SNEAKERS VS. BROGUES

SNEAKERS VS. BROGUES

“Classic designs have the charm of a good pair of brogues. They last for years and the older they are the better they fit.” So begins the abstract to a recent article in New Design Ideas on the advantages of architecture that is built to last. The advantages are...
THE CROWN

THE CROWN

As a confirmed Anglophile I can’t resist another season of The Crown. But the episode “Dangling Man” that dealt with the Duke of Windsor left me dissatisfied. In a BBC interview, the Duke (played by Derek Jacobi) gives the impression that he was forced to abdicate in...
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

I recently received my new passport. The pages for stamps and visas are decorated with images, as they have been in the past, but this is the first time I looked at them closely: a windjammer and a lighthouse; a steam engine pulling a train in a Western landscape; a...
BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK

BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK

When I went to school in England in the fifties we were obliged to wear blue blazers with the school crest. I came across this photo of a class of the Interior Design Department of Northumbria University taken in the Bauhaus building in Dessau. Apparently strict dress...
THE KING JAMES VERSION

THE KING JAMES VERSION

While James Holzhauer was making his impressive run on Jeopardy I read several articles that suggested that his aggressive and risky mode of play had changed the game forever. Well, he certainly changed it for me–after more than a decade or more I’ve stopped...