REMBRANDT’S A.I. PALS
EVEN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ARTISTS can profit from Artificial Intelligence. An example is given in Nina Siegal’s “Rembrandt’s Damaged Masterpiece Is Whole Again, With A.I.’s Help” in The New York Times, June … Continue reading
MAYBE IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES
A DICKENS CITATION at a recent Inspiring Quotes reminded me of high school. Typical of teenage angst, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” These … Continue reading
CHICKEN CORN SOUP, CHINESE STYLE
RECIPES OFTEN CALL this “Chinese Chicken Corn Soup,” but then this begs the question, “Where do I find a Chinese chicken?” Indeed, Wife Dottie and I have been avoiding chicken … Continue reading
BUILT LIKE A BRICK
THESE DAYS, E-tailing downplays the term “brick and mortar.” However, this building material duo has interesting aspects, as described in Arianne Shahvisi’s “Diary” piece “Life in a Tinderbox,” in London … Continue reading
SOME KIDS NEVER GROW UP
THIS KID, BORN in 1906, ran off to join the Barnum & Bailey Circus. After his circus career waned in the early 1930s, he disappeared in 1936. Relatives discovered the … Continue reading
CELEBRATING THE GLOBE THEATRE
THEATER IS REOPENING in the U.S. and, in time, in other parts of the world as well. Let’s celebrate this by recalling a classic venue: London’s Globe. Here are tidbits … Continue reading
BI SHENG’S MOVABLE TYPE
BI SHENG WAS unknown to me until I read that he, not Gutenberg, first devised movable type. This prompted me to dig out the research books, fire up the Internet. … Continue reading
A FLYING CAR? A ROADABLE PLANE?
WE HAVE UPSIZED drones proposed today as just-around-the-corner flying cars. But it’s interesting that we’ve already been there, done that. Here are tidbits about the 1921 Tampier Avion-Motorcar, not exactly … Continue reading
JUST DON’T CALL HIM “OPPA”
“A VICIOUS CANCER,” said Kim Jong-un, “is corrupting attire, hairstyles, speeches, behaviors.” State media warned that, if unchecked, North Korea would “crumble like a damp wall.” Image by Bloomberg from … Continue reading
MEDIEVAL MEN GOT THE POINT—AND BUNIONS TOO
JUST AS MANY women today pay a painful price for wearing squeeze-toe stiletto heels, stylish medieval European men suffered from what BBC News, June 11, 2021, called the “Cambridge bunion … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 