KAREN WANTS TO SPEAK WITH YOUR LAWN SERVICE.

We could make a case that the people who were most neurotic about locking the country down at least had a contagious disease to fret about.  I'm not sure what to do with the recent neuroses involving mechanical leaf blowers.  But if you're a neurotic cat lady or a woke wine woman, there's always something to stress over.  "Leaf Blower Fight Roils Greenwich, Conn., Home to World’s Most Perfect Lawns."  That's from The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper whose real-estate section is called "Mansion."  You'd think that people who hired in lawn services might understand something about hiring silence.  "Couldn't he talk with his neighbor about the timing of yard work? Pay the landscaper a bribe to show up later? Find one of those Third Places to hang out at on Thursdays?"

THE PRESIDENT SHOULD ACT LIKE AN ELECTED KING.

The presidency is a cult.  It doesn't help when members of the president's party in Congress prefer that the elected king issue ukases, or that the Supreme Court legislate from the High Bench.

Thanksgiving offered an opportunity to clear out more accumulated clutter, including a pass through of issues of the now shut down Cato Policy Report.  The back page always included a collection of outrages under the rubric of "To Be Governed."  These stuck out.  First, the high priestess of the Hamas Caucus showcased her brilliance.

Supreme Court Says Congress Makes the Laws
SCOTUS guts the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions, fight climate change. The federal government will be restricted from regulating anything of significance in the absence of a clear Congressional directive to do so.
—Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Twitter, June 30, 2022

Second, who knew the Senate was not at the margin of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema from "getting anything done" as long as Dementia Joe had a pen and a phone?

Executive Power Unchained
[The Biden] administration has spent the past year and a half trying to pass robust climate change legislation, only to see it collapse last week.…

“In many ways the president put all his chips in this action by Congress, and we failed,” said Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon. But, he said, “This unchains the president from waiting for Congress to act.”
—New York Times, July 19, 2022

It sucks to have a political class whose understanding of National Affairs is so circumscribed that the best they can do is pontificate over who should next have the authority to issue executive orders, and appoint Justices with the Proper Political Principles.  It's pro wrestling for weaklings in designer suits.

THEY WERE MALADJUSTED BEFORE THE LOCKDOWNS.

During the corona tyranny, there were people who embraced it.  They weren't right in the head, were they?  "People who stuck by UK Covid rules have worst mental health, says survey"

For "communal" personalities, read "common scolds."

Those who followed the restrictions most closely when the pandemic hit are the most likely to be suffering from stress, anxiety and depression, academics at Bangor University have found.

They identified that people with “communal” personalities – who are more caring, sensitive and aware of others’ needs – adhered the most rigorously with the lockdown protocols that Boris Johnson and senior medics and scientists recommended.

However, people with “agentic” personalities – who are more independent, more competitive and like to have control over their lives – were least likely to exhibit those behaviours.

“The more individuals complied with health advice during lockdown, the worse their wellbeing post-lockdown,” concluded Dr Marley Willegers and colleagues.

The fear of catching Covid proved both an upside and a downside, they found. “While increasing individuals’ worry of infection can effectively drive compliance, it also has negative consequences on people’s wellbeing and recovery,” they said.

The article says little about how the neurotic lockdowners got their kicks making everybody else miserable with them.  It does, however, propose a new understanding of "mind numbed robots."

“Communal” types displayed the highest levels of continuing disturbance to their mental wellbeing. However, “agentic” people had been able to “bounce back” better from lockdown mode.

Willegers, an academic at Bangor University’s institute for the psychology of elite performance, said some people found it hard to make the transition from receiving regular exhortations about following public health advice during the pandemic to no advice when lockdown ended.

“Throughout the pandemic messaging campaigns were designed to ensure people continued to follow the rules. But there was no messaging campaign as we came out of the pandemic to help everyone safely transition back to normality.

“Without this, certain personality types have retained infection prevention behaviour and anxiety that undermines their mental wellbeing,” he added.

The enduringly poor mental health being experienced by people who adhered to the rules is “deeply disturbing.”

Not as disturbing as their behavior toward Normals during the shutdowns.

“The finding that people who complied with pandemic restrictions are more likely to have poorer mental health three years on is deeply disturbing.

“The fear, loss and trauma created by the pandemic are having a lasting impact on many people’s mental health. For some, this may have been exacerbated by the loss of social solidarity from seeing others not complying with the same restrictions,” said Andy Bell, its chief executive.

Experts say the widespread damage Covid did to mental health in Britain is the main reason demand for NHS psychological and psychiatric services has soared in recent years.

Mark Winstanley, the chief executive of the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: “The early days of the pandemic were characterised by significant disruption, uncertainty and a lack of control, factors which can all fuel anxiety and low mood.

What would we ever do without experts? What's the over-under on "we'd do better?"

NAILED IT IN ONE TAKE.

A number of my neighbors must have been of like mind last Friday, taking advantage of the post-prandial and senior discounts to watch Napoleon.  I hope they at least had a restful midafternoon to go with the popcorn and free refills for members of the frequent viewers' club.

The people who do military history as a vocation or avocation have been all over it, and we have the kind of consensus normally seen in Wisconsin where the suckitude of the Bears is concerned.

At the beginning of his review for The American Conservative, Sumantra Maitra quotes a previous biographer who captures the essence of the thing.

The historian Adam Zamoyski once quipped about Napoleon’s greatness by recounting an apocryphal incident of Napoleon trying to pick up a lady of the night at Paris’s famous red-light district a couple of years before the Revolution that wrecked Europe. An eighteen-year-old young gunnery officer with a funny accent, he finally succeeded. Then, Bonaparte, being who he was, wrote about it all in his diary elaborately. What was important in that peculiar confessional was not that he managed to finally bed a paid working girl, but that he tried the same thing and failed thrice before. Zamoyski observed drily that, if an officer of the French artillery cannot manage to pick up an escort, there are reasonable arguments to be made that the performance might not be considered as some hallmark of forthcoming greatness.

It is interesting to note that Count Zamoyski himself is of aristocratic stock, with a family name and crest dating back to the fifteenth century. His bemused disdain towards the Corsican upstart was in some ways part of a noble European tradition—it is in the blood of aristocracy to make fun of classless upstarts.

