THOUGHTS FROM A PHILOSOPHER WHO HAS STUDIED EVIL
THESE DAYS, THE United States is into moral introspection concerning governance, divisiveness, immigration, Black Lives Matter, Covid-19, and many other issues. Isaac Chotiner’s article “How to Confront a Racist National … Continue reading
CALAIS, THE CHANNEL ISLANDS, HENRY VIII, AND THE NAZIS PART 2
YESTERDAY, HILARY MANTEL’S The Mirror & the Light inspired me to learn more about the Pale of Calais, an English outpost across the Channel during the time of Henry VIII. … Continue reading
CALAIS, THE CHANNEL ISLANDS, HENRY VIII, AND THE NAZIS PART 1
I’M REALLY ENJOYING The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel’s third novel in her Wolf Hall series about Thomas Cromwell. He was Henry VIII’s fixer, sort of like a Trump … Continue reading
SST CONCORDE REDUX
IT’S NO SURPRISE that a 9949-word article would teach me more about the SST Concorde. The historic supersonic transport had already appeared twice here at SimanaitisSays: “Concorde vs QE2,” May … Continue reading
ON BILINGUAL BRAINS
I ENJOYED READING Michael Hofmann’s “Not in Spanish,” in London Review of Books, May 21, 2020. This article is a review of The Bilingual Brain, by Albert Costa, Catalan cognitive … Continue reading
PLAYING CARD TIDBITS
THIS WEBSITE’S RECENT account on Trump doubling down got me to thinking about other playing card-related terms that have entered our language as metaphors or similes. Here’s a sampling, in … Continue reading
MG MAGNETTE OF THE 1950S
HERE’S A CAR looking like a rebadged police sedan on Grantchester (e.g., Season 5, Episode 2), and named after one piloted by Tazio Nuvolari. The MG Magnette of the 1950s … Continue reading
STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT’S NIGHTMARE NUMBER THREE
BY WAY OF background, my meager appreciation of poetry seems to have come through vastly different means: “Whan that Aprille, with his shoures soote/The droghte of March hath perced to … Continue reading
THANKS, MARIE, FOR THE TINS
BACK WHEN I made my unorthodox attempt at the Aussie HSP (Halal Snack Pack), I cooked it in a recycled Marie Callender’s pie tin. Well, wouldn’t you know, Rukmini Iyer … Continue reading
THE OPERA AIN’T OVER TILL … WAIT! IT IS OVER!
IMAGINE: TEN OPERAS performed in the time of a single Wagner Götterdämmerung! Seth Colter Walls offered an example of this in “A Grand History of Small Operas,” The New York … Continue reading
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