CURTA CURTAIN CALL
THE CURTA CALCULATOR looks like a pepper grinder with numerals peering out. There’s a crank on the top that whirs with reassuring precision. And anyone serious about Time-Speed-Distance rallying in … Continue reading
HOLMES AND A TRAIN BLUFF
SHERLOCK HOLMES may have bluffed his chronicler Dr. John H. Watson during a train trip in their “Silver Blaze” adventure. I’m particularly fond of this tale and its implications because … Continue reading
SO, HOW FAR IS THAT STATION ANYWAY?
STUDENTS USED TO tell me they liked having the answer in the back of the textbook. Here, in a sense, it’s in the back of the website. Yesterday’s Peg Lynch … Continue reading
PEG LYNCH, THE DRUMMER, ALGEBRA AND THE HUMOR OF MARRIED LIFE
PEG LYNCH, PLAYING THE wife in radio’s The Couple Next Door, was the spiritual godmother of Tina Fey. Lynch’s warm and gentle comedic writing and acting are recurring pleasures to … Continue reading
A FAMILY AFFAIR IN KIWI AVIATION
FOR THE WALSH siblings of Auckland, New Zealand, early aviation was very much a family affair. Unlike fellow Kiwi Richard Pearse, they didn’t have to devise everything (including spark plugs!) … Continue reading
PLAYING A JAPANESE DICTIONARY GAME
A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE, it’s said, can be a dangerous thing. My knowledge of the Japanese language certainly qualifies as meager, though the game I’ve been playing isn’t dangerous at all. … Continue reading
BEV LOVE OR BEV MEH?
WITH GASOLINE AS cheap as it is, battery electric vehicles in the U.S. aren’t exactly selling like hotcakes–or full-size pickup trucks either. Yet, automakers are covering their electric bets in … Continue reading
OED’S OUTRAGEOUS MOOBS
THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, the OED, is an authority of English language usage and its history. From time to time, it reflects the expansion of the language, as described in … Continue reading
NANOCAR RACING
HERE’S RACING that makes Formula 1 look low-tech. Nanocar racing is right up there, er… down there with the 1966 sci-fi flick Fantastic Voyage. In Fantastic Voyage, a submarine with … Continue reading
TRUTH AND PROOF: AN EXAMPLE FROM EASY NUMBER THEORY
THIS PARTICULAR election campaign–thank goodness it’s almost over!– has been littered with innuendo, accusation and downright prevarication. As a counterpoint, I offer an example of truth, verified by genuine, unadulterated … Continue reading
