THE FIRST PERSON TO FLY IN THE U.S.
JUST AS GEORGE Washington crossed the Delaware River in December 1776, within two decades Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard entered aviation history as the first person to fly in the U.S., also … Continue reading
THE 1 1/2-LITRE SQUIRE
I DIDN’T realize it at the time, but back in junior-high study hall I was sketching the Squire. And, indeed, in England back in 1926, 16-year-old Adrian Morgan Squire was … Continue reading
WHAT’S A TELEX, GRANDPA?
QUITE APART from many young people seemingly not knowing how to do long division in any sensible way, they’ve also been known to ask things like “How does a dial … Continue reading
BOUILLABAISSE AND THE DEFIANCE OF CODIFICATION PART 2
SEVERAL OF MY other cookbooks offer bouillabaisse recipes of one sort or another, but its most entertaining description comes from Alan Davidson’s Mediterranean Seafood. This is the one that led … Continue reading
BOUILLABAISSE AND DEFIANCE OF CODIFICATION PART 1
ONE THING leads to another. And, seemingly, to two-part items here recently at SimanaitisSays. There I was, reading a London Review of Books article by Inigo Thomas on Maison Empereur, … Continue reading
THE NAPOLEON DUPORT CAPER PART 2
WHEN LAST we encountered the cello of Jean-Louis Duport, indeed only yesterday, it had been manhandled by the overly enthusiastic as well as musically inept Napoleon Bonaparte. Today, the caper … Continue reading
THE NAPOLEON DUPORT CAPER PART 1
IT WAS 1812, destined to be the year about which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky would later compose an Overture. You know the one, with cannons and bells, celebrating Russia’s defense against … Continue reading
SOME THOUGHTS ON URBANIZATION
I’VE JUST READ Ben Rogers’ “The Great Sorting,” a London Review of Books review of Richard Florida’s The New Urban Crisis: Gentrification, Housing Bubbles, Growing Inequalities and What We Can … Continue reading
HOLMES AND THE PONTIFF PART 2
WHAT WITH the Vatican’s trove of second-century cameos not exactly qualifying as religious art, Pope Leo XIII was in a fine pickle. Fortunately, Sherlock Holmes had a reputation that extended … Continue reading
HOLMES AND THE PONTIFF PART 1
“I WAS EXCEEDINGLY preoccupied by that little affair of the Vatican cameos,” Sherlock Holmes said, “and in my anxiety to oblige the Pope I lost touch with several interesting English … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 