Yes, and it is in the blood of contemporary writers and directors to turn every story into Dynasty, or perhaps Keeping Up with the Kardashians with hand-sewn costumes.  It's. A. Contemporary. Movie.  If it leaves people with the impression that Josephine's menopause was the proximate cause of a decade of misery east of the Rhine, so be it.  Anything can happen in a cartoon, or a soap opera, even one set up as a blockbuster movie about a Corsican corporal.  Mr Maitra has a suggestion.  "Yet to those rare few, genuinely interested in historical inquiry of the tumultuous 19th century, I’d humbly suggest reading good old history books and a trip to some older art museums over watching [director Ridley] Scott’s latest."

LIFE'S LESSONS.

The Midweek is an advertising supplement to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle that includes a page of vignettes from the past under the heading "Looking Back."  The November 22 edition, at page 9 of the page images, includes instructive items.  From 1923, we see an unexpected effect of the Highway Lobby.

Fate seems to have it in for Kaneville. When the DeKalb electric line was sold under the hammer for $90,000 last October, the village saw its electric car service slipping away. Then the junking of the line began. That was discomforting enough. Now, as if to add insult to injury, the village has been plunged into medieval darkness as the jinking of the line disconnected the wire which brought electrical power by way of the DeKalb line from the A. E. & C. power plant at North Aurora. Around 6 o’clock in the evening, Kaneville takes on the appearance of a pioneer village.

The Aurora Elgin & Chicago had its own generating station and sold power surplus to its traction requirements.  Once upon a time, successor company Chicago Aurora & Elgin was part of Samuel Insull's midwestern power and transportation portfolio, which Our Progressive Betters thought was too leveraged, and too concentrated, an enterprise, and it took the illusion of Rural Electrification to turn the lights back on in Kaneville.

From 1948, there was a lesson about winning wars and then being magnanimous.

Children aged six through 18 who attend the Odenalk School in Germany located in the state of Hessen on the upper Rhine near Darmstadt will receive clothing, food, school supplies and money to enable them to stay in school, from the students of Sycamore High School at Christmas. The present problem facing the parents of the 180 students in that German school is lack of sufficient money to permit the children to continue with their education.

You fight and end wars, decisively and finally, and then show magnanimity in victory.

SOMETIMES DEMOCRACY MEANS YOU LOSE AN ELECTION.

That doesn't stop some people from claiming that when their favored candidate loses, it's The End of Democracy as We Know It.  Now they're crying over an outcome in Argentina.

"Are Argentineans so weary that they are willing to risk their hard-earned democracy? We’ll find out on Sunday.”

Journalists keep using that word democracy, but I don’t think they know what it means.

They tell us that voting for someone they don’t like will destroy democracy. It is hard not to root for the populist over the elitist.

Sometimes the populists are on the side of the people.

Populism—the phenomenon whereby the wrong candidate wins a democratic election and thereby “threatens democracy”—had a good week. A very good week. Two candidates without official hall passes from the global elites—Milei in Argentina and Wilders in The Netherlands—romped to victory without the permission of the media. Viktor Orban twisted the knife by sending congratulations to Milei and announcing that he’d travel to Argentina to attend Milei’s inauguration. If Trump were to go, newsrooms everywhere would start drinking Kool Aid.

It's gotten so bad on the left that Matt Yglesias is confused.

I don’t really have a handle on Javier Milei, who keeps getting shorthanded in the media as a radical libertarian and also as an Argentinian Trump.

This is maybe my small-minded literalism, but whenever I think about this situation, my brain keeps tripping over the fact that these descriptions are wildly at odds with each other.

Small details.  Whenever the Wrong People win an election, it must be because the voters are having a temper tantrum.  "You could almost hear the collective gasps of newsrooms throughout the campaign—'You can’t elect this guy! His hair is even worse than Trump’s!'  'Forget menacing red MAGA hats—his use of chainsaws at campaign rallies is frightening!'"  What matters to the left is that Trumpian populism, Reagan conservatism, and Friedman libertarianism have in common their antipathy to leftist malaise as usual.

Javier Milei—a far-right admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump who says that climate change is a "socialist lie" and who pledged to take a "chainsaw" to social programs—will be Argentina's next president after winning a decisive victory in Sunday's runoff.

Sergio Massa, Argentina's Peronist economy minister, conceded defeat Sunday evening to the 53-year-old Milei, a radical libertarian economist often called the "Trump of Argentina" who will take office amid a looming recession, triple-digit inflation, and a nearly 40% poverty rate in Latin America's third-largest economy.

It's not that the Common Dreams types have a lot of regard for Peronism, about the best that can be said for that government is no foolish attempts to liberate the Falklands or take Communists swimming from helicopters.

THE REALITY OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS?

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train was roaming the route of the Arrow and Midwest Hiawatha on Sunday, and there was snow on the ground.  The second track has long been gone west of Pingree Grove and east of Byron.

Mark Llanuza photograph retrieved from Facebook.

The roads were near a state the highway patrol used to describe as "good winter driving conditions."  The drivers, less so, although fortune must have favored the risk-takers, as I saw none in the ditch.  I gave myself plenty of time to meet the train at Byron.

The snow was of the packing kind, and these kids were hard at work building the Ghost of Deramus Freight Trains Past.  The former Chicago Great Western extends as far east as the nuclear generating station that still faces an uncertain future.

SINK THAT BOAT.

Yes, with the Axe.

“ROW THE BOAT” HAHAHAHAHAHA pic.twitter.com/aOAu9Gt8k1

— Nathan (@NathanJH31) November 25, 2023

The idea of a gopher carrying an axe is silly.  The past two years, though, the Axe was held hostage in the Cities, presumably not to be used in looting liquor stores.  Saturday, though, the Badgers reclaimed it.

Mark Hoffman photograph retrieved from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The ritual deconstruction of the goalposts followed.  No doubt the culture-studies types at Minnesota whinged about the lack of any interrogation prior to the chopping.

The boat-rowers, however, qualify for a participation trophy.

Early Sunday morning, the Gophers found out that there would be one spot available for a 5-7 team to play in a bowl game, and because of their work in the classroom they will be that team.

