2000 Posts And A Break

This is published post number 2,000 and I will, indeed, be taking a break from blogging. The length of that break, what form the blog will take if I return to any type of regular posting, etc. are undetermined.

My instincts tell me I need to do this and reaching 2,000 posts seems to be as good a stopping point as any. My instincts are usually, but not always, right so I must heed them in this instance.

I wish I had something profound to write. A few months ago a very good friend asked me if I was angry because he said my posts seemed angry. I told him I am angry.

Far too many people seem to be on the side of evil and no, that’s not a matter of opinion. Too many people on the Right in this country support a would-be tyrant while too many on the Left support terrorists and the usurpation of individual freedom.

Some hold the view that the media and politicians are far more polarized than the general public. Even if that were true, and I don’t think it is, it is government that makes policy and it is media that shapes the public’s viewpoint.

See you on the flip side, I hope.

#2000PostsAndABreak

#IWeepForTheFuture

Penultimate Post

Penultimate simply means next to last or last but one. (I couldn’t resist the alliteration. What a surprise! Not…) Let me add that this is not the next-to-last post in the history of this blog, but is published post number 1,999, the next to last one before I take a break from blogging.

However, even though the probability is low, it is possible that the next post–post number 2,000–will be the next to last post ever for Disaffected Musings. I don’t know what I will decide about the future of this blog while I am on hiatus.

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The Second Holocaust has begun. I am reluctant to write this, but it is time for American Jews to arm themselves and to be hyper-vigilant. At least for now, Jews are not under attack by government (not directly), but by hateful, ignorant scum in the population.

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“A university is a community of scholars. It is not a kindergarten; it is not a club; it is not a reform school; it is not a political party; it is not an agency of propaganda. A university is a community of scholars.”

– Robert Hutchins, former President of the University of Chicago

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From Andrew Sullivan via Why Evolution Is True:

“The point I have been trying to make for years now is that ~~wokeness~~ [my mark] is not some racier version of liberalism, merely seeking to be kinder and more inclusive. It is, in fact, directly hostile to liberal values; it subordinates truth to ideology; it judges people not by their ability but by their identity [emphasis mine]; and it regards ideological diversity as a mere dog-whistle for bigotry. Maher [Katherine, new CEO of NPR] has publicly and repeatedly avowed support for this very illiberalism. If people with these views run liberal institutions, the institutions will not — cannot — remain liberal for very long. And they haven’t. Elite universities are turning into madrassas, and media is turning into propaganda.”

AMEN!

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“Avoid crazy at all cost. Crazy is more common than you think.”

– Charlie Munger

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The 2024 NFL Draft begins on Thursday. I know many sports fans read this blog even though this has never been a “sports blog” per se. Although the piece is long, this article on NFL.com that provides an in-depth look at the top 20 quarterbacks in the draft is a very good read, if you are interested in the topic.

The quarterback whom I have called “The Magician” will be the first player selected on Thursday. That, of course, is Caleb Williams. By virtue of trading last year’s overall number one pick to the Carolina Panthers, who selected quarterback Bryce Young, the Chicago Bears have what would have been Carolina’s first-round pick this year. Since the Panthers finished 2-15, the worst record in the league, the Bears will pick first.

In their long and storied history, the Bears have really had only one elite quarterback: Sid Luckman. He played for the Bears for 12 seasons (1939-1950) and led them to four NFL championships.

In a sadly ironic twist, Luckman was Jewish and attended Columbia University. Of course, that institution of so-called higher learning has become a haven for anti-semitism.

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A recent trip to the nearest Dodge dealer to inquire about the new Charger–ICE-powered version, of course–led to the possibility of my being able to test-drive this car, perhaps as early as this week.

This is a 2024 Nissan Z in Rosewood Metallic. It is not new and has about 7,000 miles. No, I don’t like the wheel color, but the probability I buy this particular car asymptotically approaches zero. I am on a fact-finding mission.

