SHALLOW GOODS, DEEP GOODS—AND TRUST PART 1
I’VE WONDERED WHAT HAPPENED to the bonhommie of not that long ago between the U.S. and China: GM built and sold five times more Buicks in China than here in … Continue reading
GALLIC INNOVATION AUTOWISE PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, Maurice and Georges Sizaire made their automotive mark with hyphenated -Naudin and -Berwick. Today in Part 2, they get wacky with the latter and then settle … Continue reading
GALLIC INNOVATION AUTOWISE PART 1
I STUMBLE ONTO THESE THINGS in straightforward ways: Jim Donnick is editor of Vintage Sports Car, published by the Vintage Sports Car Club of America. Each issue, he selects an … Continue reading
LET ME SLEEP ON IT—BIPHASICALLY
“5 Interesting Facts (and Myths) About Sleep,” at the Interesting Facts website described that medieval peasants slept better than we do. (Artificial light makes sleep less natural today.) In giving … Continue reading
THE O.S.S. AND RUBE GOLDBERG
NOT TO DISPARAGE THE HEROIC WORK of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, but several of its false starts make for entertaining reading. My source of this … Continue reading
IT USTA BE SANTA CLARA VALLEY PART 2
YESTERDAY, COMPUTER VACUUM TUBES FAILED every couple days and the valley had yet to be named Silicon. Today in Part 2, we continued gleaning insights from John Lanchester’s “Putting the … Continue reading
IT USTA BE SANTA CLARA VALLEY PART 1
John Lanchester’s “Putting the Silicon in Silicon Valley,” London Review of Books, March 16, 2023, offers information galore about our silicon chip age. At almost 6000 words, the article is … Continue reading
RECITERS OF LONDON—HENRY MAYHEW, CHARLES LAUGHTON, AND VIVIAN LEIGH
IN HIS FASCINATING COMPENDIUM of London during the mid-1800s, Henry Mayhew described everything from costermongers’ comestibles to mudlarkers’ low-tide Thames treasures. Recalling classic Charles Laughton flicks got me researching another … Continue reading
2024 CORVETTE E-RAY HYBRID
WHEN I WROTE “WHY NOT HYBRIDS?” I suspect Corvette engineers were thinking along decidedly different lines. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Vette, they’ve revealed the 2024 hybrid E-Ray. Here … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 
CONDUCTORS’ STYLES
I RECENTLY MENTIONED my preference for a conductor’s hair style. But, of course, which conductor? Sir Simon Rattle comes to mind. By contrast, I respect Sir Georg Solti for his … Continue reading →