The Gophers didn't win six games needed for traditional bowl eligibility, but their Academic Progress Rate score was best among the nation's five-win teams.

Because there were only 79 teams to fill the 82 spots for the 41 bowl games, the Gophers got in. The first two open spots will be filled by James Madison (11-1) and Jacksonville State (8-4), former FCS teams still in their transitionary period in moving to FBS. That left one spot for a 5-7 team, and the Gophers will get it when bowl assignments are announced next Sunday. Coach P.J. Fleck said the Gophers would accept a bowl invitation.

It might be a small consolation for the Gophers, who saw Wisconsin score 14 second-half points and give up none to improve to 7-5.

Minnesota owe Illinois one, as had Northwestern won their final game, their team, double secret probation notwithstanding, would have qualified with six wins.

I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING.

The Detroit Lions have discovered that Matt LaFleur, Jordan Love, and the Green Bay Packers are not Matt Eberflus, Justin Fields, and the Chicago Bears Still Suck.  There has been a tradition of long standing in Detroit called "lose on Thanksgiving."

The Packers have a couple of nice pieces on the defensive line, and Rashan Gary is capable of wrecking any plan, but up front, they aren’t the San Francisco 49ers … or even the Philadelphia Eagles.

The performance was surprising, to be sure. It was also curious, because the Lions — and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — couldn't make the right adjustments and give [quarterback Jared] Goff a chance at finding a rhythm.

The Lions were held to 14 points until a late garbage-time touchdown. Whenever they got into the red zone, or even to midfield, they stalled out.

If this were just one game, that'd be one thing. That was the thinking following last week's win over the Chicago Bears. But this is consecutive games now in which the offense has struggled against division rivals without stellar defenses.

True, Goff found his way late against the Bears. Yet the euphoria didn’t even last a week.

Maybe it's not a full-blown trend, but consider this: The Lions are two plays from being 6-5, considering that Bears game and how they won in Los Angeles against the Chargers the week before that. To their credit, they made the plays and earned the wins and now stand at 8-3.

The Lions still hold the lead in the division, but with two games yet to play with the Vikings, the Detroit sports punditry is worrying.

[Y]ou can clean up turnovers.

But the most concerning part of this was how easy it was for the Packers to complete passes.

The Packers won the coin toss and elected to receive. It was like they couldn’t wait for their first play. Couldn’t wait to throw the first punch, and they came out slinging it.

On the first play, Jordan Love threw a bomb to Christian Watson — it was underthrown it or else it could have been a touchdown. Four plays later, Love hit Jayden Reed, the rookie from Michigan State, for a 10-yard touchdown.

And just like that, the Packers had the lead, less than 4 minutes in.

The Packers had figured out the way to beat this team: Chuck the ball all over the place.

Love started on fire, completing 12 of his first 15 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns. More importantly, he wasn’t sacked and didn’t have any turnovers in building that 23-6 lead.

Recruit, draft, and develop. The Packers are still out of the playoffs. We'll see what the young players are capable of in the remaining month.

YET ANOTHER CONTESTED THANKSGIVING.

That's a tradition almost as old as Thanksgiving, certainly as old as this weblog.  There were Cranky Leftists then, and there are Cranky Leftists now.

It’s the holiday season which means family, food, football and whiny articles from progressives about how to properly politicize your holiday gatherings. The Nation seems to have drawn the short straw this year with a piece by two authors titled “Should America Keep Celebrating Thanksgiving?” The twist in the piece is that the authors think we should in fact continue to celebrate the holiday, but only if we turn it into another excuse for a leftist struggle session.

I wonder whether the founders of The Nation slagged on Abraham Lincoln for proclaiming a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer in 1863 with Lee and Meade in a standoff south of the Potomac.  I suspect that the notion of giving thanks for a bountiful enough harvest to get through the winter long antedates Europeans settling in the Americas, and there are multiple interpretations of what those New England settlers really did.  Not that it matters.

They’re mostly getting together to enjoy each other’s company and some good food. It’s a reminder that some things, especially family, are more important that politics. That will never be good enough for people whose entire lives revolve around partisan political activity but it’s what most Americans are going to focus on this week whether the activists like it or not.

Plus football. How has that succession plan been going on in Green Bay?

The Green Bаy Pасkerѕ аre lookіng to buіld theіr сonfіdenсe wіth more wіnѕ іn the mіddle of the ѕeаѕon. It аll ѕtаrted off іn the rіght dіreсtіon durіng theіr mаtсhuр аgаіnѕt the Loѕ Angeleѕ Chаrgerѕ. Mаtt LаFleur ѕаw Jordаn Love beсome the offenѕіve engіne for the ѕquаd аѕ he trіumрhed over Juѕtіn Herbert. The Pасkerѕ’ heаd сoасh knew thаt hіѕ quаrterbасk hаd рulled off ѕome flаѕheѕ of аmаzіng tаlent іn theіr wіn, vіа Ryаn Wood of USA Todаy.

They're the midday game at Detroit, which will determine the timing of a lot of turkey dinners tomorrow.  Jordan Love has progressed.

There will be no Friday short takes this week.

I give thanks for your readership and your comments.

Spare a few moments thanks for the young people in harm's way around the world, for the people in emergency services who deserve to sit down to the turkey without the alarm ringing, for the people in transportation, tourism, and entertainment passing on their family gatherings to enhance yours.

Postings will resume next week.

SIXTY YEARS AGO.

Friday was for violin lessons.  Mrs LeMaster, who was no relation of a Milwaukee Braves pitcher (she probably got that question a lot) of the era, was the circuit-riding teacher, and her 1 pm stop was at the now-demolished MacArthur School on the southwest side, to develop our technique at getting musical sounds, rather than scratches and squeaks, out of our instruments.

That Friday, we had heard at lunchtime of President Kennedy being shot, and those teachers who had televisions in their classrooms were demonstrating the note-taking techniques they had been attempting to develop in us.  Sometimes modelling the behavior is the best example, but you still have to know what notes to take, or, in the case of the violin, to finger.  Those of us in the violin class trooped off as required, and we waited.  Around 1.30 that afternoon, Mrs LeMaster walked in:  "he's dead."  She had a car radio, which was still an upscale option in the day, and was listening to the bulletins.  We did a bit of technique all the same.

