Take It To The Limit?

"...the worst are full of passionate intensity"

--T. S. Eliot

Coincidental to this weekend's gun-nut riot in Virginia, I've been reading about, and the writings and sermons of, the 17th-century Puritans.  While trying to parse their reasoning so colorfully expressed with great unreasoning abandon, they still seem to me to be truly frightening.  And as we can today see, they may have exchanged their tall hats and wide white collars for baseball caps and t-shirts scrawled with crazy stuff, they're still with us.

Those Puritans were rightly outraged by their contemporary kings (James I & II, Charles I, and Louis XIV) claiming divine right to do whatever they wished to anyone.  But their furious reaction was about as useful to mankind as the Nazis' later face-off with the Reds.  For all the self-righteous noise and bloodshed, extremism is the wrecking ball of history.  But like an eternal pendulum, it swings from one extreme to another over the centuries, spending only a brief time in the calm middle.  

And extremist doctrines, which inspire such fanatical crowds and movements, are usually based on pretty much nothing.  Think of Ayn Rand's system of "Objectivism," which is nothing at all but a mirror image of the "collectivist," or communist, dogma it opposes.  Each far end of that pendulum's swing is just so, a false opposition, a big con, just a mirror image.  This is the foolishness of believing in ALL OR NOTHING.  So why is such a dangerous approach so attractive to so many?

I recently read a twelve-page summary of a paper presented at an academic conference.  It tried to explain people's responses to public stimuli in media and their behaviors.  But it was all statistics and groupings; I came away wondering why personality types were not considered.  Nature or nurture predominate in some people, but for most it's a mixture,  And we've found how much brain chemistry controls that nature.  So you inherit that and usually will believe and act like your family, group and community.  Even in cases where outwardly it looks like you do not.  That explains Reagan Democrats, for one example: a basically conservative nature from rural roots despite the urban work setting and union card.

So one thing is pretty constant in human nature, and that is: people go too far.  Some would say that's the spirit that leads people to explore and discover, but think about the bodies and trash on Mt. Everest and the destruction of the New World's population and forests.  Not that we all should stay home in our huts and do nothing, but don't do 85 in a pickup truck on an icy road, either. 

    

In Merrie Olde Westeros

With dashing knight Jon Snow

On our dragon like a sleigh

O'er the serfs we go

Scorching all that's in our way

At the Wall the forges ring

To make our swords shine bright

Past moon and stars we ride and sing

A slaying song tonight!

Pantsed!

I imagine a custom-tailored suit in a fine fabric can be quite comfortable.  Not so much with the usual off the rack stuff, and unless you are really into impressing strangers, you'll usually want to get out of one after the wedding or funeral you wore it to.  The usual cut of trousers, slacks or pants I have never found comfortable.  So it's blue jeans most of the time, as a default.  Recently, though, I found something new:  the Wrangler Outdoors pants made of mostly nylon with a fleece lining.  You can slide right into the car seat in them, and the lining makes quite a difference right now in December.  A little over $20, obtained on line or at a Vanity Fair outlet if you have one nearby.  Since I got two, the jeans have not been in use lately after being the staple for decades.  Students can wear them to school now and probably can't conceive that was grounds for being sent home back in the day (OK, way back).  But I probably would have had some baggy hand-me-downs then anyway, so it wasn't so much of a missed opportunity.

It's been much worse fashion- and comfort-wise in previous ages.  Take a look:

This ancient Celt should have had a mirror at home, don't you think:

I have a picture of my father having to wear boys' knickers, like these:

Sort of like wool cargo shorts.  Maybe not too bad.  But you probably couldn't wait to graduate to the big boy stuff.

And this style will always be remembered as au courant in the 1960s:

I still think they look good on the ladies.  Not so much on those of us on the other team.  And one more thing that almost always looks good on them and not us:

Speaking of not wearing shorts or jeans to school, for a little while back  in the early 1960s, the fad was a miniature belt with buckle on the top rear of the pants -- we called it "ivy league," but who knows why.

