ON TRIGGING
QUITE APART FROM slang for trigonometry, I always thought the verb “to trig” meant something like “to get the drift of” in the sense of revealing something: “He trigged to … Continue reading
CONKERS, ANYONE?
BEING AN ANGLOPHILE, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I’ve only recently learned of the game of conkers. The Discoverer, October 19, 2021, posted “How British Autumn Differs From American … Continue reading
BAEDEKER’S, MURRAY’S, AND MY MEDITERRANEAN PART 2
YESTERDAY’S MEDITERRANEAN COASTAL adventure began at Barcelona and referenced classic Baedeker’s and Murray’s guidebooks. Today in Part 2 we visit Marseilles, Nice, and Èze on our way to Monaco. Marseilles. … Continue reading
BAEDEKER’S, MURRAY’S, AND MY MEDITERRANEAN PART 1
I LOVE COASTLINES. The beauty of California’s Route 1. The panoramas of Italy’s Amalfi Coast. And then there’s the coastline of the Mediterranean, as exemplified by Baedeker’s, Murray’s, and my … Continue reading
TRY YOUR LUCK FOR A CAPSULE O.L.
GEE, I WISH I were in Japan so I could pop coins into a vending machine and have it reward me with a miniaturized bit of reality: an air conditioner, … Continue reading
ARLES TIDBITS
LYDIA DAVIS DOESN’T call them “tidbits,” though her article One French City,” London Review of Books, August 12, 2021, is a perfect example. Davis begins her article with “What follows … Continue reading
IN THE WILDE’S OF NORTH AMERICA
NAME-DROPPING OSCAR WILDE in my recent tale of Horace and Baby Doe Tabor calls for learning more about Wilde’s 1882 tour of North America. Indeed, a fellow named John Cooper … Continue reading
PARIS OUT OF HAND
YOU’D SUSPECT THAT, despite its Baedeker’s-like red cover, Karen Elizabeth Gordon’s Paris Out of Hand is not your ordinary guidebook. For one thing, the Eiffel Tower is upside down. For … Continue reading
KOREAN TIDBITS, OLD AND NEW, GOOD AND BAD
MORE THAN 71 YEARS separate us from the outbreak of the Korean War, the subject of several of today’s tidbits. Another tidbit is as recent as The New York Times, … Continue reading
GLUBB PASHA—A SECOND LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
SIR JOHN BAGOT GLUBB was a British soldier who trained and led Transjordan’s Arab Legion between 1939 and 1956. Controversially, the Legion had several victories against Israel in the 1948 … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 