That weekend, the conspiracy-mongering began, particularly after assassination suspect Lee Oswald was shot on live television, perhaps the first time the news division got to play with the instant replay machinery that was in Dallas for the football games still ongoing that Sunday.

It is the Cold Spring Shops position that Lee Oswald had the motive and the opportunity to do the deed, and that Jack Ruby acted on impulse.  I recommend Vincent Bugliosi's Reclaiming History for the details.  "All evidence points to Lee Oswald as the purchaser of that rifle and as in possession of that rifle on November 22, 1963. Thus, no second shooter. All the evidence of Lee Oswald's life and character precludes his employment by U.S. or Soviet intelligence or by anti-Castro Cubans, or by the Outfit. Much of that part of the book is heavy going, and Mr Bugliosi understandably has announced his retirement from further research and writing about the Kennedy assassination."  I'll offer brief (by my standards 😉) elaborations on that assertion below the jump.

THE FINAL SUMMIT.

Railway Age reports, "Clemson history professor and prolific railroad historian H. Roger Grant has died," continuing "Any readers who study railroad history are likely familiar with the work of H. Roger Grant."  His train set was his work.

Clemson University released a statement about Grant’s passing:

“Clemson University mourns the death of H. ‘Roger’ Grant, Professor, History. The University was notified on Nov. 17 that Dr. Grant had passed away. He was hired at Clemson on August 15, 1996, and was in his 27th year at the University.

“Roger was one of the leading historians of American railroads with an amazing record of having published more than 40 books, but what his colleagues will remember is his kindness and generosity, especially to new faculty,” said Stephanie Barczewski, Acting Chair, Department of History and Geography. “Beyond his academic accomplishments, Roger was instrumental in building community within the department and university, and he will be greatly missed.”

“Grant, who intended to retire at the end of the semester, was continuing his research, with two more books in development when he died. He was recognized as the University’s Centennial Professor in 2004. He was also honored as one of 75 people worthy of praise in the 75th anniversary of Trains magazine.”

Professor Grant was able to write scholarly books that did not bog the serious ferroequinologist down in scholarly jargon or score-settling.

I'm tempted to marvel simply that the product of an academic press (Indiana, in this instance) doesn't have a sub-title.  Yes, it has pictures, but no, it is not a Central Electric Railfans' Association style corporate history with rosters and notes on the disposition of cars.  It's closer in organization and scope to Frank Rowsome's old Trolley Car Treasury: there's the emergence of the cars, the prosperous years, the decline and fall, and the preservation, this time limited to the interurban (as opposed to the city and suburban) services.

It's the social history and political economy of the interurbans that give Grant's book its structure.  The electric car came along at an inopportune time: yes, it could overcome the inflexibility of the steam train with lighter construction, more frequent schedules, and the possibility of covering costs in more thinly settled areas.  Thus, between the electric cars and the introduction of rural telephones, rural folk could arrange the delivery of stuff or go into town for church or a social event or interact with a greater range of people or otherwise be spared the centuries-old idiocy of rural life.  Likewise, they could bring their goods to market, loading milk cans on the baggage section of the cars, or bringing the eggs into town and being home in time to make supper.

The timing was inopportune, though, as the private automobile, sometimes using the same electric technology, later with the Otto cycle engine, gave people even more freedom of movement (once the taxpayers started picking up the tab for improved roads, that is) and the private automobile provided courting couples with even more opportunities to escape eyes on the front porch as well as a safe space, if you will, for women who might otherwise be hit on on the electric cars.  Thus, although the interurbans made efforts to improve service and retain passengers, they "ran out of time."

And, of course, an Iowa man with more than a passing interest in lost causes would document the Chicago Great Western and the social history of small town boosters distributing post cards showing nonexistent interurbans.

TO REALLY SCREW THINGS UP REQUIRES A COMPUTER.

Last week, a Chicago Transit Authority L train on the Skokie service had a close encounter with a snowplow.

More than 30 people were injured, and more than 20 were hospitalized, following a crash involving a Chicago Transit Authority train today (Thurday, Nov. 16), according to updated information from the Chicago Fire Department.

The latest information, as reported by WMAQ-TV, is that at least 38 people were injured, with 23 transported to hospitals. Of those, at least two were critically injured; none of the injuries were reported to be life-threatening. Four of the injured were reported to be children. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the operator of the CTA train was among the most critically injured.

WLS-TV reports that the collision occurred at 10:39 a.m. in the city’s Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side, near the Howard Street station on the Red and Yellow lines. A Yellow Line train reportedly hit maintenance equipment — described as a snowplow — in the Howard railyard; images show the front of a railcar significantly caved in from the impact. A Chicago Fire Department spokesman said the train and plow were moving in the same direction, but the train, moving about 30 mph, rear-ended the plow, going about 10 mph, according to the Sun-Times.

By the weekend, the National Transportation Safety Board had completed their investigation.

A design problem with the braking for the CTA equipment played a role in Thursday’s collision between a Yellow Line train and a piece of train maintenance machinery, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said today (Saturday, Nov. 18). Homendy was speaking at a press briefing on the investigation into the accident that injured 38 people.

Homendy said NTSB investigators have downloaded information from the train’s event recorder and determined the two-car train was going 26.9 mph when it struck a “Snow Fighter” snowplow near the Howard Street station in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the city’s North Side [see “Chicago L train hits maintenance equipment …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 16, 2023]. The event recorder set the time of the collision at 10:31 a.m.

The design problem, she said, stemmed from the fact that the CTA’s braking algorithm called for the train to be able to stop in 1,780 feet, while a new system would call for 2,745 feet to stop. “The braking distance should have been longer,” she said. “… That is a design problem. Why is it different today? Over time, cars get heavier, there are more passengers; we’ll have to look at some changes that have been made to the system.” Part of the NTSB’s ongoing investigation, she said, will be determining remedies for the braking issue.

Homendy said investigators had also determined the train experienced some wheel slippage because of residue on the tracks.

Homendy said the snowplow was being used for training in advance of winter, and that several days of training had been scheduled. Six people were aboard the snowplow; she said preliminary information was that the snowplow was stopped at the time of the collision.

