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

ACTION! CUT?? PART 1

“FILM IS TRUTH 24 times a second,” French film director Jean-Luc Godard said, “and every cut is a lie.” Given this, almost all films are filled with falsity: They’re formed … Continue reading

January 2, 2020 · Leave a comment

WELCOME TO 2020!

LET’S BEGIN 2020 with laughs and hope they continue throughout the year. These particular tidbits come from Robert Benchley, a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table. During the 1920s, … Continue reading

January 1, 2020 · 5 Comments

2019 IN REVIEW

BACK WHEN I started my R&T “Tech Tidbits” column in 1992, I was worried that one day I would run out of things to write about. A similar worry surfaced … Continue reading

December 31, 2019 · 3 Comments

SHARING DATA GRAPHICALLY

WE’RE SEEING a Golden Age in the sharing of data through pictures. Here are tidbits of this, gleaned from here and there with my usual Internet sleuthing. Thank René. In … Continue reading

December 30, 2019 · 1 Comment

NANOSTORAGE: A KEY TO EFFICIENT ELECTRIFICATION

IT SOUNDS OXYMORONIC: using the incredibly tiny world of nanomaterials to optimize storage of anything. But look a little deeper: On the nano scale, the right materials have gobs of … Continue reading

December 29, 2019 · Leave a comment

WITH A SONG IN OUR HEARTS (ALL OF US)

PEOPLE SING. ALL people, with surprisingly fewer differences between cultures than within any one culture. Science, November 22, 2019, describes this in “The World in a Song,” by W. Tecumseh … Continue reading

December 28, 2019 · Leave a comment

TWO LIBRARIES LOVED BY BOB

BOB ECKSTEIN IS a talented illustrator, cartoonist, and writer frequently appearing in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Mad Magazine. In my book, high praise indeed. His recent … Continue reading

December 27, 2019 · 1 Comment

ON ENGLISH TEAS

PLEASANT MEALS IN English homes, mentioned recently at SimanaitisSays, remind me of that quintessential English practice of afternoon teas. Here are tidbits on the subject, gleaned from a little book … Continue reading

December 26, 2019 · Leave a comment

A CHRISTMAS CAROL ANNOTATIONS

WHAT WITH CHRISTMAS only four days away, I have just completed my annual reading of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in the annotated edition, of course. Culinary aspects of Dickens’ tale … Continue reading

December 21, 2019 · Leave a comment

THE MISSING MONA CAPER

ON AUGUST 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s famed Mona Lisa disappeared from The Louvre’s Salon Carré, not to return to the museum until 1914. Was the culprit Vincenzo Peruggia simply … Continue reading

December 20, 2019 · 2 Comments