Jabberwacky

Have you been way out in the countryside recently?  Other than the observation that the corn fields have been cut, I'll bet the quiet made an impression.  Before the Industrial Age, there must have been a lot less noise all around.  In some environments -- public places, cities, big stores -- for the sake of your inner balance you can try to tune it out, but you do expect it in those environments.  Why then do people consciously add to the cacaphony  seek it out and, it seems, need it?

I'm thinking about two things:  voluntarily listening to an endless stream of chatter from media which one could turn off, and voluntarily using that portable phone 16 hours a week (on average).  It's said we endure 4,000 to 5,000 advertisements a day, also.  Wouldn't those three things, going on constantly or simultaneously, drive any normal person nuts?  Once, on a bus trip, I had to listen to a woman talk for the entire three hours at, not with, her seatmate.  I could not possibly think of enough to talk about for three hours straight.

That's irritating, but jabber has been getting dangerous:  cell phone use in vehicles leads to 1.6 million crashes a year.  Pedestrian deaths and injuries are up significantly also, and here's how that happens:

And believe it or not, texting and driving is six times more likely to cause an accident than drunk driving.  So, what's so important about jabbering back and forth that you'd risk it all for?  It's a mystery to me, except that it might just be another example of addiction in humans -- which of course makes no sense either, but it's deep and wide in our species for sure.  I ran into two teachers from Texas recently, and they said their students are so tied to their phones they have ceased to learn much of anything, have no context outside of their bubble, and don't seem to know how to actually do things.  That's scary.

         Your ears are soft and small
         and listen to an old man not at all...

                             -- John Crowe Ransom

The Four Faces of Design

Two years ago, to mark its 60th anniversary, the Museum of Modern Art installed a Fiat 500 as "an icon of automotive history and design."  It has been sold for many years in, they say, 100 countries, so it is of importance in automotive history.  But I have been thinking about this for these two years (and a few other things, of course).  The Toyota Corolla is as ubiquitous, with a shorter history, but will probably not be cited for its aesthetics.  The 500 does show an impressive use of interior space and is affordable.  But there should be more depth in an iconic design, and I think there are four areas that must be maximized to reach that status:   Quality/Reliability, Utility/Ease of Use, Affordability and Appearance.  In the first area, the Fiat is well known to have failed.  And as for aesthetics, that’s always an area of argument, but it looks like a big insect.  The Corolla is superior in all four areas but it’s not a head turner.  Giving due consideration to the four design criteria before purchasing a vehicle, though, the choice between the two is clear.

Audio speakers are always developing; today the goods are very impressive, and not only at the high end.  There have been many over the years which scored well in each design category.  The standouts are amazingly inexpensive for their quality and durability.  The still well-regarded Dynaco A-25 bookshelf size speaker sold new for about $79 apiece, and people did take notice; 600,000 were purchased.  The pair I bought new in the 1960’s still sound superb and look good.   While we’re here in audio land, we can’t forget the “silverface” era of the 1970’s for electronics such as receivers, integrated stereo amplifiers, preamps, and tuners.  Turn the big, heavy detented volume knob of this Kenwood, for example.  Behind the clearly labeled and easy to use front controls, the quality continued in big dependable power supplies and superior phono input sections.  The quality of the lower end of the line in many brands was surprising, and even today these units are available used, working just as well as they ever did.  What followed in the 1980s and 1990s was often overloaded with bells and whistles, difficult to use and ever poorer in quality.

Appliances have similarly become complex and really silly.  If you look hard, you can still find a washing machine or dryer with just three knobs each, all you will need.

Howls of derision will follow, but I’d say the Bell Touch-Tone pushbutton telephone was a fine design.  It was sturdy, easy to repair, had no menus to navigate through, and used numbers, letters and symbols in a clear and not obfuscating way.  It also did not require babying, battery tending or a $1000 replacement every few years.  Just sayin’.  From the same era, the IBM Selectric II typewriter was as far as such a device could go, but it did so perfectly.  Even though you couldn’t repair it yourself, there was rarely a need due to its durability and it was not a throw-away like a computer that can’t use the latest software.  Not portable, we’ll admit, but that meant you probably didn’t have to work and keep sending reports in while on vacation.  Bad typewriter design (just in my experience):  the manual Adler and Remington machines.  If you were fast, the keys jammed up!  You would have very strong fingers after a while, though.