Braking algorithm?  What happened to the motorman, whose responsibility is to be aware of the signals, the track conditioning, and the handling characteristics of the cars, the better to be able to control the speed of the train?  A Sun-Times followup leaves more questions than answers.

The operator needed more time to brake than the train was designed for, and the train’s wheels slipped due to residue on the tracks, the NTSB said Saturday.

But passengers and a transportation expert question the role of potential human error, including why the train was on the same track as a snow plow being used to train CTA employees.

Indeed. There is a motorman, and we wish him a full recovery from his injuries, but it's on him to have his fair weather and foul weather landmarks for making brake applications, algorithm or positive train control notwithstanding.

[S]everal key questions remain.

One is whether the operator ran through a signal or if there was a stop signal at all, said Joseph Schwieterman, professor of transportation at DePaul University.

There’s also the question of whether the conductor was alerted to the presence of the snow plow.

“Usually, there’s enough clearance, you wouldn’t have two trains in the same signal block,” Schwieterman said.

Regarding the stopping distance, he said he was surprised the CTA is just now learning that its trains require more distance to stop than previously thought.

Positive train control, which several people are slagging on the Transit Authority for not installing, is not the panacea either.  The system might have a better idea where in the block in advance the snowplow is, but the algorithm also has to know the condition of the rails and the weight of the train and its passengers, in order to get the stopping distance right.

RECLAIMING THE GOOD OF THE INTELLECT.

University administrators and faculty have long viewed their calling as demonstrating their virtue by sticking their fingers in the eyes of Normals and calling it sophistication: that is, until when Hamas terrorists decided that killing peaceniks at a folk concert was preferable to cultivating their support.  A faction fight among the Anointed followed.  "Yes, a call for free speech on campus in the wake of alumni withdrawing their support of universities being too obviously captured by progressive intolerance might be of a piece with Saddam Hussein trying to claim a victory in the middle of a rout."

And yet, the calls for a restoration of a state of good repair in academic discourse continue.  First up, note a recent statement from an organization calling itself Academic Freedom Alliance.

Universities are now under extraordinary pressure to police the speech and beliefs of members of the campus community. It is essential that universities resist the pressure to do so.

Separate from the merits of any particular controversy, there are several well-established principles that should guide universities in responding to individual controversies. Universities should reaffirm and recommit themselves to principles that help preserve American institutions of higher education as vibrant homes of free inquiry.

Professors must enjoy the liberty to discuss and even promote controversial ideas and to present controversial materials to students in their classes. Professors have an obligation, however, not to take advantage of their captive audience of students by introducing ideas or materials that are not germane to the subject matter of their class. Likewise, professors have a responsibility not to exploit their privileged position to attempt to indoctrinate students or to subject them to political or ideological litmus tests or pressures in their classroom assignments. Nor do professors have a right to compromise the education of their students by conducting their classes in a manner designed simply to advance their favored political causes. Universities must resist calls to censor what is taught in classrooms, but they must also ensure that classes are used for proper educational purposes.

Look, I don't care who gets the credit for these things, as long as they are done.

LET THE IDIOTS EXPOSE THEIR IDIOCY.

There's a tradition of long standing of calling attention to your Virtue by presenting yourself in a transgressive way.  Long hair in the 1960s.  Nose studs and nose rings in the 1980s.  Face tattoos more recently.  All of those things have long since lost their shock value.  What now?  Praise Allah, rediscover Osama bin Laden's manifesto, and veil yourself.

ARE WE SICK OF GOVERNMENT YET?

The corona tyranny offers arguments for separating science and state, and school and state.

YES. NEXT QUESTION?

"Is it time for America's elder statesmen to retire?"  I've long thought so, and their antics would be funny were their actions not so dumb.

The torch has been passed to a new generation of Mungers.  So let it be with the politicians.

Derived from the Latin word senex, which means 'old' and 'old man', the Senate has always been home to some of the country's most elder statesmen and women. However, with a median age of 65, today's Senate is now the oldest it has ever been, according to Professor Kevin Munger and author of Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture.

"We expect people to be in their 50s and 60s - it's perfectly reasonable to have people with that experience running the country," he told the BBC. "But we're talking about it now because we have people who are in their 80s and running the country and that is unique."

Mr Munger said the reasons for this current aging leadership varies. Many are unable to let go of being in power, which in turn is enabled by no term limits. The baby boom (those born from 1946 to 1964) also meant that a large cohort of elected officials has approached retirement age.

"We are simply seeing the decades downstream consequence of that, amplified by specific historical events and American political institutions," he said.

With so few leaving office, opportunities for young people to join the ranks are rare. Those that have broken through the so-called grey wall say they can often be underestimated because of their age.

That absence of institutional memory will manifest itself eventually, probably at the worst possible time.  You can walk away from it, as Vermont's Patrick Leahy has.  "While he's still involved in some local politics, he is happy teaching at his local university and spending time with his wife, children and grandkids."  I wonder if it's time to expand the "buy your advisor a train set" campaign to include politicians.

SHOPPING FOR ACADEMIC PRINCIPLES.

I'm quite clear on what the role of a university ought to be.  "Universities best serve their students through rigorous development of reasoning skills and respect for what we have learned."  That's based on Richard "Underground Grammarian" Mitchell.  "And that’s what a university is, if it is a university, and not a jumped-up trade school, or a conditioning station for docile citizens, or a pulpit of ideology. It is a place devoted to the study and preservation and nurture of whatever human wisdom can be found that pertains to everybody who lives, or has lived, or ever will live, on Earth."

GREAT MOMENTS IN YELLOW JOURNALISM.

Let us recognize Marina Pitofsky, Morale Conditioner with USA Today.  "Donald Trump mocks Jimmy Carter's presidency day after Rosalynn Carter entered hospice care."  The former president simply spouted a right-populist talking point of long pedigree.

Former President Donald Trump mocked former President Jimmy Carter at an event in Iowa on Saturday, one day after the Carter family publicly confirmed former first lady Rosalynn Carter has entered hospice care.

