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TRAVEL ADVICE
THIS WEEK’S U.S. foray into the world scene prompts me to follow along, armchair style, by way of my Baedeker’s Handbooks for Travellers. I rather doubt that these books would have been consulted by a...
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HOLMES AND OUR STAR QUARTERBACK
IT IS A tenuous tie indeed between the world’s greatest consulting detective and our high school’s star quarterback, but typewriters provide the link. Sherlock Holmes used the unicity of typed...
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COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE AND THE ART OF THE DEAL
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE began as street theater in 16th-century Italy. It continues today around the world, reaching as far as the antipodes. Matriark Theatre, in New South Wales, Australia, has among its...
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SNIFFING OUT A MYTH
IT IS CONVENTIONAL wisdom that many mammals, dogs especially, have far better senses of smell than humans. However, recent research suggests that this is a myth perpetrated by 19th-century science with...
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NATURE’S ORIGAMI
“LADYBUG, ladybug, fly away home…” These tiny polka-dotted insects invariably complied with this childhood entreaty so quickly that I knew nothing about their winged travel. A ladybug/ladybird of the...
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PETROGRAD NIGHTS—AND DAYS
IN THE long view of history, St. Petersburg, Russia, was called Petrograd for only the briefest of periods, 1914 to 1924. During that decade, though, it was central in a cataclysmic event, the Russian...
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FORD DEALER STARTS OWN AIRLINE
IT SEEMS improbable today, but a car dealer starting his own airline was a sound business model back in 1927. The country was abuzz with Lucky Lindy’s transatlantic solo, Jack L. Maddux had a thriving...
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GREAT ACERBIC LINES
H.L. MENCKEN was a 20th-century journalist who specialized in acerbic writing that’s still a delight to read. I don’t always agree with Mencken’s view, but I savor his expertise with the English...
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A LAMENTABLE TALE OF A FORD F-250
KEITH MARTIN’S Sports Car Market is an entertaining and informative magazine, even if, like me, you’re not into buying or selling collector cars at auction. In this magazine’s July 2017 issue, the one...
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THEY’LL HAVE MANHATTAN; I’LL HAVE PHOENIX, OMAHA, CHICAGO, SALT LAKE CITY…
The New York Times, May 28, 2017, celebrated “the celestial eye candy known as Manhattanhenge” with a usual fervor directed to those living immediately east of the Hudson River. Despite this Big Apple...
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