THE BEST OF LINES
“I WISH I HAD said that,” Oscar Wilde remarked. “You will, Oscar, you will,” responded James McNeill Whistler. I’ve often shared Oscar Wilde’s wish, though the fear of stumbling into … Continue reading
CARROLL SHELBY’S UR-COBRA
OL’ SHEL’ recognized a good chassis in the British A.C. Ace sports car. He also sensed how much improved it would be with the burble of a proper ‘Merican V-8. … Continue reading
THE PRE-COBRA
THE HERITAGE OF Carroll Shelby’s fire-breathing 427 Cobra starts with a lithe British sports car, the A.C. Ace, and then moves to Ol’ Shel’s Fairlane V-8 conversion, the AC-Ford Cobra. … Continue reading
INCOME INEQUALITY—A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
“FOR YE HAVE the poor always with you…” “The vast gap between the rich and the poor has never been greater than it is today.” “The rich get richer; the … Continue reading
PRESIDENTIAL HERITAGES—AND CROWDS
INFLATED ESTIMATES of crowd sizes are continuing talking points these days. In countering such alternative facts, I offer here several non-crowd scenes that have presidential associations ranging from James Madison … Continue reading
BESSIE RAICHE, FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN TO FLY—AND RATHER MORE
DID BESSIE Raiche’s solo flight on September 16, 1910, make her the world’s first female pilot? Uh, no. Frenchwoman Raymonde de Laroche had already piloted a Voisin aeroplane on October … Continue reading
ROMANCE OF THE SABRE-TOOTH CAT
LA BREA Tar Pits of 12,000 years ago are linked to a 1942 Romance of the Ranchos radio program and also to The New York Times published only yesterday. The … Continue reading
MAKE LITHUANIA GREAT (YET AGAIN)
WALL STREET’S love affair with Tesla has baffled me, though a news item from Vilnius, Lithuania, may help my reasoning. Based on the number of Tesla shares and their stock … Continue reading
“THAT GOES THERE?” SAID THE GUARD EMPHATICALLY
FRANK BRUNI is a writer I enjoy. And, in this opening sentence, I’ve purposely left out any “who,” “that” or whatever after the word “writer.” I’m confident this omission confuses … Continue reading
THIS VIDEO GAME IS ON ME
I ENJOY the time-gobbling hobby of building virtual GMax craft for use in Microsoft Flight Simulator. So it is with interest that I read the article “Video Games: The Bad, … Continue reading
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