Film cameras ended as an evolutionary dead branch like the typewriter, but wasn’t the Nikon F2 a beauty?  One could take some satisfaction in the skill and knowledge required to use it well, also.  Pricey to buy or repair, it still makes the design grade:  the Land Rover of cameras.  

Time to Say Goodbye

I've noticed some blogs, either after
a few posts or many over several
years, just end.  You wonder what
happened -- something drastic, or
just a loss of interest, or something
mundane like moving.  Probably
people just get busy with other
things.

When I started "Just Sayin' " I had a
lot of things in mind to explore, explain
or look into.  Into the process a hundred
other things popped up, like finding
that story in an old book that I researched
and developed into "Love Among the Coconuts."  I never would have found out about that
forgotten tale without a blog to write. 

I taught exactly one course, once at a technical school, and found that it's true you learn more
as a teacher than as a student.  Whatever you have found here, and I hope you enjoyed it, I
found so much more digging, researching, and even looking for fun illustrations.  So, as a wiser man
once said, good night and good luck.

__________

(Actually, taking a short break.  As of November 2019, we're back!)

Beyond Zip Codes



Watch your step!

You'll notice in the little "About Me" box to the left that my location is "U.S. Minor Outlying Islands."  I thought that was a pretty accurate description of our obscure little river town.  Oh, but a story is behind that geographical designation.  You would expect nothing less.

Would you believe -- as Maxwell Smart used to say -- that the United States owns an island, included in that group of Outlying ones, just off the coast of Haiti?  And why would we?  The answer has to do with the intersection of the law with that white goop deposited by generations of birds, like you see above.

That goop is called guano, and it was a sought-after source of saltpeter for gunpowder and as agricultural fertilizer for quite a while, even while the first artificial fertilizers were available.  Before both of those, the techniques to improve food and fiber production included cover crops, rotation, and manure and mineral application.  The explorer Humboldt recommended the use of guano, and the race to exploit it was on.

An American sea captain claimed the island off Haiti, Navassa, in 1857 under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which stated that could be done legally if said guano-encrusted island were (a) administered by no other government, and (b) uninhabited.  You can readily see why such islands tended to be uninhabited.  The bonus was that the U.S. military would protect the claim, because we needed the stuff.  The Navassa Phosphate Company of Baltimore ended up with the rights and proceeded to set up mining operations.  Barracks were built for 140 very unlucky laborers from Maryland, and since there was no harbor and mostly steep cliff faces at the island's edge, the product was lowered in sacks to waiting boats for export.

Navassa Island

 

It was really hot and smelly, and the supervisors must have been pretty short-tempered, so the inevitable happened in 1889 when a rebellion broke out, resulting in the deaths of five.  The miners were hauled off to trial in Baltimore, and the operation tapered off, finally ending with an evacuation in 1898 when the Spanish-American war began.  I assume the birds went back to rebuilding the guano supply.

Navassa then had a strategic importance after the opening of the Panama Canal, and a lighthouse was built in 1917 to guide the increased shipping.  A keeper and two assistants lived there for the next 12 years until the light was automated.  Probably a better job than the miners had, but it must have been dull on those two square miles:  there are only goats and lizards around, besides the busy birds, and only four species of trees to look at.   The Navy staffed an observation post on the island during World War II, but after that nature took over again and today it is a National Wildlife Refuge, with the only human activity being the Haitian fishermen who ply the waters.

It's gone now, but the lighthouse was impressive

Despite over 100 islands being claimed over time under that Guano Act, only ten remain U.S. possessions.  One other (French Frigate Shoals -- sounds like a resort) has been incorporated into the state of Hawaii, and two in the Caribbean are disputed by countries they're close to (Bajo Nuevo Bank and Seranilla Bank).  Swains Island became part of the territory of American Samoa; the rest just bake in the sun, their guano piles undisturbed by commerce or geopolitics.

Investigators follow the money.  Sometimes in history you just follow the poop.