Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

SPACE GRUB EXTRAORDINAIRE

“THIS BOEUF BOURGUIGNON is over the moon!” Well, not quite yet, but it is among the offerings to astronauts now joined up at the International Space Station. Kenneth Chang writes … Continue reading

April 26, 2021 · Leave a comment

CHRONICLE OF AVIATION—1921

THE ROARING TWENTIES followed the roar of warfare, the latter including unprecedented combat in the air. Bombers were converted to passenger service. Surplus fighter planes gave barnstormers a peacetime career. … Continue reading

April 25, 2021 · Leave a comment

NEW THOUGHTS ON A.I.   PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE SHARPENED our discussion of artificial intelligence by separating A.I. from some guy named Al. We also gleaned tidbits from James Fallows’ article in The New York Times Book … Continue reading

April 24, 2021 · 1 Comment

NEW THOUGHTS ON A.I.   PART 1

MY MOST RECENT thought on artificial intelligence is to add punctuation, A.I. Hitherto, depending upon type font, discussions of this subject here at SimanaitisSays resembled a bio of a guy … Continue reading

April 23, 2021 · Leave a comment

LONDON BRIDGE—FALLING TO LAKE HAVASU CITY

GREAT CITIES ARE established on rivers: London’s Thames, Paris’s Seine, Vienna’s Danube, St. Petersburg’s Neva, Prague’s Vltava; the list goes on. Rivers encourage commerce and development. But they also offer … Continue reading

April 22, 2021 · 3 Comments

A FABULOUS GEM, ETYMOLOGY—PLUS A LAST-MINUTE PUZZLE!

I’VE NEVER VISITED M.S. Rau Fine Art Antiques Jewels, on Royal Street in New Orleans. But it runs some of the spiffiest ads. This recent one, “Beyond Blue: Tanzanite Ring,” … Continue reading

April 21, 2021 · Leave a comment

AUSTIN-HEALEY 100

JUST AS THE 1949 Jaguar XK-120 rightfully boasted of its 120-mph capability, the Austin-Healey 100 made good on its nomenclature. As R&T wrote, “Even when the ‘100’ was first announced, … Continue reading

April 20, 2021 · Leave a comment

YEGGMAN RESEARCH

THE TERM “YEGGMAN” arose in a recent cop show on SiriusXM “Radio Classics.” I knew it meant “safe cracker,” but not much else. This called for research; here are tidbits … Continue reading

April 19, 2021 · Leave a comment

A SET-THEORETIC BALLET IN TWO ACTS—SELF-TAUGHT

I KNOW LITTLE about composing a ballet. On the other hand, I didn’t know much about magazine production when Larry Givens took me on as Associate Engineering Editor for SAE’s … Continue reading

April 18, 2021 · Leave a comment

CHINA’S DIGITAL ECONOMY

LONG LING, A GOVERNMENT official in Beijing, contributed “Diary: At the Temple,” in the London Review of Books, January 21, 2021. A vignette in her article encouraged me to learn … Continue reading

April 17, 2021 · Leave a comment