As I see my potential selections, a Lexus RC F or a Nissan Z (I have excluded the Lexus LC, for now, due to price), it is a choice between a better looking car (the Z) and a better sounding car (the RC F). Both cars have good power-to-weight ratios, although there is something about a V-8 like the one in the RC F that, to me, gives it another advantage over the twin-turbo V-6 in the Z.

Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett are indirectly responsible for this development. The Dodge dealer is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the company run by Buffett and Munger from its founding in 1965 until Munger’s death last November, and so is the local Nissan dealer that currently has the Z in inventory. The salesperson who helped us said he could transfer any local car under the Berkshire umbrella to his dealership.

#PenultimatePost

#LongLiveTheJews!

#CharlieMunger

#2024NFLDraft

#NissanZ

Saturday Saunter

Saunter: verb; to wander or walk about idly and in a leisurely manner.

Beginning the saunter is this remark by Bill James, father of modern baseball analysis and who should be enshrined in the Baseball Hall Of Fame:

“The problem with ideology–left or right–is that in order to exist, it has to pretend that questionable propositions are solid rocks upon which extensive belief systems may be constructed.”

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Some humor from this Archon’s Den post:

My biggest fear with self-driving cars is….
…. if I died on my way to work, the car would still deliver me there.

Life is like a box of chocolates….
…. It doesn’t last long if you’re fat.

Fake quotes will ruin the internet….
…. Benjamin Franklin

I’m inconsistent….
…. but not all the time.

If all is not lost….
…. then where the heck is it?

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In the 1819 Supreme Court decision in McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” Far too many of our current “representatives” in government think they have first dibs on what we have earned. John Marshall was right, though.

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Supposedly, although I maintain no one can know for sure, on this day in 1611, the first known performance of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth happened at the Globe Theatre in London. My favorite lines from that play are actually part of a larger “speech” by Macbeth himself:

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”

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Albert Einstein is an anagram for “ten elite brains.” Sounds about right to me.

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Speaking of Einstein and science, on this day in 2004 NASA launched Gravity Probe B to test his general theory of relativity. Specifically, the aim of the mission was to measure spacetime curvature near Earth, and thereby the stress–energy tensor (which is related to the distribution and the motion of matter in space) in and near Earth. This provided a test of general relativity, gravito-magnetism and related models.

Analysis by NASA and later by a group based at Stanford showed that the data collected by Gravity Probe B confirmed the two predictions of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Einstein’s theories of relativity, special and general, were beyond revolutionary.

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This recent Hagerty article is titled, “Dreaming of Summer: 7 Convertibles for Less than $30k.” When the Cadillac XLR and Allante were under consideration for my next car purchase, meaning another convertible was on the table, one of these cars–listed in the Hagerty piece–was also under consideration.

Yellow Chevrolet Corvette Convertible

While Hagerty specifically mentions a 2012 Corvette, with a #3 (Good) value of $22,000, I would have considered any C6 convertible from 2008 through the end of the generation run in 2013. I have decided not to buy anything older than ten years and am not buying another convertible.

If I own two cars then I want them to have some significant differences from each other. Of course, that’s just my wish and other people can buy what they want. I am intrigued enough by the current Nissan Z model to test-drive one of them in the next week or so, if I can find one locally.

How many of you who do not currently own a convertible think about buying one? The F-Type is my fourth ragtop; well, maybe my third since one of my convertibles was a hardtop convertible. As I have written, Arizona is a place where one can drive with the top down in literally every month.

#SaturdaySaunter

#AlbertEinstein

#TwoPostsToGo

#IStandWithIsrael!

Frightening Friday

Originally, today’s post was going to be titled “Put Your Mind In Your Pocket.” That is the name of an obscure R&B song from the early 1970s by Midnight Movers Unlimited, who were Wilson Pickett’s “backup” band. I was going to complain about Apple’s tightening grip over the music libraries of people who use iTunes, but praise them for adding such songs to their catalog.

However, world events just made such a post seem beyond frivolous. The world seems to have lost its way in violence, incivility and the seemingly complete disappearance of common sense. This piece is titled, “~~Hamas~~ [my mark] has a secret weapon no one talks about: Western stupidity.”

