VIMAL PATEL WRITES, “M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment,” The New York Times, October 10, 2025. Patel describes, “The proposal, called the ‘Compact for Academic Excellence … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
COMPUTATIONAL ADVANCEMENTS—ROBOTICS, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AND EDUCATION—are a significant driver of modern culture. And Worcester Polytechnic Institute, my undergraduate school, is among those leading the way in Interactive Media … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
YESTERDAY, WE SHARED EXTREMELY DISTURBING VIEWS of our government’s Department of Homeland Services ICE raid in Chicago, both the DHS propaganda as well as bravely recorded videos of Chicagoans. Today … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
PRONOUNCEMENTS FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION continue to emphasize its dedicated march to autocracy. Just so there’s no BS about its meaning (like the phony “antifa/terrorism”), Merriam-Webster defines “autocracy” as “1. … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
GEEZ. I THOUGHT I HAD COVERED ALL THIS IN “Hoax: A Real Etymology,” SimanaitisSays, March 22, 2018. It even had lots of Trump references (Henry VIII was “Donald Trump in … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
IF EVER I FELT THE NEED FOR NICE NEWS, it’s now as our democracy undergoes continued disintegration at the hands of Donald J. Trump. (See “Does Anyone Believe Trump?,” “Bribes? … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
YESTERDAY, MY AEROBIBLIOGRAPHIC RECOLLECTIONS encountered Bruce Callander’s “The Ground Observer Corps,” Air & Space Forces Magazine. Today in Part 2, we continue gleaning tidbits from it, together with my (barely … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
I WAS LEAFING THROUGH MY AVIATION SHELVES, a collection, I immodestly note, better than in many secondhand bookshops I peruse from time to time. This includes gems such as “Jane’s … Continue reading →| Simanaitis Says
HANNAH RICHTER REPORTS “The Ig Nobels Are Science’s Most Lighthearted Event. This Year Is ‘Not Typical,’ ” AAAS Science, September 19, 2025. Not typical, of course, because of Trump’s autocratically … Continue reading →| 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
“ALTHOUGH IT MAY BE ARGUED,” Bounce & Bound wrote in January 1955, “that the scrutiny of a road test crew should be confined to the technical and performance aspects of a pogostick, it is diffi…| Simanaitis Says
THERE—THAT SHOULD GET YOUR ATTENTION AGAIN. Who would have guessed Boccacio’s Decameron was once described as “probably the dirtiest great book in the Western canon.” I gleaned this from Barbara Ne…| Simanaitis Says
10 posts published by simanaitissays during August 2025| Simanaitis Says
THOMAS JONES’ ARTICLE IN LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS “Lunch With Mussolini” is replete with tidbits continued here in Part 2. A Young Enzo. Jones relates that Ferrari’s first business venture was not su…| Simanaitis Says
I’M OFTEN ENTERTAINED BY THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. To cite a few examples, see “Just Because I’m a Librarian Doesn’t Mean I Have to Dress Like One”—Belle Da Costa Greene,” July 4, 2025; “Wh…| 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
I ENJOY TWO EXTREMES IN DETERMINING WORD DEFINITIONS: the online Merriam-Webster and the microprinted Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, 1971. The M-W is only a click away; but the O…| 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
On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff| Simanaitis Says
QUITE INDEPENDENT OF RECENT BUSINESS MACHINATIONS in the A.I. industry, there still remains the inherent problem of addressing hallucinations. SimanaitisSays discussed this in “On Chatbots and Othe…| Simanaitis Says
REGULAR READERS, BLESS ’EM, ARE FAMILIAR with my rantings about Artificial Intelligence, its immense energy gobbling, its vast data scrapings, and its hallucinations. Today let’s celebrate an…| 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
PERHAPS THIS TITLE BRINGS TO MIND THE ROYALE, the 12,760-cc straight-eight Golden Bug only six of which left Molsheim. No, actually these tidbits are gleaned from the British Autocar Road Tes…| Simanaitis Says
ENOUGH WITH POLITICS; THERE HAS BEEN PLENTY of great dissing in other areas. Dr. Mardy Grothe has a fine collection in Viva La Repartee, tidbits from which are offered here occasionally enhanced by…| Simanaitis Says
YESTERDAY, WE FIGURED IT’S TIME to learn more about Canada. And my Baedeker’s Travellers Guide, 1900, seemed a fine place to start. Here in Part 2, we’ve missed our train outta Halifax by confusing…| Simanaitis Says
WHAT WITH THE ACQUISITIONAL WEAVES of our Queens Felon, I thought it’s time to direct attention toward our friends to the north. And, you’ll not be surprised, I have a definitive source for this re…| 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
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, WE DISCUSSED THE WORLD’S FIRST CONSULTING DETECTIVE and his appearance in advertising. We continue here with thirst-quenching themes. Holmes, Gin, And What’s That Building? The…| Simanaitis Says
DR. JOHN H. WATSON HAD A CRACKIN’ GOOD literary agent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. How else to explain the numerous ad placements about the World’s First Consulting Detective? Several of these have alre…| 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
I ADMIRE THE SAGACITY of ZEYNEP TUFEKCI, (“zey-NEP tuu-FEK-chee,” her given name Turkish for “precious gem” related to Arabic “fragrant flower.”) Dr. Tufekci is a Turkish-American sociologist, Henr…| Simanaitis Says
I KINDA SAW THIS COMING with Google searches occasionally offering corrupted versions of SimanaitisSays comments: “Dennis Simanaitis says Benito Mussolini and Ercole Boratto won the 1936 Mille Migl…| Simanaitis Says
“AUTOMOBILE BROCHURES,” R&T CLAIMED, “ARE ALMOST AS WELL ENDOWED WITH SUPERLATIVES as is the publicity for a Hollywood movie production, and about as accurate.” This and following images …| 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
BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 2025, OFFERS AN INTERVIEW with historian Laurence Rees; his topic, “the history of the Nazi regime yields warnings—but that frighteningly few people are interested in…| 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
NO TYPO HERE. THE BROTHERS GRIMM: A BIOGRAPHY is a book by Ann Schmiesing given a review by Colin Burrow “Ogres Are Cool,” London Review of Books, March 20, 2025. Here are tidbits glean…| 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
“THE ASTON MARTIN CYGNET,” this fabled sports car manufacturer said back in 2011, “was designed as a luxury solution to urban mobility.” A city car that’s “Elegant and distinctive whilst individual…| Simanaitis Says
THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN. TRUMP WANTS TO “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” by turning the clock back to President McKinley’s time. This, despite plenty of us having already had enough of seemingly Gild…| Simanaitis Says
KONSTANTIN KALININ WAS A SOVIET AIRCRAFT DESIGNER. His designs were unconventional, which made them controversial during the Stalin era—and also, in retrospect, interesting projects for my GMax hob…| 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
R&T SUMMED UP THE FIAT-ABARTH BIALBERO perfectly: “expressly for the discriminating enthusiast.” The magazie continued in December 1959, “This extremely small Italian car, which has the r…| 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
WHAT WITH A VERY BUSY NEWS WEEK, victim-extraodinaire Donald Trump has been displaced by Joe and Kamala. Poor him. To counter this Trumpian ennui, today’s SimanaitisSays recounts several past Trump…| Simanaitis Says
