夫を連れて行って, ください
A JAPANESE COMEDIENNE might use the line above, Google Translate’s rendering of “Take my husband, please.” But until relatively recently she wouldn’t be performing rakugo, the classical form of Japanese … Continue reading
MOUNT RUSHMORE TIDBITS
DAUGHTER SUZ AND I recently enjoyed Alfred Hitchcock’s famed North by Northwest, everything from this director’s cameo missing a bus in its opening moments, to the oft-cited line “We laugh … Continue reading
AMERICANS IN JAPAN—1965
JUST AS THE 1853–1854 Perry Expedition to Japan led to the Meiji Era’s assimilation of Western ways, the 1964 Summer Olympics, the first Olympiad held in Asia, enhanced Tokyo’s standing … Continue reading
ARMCHAIR TRAVEL? NO, ROCKING CHAIR
I’VE HAD GOOD FUN with armchair travel by virtue of my Baedekers and other guidebooks. The fact that most of them were published before the Great War only enhances their … Continue reading
EVADING THE PERILS OF PIMM’S PART 2
SO THERE I WAS, comfortably hob-nobbing at the Stewards’ Enclosure of the 1988 Henley Royal Regatta. We encouraged favourite teams and, between rowing events, chatted about university days, motor racing, … Continue reading
EVADING THE PERILS OF PIMM’S PART 1
I WAS RECENTLY SEARCHING through old files for something or other which I never found. But I did uncover two bits of Henley Royal Regatta memorabilia, plus a goofy photo … Continue reading
FAUX PEOPLE AND PLACES
I’M REMINDED OF the practice of including a fake entry to detect unauthorized use of copyrighted material. A recent example appears in the Interesting Facts website, November 25, 2021: “Google … Continue reading
A POTATO NAMED DOUG
OUR FAMILY HAS a heritage of worshipping Solanum tuberosum, the potato. But we’ve never taken to naming individual ones. This is despite potatoes being among our Christmas ornaments and a … Continue reading
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