Trump, criticizing Biden at a rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa, told a crowd of supporters that “the happiest person anywhere in this country right now is Jimmy Carter because his administration looked brilliant compared to these clowns.”

“Compared to Biden, Jimmy Carter was a brilliant, brilliant president,” Trump said.

It's not as if the rally wasn't scheduled long before the former first lady's health status changed, or that the Jarrett regency is bringing the malaise back as fast as they can get Dementia Joe to sign executive orders.   What was he supposed to do, ask for thoughts and prayers for the Carter family, now in civilian life, and then note that it's only compared with the current regime that the Carter administration looks good.

DOMESTICATED WOODCHUCKS?

Groundhogs, marmots, what have you, I see them as pests, and the local variation are almost as aggressive as beaver gnawing on small trees.

Apparently, though, some people domesticate 'em and give 'em baths.

Yes, let's wrap up what has otherwise been another stressful week with something oddly amusing.

FRIDAY short TAKES.

The past twenty-plus years are not encouraging.  "Will a ridiculous president encourage Americans to take the presidency less seriously?" No.  Next idea? Let's make a better deal.  "Behind Door No. 1 is a Joe Biden reelection in which Kamala Harris calls the White House twice a day to check on the ancient president’s pulse. Behind Door No. 2 is an America that turns into an anarchic day care full of armed toddlers who have been fed Red Bulls and Skittles for breakfast and lunch."  What's behind Door No. 3?  "If neither party nominates someone close to a majority of the public who actually wants to be president, the possibilities are endless for bad things to happen."  Yes, the last non-ridiculous president was the elder George Bush, but sooner or later our luck might run out.  "Americans should certainly fear another unhinged Trump presidency. But given the Hamas sympathies on display from rather too many Democrats, the alternative could also prove deeply problematic."

Politically correct censoriousness?  "It treats people as children who must be shielded from conversation, unable to manage a verbal exchange without supervision, and it is a direct threat to freedom of speech and liberty—as well as the truth."

The weekly round-up of pithy elaborations on traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

PRESERVATION WITH UNDERSTANDING.

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pennsylvania preserves Pennsylvania-gauge city and suburban cars.  The museum's trackage is at the end of a Pittsburgh suburban line that once served the county fair, and the museum's busiest time is county fair week, as their grounds serve as a remote parking lot for the fair.

Now, there's an interpretive center at the remote parking lot.

Featuring history exhibits, interactive kiosks, a theater, a classroom, a store, offices and event rooms, the facility is the centerpiece of the museum’s 36-acre East Campus, the organization’s new public face, replacing a 1990s-era visitor building less than a mile away. As a novel highlight, solar panels are generating electricity for both general and trolley-propulsion use.

With roots as far back as 1946, the museum was organized in 1953 with three cars. That same year, it acquired a 2,000-foot stretch of track, part of Pittsburgh Railways Co.’s Pittsburgh-Washington, Pa., interurban line that PRCo was abandoning. Under the name Arden Trolley Museum, the group began offering public rides in 1963.

Although Pittsburghers still have suburban light rail service, some of which uses former Pittsburgh Railways infrastructure, the conservation of a century-old transportation technology can put visitors in a position of wanting to ask questions, but not knowing what to ask.

Besides the Welcome Center, the East Campus includes a double-track trolley street that is paved with 33,000 bricks, and a 28,000-square-foot trolley display building, completed in 2005, that houses some of the most notable cars in the collection. Complementing them is the fully restored, wooden-frame Wexford (Pa.) station, a rural depot built in 1908 by the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railway, a 90-mile interurban that quit in 1931. The building survived as the Wexford post office, then served as an antique store and a deli before the museum acquired and moved it 40 miles in 2015.

The ongoing construction of a Chicago neighborhood at the Illinois Railway Museum has a similar intent.  There's nothing that says "streetcar" like boarding it on the street.

There's a personal note to this post.  "Attending the ribbon-cutting opening on Thursday, Nov. 9, was a founding member and volunteer, 104-year-old Art Ellis."  Thirty years ago, when I was attending a roller coaster event at Kennywood, I took a side trip to Arden, on a weekday, and the museum was closed.  While I was taking a few pictures, Mr Ellis, who was working on some projects, came out, and showed me around, including doing a "test run" with one of the trolleys.  Thanks again, and all the good wishes.

ELITES AND MARSHALLIAN IMPROVEMENTS DON'T ALWAYS GO WELL TOGETHER.

The Economist's Free Exchange column takes a controversial stance, "In praise of America’s car addiction."  No, seriously.  "How vehicle-dependence makes the country fairer and more efficient."  Marshallian improvements can be like that, even if some people are left worse off.

America is far more car-reliant than any other big country, averaging roughly two vehicles per household. This, in turn, is linked to many ills: obesity, pollution, suburban sprawl and so on.

Despite such horrors, more Americans than ever are consigning themselves to a car-defined existence by choosing to live in the suburbs. Census figures reveal that after decades of steady growth, a little more than half the American population is now based in the ‘burbs. It seems a classic case of elite opinions (cars and suburbs are awful) diverging from mass preferences (people quite enjoy them). For many, the main attractions of suburbia are lower housing costs and greater safety. Yet recent research sheds light on how cars are a crucial part of the equation, making America’s suburbs both impressively efficient and equitable.

Start with convenience. It is well-known that American cities are configured for vehicles, a process that began in the 1920s with the Model T. Car-centric urban designs became dominant throughout the country, involving wide roads, ample access to expressways and parking galore. To varying degrees, other countries have copied that model. Yet America has come closest to perfecting it. In a paper released in August, supported by the World Bank, a group of economists examined road speeds in 152 countries. Unsurprisingly, wealthy countries outpace poor ones. And within the rich world, America is streets ahead: its traffic is about 27% faster than that of other members of the OECD club of mostly rich countries. Of the 20 fastest cities in the world, 19 are in America.

Although there are a lot of places that are stroad hell, the article suggests there are also a lot of places where the motor vehicles and the roads make the rent gradients shallow and the wide open spaces desirable.

