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
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
Simanaitis Says 