WITCH HUNT? I’LL SHOW YOU A REAL WITCH HUNT
THE TERM “witch hunt” is appearing with increasing regularity in the news, and this has encouraged me to investigate the real thing, not just in relation to cornered politicos such … Continue reading
DEDICATED, SIGNED, AND (MAYBE WARMLY) INSCRIBED
A RENEWAL notice from London Review of Books told a good story: “George Bernard Shaw once saw a copy of one of his books in a secondhand bookshop. When he … Continue reading
AN AEROPLANE FOR EVERYMAN—THE AUSTIN WHIPPET, PART 2
MAYBE A British Great War pilot was contemplating conversion of the back garden potting shed into an aeroplane hangar for his Austin Whippet. Or maybe not. It was 1919 and … Continue reading
AN AEROPLANE FOR EVERYMAN—THE AUSTIN WHIPPET, PART 1
THE AUSTIN Whippet aeroplane was going to satisfy peacetime flying urges of Britain’s Great War pilots, just as the Austin Seven motor car would fulfill road-going aspirations of the post-war … Continue reading
A POND AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, PART 2
HENRY DAVID Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience discourse first appeared as an essay “Resistance to Civil Government; a Lecture delivered in 1847” in Aesthetic Papers, a New England periodical. Thoreau had recently … Continue reading
A POND AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, PART 1
HENRY DAVID Thoreau wrote, “I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.” His writings on this influenced the thoughts and actions of Mahatma Gandhi, … Continue reading
THE SAD TALE OF BRETT AND HOLMES
BRITISH ACTOR Jeremy Brett portrayed Sherlock Holmes for Granada TV’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes between 1984 and 1994. Basil Rathbone owned this role of the world’s first consulting detective … Continue reading
ICELAND AND ALUMINUM
ICELAND IS a greater producer of aluminum than the United States. This and other tidbits are gleaned from The New York Times article, “American Companies Still Make Aluminum. In Iceland,” … Continue reading
CELEBRATING MATHEMATICIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN CÉDRIC VILLANI
EARLIER THIS year, the French had strikingly different candidates in their national elections and voters exhibited rare wisdom. The brand-new centrist Emmanuel Macron and his Le République en Marche! party … Continue reading
LET’S DIFFERENTIATE “BULLY PULPIT” FROM A WRETCHED BULLY
I AM a lover of the English language, with a deep appreciation of Theodore Roosevelt. It was he who characterized the presidency as a “bully pulpit.” But, I note emphatically, … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 