Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

UTOPIA REVISITED

“UTOPIA IN TEXAS” by Glen Newey in the London Review of Books, January 19, 2017, provides counterpoint to my recent review of four dystopian novels here at SimanaitisSays. Not that … Continue reading

February 5, 2017 · 3 Comments

THOSE WITHOUT GUMTION NEED NOT APPLY

THERE’S A CONFLUENCE of art and science in the works of 19th-century English painter J.M.W. Turner. London Review of Books, October 20, 2016, contained an article titled “The Chase: Inigo … Continue reading

February 4, 2017 · 2 Comments

THE ETYMOLOGIST WILL SEE YOU NOW…

RECENT BROUHAHAS of executive orders bring to mind the terms “slapdash,” “going off half-cocked” and their cousins “haphazard” and “slipshod. In the interest of keeping myself etymologically hep, I arranged … Continue reading

February 3, 2017 · Leave a comment

A FINE-LOOKING STRUT, THAT

TWO COMMITTEES of the British Parliament have recently challenged a London firm’s dress code that had required women to wear heels from two to four inches high. Women at PwC, … Continue reading

February 2, 2017 · 1 Comment

A QUARTET OF ALTERNATIVE-FACT BOOKS

AMAZON RECENTLY noted a spike in sales of Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s 1949 novel of a dystopian (as opposed to utopian) future. This brings to mind three other works about … Continue reading

February 1, 2017 · 2 Comments

THE PERIL TO EARTHBOUND ASTRONOMY

PITY POOR Earthbound astronomers. Their telescopes have to gaze through more than haze. Other perils include L.E.D. street lighting, the Internet and then there is the prospect of autonomous cars. … Continue reading

January 31, 2017 · Leave a comment

CROWD-COUNT CROWING

IN THESE DAYS OF alternative facts, I realize that anything scientific may be a hard sell to some. However, recent brouhahas over counting people make this an irresistible topic of … Continue reading

January 30, 2017 · 2 Comments

MAKING AMERICA GREAT—AND TASTY TOO!

FOR THE FIRST time in its 15th biennial existence, the Bocuse d’Or, the Olympics of international chefdom, has been won by an American team. Head Chef Mathew Peters and his … Continue reading

January 29, 2017 · 1 Comment

A MOCKING APOLOGY

RECENTLY I mentioned the Wizard of Oz in an item On Satire, Self-Inflicted and Otherwise. In retrospect, after more research, I owe an apology to the Wizard. True, the Wizard … Continue reading

January 28, 2017 · 4 Comments

EXPLORING RATIONALITY, PART 2

IN MY CONTINUING exploration of rationality, I offer the completed Decimal Exploration table of rational numbers 1/2 through 1/17 expressed in decimal form. Sorry about 1/17. I cannot speak for … Continue reading

January 27, 2017 · 3 Comments