CARUSO AND THE EXTORTIONISTS
IN HER BOOK A Mad Love: An Introduction to Opera, Vivian Schweitzer offers fascinating tidbits about famed tenor Enrico Caruso. One is that “… when Caruso sang the aria [“Vesti … Continue reading
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND DAVOS SKI-RUNNING
DOCTOR JOHN H. WATSON’S literary agent, a fellow named Arthur Conan Doyle, helped to make skiiing popular in Davos, Switzerland. Details are given in Harry Mount’s “How Conan Doyle Pioneered … Continue reading
HOW PARIS AMUSES ITSELF, 1903
HOW COULD I NOT read a book from 1903 with the title How Paris Amuses Itself? The book is one of those available new “selected by scholars as being culturally … Continue reading
A.D.B. ILLUMINATION COMING OUR WAY
IT’S SORTA DÉJÀ VU all over again. In the late 1970s, the U.S. caught up with the best of European automotive headlighting. And, come 2023, we’re likely to do so … Continue reading
ALFA ROMEO VERSUS FERRARI—THE 1951 GRAND PRIX SEASON PART 2
YESTERDAY, CORRADO MILLANTA introduced us to Alfa Romeo and Ferrari Formula One cars of the 1951 season. Today in Part 2, we see results of their contrasting technologies. Monza 1951. … Continue reading
ALFA ROMEO VERSUS FERRARI—THE 1951 GRAND PRIX SEASON PART 1
NINETEEN-FIFTY-ONE WAS only the second year of F.I.A.’s sanctioned World Drivers’ Championship. Grand Prix regulations were essentially the same as those in 1938: Supercharged engines were limited to 1 1/2 … Continue reading
THE BEST OF…
GEE, THIS BOOK SORTING in the garage is fun. I pulled out The BEST of Everything, 1980, to see how hopelessly outdated its choices were. However, I was now missing … Continue reading
LE MANS AND TARASCON, 1907
I BOUGHT THE BOOK A Spring Fortnight in France some years ago because its first chapter is about Le Mans and its last one about Tarascon. I know of Le … Continue reading
DON’T LOOK BACK 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, AND 3.0 PART 2
YESTERDAY WE ENCOUNTERED the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and its Gluck Opera. Today in Part 2, we see a Don’t Look Back 2.1 variation and an envisioning from … Continue reading
DON’T LOOK BACK 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, and 3.0 PART 1
ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE is a myth with legs. Or, to crib computer parlance, there’s a 1.0, sorta its beta; 2.0, an early operatic rendering; 2.1, a later operetta; and 3.0, … Continue reading
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