This Why Evolution Is True post is titled, “All hell breaks loose at Columbia University.” If you don’t know what the subject is, the school has finally decided to crack down on “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators engaged in illegal protests by getting the NYPD to arrest them by the dozen.

Those of you who think government is a panacea (IT’S NOT!), here are two notes from this Free Press article:

“Meanwhile, the Biden administration had Congress put $7.5 billion into building charging stations for America and two years later. . . not a single government charging station has been built. I’ve noted that before, but it’s always worth returning to.”

“California hired an auditor to assess how it had done with all that funding to tackle homelessness. Welp: State taxpayers spent $24 billion on addressing homelessness over the last five years and the number of homeless has. . . drumroll. . . grown. And also, no one actually kept track of where the money went. A lot of records just don’t exist. Or folks receiving “services” have names like Mickey Mouse.”

Again, my belief is that the only solution for the US is dissolution. “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…”

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I actually feel a little better having gotten that off my chest. Yes, I am counting down to post number 2,000; this is number 1,997. Someone from India who had never read my blog before went “crazy” reading and liking more than a dozen posts yesterday. That action played a role in generating a decent day for blog views.

Of course, as I prepare to take a break from blogging the number of views and visitors for April is, so far, easily the best for any month in 2024. Again, I wonder if people are curious about what I’ll write as I approach the 2,000th post.

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Speaking of the beginning to the Declaration of Independence, on this day in 1775 (which, of course, was before the Declaration of Independence) the American Revolutionary War began with a battle between British soldiers and American revolutionaries at Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts. The so-called “shot heard round the world” is a line from “Concord Hymn,” a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.”

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On this day in 1979, Chevrolet produced its first front-wheel drive car (as a 1980 model year vehicle), the Citation. It was built on the General Motors’ X-Body platform used to introduce front-wheel drive to the masses, to those who didn’t buy the upmarket Oldsmobile Toronado (introduced for the 1966 model year) or Cadillac Eldorado (1967 introduction). By the early 1990s, front-wheel drive was the most common platform for American cars.

For all of the subsequent issues with rust and other quality problems, people have forgotten just how popular the Citation was upon its launch. Granting it had an extra-long debut year, but Chevrolet produced 811,540 Citations for the 1980 model year, easily making it the best-selling car in the US. Those problems, however, led to an incredible 89 percent decline in production just three years later and the car was discontinued after the 1985 model year as were all X-Body vehicles. Guess I have to show a picture of one of these; sorry, Dirty Dingus McGee. By the way, the Citation was the Motor Trend Car of the Year for 1980.

About 100,000 of those first-year Citations were in the “sporty” X-11 spec. For the first year, the X-11 package had only handling and styling differences from the base model. For 1981, it was given an engine with higher output, all of 135 HP/165 LB-FT of torque.

This Hagerty article calls the X-Car “one of the malaziest cars of all time” as in coming from the Malaise Era of American automobiles. From the Hagerty piece:

“The X-cars were GM’s bid to build a modern front-wheel-drive compact. To the extent that any are remembered at all, the Chevrolet Citation comes to mind, although the automotive fossil record does contain the Pontiac Phoenix as well as the Oldsmobile Omega and Buick Skylark. Built from 1980 to 1985, the X-cars did enormous damage to GM’s reputation, putting together a most unenviable record for recalls and poor quality control.”

For a company that has had so much success in its 100+ year history, General Motors has shot itself in the foot on many occasions. Although I think GM management has finally regained a little sanity regarding (B)EVs, its “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” approach to Battery-Electric vehicles is another bullet in a body part.

#FrighteningFriday

#Don’tTreadOnMe

#ChevroletCitation

#IStandWithIsrael!

Dreams And Schemes

I cannot remember the details of last night’s dream that led to today’s post title other than I kept devising and trying to implement “get rich quick” schemes that always failed. Even though my wonderful wife and I are far from poor, the fact that we balked at the initial estimate for the gate upgrade may have been a reason for the dream.

I suppose some people in this neighborhood can pay almost any price for anything they want. While I think money is really only useful when it’s spent, I don’t think you should spend yourself into bankruptcy unless you are 100% certain you will soon be on the wrong side of the grass. However, no one without a genuine legal claim has any right to tell anyone else how to spend money they have legally acquired.

