HAVEN’T WE A WORD FOR IT? PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE BEGAN GLEANING TIDBITS FROM FRANCIS GOODING’S LRB REVIEW of Steven Mithen’s The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out of The Stone Age. We continue here in … Continue reading
HAVEN’T WE A WORD FOR IT? PART 1
FRANCIS GOODING’S “ROCKET SCIENCE FOR MONKEYS” is the compelling title of his London Review of Books review of Steven Mithen’s The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out Of … Continue reading
HORTUS DELICIARUM—THE GARDEN OF DELIGHTS
MY RECENT TREATISE ON PRETZELS got me consulting The Authorized King James Version of the Bible. Prompting of this biblical research was straightforward: Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus enjoying a … Continue reading
D.J. SIMS GOT THINGS RIGHT, SORTA
IT WAS MORE THAN A HALF-CENTURY AGO (AGG!?) that a math professor at the College of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas submitted a freelance piece to R&T. Image by … Continue reading
COLOR—PHILOSOPHICALLY
DEIDRE MASK’S “DOES THIS COME IN PINK MARGARINE? A SURPRISING HISTORY OF COLOR NAMES” caught my eye in The New York Times Book Review, April 26, 2026. In fact, her … Continue reading
A HUNGER (AND LUST) FOR WORDS
MY LATEST HISTORY EXTRA (USTA BE BBC HISTORY) has “Eat, Drink and Be Merry,” by historian Sam Bilton, who certainly knows her way around Elizabethan times and kitchens: “Shakespeare’s works,” … Continue reading
SAY THAT AGAIN PART 2
JASON VANRULER ENCOURAGED ALL THIS with his article Discovering Your Communication Type: The 5 Paths to Deeper Connections and Stronger Relationships. Here in Part 2, his PATHS acronym is expanded … Continue reading
SAY THAT AGAIN? PART 1
I AM, PROFESSIONALLY AND BY LIFE’S CHOICES, A COMMUNICATOR. How else to explain 33+ years at R&T and now approaching 14 years at SimanaitisSays. Indeed, prior to these, the Society … Continue reading
ON PLASTICS PART 2
YESTERDAY, ZOË SCHLANGER’S REVIEW OF BETH GARDINER’S PLASTIC INC got us ankle-deep in plastic bits. Today we explore the environmental aspects of this, quite apart from the squishiness. Health Aspects. … Continue reading
ON PLASTICS PART 1
TWO QUITE DISSIMILAR THINGS got me thinking about plastics: The first was “The Japanese Have A Word For It,” here at SimanaitisSays, April 3, 2026. The particular word is mottainai … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 