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BULLOCKS WILTSHIRE—IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT.
I CONTINUE TO BE SAVORING Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, the Annotated version. Like an eager Bible student, I’m reading portions of it repeatedly seeking new tidbits about Los Angeles and its...
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DOGE FLUNKS ARITHMETIC
THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY (sic) recently posted a “wall of receipts” claiming it had already saved the federal government $55 billion. What with a math Ph.D. and all, I am not unfamiliar...
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WADDINGTON’S WAR PART 1
“CRIKEY!” SAID THE BRITISH WW II POW, “I’ve just landed on Regent St. and it has a hotel!” He also recognized that his escape plans were enhanced by this Monopoly game from John Waddington Ltd., No....
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WADDINGTON’S WAR PART 2
YESTERDAY WE LEARNED OF THE ALLIES’ SECRET WW II WEAPON—the game of Monopoly fitted out with escape aids for POWs. Today we continue with details from a variety of sources. (Ain’t research fun!?) Faux...
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CAN A GOVERNMENT BE RUN TO “FAIL FAST, LEARN FASTER”? SHOULD IT BY OPERATED...
“FOUR EARLIER STARSHIP LAUNCHES Highlighted SpaceX’s ‘Fail Fast, Learn Faster’ Approach” reads the headline of Deccan Herald, citing the International New York Times, October 13, 2024. The article’s...
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THE LRB, GRENADA’S ERIC GAIRY, UFOS, AND PRESIDENT CARTER’S INVITATION TO...
FIRST, I STRESS THAT THE LATE JIMMY CARTER was one of our most technically trained of presidents: He was a Naval Academy graduate eventually specializing on nuclear submarines. Thus, his 1969...
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THE LRB, GRENADA’S ERIC GAIRY, UFOS, AND PRESIDENT CARTER’S INVITATION TO...
YESTERDAY, WE SET THE STAGE FOR LRB LETTERS connecting the words of our title. My sincere acknowledgement and thanks to the three writers, Paul Sutton, Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire; Robert Hunter,...
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ON TRUMP—OF ALL PEOPLE?!—CONTROLLING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THIS IS TANTAMOUNT, OF COURSE, to RFK, Jr. in charge of health and human services. Or an unelected Musk being in charge of anything governmental. But there we are. The Editorial Board of The New York...
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HARRY NILE AND CARS PART 1
I’VE COME TO RESPECT HARRY NILE, Jim French’s radio detective of the noir variety. Harry has appeared here at SimanaitisSays twice already, in “Harry Nile, Seattle P.I.,” and in “Turing’s Bombe:...
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HARRY NILE AND CARS PART 2
IN PART 1 YESTERDAY, WE CITED several cars appearing in Harry Nile adventures. We continue today with two more that our sleuth drove: a 1936 Bentley and a 1942 DeSoto. The Bentley Adventure. Dorothy...
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FACTS—NOT TRUMP’S “ALTERNATIVE FACTS”
I GLEAN INFORMATION from a variety of sources, among them BBC World Service, Associated Press, Reuters, NPR, London Review of Books, Voice of America (thus far), The New York Times, and The Guardian....
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QWERTY, DVORAK, KALQ, OR? PART 1
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE RECENTLY POSITED, “The QWERTY Keyboard Will Never Die. Where Did the 150-Year-Old Design Come From?” In February 25, 2025, Ellen Wexler updated a Smithsonian article by Jimmy...
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QWERTY, DVORAK, KALQ, OR? PART 2
YESTERDAY, THIS ALL STARTED WITH a Smithsonian Magazine article on QWERTY. Today, we continue gleaning tidbits from Ellen Wexler’s article. A Non-Jamming Theory. Ellen Wexler recounts, “In a 2011...
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CELEBRATING THE DETROIT OPERA, HANDEL’S RINALDO, KIDS’ RESILIENCE, AND...
BACK WHEN I VISITED THE MOTOR CITY A LOT, I also enjoyed performances of the Michigan Opera Theatre. It has appeared here at SimanaitisSays in “Many Flutes Are Magical” and “Detroit’s Götterdämmerung...
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ON “WOKE” WORDS
WHEN ONE AS DESPOTIC AND “WEAVING” (i.e., deranged) as Trump enforces MAGA ideologies on us, it’s no wonder that linguistic chaos prevails. Karen Yourish, Annie Daniel, Saurabh Datar, Isaac White, and...
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STIMSON AND BEAN—HEROIC DOCTORS PART 1
THIS IS A TALE OF BARBARA STIMSON AND HER PAL ACHSA BEAN, two doctors shunned by the U.S. Army as medical officers, and then commissioned in the British Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II....
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STIMSON AND BEAN—HEROIC DOCTORS PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE FOLLOWED AMERICAN DOCTORS Barbara Stimson and Achsa Bean to England after the U.S. Army denied them officer appointments. Today, we continue Catherine Musemeche’s “Major Barbara’s War,”...
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A FRENZY OF ACTIVITY
DAVID REMNICK, EDITOR OF THE NEW YORKER, preaches to the choir. As one of its members, I preach more or less to the same audience here at SimanaitisSays, though I acknowledge perhaps a few exceptions....
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CLASSICAL.COMPOSERS@MUSIC
THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY (AND SEWER) HAVE PLENTY OF WEBSITES for creative types: authors, composers, entertainment personalities, (even presidents, see parenthetical comment above). SiriusXM‘s...
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GOODBYE, VOICE OF AMERICA
I NOTED NOT LONG AGO that my primary news sources included Voice of America. Alas, according to another of my favs, Reuters, March 15, 2025, “Voice of America Staff Put On Leave, Trump Ally Says...
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