I very briefly considered calling this post “An Intolerable Disparity,” which is the beginning of something written by the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola, and something I have written more than once in this blog. In its entirety Ignatius Loyola wrote, “An intolerable disparity between the hugeness of their desire and the smallness of reality.”

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Uri Berliner, a now former editor for NPR, has resigned from the organization not long after his essay about how NPR has lost America’s trust. In his letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, Berliner wrote,

“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism. But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”

I’d like to think that people like Maher and the disgusting protestors in this country who shout things like “Death To America, Hands Off Iran” are actually just a small, but loud, minority. (Why are those protestors here and not in Iran, anyway? <end sarcasm> Of course, they have no idea how awful life is in Iran for its citizens who are under the yoke of a fanatical theocracy.) I am just not sure that is the case, though.

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Regardless of your views on Artificial Intelligence (AI), this chart shows the US should be in a good position to be the dominant player.

Of course, this doesn’t include government investment in AI development. Every country on this list has a population of 10,000,000+ except for one, Israel, although Sweden’s population is not much above ten million. Obviously, two of the countries shown here, China and India, are the two most populous nations in the world each with more than one billion inhabitants. I will resist the temptation to show a chart of per capita expenditures.

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On this day in 1906, the well-known major San Francisco earthquake and fires occurred. Of course, the fires lasted longer than just one day. Seismographs on the East Coast recorded the earthquake about 19 minutes later. The quake had an estimated magnitude of 7.9.

Government cover-ups are nothing new. Overwhelming evidence exists that the San Francisco city government deliberately understated the death toll for years so as not to discourage companies from rebuilding and other companies from relocating there. Because of their obfuscation, the actual number of deaths from the earthquake and accompanying fires, which actually accounted for 90% of the damage, may never be known, but it is highly likely that number is in excess of 3,000. For years, San Francisco’s “official” number was about 500.

Although the US automobile industry has never really had any successful companies based on the West Coast, except for Tesla which is now struggling, the 1906 quake destroyed the factory for the Sunset car company, which had been building cars in San Francisco since 1900. The company relocated to San Jose, where it built cars powered by two-stroke engines–as it had from the beginning except for a few cars powered by steam engines–until 1913. From standard catalog of® American Cars 1805-1942 a picture of a 1906 Sunset.

What would happen today if the Bay Area were to be hit by an earthquake of similar magnitude to the one in 1906? In 1910, it is estimated that the population for the entire San Francisco metropolitan area was about 900,000. In 2020, the US Census figure for the same area was 4.6 million.

As the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan showed, building codes designed to reduce damage don’t always work. Most seismologists think it’s a matter of when, and not if, another major earthquake will happen in the Bay Area of California. In my opinion, such an event will accelerate the exodus of people from the state. Take a look at this chart from the Public Policy Institute of California:

Once again, when they can people and businesses vote with their feet. I know my wonderful wife and I would NEVER again live in California. In fact, I will never visit “The Golden State” unless I absolutely have to.

#DreamsAndSchemes

#SanFranciscoEarthquake

Five To Go

Today’s post title does not refer to my usual order at In-N-Out Burger. Actually, I usually get the #1 meal: a Double-Double (two patties, two pieces of cheese), fries and a medium drink. I order the burger with tomato only, no spread or lettuce or onion. The purchase of a meal does not create any discount (unlike some fast-food chains), it simply makes it easier for the store to process your order.

Omitting the spread is the key to my really enjoying In-N-Out burgers. The spread is akin to Thousand Island Dressing and not too far away from the “special sauce” on a McDonald’s Big Mac. On the latter, with fair burgers the sauce helps, in my opinion.

At In-N-Out the burgers are fantastic and need little augmentation. Getting the toasted bun, the burger, the cheese and tomato in one bite is a perfect bite, in my opinion.

In-N-Out fries, made fresh in the store, are also very good. They are not as good as Five Guys fries to me, but still very tasty.

