS WELL PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, we saw British polymath Robert Harling rise (possibly from orphenhood, possibly not) to become a typographer (Playbill font, 1938), an editorial trainee (twice, not for long … Continue reading
WANTED, IN THE OLD WEST, AND IN VICTORIAN THEATRE AS WELL PART 1
THESE TIDBITS, IN PARTS 1 AND 2 today and tomorrow, are about Robert Harling’s Playbill typography (which, curiously, has nothing to do with Playbill, the theater magazine described in “Prokofiev, … Continue reading
WILL CUPPY GREATS PART 2
HERE IN PART 2, we continue satirist extraordinaire Will Cuppy’s assessments of the world’s Greats, at least those so identified by posterity. Peter the Great. Cuppy explains, “Peter the Great … Continue reading
WILL CUPPY GREATS PART 1
AS I’VE NOTED BEFORE, Will Cuppy is my favorite satirist. His style is deceptively simple: sorta a well-executed theme paper with tongue firmly in cheek. Like I said, “heavily researched … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 