It is not that American roads are better in and of themselves. Rather, speed is a testament to America’s love affair with both suburbia and smaller towns that feel suburban. Compared with those in other oecd countries, American cities are 24% less populous, cover 72% more area and have 67% more large roads. All this enables drivers to zip around. New York, the country’s densest city, is an outlier, as anyone who has sat in its gridlock knows. But most of American suburbia more closely resembles Wichita, Kansas, and Greensboro, North Carolina, where drivers rarely face jams.

Driving speed shrinks distance. One fashionable concept among urban planners these days is the “15-minute city”, the goal of building neighbourhoods that let people get to work, school and recreation within 15 minutes by foot or bike. Many Americans may simply fail to see the need for this innovation, for they already live in 15-minute cities, so long, that is, as they get around by car. Most of the essentials—groceries, school, restaurants, parks, doctors and more—are a quick drive away for suburbanites.

Yes, the environmentalists and the egalitarians will note, for people who don't bear the full costs of their activities or who have the means to buy the houses and the cars.

Just as it is easier to get into American city centres, so it is easier to get out of them. Over time that has sapped vibrancy from their downtown cores as people flee offices at the end of the day for far-flung homes. However, there is a more positive way of looking at this phenomenon: it is precisely such accessibility that has put larger homes and quieter streets within reach for a remarkably wide cross-section of the country. In his analysis of the census from 2020, William Frey of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, showed that suburbia has become far more diverse over the years. In 1990 roughly 20% of suburbanites were non-white. That rose to 30% in 2000 and 45% in 2020.

Not that cars are a panacea. Owning or renting one costs plenty of money, and is an especially big burden for the working poor. It is therefore common to hear laments in American cities about the sorry state of mass transit. Yet this general perception, though widespread, is not entirely accurate. Even if primarily built for private cars, roads are a shared resource and can be viewed as the “tracks” for buses. In their study Mr Conwell and his colleagues conclude that bus-based transportation in America is surprisingly effective: public-transit options between distant suburbia and city centres are roughly comparable in America and Europe. Although America could do more to improve its bus services within its urban cores, the crucial point is that cities designed for cars can also support mass transit.

The bus, unfortunately, always looks better in theory than it does to the strap-hanger.  Perhaps, though, the cities with the density to make subways and Commuter Rail look like good ideas are not always the Superstar Cities.

The future of the US economy could be powered by cities in the Sunbelt.

Economic and societal power in the US may be shifting away from colossal coastal cities such as New York and San Francisco to metropolitan areas tucked below the Mason-Dixon line, as Barron's recently reported. That's because economic power is flowing to the middle of the country — and places such as Houston, Dallas, Nashville, and Miami are becoming hot spots.

We'll leave the political economy of migration for another day and focus on the transportation.

Just as New York City has Wall Street and San Francisco has Silicon Valley, Houston has its energy economy and Miami has its proximity to Latin America and growing financial industry. And while Los Angeles has Hollywood and Washington, DC, has politics, Dallas has a blossoming environment of diversified business behemoths and Nashville is a healthcare and tech hub.

"You used to have two coastal power zones where you could live your best life, never really touching down in the red states," Niall Ferguson, a Stanford historian, told Barron's. "We now have much more of a multipolar America rather than a bipolar America. That reflects taxes, quality of life, cost of living, the ability to build, and incredibly striking differentials in quality of governance."

That might be, and it might be politically desirable that a continent not be governed by an island. The emerging metropolitan areas, however, will not be exempt from the rent gradient.

To varying degrees, these cities are already getting a glimpse of how high housing costs can plague an area with surging demand.

What's more, these southern metros and their high temperatures could also face future challenges tied to the climate crisis. Miami, in particular, could be vulnerable.

Meanwhile, it could be a battle over bragging rights in the years to come between the coastal cities and Sunbelt metros as to which offers the most economic power.

As with everything else, trust markets and bet on emergence.

FOODIE FOLLIES.

Condé Nast Traveler curates a list of cities that offer the sort of amenities their readers apparently enjoy.  Among the largest cities, Chicago for the win, San Diego to place, Milwaukee to show.

THE DUMBER I BEHAVE THE RICHER I GET.

Power Line's Steven Hayward called attention to a documentary, American Fiction, that will hit the screens in December.

He continues,

Reviewers who have seen advance screenings are describing it as “a cinematic stick of dynamite,” and if this trailer is an accurate representation of the overall tone and message of the film, you can see why. It is unimaginable that anyone would have made this film during the George Floyd summer of “racial reckoning.”

It appears from the trailer that the filmmakers decided to expose the condescension of white liberals that, as we reported here back in 2018, leads liberal whites to dumb themselves down when they talk to blacks because liberal whites are in fact the most racist people in America. This movie looks to peel the hide off of New York fiction publishers whose young woke editors today often reject fiction manuscripts simply because they were written by white males.

Go there to learn more about the director.

LAUGHTER, STILL THE BEST MEDICINE.

It's the Festive Season, which brings with it the sort of conscience-cowboy who is of the view that you demonstrate your inclusiveness by excluding Christmas.

The City of Wauwatosa’s deputy city administrator has instructed city workers that they should avoid using red and green in public spaces to celebrate Christmas. Instead, top city officials are urging them to decorate counters with purple and blue and “snow people,” what the administrator appears to be calling snow men.

Initially, I flagged a hilarious quote from the instruction as a Friday short take: “In our ongoing efforts to foster a more equitable and inclusive community, we believe it is crucial to be considerate of how we decorate public spaces during this season. Refrain from using religious decorations or solely associated with Christmas (such as red and green colors) when decorating public spaces within city buildings.” By excluding, we include, dontcha see? “Our goal is to foster inclusivity and respect.”

Somewhere, Orwell looks on and cries.

KEEP THOSE SEAT BELTS BUCKLED.

When Donald Trump tells you who he is, Michael Tomasky of The New Republic says, "believe him."

Trump and his followers are capable of every one of them: shutting down critical voices in the press; banning books, and even burning some, just to drive the point home; banning opposition organizations or even parties; making political arrests of opponents without telling them the charges; purging university faculties; doing the same with the civil service.… If you doubt that President Trump and the Republican Party are capable of all these things and several more, you need to read some history pronto.