When I’m not in my A1C testing period, as I am now, I will sometimes splurge for a chocolate milk shake and/or drink root beer instead of zero sugar lemonade. In-N-Out shakes are very good, as well.

In-N-Out Burger ranked sixth on Glassdoor's annual Best Places to Work list.

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As you might surmise, today’s post title actually refers to the fact that this is published post number 1,995, five away from 2,000 and the hiatus. As I will write at least one more time, I don’t know if I will stop blogging for one to two weeks, one to two months or somewhere in-between. I am aware and can accept that the longer the pause, the greater the reduction in the number of regular readers even in the likely scenario that I resume blogging in some manner.

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Here is a link to a Why Evolution Is True post titled, “Students Supporting Israel is the only group that Vanderbilt rejects among 11 applicants for its Multicultural Leadership Council.” The second Holocaust has started.

This Free Press article title begins, “Censorship in the Name of ‘Safety’.” Among other things, the Free Press piece reports on the suspension of NPR editor Uri Berliner, who wrote about how NPR has lost America’s trust.

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In this edition of Thursday Thoughts I mentioned that a company was sending a representative to give us an estimate for a motorized gate to replace our useless gate in front of the concrete pad that, someday, could be used to park a couple of cars. Well, the estimate was two to three times what my wonderful wife and I had thought it might be. I think many vendors see the neighborhood in which we live and think everyone who lives here can afford to pay anything they ask.

I was not shy in relaying our thoughts to the company. Wouldn’t you know they have come back to discuss the possibility of doing the job at a much lower cost. I have also contacted another company to give us an estimate and they should be here in the next few days.

Even if we never buy cars to park there, it would be better if the area could be used for something. At present, it cannot because the gate is, in the words of Commanding Officer Spock, non-functional. In any event, the car shown below still has a pulse, although not with those wheels.

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Unfortunately, even if we replace the gate and WIN THE LOTTERY, I still cannot legally buy and import the car that is the subject of this Top Gear review, the car they call “one of the very best [sports cars] ever made.” Once again, the modern Alpine A110:

Top Gear Alpine A110 review 2022

Foreign products subsidized via cheap labor and excessive government aid should be the targets of meaningful tariffs or even outright bans. None of that is true of European cars like the Alpine A110.

Sales of the car for 2023 increased by 22 percent compared to 2022, not that this is a high-volume car; 2023 sales were just 4,328 units. Of course, none of those sales were in the US.

The A110 weighs just 2,400 pounds so its turbocharged 1.8 liter (about 110 cubic inches), 4-cylinder engine, which in base spec produces 248 HP/236 LB-FT of torque, propels the car quite quickly. If you want more power, you can buy the S or R spec models in which the motor generates 296 HP/250 LB-FT, in which case you’re talking about 0-to-60 MPH in about 4 seconds.

Sorry, but I can’t resist writing this line from the movie Diner once again. If you don’t have dreams you have nightmares.

#FiveToGo

#~~Woke~~=Evil

#AlpineA110

Oops…

When I went to bed last night I was originally going to call today’s post “That Was A Mistake.” That title would have referred to the extremely low number of views for yesterday’s post, Pondering Packard, and I was going to blame the title for the poor readership numbers.

Lo and behold, when I awoke this morning and checked the view/visitor numbers for yesterday, Pondering Packard had a lot more views than when I went to bed. It still didn’t have a great number, but at least it slipped into the low end of the “normal” range of views for a post on the day of publication. In addition, the total number of views for the day was decent even with the meh showing of Pondering Packard.

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Since the number of clicks to posts from Why Evolution Is True shown in Single Digits To 2000 was much higher than normal and since I published the links without comment, that might be the norm in the future IF I continue writing the blog. I think it is more important that you read those posts than to read my comments about those posts. In that vein,

A UK lawyer rebuts many misconceptions about Israel

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The “transition” to an all Battery-Electric Vehicle (BEV) fleet of passenger cars continues to stumble. Tesla is, supposedly, about to layoff 10 percent of its global workforce. That’s not a normal move for a growing company. Of course, Tesla is not growing.

