LANGUAGE + TOOLS = HUMAN?
SEVERAL RECENT ARTICLES got me thinking about human use of language and tools. In particular, AAAS Science, October 9, 2019, had a special section devoted to “Language and the Brain.” … Continue reading
Legends of Speed AT PHXART
THE PHOENIX ART MUSEUM is highly regarded by motor sports enthusiasts. There’s the Copperstate 1000 vintage car rally, run annually since 1991. Wife Dottie and I took part in this … Continue reading
BRUNI ON TRUMP’S ENGLISH
FRANK BRUNI composes the best lines in today’s journalism. In The New York Times, October 26, 2019, he titles his analysis “ ‘Human Scum,’ ‘Lynching,’ and Trump’s Tortured English.” Bruni’s … Continue reading
SLEEPY HOLLOW TIDBITS
THIS HALLOWEEN, LET’S celebrate a guy named Washington and a classic American tale. Manhattan-born Washington Irving was named after another fellow named Washington even before the latter became our first … Continue reading
ON CHANDLER’S GREATNESS PART 2
RAYMOND CHANDLER’S ENTICING and elegant prose encourages this two-part collection gleaned from The Annotated Big Sleep. Here in Part 2 are burbank tops, license holders, and California’s sturdy front doors. … Continue reading
ON CHANDLER’S GREATNESS PART 1
I’VE BEEN savoring the annotated version of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. Annotations, bibliography, and all, the book is 474 pages long, and I feel no urgency to finish it. … Continue reading
THE LRB’S CHINA PART 2
THIS CONTINUES yesterday’s tidbits gleaned from John Lanchester’s “Document Number Nine” in London Review of Books, October 10, 2019. Here in Part 2, we’ll see how, despite Western expectations, China … Continue reading
THE LRB’S CHINA PART 1
GAD! THE ARTICLE “Document Number Nine” by John Lanchester in London Review of Books, October 10, 2019, is so chock-full of information about China that I’m tempted to quote all … Continue reading
A TRIAD OF SOUTHERN COOKBOOKS
SOUTHERN COOKING is a plentitude of cuisines, and cookbooks on the subject are also in a wide variety. Here are tidbits on three of my favorites. One is a traditional … Continue reading
THE QUBIT CAPER
THE NEWS ON October 23, 2019, was fast and furious, its updates and scientific self-corrections occurring within hours. Here are tidbits on quantum supremacy, together with SimanaitisSays comments on this … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 