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MOROCCAN RIFFS—AND MORAL CONSEQUENCES
FULL DISCLOSURE: This began as an item on U.S. World War I pilots taking part in the 1925 Riff Uprising in Morocco. However, the name Riff rang an old-movie bell. I got diverted to Sigmund Romberg’s...
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THE MOOR OF THE MET
GIUSEPPE VERDI’S Otello opens the Metropolitan Opera’s 2015-2016 season with a break in tradition. Hitherto, its Moor of Venice has appeared in black makeup, but not this time. Tenor Aleksandrs...
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SHAMUS SLANG—YOU GET ME, NATCH?
WIFE DOTTIE fears I might be enjoying too many old-time radio shows. You know, Nero Wolfe, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Boston Blackie. Shamuses who treat their molls tough. Dolls who move with whispers...
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AIRCRAFT DEICING/ANTI-ICING TIDBITS
TEMPERATURES TODAY in a few Southern California locales may hit three digits (Fahrenheit, thankfully). So I thought some tidbits about aircraft deicing and anti-icing might be cool. Maybe you’re...
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CUTTING FUEL CELL COSTS
AN ADVANCE at Argonne National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy may significantly lower the cost of fuel cell propulsion. Briefly, Argonne researchers have developed a less costly...
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CREATE ONE’S OWN LA BOHÈME
I’VE REDISCOVERED a book about making one’s own opera production with nothing more than scissors and glue. What fun. A snip-and-paste challenge. I think of this as preparation for the Metropolitan...
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WONDERS OF A CAR’S CATALYTIC CONVERTER
MY RECENT item on fuel cell catalysts got me and several readers thinking about conventional automotive catalytic converters. Are automotive catalysts the same as those in a fuel cell? No. But what...
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CALIFORNIA, HERE I CAME
I’M A born-again Californian, not a native one. Wife Dottie, by contrast, is a desert rat from El Centro. In rearranging some bookshelves recently, I came upon a fine California celebration, part of...
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HYBRID VS. GASOLINE VS. DIESEL: TWO SNAFUS
THE RECENT Volkswagen diesel deceit reminded me of a 2010 SAE International presentation of mine that coordinated with an article in R&T. In retrospect, the presentation involved a pair of snafus,...
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AFRICA COUNTS
EARLIEST MAN arose on the African continent, and with evolving culture came mathematics. There’s a standard book on this subject, now in its third edition, Africa Counts by Claudia Zaslavsky. I’ve had...
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