HAPPY (BELATED) BIRTHDAY, LEONARDO DA VINCI
WELL, WE missed celebrating Leonardo da Vinci’s 562nd birthday. It was a few weeks ago on April 15 Old Style, so I can’t even appeal to the Julian-to-Gregorian Calendar update, … Continue reading
CREATIVE HEARING, TAKE 2
PART OF the fun of listening is trying to figure out what is being said. I mentioned a few family classics of this creative hearing in http://wp.me/p2ETap-1rY. Things like “penguins” when … Continue reading
ENGLAND AT WAR: TWO NOTEWORTHY BOOKS
MY PRIMARY source for yesterday’s SimanaitisSays item on the Jane comics (http://wp.me/p2ETap-23p) is the book Little Friends. Plus, Go To It! is another worthy book in a similar genre. The … Continue reading
$AVE THROUGH FONT$
ONE OBSERVANT 14-yer-old could save the federal government roughly $234 million a year—by suggesting a standardization of type font. His research made “News of the Week” in the March 14, … Continue reading
FOR SALE—WITH STORIES ATTACHED
ONE OF the high points of my career as an automotive journalist was enjoying Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks with friend and Grand Prix driver Innes Ireland as we … Continue reading
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
Simanaitis Says 