AIDA AND THE CANAL? THE COBBLESTONES OF SUEZ ONCE TROD BY OTHELLO?
EGYPT HAS rich operatic history, but not without misunderstanding, myth and surmise. It has been said that Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida was commissioned to celebrate the grand opening of Cairo’s Khedivial … Continue reading
CHINA’S EV MARKET
WHAT WITH gasoline prices at historic lows, BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) and HEVs (Hybrid EVs) have been glued to U.S. showroom floors. Not so in China, though. A series of … Continue reading
CROSSWORDS SANS FOREIGN WORDS
I AM a crossword puzzle fan. In moderation, mind; I don’t do them every day, nor in ink. But I enjoy working through the Sunday crosswords (and alternating acrostics) in … Continue reading
THE BUDDHA’S TOOTH—WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?
IT MAY SEEM unlikely that I’m learning world geography, history and religion from old Sam Spade radio mysteries, but, in fact, this is how I first heard of Sri Dalada … Continue reading
BABYLONIAN CALCULUS?
IT’S RARE THAT calculus makes the cover of Science, the weekly magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Nor is ancient Babylon an expected Science cover subject. … Continue reading
ON NEW YORK CITY CLUBBING
WITH A FEW exceptions, my view on clubs agrees with Groucho Marx’s: He wired the Friar’s Club of Beverly Hills, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will … Continue reading
IS IT THE GOOD TURTLE SOUP OR MERELY THE SLOTH?
A WONDERFUL HOAX was played on members of New York City’s exclusive Explorer’s Club back in 1951. To paraphrase Cole Porter’s “At Long Last Love,” a legendary meal at the … Continue reading
BOB & RAY—LAUGH TRACKS ARE REDUNDANT
BOB ELLIOT, the smaller soft-spoken one of the Bob and Ray comedy pair, died recently, age 92. His partner, Ray Goulding, had died in 1990 at age 68. Together, they … Continue reading
QUICK, THE MOSQUITO SPRAY! NO, THE UNDERARM DEODORANT!
WHAT WITH the horrible Zika virus being mosquito-borne, an item in AAAS Science, January 4, 2016, caught my attention. Elizabeth Pennisi’s article “Orchids Give Off Human ‘Body Odor’ to Attract … Continue reading
HAVE I BEEN UNCERTAIN OF ENTANGLEMENTS?
THIS ITEM began with my trying to learn about quantum entanglement. This physics term describes the way particles can interact from afar, something that Albert Einstein referred to as “spooky … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 