IS HE AN INSTIGATOR OR AN INCITER? AN ETYMOLOGICAL DISCUSSION
RECENT VIOLENCE in the U.S. and around the world raises the question of whether Donald Trump’s rabble-rousing rally pronouncements have a deleterious effect. Is he an instigator, an inciter, or … Continue reading
ON NORWEGIANS, A MAZE, AND A PARTY FOR “MATH’S NOBEL”
NORWEGIAN MATHEMATICIAN Hans Munthe-Kaas helped to design a new botanical garden at his institution, the University of Bergen. As reported in Science magazine, October 12, 2018, “The result debuted on … Continue reading
TOSCA’S (AND HARE’S) ROME PART 2
IT IS PERHAPS coincidental that my copy of Hare’s Walks in Rome was published in 1905, only five years after the premiere of Puccini’s Tosca at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi on … Continue reading
TOSCA’S (AND HARE’S) ROME PART 1
MY COPY OF Augustus J.C. Hare’s Walks in Rome is its Seventeenth Edition, published in 1905. Even in 2018 it’s still a charming guidebook for visiting the eternal city. And … Continue reading
EXPANDING ON ENGLISH MYTHS PART 2
ST. GEORGE, HIS DRAGON, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men are familiar myths. Yesterday in Part 1, an article in the London Review of Books got us started with … Continue reading
EXPANDING ON ENGLISH MYTHS PART 1
MYTHS ARE ur-memories, tales of our striving for one thing or another. The London Review of Books, October 11, 2018, discussed two English myths that even us ’Mericans recognize: St. … Continue reading
HACK MY TESLA? EASY-PEASY FOR A WHILE THERE
ALL IT TOOK for Belgian researchers to unlock and drive a Tesla Model S was the car’s weak encryption code, $600 of minicomputer hardware, and two seconds of effort. Rest … Continue reading
HOLMES AND THE BARD PART 2
FOR SOMEONE whose knowledge of literature was first thought “nil” by Doctor John H. Watson, Sherlock Holmes quoted Shakespeare a goodly number of times. We started all this yesterday here … Continue reading
HOLMES AND THE BARD OF AVON PART 1
HOW WELL did the world’s greatest consulting detective know his Shakespeare? Based on Dr. John H. Watson’s initial assessments, not very much at all. On the other hand, Sherlockian scholars … Continue reading
NEPOTISM—ITS ETYMOLOGY
YOU NEVER KNOW where researching the word “nepotism” will lead. Its practice has a rich heritage in Holy Mother the Church. It turns out that the word is directly related … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 