ILF AND PETROV’S DRIVE
THERE’S AN excellent argument against having one’s book collection in good order. Let serendipity reign. I was looking for one thing or another. I never found it, but came upon … Continue reading
AN (OLD) WAY WITH WORDS
“Hear me, mother! Pull that black worm off the bark and give it to this old man. And no spitting in the ashes!” Amazingly enough, this is an ur-speech. Spoken … Continue reading
IS CURSIVE DEAD YET?
THERE’S GOOD controversy going on about cursive handwriting, also known as script, the kind in which letters of each word flow one to another. Is it of any use today? … Continue reading
BURMA-SHAVE
ARE YOU old enough to remember Burma-Shave signs? I feared as much. However, these sequential roadside messages, typically in verse, tell a lot about advertising during the middle decades of … Continue reading
VINTAGE MAGAZINE
MAYBE YOU’RE already reading Vintage Racecer/Vintage Roadcar. If not, and if, like me, you enjoy vintage automobiles, I highly recommend this monthly magazine (www.vintageracecar.com). Publisher/Editor Casey Annis has gathered a … Continue reading
PAPAL HIGHJINKS
THE ACCESSION of Pope Francis I has been taking place with high ceremony and, given His Holiness’s nature, a sense of humility. But it wasn’t always that way. In the … Continue reading
THE ROYALS—OLD AND NEW
HILARY MANTEL is a marvelous writer, whether she’s documenting the Tudor goings-on of Henry VIII et al or delivering a lecture as part of the London Review of Books Winter … Continue reading
U OR NON-U, REDUX
IT USED be so simple. Beginning with October 14, 1066, one was either Norman or non-Norman. Up until recently (two days ago), it was U or non-U, the “U” standing … Continue reading
SHAKESPEARE, INC.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE a loan shark? A tax dodger? Worse yet, a hedge trader? Or was he merely a man of his Elizabethan times? And the greatest dramaturgist of all time? … Continue reading
EASTER FLICKS
IT’S MID-afternoon. Maybe a holiday meal with the family is either in preparation or has been concluded. Maybe the familial/liturgical/political chatter has temporarily subsided. What to do? See if there’s … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 