EXPLORING RATIONALITY, PART 1
THE WORD “RATIONAL” is wondrous. One meaning is “having reason or understanding, balanced.” Another, in mathematics, describes the ratio of two numbers, a fraction. In my continuing fractional fun, here … Continue reading
WATSON’S WAR WOUND
THERE’S A LOT OF scholarship, some of it contradictory, regarding the war wound of Dr. John H. Watson, chronicler of the world’s greatest consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. Exactly where was … Continue reading
THE (MIS?)RULE OF THUMB
I RECENTLY posted a Facebook comment mentioning “rule of thumb” as contrasted with more scientific methods of measurement. Think crowd size, for instance. Before doing so, I felt compelled to … Continue reading
MASSIMINO AND THE HUBBLE
THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE “stands right up there with the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China as one of the great engineering triumphs in human history.” This assessment comes … Continue reading
FRACTIONS CAN BE MEATY—SO SLEEP ON IT
MATH FUN CAN appear in the oddest places: in quick-food marketing or in mattress sales, to name two. McDonald’s was ahead of its time in 1972 with supersizing a hamburger … Continue reading
I’M JUST A GHEE WITH THE LINGO
WIFE DOTTIE believes I am overdoing the old-time radio bit. Be that as it may, for her sake alone it is appropriate that I consult a period document, my Dictionary … Continue reading
A BUGATTI ELECTRIC VEHICLE!
THE 1931 TYPE 56 wasn’t Bugatti’s first electric car, but it’s likely his rarest. Following the popularity of his Baby Bugatti half-scale electric car for kids, le Patron had a … Continue reading
INNES’S GOLD COUNTRY
GRAND PRIX driver Innes Ireland could be something of a historian. His R&T Formula One reports were always entertaining and accurate. And when he wrote off the beaten track, his … Continue reading
YOU SAY “TOMATILLO”…
AND I SAY “Physalis philadelphica.” Yet how this relative of the tomato got associated with the city of brotherly love is a mystery to me. There’s news related to it, … Continue reading
ON SATIRE, SELF-INFLICTED AND OTHERWISE
SATIRE STRETCHES from Aristophanes’ The Wasps to Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz to Vaughn Meader’s parodies of JFK to today’s Saturday Night Live and recent goings-on with the U.S. … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 