DRAGONS BE HERE AND THERE PART 2
YESTERDAY, LRB REVIEWER Tom Shippey shared Dragon lore gleaned from Daniel Ogden’s The Dragon in the West: From Ancient Myth to Modern Legend. Here in Part 2, tidbits are about … Continue reading
DRAGONS BE HERE AND THERE PART 1
TOM SHIPPEY SUMMARIZES it well in “Don’t Lie on Your Gold,” the London Review of Books, June 9, 2022: “Who wouldn’t want a friend that could hoard treasure, breathe fire, … Continue reading
TŌKAIDŌ ADVENTURES PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE BEGAN FOLLOWING Philippe Delord’s retracing the route of Hiroshige’s The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, as displayed in Hiroshige’s Japan—On the Trail of the Great Woodblock Print Master. Today … Continue reading
TŌKAIDŌ ADVENTURES PART 1
THIS BEGAN AS a book review of Philippe Delord’s Hiroshige’s Japan—On the Trail of the Great Woodblock Print Master, and it still is. Also, though, this lovely art book recalled several … Continue reading
POLITICAL REPARTEE
CURRENT POLITICS ARE LAMENTABLY lacking in so many aspects, among them any sense of repartee, wit, or humor. Here are earlier examples as gleaned from Dr. Mardy Grothe’s Viva La … Continue reading
ROAD AND TRACK’S INAUGURAL ROAD TEST
IT WAS IN MARCH 1951 that Road and Track inaugurated “a series of road tests of foreign and American automobiles from the American driver’s viewpoint.” Indeed, there had been earlier … Continue reading
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE RICE? OR WAS IT A TIE? PART 2
RECENT RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT a wild jungle fowl evolved into today’s chicken, and much later than was previously thought. Today in Part 2, we continue sharing tidbits from AAAS Science … Continue reading
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE RICE? OR WAS IT A TIE? PART 1
DOMESTICATION OF THE CHICKEN, you’d think, would have been an historically defined deal. But, indeed, research published only recently has upset traditional thoughts on the matter. Here, in Parts 1 … Continue reading
TRAVELS WITH EMMA—THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY
I WAS ORDERING another book entirely (of which more, once it arrives) when the Amazon Smile algorithm was spot-on with two other recommendations. Here are tidbits about one of these … Continue reading
SPINNING MERCURY!
THOSE OF US of a certain age remember pushing little blobs of Mercury around in science class; this, before people got all antsy about handling this extremely toxic element. Science … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 