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

AN INSIGNIFICANT CHANGE?   PART 1

IT MAY SEEM PETTY TO CAVIL ABOUT A SEEMINGLY INSIGNIFICANT CHANGE in postmark regulations, but  there’s good reason to suspect Trump and his intentions. Here, in Parts 1 and 2 … Continue reading

January 28, 2026 · 3 Comments

NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN….

TOGETHER WITH MY LOVE OF CLASSIC AUTOMOBILES (and reading about them in my fav Brit Classic & Sports Cars), I continue to admire and respect Automotive News. I’m never too … Continue reading

January 27, 2026 · Leave a comment

A NEW RESEARCH MENTOR

THERE ARE THOSE WHO ADVISE THAT I’m beyond the age of adopting a mentor, but Edward Brooke-Hitching is certainly in the running. This, I note, arose from Susannah Clapp’s “Not … Continue reading

January 26, 2026 · Leave a comment

WHY DO I THINK OF A PETULANT PUERILE MOBSTER?

THANKS TO SiriusXM “Radio Classics” and Turner Movie Classics, I am not without knowledge about gangster portrayals of yore. Perhaps you know the type: amoral to an extreme, full of … Continue reading

January 25, 2026 · Leave a comment

RESISTING A.I. SLOP—AAAS SCIENCE’S VIEW

H. HOLDEN THORP DESCRIBES “Resisting A.I. Slop,” AAAS Science, January 1, 2026. Given that Thorp is Editor-in-Chief of all Science journals, he’s an excellent source of thoughtful information on this … Continue reading

January 24, 2026 · 2 Comments

THANK YOU, ANDY BOROWITZ

ANDY’S WELL-CRAFTED SATIRE APPEARS from time to time here. A recent contribution from Andy, bless ’em, deserves reproduction word for word.  With Due Acknowledgement: “When in the course of human … Continue reading

January 23, 2026 · Leave a comment

 IN NEED OF A DIVINE COMEDY  PART 2

YESTERDAY IN PART 1 WE BEGAN sharing Eric Bulson’s review of Mary Jo Bang’s new translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia. In today’s Part 2, Bulson explores Italian (and its Tuscan … Continue reading

January 22, 2026 · Leave a comment

 IN NEED OF A DIVINE COMEDY  PART 1

READERS BACK TO 2017 MAY RECALL “Dante’s Inferno, a Destination Guide;” this, concerning the first of three parts of Divina Commedia (the other two, Purgatorio and Paradiso). Durante degli Alighieri, … Continue reading

January 21, 2026 · Leave a comment

POLITICAL CARTOONS—MY FAVS OF 2025

THERE’S AN ADMIRABLE HERITAGE of political cartooning in our country, stretching back at least 150 years to the Father of the American Cartoon, Thomas Nast (1840–1902).  “Is this a republican … Continue reading

January 20, 2026 · Leave a comment

A FULL CENTURY OF AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

THE YEAR 1925 WAS AN INTERESTING ONE in the history of the automobile: Ford produced 1,911,706 Model Ts; up from 1922’s 1,301,067 and to dwindle to 1.5 million (its last … Continue reading

January 19, 2026 · 1 Comment