Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

Category Archives: I Usta be an Editor Y’Know

HOLY CADUCEUS!

THESE TIDBITS COME from no less than the U.S. National Institutes of Health, from Wikipedia, and from R&T. “There are certain things,” the NIH’s National Library of Medicine writes, “that … Continue reading

May 7, 2021 · Leave a comment

YEGGMAN RESEARCH

THE TERM “YEGGMAN” arose in a recent cop show on SiriusXM “Radio Classics.” I knew it meant “safe cracker,” but not much else. This called for research; here are tidbits … Continue reading

April 19, 2021 · Leave a comment

A MISSION IMPOSSIBLE BOOK HEIST

WHAT WITH GLOBAL complexities, the Internet, lawyer highjinks, and business school finesses, malefactors now have enhanced opportunities to evade punishment. On the other hand, malefinders (my new word, with obvious … Continue reading

April 6, 2021 · 5 Comments

HOPALONG HOPPED ALONG IN LIFE TOO

HOPALONG CASSIDY MAKES regular appearances among other cowboys on SiriusXM’s ”Radio Classics.” I recall him too as a frequent star of Saturday matinee westerns when I was growing up. Always … Continue reading

April 3, 2021 · 13 Comments

LENIN’S LOVES

SHEILA FITZPATRICK begins her London Review of Books article “To King’s Cross Station,” January 7, 2021, with “Lenin liked London. He arrived in April 1902, not long after his release … Continue reading

March 26, 2021 · Leave a comment

A NEW-ISH WORLD

WE ARE THANKFULLY, tentatively, and carefully feeling our way through this world pandemic. Winston Churchill’s comment of August 1942 World War II is most appropriate: “This is not the end. … Continue reading

March 22, 2021 · Leave a comment

ETYMOLOGY—FILIBUSTER    PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE BEGAN a review of “filibuster,” its etymology, and its use as a delaying tactic in the U.S. Senate. Here in Part 2, we discuss its history, other filibuster … Continue reading

March 15, 2021 · Leave a comment

ETYMOLOGY—FILIBUSTER    PART 1

THERE IS NOTHING good to say about “filibuster.” Even its etymology is embarrassing. As noted in Merriman-Webster, the word comes from the Spanish filibustero, literally “freebooter.” “Filibuster” made its first … Continue reading

March 14, 2021 · Leave a comment

CELEBRATING MAGAZINES

STEVEN LOMAZOW, M.D., collects magazine, some 83,000 of them. And New York City’s Grolier Club has assembled an exhibition selected from his collection. Jennifer Schuessler writes “Are Magazines Dead? Not … Continue reading

March 4, 2021 · 1 Comment

OBAMA’S MEMOIRS

I HAVEN’T READ Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, and considering the number of books already on my “to-read” stack, I’m not likely to attempt this 768-page challenge. On the other … Continue reading

February 28, 2021 · Leave a comment