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1967 VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE 1500
THE YEAR 1967 was a memorable one. The Graduate, with Dustin Hoffman driving a cool Alfa Romeo Spyder, was a hit movie. The Beatles brought out Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, with first-rate...
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THREE SCIENTISTS WALK INTO A BAR….
SOME PEOPLE THINK that scientists are inarticulate. Counterexamples are abundant, and I might wonder who are the inarticulate among us. Here’s scientific wisdom, wit, satire, and social commentary from...
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HAPPY (BELATED) EIGHTH BIRTHDAY, SIMANAITIS SAYS!
THIS WEBSITE STARTED on August 13, 2012, with “1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata.” Things were a lot simpler back then. Image from Simanaitis Says, August 13, 2012. There have been occasional anniversary...
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CHURCHILL’S COOK PART 1
THE ENGLISH SATIRIST Saki wrote, “The cook was a good cook, as cooks go, and as cooks go, she went.” By contrast, Georgina Landemare was more akin to Mrs. Patmore, in charge of culinary matters at...
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CHURCHILL’S COOK PART 2
YESTERDAY Georgina Young chose kitchen service as scullery maid no. six in a fairly grand household. Today, she marries, learns from, and thrives with chef Paul Landemare. And has wartime adventures...
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LETTERS AS ENCOURAGEMENT
I WAS READING the Letters column in the August 13, 2020, London Review of Books, with nary a serious thought in my head. Then I encounter several communications that didn’t just sit there: They...
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A CARRIAGE FOR THE KING
HERE’S A TALE of transportation fit for a king; indeed, named for one. Yet, in the last decade, this 1911 Hispano-Suiza Alfonso XIII Double Berline twice went begging at auction, of which more anon....
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YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE
I’VE BEEN ENJOYING Nick Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’s Time. Its theses are two-fold and clear: You can’t please everyone. And critics write...
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HOW COME MY RAZOR GETS DULL?
SURELY STEEL IS stronger than hair, right? Indeed, it’s fifty times stronger. Then how come razors don’t stay sharp forever? What with one thing and another, this may seem inconsequential. But, in...
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BESSIE COLEMAN—A COURAGEOUS WOMAN OF SOARING AMBITION PART 1
MORE THAN 100 years ago, a young woman heard about pioneer aviatrix Harriet Quimby and thought flying might be fun for her too. The young woman had two challenges: her gender and that she was African...
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