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A NEW-ISH WORLD
WE ARE THANKFULLY, tentatively, and carefully feeling our way through this world pandemic. Winston Churchill’s comment of August 1942 World War II is most appropriate: “This is not the end. It is not...
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PARENTAL ADVICE TO WIFE DOTTIE
WIFE DOTTIE is the youngest of four children, 13 years younger than her sister, with elder brothers who served in World War II. Thus, her mother and father had seen it all, as exemplified by the...
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MAESTRO OF THE PIAZZA
THE PIAZZA VENEZIA is as central a location as you might imagine in Rome: The Colosseum is 0.3 miles to its southeast. The Pantheon is 0.5 mile to its northwest. The Spanish Steps (and McDonald’s...
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THIS JUST IN—FROM HERE AND THERE
OUR DAILY NEWS cycle has toned down considerably, now that we have capable adults in control in Washington, D.C. Nonetheless, fascinating news items still crop up. Here are tidbits on three recent...
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LENIN’S LOVES
SHEILA FITZPATRICK begins her London Review of Books article “To King’s Cross Station,” January 7, 2021, with “Lenin liked London. He arrived in April 1902, not long after his release from Siberian...
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EXTRAORDINARY ARCHITECTURE FOR ORDINARY FOLK
THIS YEAR’S WINNERS of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred to as that profession’s Nobel Prize, are French couple Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. Unlike many architects of note, the...
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EARTHQUAKES—“CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”
WHAT WITH the Earth’s surface being three-quarters water, oceanic research is essential to understanding our world. However, such monitoring is especially difficult to deploy and maintain. Science...
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THE ANTONOV AN-2—A CLASSIC SOVIET
AIRCRAFT, BY VIRTUE of their technology and engineering, are sleek and well-finished. Unless they’re the Antonov An-2, affectionately known as the “Aннушка,” “Annushka,” “Annie.” Close up, an Aннушка...
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ON OTHERWORDLY EVOLUTION
Do Darwin’s evolutionary theories describe life elsewhere in the universe? Are we already surpassing Darwin’s model here at home? These heady thoughts are prompted by gleanings from The London...
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RICHARD DIAMOND TEACHES ME ABOUT AN EARLIER ERA
I AM ADDICTED to SiriusXM’s “Radio Classics.” Indeed, Wife Dottie says that one day I’ll wake up in 1944 and get all nerdy about our Ration Book’s missing red stamps and our Crosstour having only an A...
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