YESTERDAY, OUR CIVICS LESSON BEGAN with The Atlantic’s “Independence for Whom?” Part 1 and Jefferson’s stirring words “all men are created equal.” Lamentably enough, it concluded with Supreme Court Chief … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
A FEW DAYS AGO, I PROMISED to continue with more from The Atlantic’s “The Unfinished Revolution.” As I noted, think of this magazine’s excellent series as “a much appreciated (and … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
IN A CONCISE 2 MINUTES 21 SECONDS, KATHLEEN KINGSBURY describes “The Corruption Behind Trump’s East Wing Demolition,” The New York Times, October 25, 2025. “As of Oct. 24,” the preface … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, WE LEARNED how the first superhero novel transformed from rejection status to best seller by way of its stage play counterpart. Pimpernel cinema followed—indeed, in multiple … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
“THEY SEEK HIM HERE, THEY SEEK HIM THERE/ Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.” So it was said of the Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel. I sought him recently—with double success—in recent … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
ELAINE PAGELS CONTRIBUTES AN ESSAY “The Moral Foundation of America” to “The Unfinished Revolution,” The Atlantic, November 2025. Think of this as another civics lesson we’ve seemingly forgotten. Elaine Pagels writes, … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
ON OCTOBER 18, 2025, 7 MILLION AMERICANS protested Trump 2.0’s autocracy. Yesterday, we concentrated on the absurdities of a government official saying “Who cares?,” of Trump himself posting a scatological … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
THIS PAST WEEKEND EXHIBITED the legitimacy of the “No Kings” contingent, the puerility of Donald J. Trump, and the inanity of his cohorts. Let’s take these in reverse order. Indeed, … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
YESTERDAY, WE FOCUSED ON THE COVER of The Atlantic’s “Unfinished Revolution.” Today in Part 2, we continue with this magazine’s much appreciated (and much needed) civics lessons. Mad King Geo…| Simanaitis Says
BANKSY, WIKIPEDIA DESCRIBES, “is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Ac…| Simanaitis Says
IN AN ART DECO APPRECIATION about a week ago, “Art Deco, The Met, The Polish Brigade, Trump Tower and Truth,” February 23, 2017, was cited; and therein resided reference to Sidney Blumenthal’s arti…| Simanaitis Says
GEEZ, HOW IS SAM SPADE LINKED with Parnell Thomas?? Spade was the classic sleuth of The Maltese Falcon, The Kandy Tooth Caper, and numerous other adventures, 1946–1951, recounted these days on Siri…| Simanaitis Says
ART CRITIC DONALD KUSPIT IDENTIFIES THE APPEAL of Mitchell Johnson by noting this artist’s fusion of abstraction and realism. My introduction to Johnson’s oil paintings came from their occasi…| Simanaitis Says
I’VE HARPED ON THE QUEENS FELON MOB all too often at this website (I’d much rather write about my usual topics). Nevertheless, I was gratified that I’m not the only one making this observation. The…| Simanaitis Says
YESTERDAY IN PART 1 WE SAVORED CBS RADIO WORKSHOP and enjoyed entertaining CBS corporate suits through the R&T slalom. Today, lamentably enough, we recount CBS actions that seemingly replace fr…| Simanaitis Says
I’VE KNOWN COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM, now a division of Paramount Global, at its best, its lamentable, and—first hand—its middling. Let’s briefly recount the best and middling of these and then …| Simanaitis Says
I BELIEVE ANDY BOROWITZ IS the preeminent political satirist of our time. As I noted in “The Best of Lines,” he has “an amazing way of condensing his satirical news stories into four or five concis…| Simanaitis Says
LET’S APPLAUD THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION! Never has its activism been more critical. Zach Montague and Pat Grossmith’s article “Judge Blocks Trump’s Citizenship Order in Class-Action Challe…| Simanaitis Says
THE UTTER IDIOCY OF DOGE has added yet another tooth on its chainsaw. It’s described by Drs. Iago Hale and Michael Kantar in “Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds?,” The New…| Simanaitis Says
ONE MIGHT THINK THE ARROGANCE OF EGO WOULD HAVE LED ME TO ASSOCIATE Trump and Beethoven. But no, prodigious musicality seals the deal: It’s Mozart and Trump—separated at birth by 190 years! A…| Simanaitis Says
THERE IS IRONY GALORE IN THE NEW U.S. Environmental “Deregulation” Agency having originally been established by Richard Nixon on December 2, 1970, “to protect human health and the environment” (thi…| Simanaitis Says
WHAT A MARVELOUS OPPORTUNITY FOR SATIRE: The dust is far from settled about what The New York Times, March 25, 2025, is calling “an extraordinary leak of internal national security deliberations, d…| Simanaitis Says
NOTES WIKIPEDIA, “AT THE TEHRAN CONFERENCE WINSTON CHURCHILL made his famous remark that in wartime ‘truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” By c…| Simanaitis Says
I DON’T THINK OF MYSELF AS an ornithophile, but swans, Cygnus olor, seem to get pretty good coverage at SimanaitisSays. Tidbits here have related them to cars, opera props, Ogden Nash poetry, and a…| Simanaitis Says
IN COZY ENGLISH WHO-DONE-ITS, watercress sandwiches at teatime seem to coincide with reveal of the rascal. Now according to Korin Miller writing in Food & Wine, September 12, 2024, “The C…| Simanaitis Says
