QUOTE MARKS REDUX
THE QUOTATION MARK is the anonymous hero of written clarity. As described in Keith Houston’s entertaining Shady Characters, it is “quietly competent, thank you very much, and would like to … Continue reading
1954 MORRIS MINOR—A TRIM TIDY SEDAN
THE MID FIFTIES were an exuberant time in American automotive design. Bigger was better. Fins were appearing, albeit not yet as expansively as in the late Fifties. In the MOBILGAS … Continue reading
LE MANS 2020—PANDEMICALLY MODIFIED
TRADITIONALLY HELD MID-JUNE, the 24-hour race at Le Mans is being held this year on September 19-20. Here are tidbits on implications of this pandemically modified event gathered from a … Continue reading
KING CNUT’S BAD RAP
APART FROM HIS name offered as Canute, the medieval King Cnut got another bad rap from history. You know the story: The king planted his throne at the seashore and, … Continue reading
TIDBITS GLEANED FROM THE CLASSIC AUCTION MARKET
MY ENTHUSIASM FOR classic cars is enhanced each month with the arrival of Keith Martin’s Sports Car Market, aptly subtitled “The Insider’s Guide to Collecting, Investing, Values, and Trends.” The … Continue reading
BBC PROMS 2020
THROUGH BBC WORLD SERVICE, I am virtually taking part in a British tradition, The Proms concerts. And, most appropriately, Diverted Traffic 115, London Review of Books, September 6, 2020, reprinted … Continue reading
FURTHER THOUGHTS ON SCIENCE
SCIENTISTS AND OTHER commentators of science are often very articulate—and entertaining. I’ve been collecting such tidbits on this from one place and another for a while. As a followup to … Continue reading
MOBILGAS ECONOMY RUN—1954
A MOBILGAS AD back in 1954 read, “In the greatest road test of performance and mileage characteristics of American stock cars, 20 automobiles vied for Sweepstakes and price class honors … Continue reading
POMPEII—95 OR 1941 YEARS ON
THIS DUAL DATING, almost a century or nearly two millennia, has logic: Pompeii was destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and my primary source for this … Continue reading
HOLMES CHRONICLER “JAMES” H. WATSON? PART 2
JUST WHO WAS Mrs. Watson referring to when she used the name “James” instead of “John”? See HOLMES CHRONICLER “JAMES” H. WATSON? PART 1. Today in Part 2, we’ll examine evidence … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 