ON POST-PANDEMIC NORMALCY PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE SHARED insights about post-pandemic normalcy from a professor of psychological science, public health, and medicine. Today in Part 2, young scientists focus their thoughts on the year 2040. … Continue reading
ON POST-PANDEMIC NORMALCY PART 1
I MAKE TWO assumptions here: first, that the presence of Covid-19 will eventually diminish to the point of other viruses. These include, in no particular order, smallpox, chickenpox, measles, mumps, … Continue reading
A LOVE POTION GONE AWRY PART 2
YESTERDAY, A WAGNER opera taught us that chemical enhancement of boy meets girl can lead to trouble. Today in Part 2, Tristan and Isolde aren’t the only ones encountering life’s … Continue reading
A LOVE POTION GONE AWRY PART 1
I ENJOYED WATCHING Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, part of the Metropolitan Opera’s free streaming. This opera generates ecstatic appreciation from some and bored derision from others. I place myself in … Continue reading
AUTO NEWS—THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE DOPEY
FOR AWHILE THERE, the world’s pandemic put something of a hold on automotive news. Now that we’re reopening and, not surprisingly, occasionally reclosing, there seems to be a lot of … Continue reading
A POSTCARD STASH
IT IS A commentary on our times that I send few postcards these days. For one, I’m not traveling. Plus, texting and e-mail are so immediately satisfying. And I don’t … Continue reading
SLED DOGS HAVE MUSHED SINCE THE HOLOCENE
GENOME STUDIES SHOW that modern sled dogs trace back to a 9500-year-old Siberian dog related to a 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf. In particular, they’re not related to any modern American wolves. … Continue reading
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
Simanaitis Says 