ON IMMANUEL KANT ET AL
I WAS PERUSING my secondhand copy of The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, this time around, getting around to reading its editor Clifton Fadiman’s introductory notes (for the first time, … Continue reading
MY EGYPTOLOGY STARTED WITH CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE PART 2
YESTERDAY, I BEGAN sharing tidbits from two entertaining book reviews, both discussing Toby Wilkinson’s A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology. Today’s Part 2 continues digging in … Continue reading
MY EGYPTOLOGY STARTED WITH CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE PART 1
I CAN RECALL encountering Cleopatra’s Needle on London’s Victoria Embankment, just down Carting Lane from the Savoy Hotel. It was during one of my “early retirement” sojourns; I’d stay a … Continue reading
THE DRAMA AIN’T OVER TILL THE CAL PILOT GETS HIS DUE PART 2
YESTERDAY’S TOPIC WAS pioneer aviator John J. Montgomery’s demonstration of controlled flight of a heavier-than-air craft. The year was 1883, nine years before the Wright Brothers opened their bicycle shop, … Continue reading
THE DRAMA AIN’T OVER TILL THE CAL PILOT GETS HIS DUE PART 1
AWHILE BACK I viewed Gallant Journey, 1946, on “Turner Classic Movies.” It was a pleasant enough flick, starring Glenn Ford as California aviation pioneer John J. Montgomery. Little did I … Continue reading
ON TECHNICAL RIVALRIES
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN the sciences and engineering is a recent topic at the Members Community of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A fair amount of the discussion … Continue reading
ANOTHER ASSAULT ON THE VOA
THE PETTINESS OF Trump and his administration knows no bounds. Stalling to admit election defeat, Trump first dragged his feet and is still complicating the transition to the Biden administration … Continue reading
CATCHING COVID-19 AGAIN?
SUPPOSE YOU’VE CAUGHT Covid-19 and recovered. Are you immune from catching it again? Trump claims he’s now immune. Don’t try this at home, kids; he’s the President (as he incessantly … Continue reading
SPRECHEN SIE/PARLEZ-VOUS/HABLA USTED ROTWELSCH?
I HADN’T HEARD of Rotwelsch until I read Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim’s “The Secret Code That Threatened Nazi Fantasies of Racial Purity,” her review in The New York Times, October 13, … Continue reading
A NEW TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LOW PART 2
THIS TIME AROUND, a new Trump low is achieved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and its “improved” version of the civics test administered to aspiring U.S. citizens. Today … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 