Lawrence Stroll, executive chairman of Aston Martin, told reporters at the company’s U.K. headquarters that Aston is delaying its shift to electrics, focusing instead on plug-in hybrids.”We are going to invest much more heavily in our PHEV program to be a bridge between full combustion and full electric,” Stroll said, according to Road & Track.

Stroll noted the “real lack of consumer demand” for electric sports cars. “We speak to our dealers, we speak to our customers — when you have a small network you can communicate easily. And everyone said we still want sound, we still want smell,” he said.

Meanwhile, McLaren seems not to be considering BEVs. The company recently launched its 750S coupe and spider, successors to its widely successful 720S. The brand has one hybrid on sale, the Artura, which launched in 2022. Customers, however, still demand the palpable acoustics of the raucous twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 positioned behind the driver’s seat. The 750S may be the epitome of internal combustion engine (ICE) ingenuity.

Chief engineer Sandy Holford said his team truly raised the bar on the 750S, making it the lightest and most powerful series production McLaren to date. “It offers more thrills, more power and more torque, as well as improved ergonomics and engagement,” Holford said. The car’s stats are also mind-bending, even without an electric motor: zero to 60 mph in 2.7 seconds; 740 horsepower; 590 lb-ft of torque.

Yes, neither Aston nor McLaren are large volume automobile producers. Neither is/was Jaguar, but the foolish commitment to an all-electric fleet of vehicles has killed the legendary British make. Aston and McLaren are trying to stay in business and their customer base doesn’t want a soulless, glorified golf cart with no torque curve, uh…I mean a battery-electric vehicle.

This piece from Automotive American contains an interview with Guy Lachlan, Managing Director of Motor Spirit and the Executive Director of the Historic and Classic Vehicles Alliance (HCVA), a UK organization. Lachlan is an expert on synthetic fuels (called sustainable fuels in the article, I suspect for “palatability” reasons).

For the nth time, synthetic fuels are the answer, battery-electric vehicles are not. Hybrids are a better solution than BEVs. Of course, I prefer this kind of hybrid.

Or maybe this kind:

The top photo shows the now discontinued Acura NSX. I saw one on the road a day or two ago and was impressed by its looks. Makes the C8 Corvette look like an ugly witch by comparison, in my opinion. Used examples of the NSX, the car is no longer in production, are still six figure cars, sadly for me.

Of course, the bottom photo shows an Iso Grifo, which was an automotive hybrid in its original meaning: a car with a European body and chassis, but with an American drivetrain. There is absolutely nothing ugly about this car, which was included in both Ultimate Garage 2.0 and 3.0 and would be a lock for 4.0, if published. Iso Grifos are extremely rare on the ground, only about 400 were ever built, and are usually listed at a quarter of a million dollars and up, sadly for me.

So many cars, just one life.

#Oops…

#SoManyCarsJustOneLife

#IStandWithIsrael!

Pondering Packard

My thoughts on recent events in the Middle East will be expressed in the hashtags. I will offer that I strongly believe the Iranian people are far less interested in the destruction of Israel than their so-called government and certainly less interested than the genocidal barbarians who permeate Gaza.

I don’t know if it’s because Cadillac vs Packard is on its way to becoming the second most-read post in Disaffected Musings history, but I have been re-reading portions of both The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company by James A. Ward and Packard: A History of the Motor Car and the Company edited by the late, great Beverly Rae Kimes. The latter was awarded the Cugnot Prize, perhaps the most prestigious award in automotive publishing.

I have often written and strongly believe that many, if not, most people engage in impossible distillations of reality. The real world is complex and people have a need to simplify the world so they can understand it better. Of course, very often excessive distillation leads to loss of facts, of “truth.” In a related vein, I think the need to simplify a complex world is why so many people cling to ideology because narrow ideological guard rails make the world easier to understand, even though the limited perspective misses much of what matters.

James A. Ward understands that, when it comes to the demise of Packard, no one factor can explain it. I am going to show a large excerpt from the chapter, Epilogue: The Autopsy.

