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

VAMPIRIC NUMERICS

I’M NOT PARTICULARLY INTO BLOODY TALES; I love garlic; and I’m not adverse to mirrors nor crosses. But by training I am a mathematician and can thus understand arithmomania, a … Continue reading

February 8, 2024 · 2 Comments

EMAIL ELUCIDATION 

THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY, ALAS, is sometimes a sewer. However I must say that, garbage deleted with a click, there are also gems of email elucidation, serendipitous bits of knowledge I … Continue reading

February 7, 2024 · Leave a comment

CHINA BANS TIME TRAVEL

NOT THAT I NEED YET ANOTHER reason to dislike the Chinese Communists government and control, but Interesting Facts reported that “China Banned Time Travel in TV and Movies.” Interesting Facts recounts, … Continue reading

February 6, 2024 · 3 Comments

LET’S TALLY UP NOW

THIS ALL STARTED with my recently perusing Mayhew’s London and his tale “Of the Tally Packman.” Mayhew writes of 19th-century London, “The pedlar tallyman is a hawker who supplies his … Continue reading

February 5, 2024 · 2 Comments

OPERA TIDBITS FROM SIR DENIS (AND DENNIS)     PART 2

YESTERDAY A DIFFERENT APPROACH was offered for operatic review: Combine Daughter Suz and my Met HD Live Carmen experiences with the irreverent—and occasionally non-PC—analyses of Sir Denis Forman’s A Night … Continue reading

February 4, 2024 · Leave a comment

OPERA TIDBITS FROM SIR DENIS (AND DENNIS)   PART 1

SIR DENIS FORMAN’S A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is subtitled “An Irreverent Guide to the Plots, the Singers, the Composers, the Recordings.” Daughter Suz and I, indeed, have just seen … Continue reading

February 3, 2024 · Leave a comment

NASH-HEALEY AND THE BENEFIT OF FORCED INDUCTION 

ACTUALLY I ADMIRE NASH-HEALEYS of 1950-1952 Le Mans fame (finishing 4th, 6th, and 3rd overall, respectively) more than I do the marque’s later Pinin Farina iteration. To my eye, the … Continue reading

February 2, 2024 · 2 Comments

KUDOS ALL AROUND!!

HIGH PRAISE TO NASA AND ITS OVERACHIEVEMENT! On April 19, 2021, NASA’s helicopter Ingenuity made history in completing its first powered, controlled flight on Mars. As noted by NASA, “Designed … Continue reading

February 1, 2024 · Leave a comment

GOLD IN THAT THAR CREEK!

“THE FIRST U.S. GOLD RUSH was started by a 12-year-old boy,” reads the Interesting Facts website. What? Not James Marshall at Colonel John Augustus Sutter’s Mill? Well, no. And indeed, … Continue reading

January 31, 2024 · 4 Comments

ROENTGEN ARCHITECT’S TABLE 

THE ARTISTRY OF DAVID ROENTGEN was unknown to me until an ad in The New York Times, January 28, 2024. What a splendid combination of marquetry and mischievousness. How else … Continue reading

January 30, 2024 · 2 Comments