IS THERE AN ALCHEMIST IN THE HOUSE?
ALCHEMY WAS MORE than changing base metals into gold. Malcolm Gaskill reviews Jennifer M. Rambling’s The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300–1700 in the London Review of Books, July 15, … Continue reading
THAT’S A PARAPROSDOKIAN TO ME!
THE WEBSITE Inspiring Quotes is entertaining. Plus, I learned a new word from it, “paraprosdokian.” The word has a Greek etymology: παρά, para, “against,” and προσδοκία, prosdokia, “expectation.” Inspiring Quotes, … Continue reading
KOREAN TIDBITS, OLD AND NEW, GOOD AND BAD
MORE THAN 71 YEARS separate us from the outbreak of the Korean War, the subject of several of today’s tidbits. Another tidbit is as recent as The New York Times, … Continue reading
WE OTTER KNOW MORE ABOUT METABOLISM
HOW DO SEA OTTERS keep warm in frigid water? Sure, they’ve got thick fur, but there’s more to it than this. Sacha Vignieri gives the high points in “Keeping Warm … Continue reading
MY GARBLED TALE OF STRAVINSKY’S DUMBARTON OAKS
STRAVINSKY’S JAUNTY CONCERTO in E-Flat had just been broadcast on SiriusXM‘s “Symphony Hall.” And I thought, how neat that he composed it for that big-deal conference at Dumbarton Oaks. What … Continue reading
GLUBB PASHA—A SECOND LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
SIR JOHN BAGOT GLUBB was a British soldier who trained and led Transjordan’s Arab Legion between 1939 and 1956. Controversially, the Legion had several victories against Israel in the 1948 … Continue reading
DEADLY CONS PART 2
YESTERDAY’S CON WAS a Ponzi scheme expanded to absurdity. Today in Part 2, a man’s death is related to something as seemingly innocuous as his Twitter hand. Handles For Sale. … Continue reading
DEADLY CONS PART 1
I’VE WRITTEN LIGHTHEARTEDLY about cons, including Guiseppe Balsamo aka Cagliostro, whose 18th-century antics inspired the modern opera The Ghosts of Versailles.. There are, though, modern cons with horrible outcomes. Here, … Continue reading
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRIVING
A TOYOTA PODCAST, part of the company’s Toyota Untold series, is devoted to “The Psychology of Driving,” June 21, 2021. It features two researchers, both psychology Ph.D.s, discussing their work … Continue reading
MOTHERS’ MUSICALE
OPERA NEWS, PUBLISHED monthly by the Metropolitan Opera, had a particularly entertaining collection of Mother’s Day tidbits earlier this year. Here are several that remain in mind, even now in … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 