QUAINT LITTLE PUBS
AND WHEN I SAY “LITTLE”…. IN PARTICULAR, KAREN BONES IS A SCOTTISH ARTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE who “started making miniature buildings as a natural progression.” Karen Bones and her artful miniatures. This … Continue reading
THE SUBLIME, THE HEARTWARMING, AND (LAMENTABLY) THE RIDICULOUS PART 2
YESTERDAY WE CELEBRATED FRANCE MINTING TWO NEW COINS heralding Notre-Dame’s reopening. There was also a Notre-Dame wedding of one of its artisans and his bride. Alas, today in Part 2, … Continue reading
THE SUBLIME, THE HEARTWARMING, (AND THE LAMENTABLY RIDICULOUS) PART 1
THE MONNAIE DE PARIS, FRANCE’S NATIONAL MINT, IS ISSUING 2-Euro and 10-Euro coins celebrating the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris after construction following the cathedral’s horrific fire on April 15, … Continue reading
SEEKING A LIFE’S PHILOSOPHY
I’VE NEVER BEEN MUCH INTO PHILOSOPHY: I admire the wit of St. Augustine’s comment: “Oh, Master, make me chaste and celibate—but not yet.” And as for Bishop Berkeley’s Esse est percipi … Continue reading
WHAT A LITTLE SWEETHEART! PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, WE BEGAN DESCRIBING the Fiat 508S Balilla Corsa, its Balilla moniker honoring an 18th-century Italian patriot. Today, Classic & Sports Car’s Richard Heseltine focuses on the … Continue reading
WHAT A LITTLE SWEETHEART! PART 1
“CHE PICCOLA DOLCEZZA!,” GOOGLE TRANSLATE offered, eventually. And Richard Heseltine’s writeup of the “Fiat 508S Balilla Corsa,” Classic & Sports Car, October 16, 2025, certainly fits this description. What’s more, … Continue reading
LRB LETTERS FUN PART 2
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS READERS are literate (and good-humoured) people, as suggested yesterday in Part 1. Today we continue with tidbits gleaned from their letters to LRB editors. A Pacific … Continue reading
LRB LETTERS FUN PART 1
AS SHOWN IN SIMANAITISSAYS FROM TIME TO TIME, the London Review of Books is a most literate —and entertaining—publication, even to its “Letters” column. See, for example, “LRB Letters—A Reader’s … Continue reading
ON POLITICAL CHANGE
AS PART OF THE ATLANTIC’S “THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION,” David Brooks writes, “America Needs a Mass Movement—Now,” October 14, 2025. His article provides a culminating lesson in civics, the initial one … Continue reading
MORE POWER TO AUSTRIA! (ARTISTICALLY)
TRADITIONAL ELECTRIC POWER LINES are functional, but not pleasing to everyone’s aesthetics. And the Austrian Power Grid has proposed a solution: reimagining electricity pylons as symbols of harmony between technology … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 