ARE YOU A HENRY? OR JUST A WANNABE?
I RECENTLY heard the demographic descriptor Henry, as in High Earner Not Rich Yet, and this got me thinking of more familiar terms, which in turn led me to some … Continue reading
WHERE’S TH@T @T?
ONCE A MERE substitute for “at the rate of,” as in “3 apples @ 25¢ each,” the symbol @ has thrived to travel the world on the Internet. It punctuates … Continue reading
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
