RESTORATION COMEDY—A PENDULUM SWING OF CROMWELL’S PROTECTORATE
HISTORY HAS a way of oscillating between extremes. One example is the English Restoration as a response to the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell following the 1649 regicide of Britain’s King … Continue reading
SCHADENFREUDE—ETYMOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL VIEWS
“DEAR DR. WORDSMITH, current political goings-on have me experiencing Schadenfreude. Is this okay?” It depends, of course, on how concerned you are about the state of these United States. If, … Continue reading
OLIVER CROMWELL—PURITAN, LORD PROTECTOR, AND A REAL PIECE OF WORK PART 2
YESTERDAY IN Part 1, we saw Oliver Cromwell involved with regicide, the British Rump Parliament, killing women and children in Ireland, and other Puritan sanctimony. Today’s Part 2 has a … Continue reading
OLIVER CROMWELL—PURITAN, LORD PROTECTOR, AND A REAL PIECE OF WORK PART 1
IT’S NOT OFTEN that I take a dislike to an historical figure. Hitler, yes. Mussolini, yes. But then I was born during the war years. However, having read about Oliver … Continue reading
ELLIS ISLAND TIDBITS
“HOW FAR WOULD you travel to find a better life? What if the journey took weeks under difficult conditions? If you answered, ‘Whatever it takes,’ you echo the feelings of … Continue reading
ON ACTORS, YOU’LL EXCUSE THE TERM
PITY THE POOR Thespians. Those of the acting profession have given us entertainment, comfort, even enlightenment. Yet, like Rodney Dangerfield used to say, they don’t get no respect. Here are … Continue reading
FOUR ADJECTIVES IN SEARCH OF A TYPOGRAPHER
AS DESCRIBED IN yesterday’s adjectival tidbit, ironic, sardonic, sarcastic, and satirical commentaries are frequently encountered these days. Thus, shouldn’t we have typography to identify their presence? Sort of like “?” … Continue reading
IRONIC, SARDONIC, SARCASTIC, SATIRIC—ADJECTIVES FOR OUR TIMES
WE LIVE IN times that are ripe for ironic, sardonic, sarcastic, and satiric commentary. It’s fun to savor such wit, all the better when we observe the nuances among these … Continue reading
ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE OF SAUDI OIL
TRUMP’S RECENT exclamation-point-endowed pandering to Saudi Arabia suggests the need for an update on countries supplying oil to the U.S. To avoid yet further trumpery (Merriam-Webster: “crapola, hogwash, rubbish”), I … Continue reading
EVERYBODY’S AVIATION GUIDE—90 YEARS AGO PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, Major Victor W. Pagé, Air Corps Reserve, U.S.A., started bringing us up to date on aeronautics in 1928. Today in Part 2, he continues with details … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 