“Each of the setbacks hurt Packard, but none was severe enough by itself to fell the East Grand automaker. Like Gulliver entrapped by a host of Lilliputians, Packard was weakened by a complex, intricately interwoven set of circumstances and events. And percolating through them all was the crushing weight of Packard’s past. For two decades, Packard traded on its earlier reputation for elegance. In the postwar period, however, the gap between that reputation and reality widened. Even Nance [James, President of Packard and later Studebaker-Packard] could not escape the dead hand of history; he and his managers found it impossible to renew or discard the firm’s past to turn a new face to the buying public. The burden of Packard’s history was already heavy when Nance took over the company. The roots of its demise spread more deeply.

…Packard’s leaders, no matter how talented, failed to understand the huge demographic changes the war [World War II] wrought in the United States. Like most thoughtful men, they feared that the country would revert to hard times. If that happened, Packard was well positioned with its Clipper to prosper. Surprisingly, however, the nation boomed in the late 1940’s…personal incomes rose, which enlarged the luxury-car market. But its mainstay was no longer the old families who hid at the end of long, curving driveways. The newly rich wanted to flaunt their wealth. The product of rapid change, they looked for newness and innovation in the cars they drove. They liked acceleration and toothy grilles, which proclaimed they were on the cutting edge, and Cadillac courted them. Packard, by contrast, retained the best of its traditional styling and its tried-and-true engineering. Its cars were as good as those in the 1930’s, but they appealed to the more conservative, the financially more timid buyers. Packard could have rectified its marketing mistake without mortal pain in 1948. Instead, it manufactured the bathtubs.”

Besides being extremely well-written, in my opinion, Ward understands that Packard was not felled solely by James Nance, the downmarket move of the 1930’s, the merger with Studebaker or any other single factor. Complex problems almost always have more than one cause and almost always need multiple solutions.

I am almost certainly not going to buy a Packard, with the exception being a huge lottery win, but I will always revere the company’s place in automotive history. From the Kimes magnum opus are three photos of what I think are among the most appealing models in Packard history.

#PonderingPackard

#DeathToThe~~IranianGovernment~~

#DeathTo~~Hamas~~

#DeathTo~~Hezbollah~~

#IStandWithIsrael!

#FromTheRiverToTheSeaIsraelWillAlwaysBe

Single Digits To 2000

OK, not the best post title ever. If WordPress is correct, then this is post number 1,992.

Some days, the title just pops into my head. On others, creating a title is a struggle. I believe the post title is a factor in the number of people who read a post, but even after all this time I’ll be damned if I can figure out, in advance, which titles will be good for the level of readership.

I don’t know if people are getting more curious about blog content as I approach 2,000 posts and the hiatus, but the last three days have seen a decent number of views. The average number of views was 35 percent higher over the last three days than the average of the previous five days with a post.

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I am going to show links to posts from Why Evolution Is True, but without comment. Here goes:

Harvard reinstates mandatory standardized tests

J.K. Rowling scuppers Scotland’s new “Hate Crime and Public Order Act”

Tablet argues that the Palestinian Authority is just as bad as ~~Hamas~~ [my mark] and should not be part of a postwar government

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This Hagerty piece is titled, “5 Cars Posting Gains in a Soft Market.” The title, of course, is an admission of sorts of something I have believed for some time: that the collector car market is softening.

I will not attempt to speculate on the reasons for that softening except to say that after the exuberance of 2021-22 a return to the “norm” was inevitable. The collector car market is, in my opinion, only very peripherally related to the general market for new and used cars. That market, of course, had seen outsized gains in price in large part due to supply chain disruptions. The vast majority of people interested in buying a collector, or classic, car have no intention of making that vehicle their daily driver.

I would never drive the car I am about to show and that was one of the five cars listed by Hagerty, but I do admit they have a great design.

Honda S600 front three quarter

This is a Honda S600, in a way an ancestor of the legendary S2000. The following is a pertinent perspective, in my opinion, from the Hagerty article:

“Classic Japanese cars occupy a weird space—a few from the 1960s and ’70s, like the Toyota 2000GT and the Datsun 240Z, sit at the front of our consciousness. Others, like the Honda S600/800, have been criminally overlooked. Sure, they may be tiny for American consumers, but they carry everything that makes a sporty Honda so great, and were foundational in establishing how we think of Japanese enthusiast cars.”

