“IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF….”
MARIA GODOY REPORTS in NPR, January 18, 2023, “What Makes That Song Swing? At Last, Physicists Unravel a Jazz Mystery.” As a regular listener of “40’s Junction,” SiriusXM’s Swing Era … Continue reading
NOT JUST THE LINING, BUT THE ENTIRE CLOUD
THE ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER CLOUD was “a lady of quality, unruffled in a crisis,” or so described R&T, May 1958. No specific crisis was cited; could it have been exposure to … Continue reading
FOOLIN’ WITH MOTHER NATURE
AN INTERESTING TIDBIT got me looking into what’s sorta a family matter. It involves a river that runs backwards, at least at the moment, and the tradeoffs of fooling with … Continue reading
PH.D. STUDENT SOLVES SANSKRIT GRAMMATICAL PUZZLE
A RECENT ARTICLE IN Nice News caught my eye for several reasons: First, the grammatical puzzle arose in the linguistics of Sanskrit. I’ve been tantalized by this language after learning … Continue reading
PLANTS DO IT, SO WHY DON’T WE?
PLANTS CONVERT SUNLIGHT into food. So why not use photosynthesis to transform sunlight into a useful fuel? Indeed, as described by BBC News, August 22, 2022, “Cambridge University Scientists Create … Continue reading
DIALECTS, EVEN ACROSS A CLEVELAND STREET
WIKIPEDIA HELPED IN THE RECENT Berkeley item by noting that this British car name is pronounced/ˈbɑːrkliː/, “Barkly.” A link to “Help: IPA/English” got me thinking about George Bernard Shaw’s saying … Continue reading
SAME OL’ SAME OL’?—JUST A COUPLE R&T ROAD TESTS PART 2
A REMARKABLE CONTRAST in R&T road tests prompted these tidbits yesterday and today. In February 1958, the tiny BMW Isetta 300 broke the Berkeley Sport’s smallest engine tested record by … Continue reading
SAME OL’ SAME OL’?—JUST A COUPLE R&T ROAD TESTS PART 1
IT WAS TOO EARLY (1958) to wonder what the R&T staff was smoking, but imagine hallucinatory oddities of February and April road tests that year: the Isetta 300 and Chrysler … Continue reading
OPERA’S SEVEN DEADLY SINS
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’S MONTHLY OPERA NEWS features Henry Stewart’s “Operapedia,” wherein he chooses a topic and expands it around operatic themes. His January 2023 theme is the Seven Deadly Sins. … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 