Tag: skill-estate
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Zenith Flash-matic
An odd tech dead end from 1956. I got a hint of this while browsing old radio-TV trade journals, then looked it up. Zenith was the king of gadgets and gimmicks. Everything they made had at least one fascinating mechanical or electronic feature. The shutter dial on late 30s radios was the best of all.…
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Literally to the choir
Ross Douthatt, a conservative Catholic who has been writing for NYTimes for many years, has a new book titled “Everyone should go to church.” I got tired of Catholic intellectuals a long time ago. Ockham got tired of them 700 years ago. They have an endless appetite for detailed argument about insignificant matters. In this…
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Truth in advertising
Auto writers uniformly say that Ford made a big mistake by emphasizing safety in ’56. Nobody wants safety! First, Ford wasn’t alone in the “mistake”. Everyone started offering seat belts and padded dashes in ’56. Imperial and Chrysler had standard padding since ’49. Second, it’s simply not true that everyone hates safety. Real men are…
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Carney is FDR.
I started the previous item intending to introduce this topic but then skidded off into my usual Ford vs Wall Street rant. The rant is relevant to current news, so I’ll leave it there and try again. Capital is MONEY or PROPERTY that serves to start or expand a business. Property includes land, buildings, tools,…
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Local pride
The latest Collectible Auto mag features a car that nicely meshes with two of my interests. It’s a carefully maintained ’57 Studebaker sedan, made in Hamilton and bought in Vancouver. The original owner used the car for long trips, so he rigged the front seat to recline Nash-style. When he died in 1980 his grandson…
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Surprising optimism
Economist Jeff Rubin, interviewed by Tara Henley, offers one big positive surprise plus some unsurprising facts. Surprising: Rubin points out that Trump’s first term imposed new tariffs on China**. Biden bashed the tariffs for partisan advantage, but actually continued and expanded the tariffs. Now Trump 2 is imposing more. These tariffs are bringing one genuine…
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From this angle
When Bush announced the TARP bailout for stock criminals in 2008, a few “leftist” economists understood it. They called it privatizing the gains and socializing the losses. Banks and stock criminals could keep all their criminal gains from reckless betting, and the government would automatically make up their losses when their stupid bets missed the…
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A speech for the ages
Perfection. Everything he says is perfect, every move he proposes is perfect. I can’t add or bitch about one word or comma or space. US Democrats could learn from this. They won’t.
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Easy to see, hard to see
Random thought that seems pretty good at the moment. Our main problem now is not monopolies on selling, it’s monopolies on buying. (Yes, I know it’s called a monopsony, but that’s an Economist Word and I won’t use it.) A monopoly on buying is unfamiliar because most people don’t experience it. It only affects the…
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Localize, localize, localize
An old song has been popping in my mental jukebox lately. I’m convinced it’s a railroad song. You can hear the locomotive chugging and a dopplered whistle, similar to Chattanooga Choochoo. The last two lines seem to be: Riding on the __ __, Riding on the __ __ line. There’s a two-syllable railroad in the…
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Looks familiar!
Skimming through some 1966 trade journals recently added at American Radio Library, this GE clock caught my eye: Hey, that looks like the clock in my living room, my main source of time when I’m not facing the computer. Sure enough, on the back it says Model 7223, just like the one in the ad.…
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Itemizing national pride
Interesting piece at TheHub on how Canadian wine drinkers can stop buying US wine. His first suggestion is excellent. The rain-shadow zone of BC is identical in climate and soil to the rain-shadow part of Washington. Any grape that grows around Wenatchee will also grow around Kelowna. The author says BC does have some vineyards…
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Wish I’d said it…
Saw a splendidly succinct proverb in an online meme: The opposite of depression is expression. I normally say it two ways, both less succinct. MAKE. WALK. Men need to make things. If they can’t make things they will break things. Graybill said it in ornate 1880 style: The people of Free-Trade countries are therefore driven…
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π Day
Keeping up a tradition… π Day again! Since I’m talking typography lately, I’ll hash and rehash a couple items from 2019. = = = = = Thinking about Trump as Pied Piper. When the metaphor first appeared in those DNC emails I didn’t quite understand it. After learning that Trump is Roy Cohn’s protege, I…
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Today is is Proofreading Day!
My kind of day for srue. I’m a natural proofraeder and corrector, always on teh lookout for sutble errors and repepetitions. Not sardonic; editing and proofreading were always my strongest skills. I should have stuck with printing and moved into an editing career. But the official day IS sardonic. Corporate Trainer Judy Beaver created National…
Polistra's Mill 