I will not show pictures of the Japanese cars that are now front and center in my consciousness, regular readers should be familiar with them, but I think a car like the Lexus RC F is a hybrid of sorts. It has a powerful V-8 like an American car, but a reputation for quality that has eluded all but a few American makes.

#SingleDigitsTo2000

An Anniversary

Actually almost called today’s post Foul Friday for reasons I will not fully divulge. Let’s just say that having an acute flare of a chronic condition that, this time, seems to be beyond treatment is very depressing. Maybe the MRI at the end of the month will be a guide for treatment.

On this day in 1946, my parents married. I know I have discussed this before in the blog on this day sometime in the past. Nevertheless, it is important for me never to forget the circumstances.

My parents married in a refugee camp (called a “Displaced Persons” camp) in Austria. April 12, 1946 was not quite a year since the end of the European phase of World War II.

They, and my older sister who was born in the camp, lived there until 1949. At that point they moved to Israel.

It is entirely conceivable that I could have been born there. My mother emigrated from Israel to the US less than 2 1/2 years before I was born. My father and sister were not allowed to immigrate to the US until six months later. They did not expect to be able to violate immigration laws with impunity, but strictly followed the law.

The temporal and ideological arrogance (and ignorance) of so many people under the age of 40 is both disappointing and frightening. I weep for the future even though I will not see it.

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Shifting gears to the point of grinding them…WordPress now supplies aggregate data on those who receive email notifications of new posts. The number of “Opens” and the number of “Clicks” are displayed.

The number of Opens is fairly consistent although occasionally a post will have a few more. For example, Death And Taxes had about 40 percent more Opens than the average although with no more Clicks than usual. (Many people who receive email notifications do not even open those emails as the blog, supposedly, has a number of followers that is a multiple of the number who open the emails.)

The ratio of Clicks to Opens is also consistent and, sadly for me, averages just 35%. However, Chiefs Kingdom? had a “click rate” of 55%, which is very unusual.

I ask that if you are receiving email notifications of new posts that you actually click on the post title to read it in your browser and not just in your email. In addition, I ask that you not use the WordPress reader to read the posts as ads do not display there. Again, I also ask that you let as many people know about the blog as possible.

While I will take a hiatus of undetermined length after I publish post number 2,000 sometime later this month, it is likely I will return to blogging although how frequently and what form(s) those posts might take is undetermined.

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This Gallup poll from 2023 indicates that Americans have little trust in most professions. Here is a list showing various professions and the percentage of Americans who rate the honesty and ethical standards of the people in them as “high” or “very high.”

Nurses 79%

Medical doctors 62%

Pharmacists 58%

Accountants 41%

Bankers 26%

Real estate agents 24%

Journalists 23%

Lawyers 22%

Car salespeople 10%

Members of Congress 9%

Telemarketers 6%

That so few people claim not to trust members of Congress is no surprise. The fact that so many incumbents are re-elected is quite a disconnect, however. Maybe it’s a case of people thinking it’s better to be with the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. To me, however, that’s like people telling me they vote for the lesser of two evils. Of course, the “lesser” of two evils is still evil.

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I have been toying with the idea of publishing an Ultimate Garage 4.0 (it’s been almost three years since I published 3.0). This time, I would do it in one post, showing just one photo of each car with a very brief description.

Again, for me looks are first and performance is second, although some very good-looking cars (IMO) would not make the cut because their performance is sub-par by my standards. Also remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

If you’re a regular reader then you can probably figure out the identity of many of the cars that might be included in an Ultimate Garage 4.0. Does this car look familiar?

This is a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina coupe offered at the Mecum auction in Monterey, California in August, 2021. I wrote about how enthralled I was with the car in this post.

I am not promising to publish Ultimate Garage 4.0 just like I am not promising to return to blogging after my break. As my current medical situation reminds me, no one is promised anything.

#AnAnniversary

#IStandWithIsrael!

#SoManyCarsJustOneLife