Sad Saturday

Uncategorized

Dixie Lewis, daughter of noted author Michael Lewis (whom I consider to be a friend), died in an automobile accident a couple of days ago. She was 19.

What can we say at a time like this? This passage from Saul Bellow might fit:

 

“We have a word for everything except for what we really think and feel.”

******************

In more sad news, regular Disaffected Musings reader and commenter Dirty Dingus McGee is in the hospital. I will spare you the details although if you are a thorough reader of the comments you will know some of the particulars.

Get well soon, DDM!

******************

On this day in 1946 the first production Kaiser and Frazer automobiles came off the Willow Run line. From this wonderful article on Ate Up With Motor:

 

“The first cars were shipped to dealers on June 22; all were registered as 1947 models. Despite Kaiser and Frazer’s earlier talk of inexpensive small cars, neither model was anything close to a low-priced economy car. The Kaiser Special started at $1,868, nearly $700 more than the cheapest 1947 Chevrolet. The Frazer, meanwhile, started at $2,053, over $100 more than an eight-cylinder Buick Special. Both Kaiser-Frazer products rode well, were reasonably economical, and had nicely trimmed interiors, but they were in no way exceptional.”

 

From Classic Cars.com a picture of a 1947 Kaiser, I think:

Kaiser-Frazer had some success until the Big Three introduced new post-war cars for model years 1948 and 1949. In 1948, Kaiser-Frazer sold about 140,000 cars. By 1952, Kaiser sales (the Frazer make was discontinued after 1951) had declined to around 32,000.

The company ceased production of cars for the US market in the middle of the 1955 model year. Kaiser purchased Willys-Overland in 1953. Willys, of course, manufactured the Jeep. The company name was changed to Kaiser Jeep in 1963. American Motors Corporation bought that company in 1970. That company also included the General Products Division, which Kaiser had bought from Studebaker in 1964. (Still with me?) AMC renamed that division AM General, which built the original Hummer H1. Of course, all of AMC was sold to Chrysler Corporation in 1987.

I guess one could say that Kaiser “lives” on in Chrysler Corporation, but the latter is really just part of Stellantis and has an uncertain future. Don’t we all?

 

#SadSaturday

#MichaelLewis

#SaulBellow

#DirtyDingusMcGee

#Kaiser-Frazer

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

If you like this blog please tell your friends and share the blog URL (https://disaffectedmusings.com). Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Published by rulesoflogic

Empiricism over ideology!

Published

10 thoughts on “Sad Saturday”

  1. Thanks for the well wishes, means a lot.

    Today, parole was NOT achieved. Possibly tomorrow. They are slow to give out info to me now because I question everything. A couple examples:

    I saw my BP measurement on the monitor and 83 over 33 seemed quite low to me so I said something,

    Another time I saw that my sugar was at 86 and commented on that.

    Now they try to keep the monitors pointed away from me. Can’t imagine why.

    I know medicine is not an exact science as every body is built, and works differently, than every other one in the world. But it is MY body that this work is being done on, so keep me informed and don’t just blow smoke up my butt.

    Hoping now to get sprung tomorrow and least be able to see Memorial Day from my own porch, and not from the locked window of this closet sized hospital room.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for letting us know how things are going, DDM.

      Be well and be patient. I didn’t write “Be A patient.” The staff should not keep you in the dark, though. Like you wrote, it’s your body.

      Like

  2. Be well DDM. I’ve always said “If more people got sick, healthcare would get better.” By that I mean most people have no idea how screwed up our healthcare system is until they have to encounter it. I’ve seen the same medicine differ by $100/30 day supply at two pharmacies a mile away. I made a great side hustle as an expert witness for patients who truly experienced malpractice. I routinely see cancer patients starved at the time their nutrition should be maximized. Hopefully it will get better.

    Like

    2. Thank you David Banner for your info. I can’t really comment on the status of healthcare in general, as this is the closest encounter I have had 25 years. That encounter was not near as “close” as this one as it was for kidney stones (no surgery). I will submit that perhaps some of it, at least at the nursing and tech level, reflects the growing attitude of “screw it, thats good enough” that is pervasive throughout the rest of the world these days.

      Hopefully I’m wrong and am just discouraged by what I see as a lack of real progress on getting me outta here.

      Two steps forward, one step back, makes for slow progress.

      Like

      1. Ooh, the sight of the words “kidney stones” gives me the chills. I’ve had at least six although I haven’t had any (knock on wood) since I stopped drinking tea 20 years ago.

        Like

      2. The mention of kidney stones to those who have had them, will make most instinctively cross their legs and move a hand around to their back immediately.

        It’s a memory that lasts a long time.

        Like you, mine were causes by the caffeine in the tea and the Coca Cola I drank, usually 2+ quarts of tea and 3-4 Cokes a day. I will bet since that time I haven’t had a case of Coke or more than 5 gallons of tea total.

        No desire to go down that path again.

        Like

      3. Thanks, DDM. Hope you are being paroled today.

        Not to be a nit-picker, but it’s actually the oxalic acid in tea, not the caffeine, that contributes to stone formation. That substance binds with calcium to make calcium oxylate stones, which comprise 90% of kidney stones. Like you, I used to consume huge amounts of iced tea, especially in the summer, but I also have no desire to go down that path again.

        Like

Comments are closed.