AN OLD CHINA HAND
THERE’S SPECIAL charm—not to say downright adventure—trusting the advice of old guidebooks. Something worth seeing 100 years ago is likely still worth a view, provided, of course, it’s still there. … Continue reading
SCI-FI—OR IS IT CHILLINGLY NON-FI?
THERE’S A genre of science fiction that I enjoy, the near-term alternative-world variety. No alien invasions. No collisions of worlds. And no zombies, thank you. Just our own world gone … Continue reading
PITY THE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETER
IT IS difficult to imagine a more nerve-wracking job than real-time translation. A person prattles on in one language while the audience wearing headphones awaits your interpretation in another. This … Continue reading
A ROYAL WAY WITH WORDS
OVER THE years, the English royals have been generally an entertaining lot. A book in my collection offers proof of this. Elizabeth Countess of Longford, 1906 – 2002, had a … Continue reading
WHAT A SYNECDOCHE!
WORDS CAN arise in the most circuitous ways. I was reading about French president Francois Hollande’s relational complexities—His Élysée Palace live-in pal, Valérie Trierweiler, apparently moving out in response to … Continue reading
WE ARE WEIRD
A PROVOCATIVE recent book offers the view that we have a lot to learn from primitive societies—from what we might call uncivilized sorts. What with savage rites and all, I’m … Continue reading
CHRISTMAS BOOKS
I LOVE both giving and getting books. It’s satisfying when the getting responds to my deftly disguised hint (“Gee, I’d like to read…”). And there’s serendipity when I didn’t even … Continue reading
NOIR GENRES
NOIR IS French for black, but the genres are pure American. According to Merriman-Webster, noir is characterized by hard-boiled and cynical characters inhabiting bleak and sleazy settings. Whether it’s film, … Continue reading
IN PRAISE OF ANNOTATED EDITIONS
IT’S GOOD fun to read the great books. It’s added pleasure to peruse them in annotated editions. I didn’t realize how many of these I’ve accumulated over the years until … Continue reading
LE TRAIN BLEU
THE ENGLISH, with a presence in the French Riviera since 1840, all but invented the idea of a Mediterranean resort. And the Companie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grand Express … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 