LAUGHING OUT LOUD
WHAT WITH one thing and another there days, I still laugh out loud now and then. This is more than just a chortle with schadenfreude, albeit internally, over some foible … Continue reading
DISCORD WITH THE DEMISE OF DRIVING
THE ENTIRE Sunday magazine of The New York Times, November 12, 2017, is devoted to “Life After Driving.” Perhaps this is no big deal for those living in the Big … Continue reading
DETSKOYE SELO (PARKS AND PALACES) LENINGRAD, 1934
IT MAY seem odd that in 1934 the Leningrad Soviet would have a Park and Palace Department. Indeed, it did and, what’s more, it published a tidy little guidebook in … Continue reading
PHIL JORDAN—PETROGRAD, 1917 PART 2
PHIL JORDAN was a working man caught up in one of the cataclysmic events of the 20th century: the Russian Revolution. He also wrote letters home. Yesterday, I provided introduction … Continue reading
PHIL JORDAN—PETROGRAD, 1917 PART 1
PHIL JORDAN was an American residing in Russia during cataclysmic times. His job at the American embassy in Petrograd brought him into direct contact with the Russian people and their … Continue reading
IS IT SAFE OR UNSAFE? WHO SAYS?
IT HAS been said that Britain and the United States are two nations separated by a common language. I’ve recently learned another significant difference, this one in the principles of … Continue reading
TRADE IMBALANCES: THE U.S., CHINA, THE EU, THE WORLD
“WHO CAN blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit.” So proclaimed the U.S. president … Continue reading
CELEBRATING #, THE OCTOTHORPE
TO THOSE with pre-Internet origins (yes, many of us are still living…), the symbol # might stands for number, as in a #2 pencil, or perhaps pounds, as in a … Continue reading
CATALAN CUISINE
CATALONIA HAS been much in the news these days, what with this northeast region of Spain wishing to extend its autonomous community status into outright independence from Madrid. As I … Continue reading
ON MEDIUMS (OR, IF YOU WISH, MEDIA)
BACK BEFORE ignorance ruled in government and elsewhere, the word “media” was the plural of “medium,” the latter in the sense of a means of effecting or conveying something. TV … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 