Apparently many Americans need to. I woke up Sunday to a Latino man telling CNN, for a story about Trump gaining among Latinos, that well, under Trump, we didn’t have all this inflation. Which is true as far as it goes. The inflation wasn’t Joe Biden’s fault, but of course Biden and the Democrats can’t say that true thing because it sounds like excuse-making. And one can’t blame this man, who I assume is working hard to feed his children, for thinking this way.

But dear God. Can’t we get people to think about fascism, and what Trump would do to this country?

No doubt, the True Believers at Town Hall are all over the projection inherent in that excerpt, invoking social media companies and "Russian disinformation" and "weaponization of government" and all the rest.  Or they can just laugh, as Rick Moran does.

Hitler had brown shirts, the SS, the Gestapo, and the "whole odious apparatus" of Nazism. What's Trump got? The Proud Boys? Oath Keepers? Moms for Liberty? Let's get real.

No Trump is not a Nazi. He's not even close. He'd be a very bad dictator. As we saw in his first term, the promises on the left that Trump was going to destroy the Constitution or set up some kind of authoritarian nightmare of a government never came close to panning out.

Every time the left calls Trump a Nazi, he gets 10,000 more votes. By the time election day arrives Trump will have won in a landslide.

What I observed three years ago might still be relevant today.

The past few years there has been a struggle between a Trumpified Republican party and a fractious coalition of Establishment grifters and Resistance militants. In a Biden presidency, the grifters and the militants will have their spats, with Mr Biden playing the part of a college president who pays lip service to the traditional verities whilst caving to the student militants, and the Trump supporters representing a wild card.

I'm going to continue to be the purist here: if you don't like the idea of a president acting like an elected despot, vest fewer powers in the presidency.

THE BEST WAY FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO HELP MIGHT BE TO GO AWAY.

Common Dreams contributor Rosalyn Vellurattil, with the University of Illinois at Chicago's pharmacy program, weighs in on the ongoing work-to-rule pharmacists at the major drug store chains have been engaging in.

I worked as a community pharmacist early in my career more than 20 years ago. I dreaded times when I was alone in the pharmacy—every shift—haphazardly filling prescriptions while getting tied up on the phone adjudicating insurance claims, all the while running from one end of the pharmacy to another inputting, verifying, and dispensing prescriptions rapidly.

I was also answering doctor calls, attending to the drive-through, and hurriedly ringing up and counseling patients as fast as I could, without any help for half of my workday. Admittedly, I did not have the added stress of administering vaccinations while performing those duties at that time.

Pharmacy walkout momentum has been on the rise since 2021. Chronic understaffing coupled with higher prescription volume and growing additional duties exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with vaccinations and rapid test appointments, have led to unsafe working conditions for both employees and patients.

Downsizing is a false economy. If a retired economics professor isn't convincing, dear reader, maybe somebody who is on the line will be.

FAILING THEIR MARKET TESTS, FAILING THEIR COHERENCE TESTS TOO.

Dear reader, it's straightforward enough: think of "the humanities" as "those disciplines that deconstruct reality as a hobby" and you won't go far wrong.  That reality has a say in what gets deconstructed never ceases to catch the academy by surprise.

The latest efficiency measure in the State University of New York system elicits commentary from K. C. Johnson at Minding the Campus.

George Philip deserves a prominent place in any 2010 academic hall of shame. The SUNY Albany president recently terminated the university's French, Russian, Italian, Classics, and Theater departments, citing financial concerns. That Albany purports to be a quality university (and is, in fact, one of SUNY's better branches) makes Philip's move all the more unjustifiable.

Professor Johnson's essay is a reaction to a Stanley Fish column in the New York Times, a newspaper that once characterized the demolition of Pennsylvania Station as a "shameful act of vandalism"; in the same editorial suggesting that our era would be judged by the monuments we destroyed. So let it be with the humanities.

That post is from 2010, but it could be from 1995, or it could be, as this lament from 2018 indicates, Contemporary Relevance.

Greg Summers may go down as the history professor who ended the history major at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

He might also, potentially, become the guy who helped save history at the central Wisconsin university by finding its sweet spot.

The UW-Stevens Point provost is both a historian and the chief architect of a sweeping proposal that attempts to transform the school with 7,725 students into "a new kind of regional university." A regional university without a history major. Or majors in German, French, geography, geology and two tracks within art (two-dimensional and three-dimensional). It would be a school of interdisciplinary "career-focused" majors.

A few other universities have tried something similar, but so far there are no proven success stories. The truth is, no one knows for sure whether the idea will work. But UW-Stevens Point has its back against the wall, facing a nearly $8 million structural deficit and enrollment that has dipped to a 45-year low. Its leaders needed to think outside the box.

Stevens Point is one of several former normal schools now calling themselves universities along State Highway 29, where there is abundant excess capacity.  Efforts to combine departments have been common for years.  Put some mail cars on the California Zephyr and have it make the stops the mail train used to make.  Combine the Twentieth Century and New England States west of Buffalo.  Reduce administrative expenses by creating one Languages and Literatures department where there used to be  German and Russian and Italian and Latin.  Of course there are no proven success stories.  Because it's retrenchment, pure and simple.  But the academic enterprise is reluctant to retrench, let alone to rethink the curricular abuses that have alienated people.  There's a lot going on, and a lengthy post follows.

MAKE GAZA HOWL.

I've made reference to Sherman's March in previous musings about ending jihadi terrorism, including in Gaza.  Give Phil Sheridan an Iron Cross.  "This leads Chicago Boy Trent Telenko to suggest taking off the gloves elsewhere.  'Goldman suggests in his article that a General Sherman 'March Through Georgia' style of collective punishment of Muslim civilian populations in the West can work to end this random death in the Western civilization’s life support.'"

There's not much being released from Gaza, although John Hinderaker's "Israel is Winning" includes a photograph.

Israeli Defense Forces photograph retrieved from Power Line.

I hope that while they were in the parliament's meeting room, they convened a mock session of the legislature and repealed Hamas's charter, the way Sherman's men repealed Georgia's resolution of secession in such a session once they reached Augusta.

THE CONTINUING CHALLENGES OF RAILWAY PRESERVATION.

Twenty years ago, we noted a Trains preservation award being presented to a group restoring the Flying Yankee streamliner.  The money was to restore to operation one of the few Winton 201A diesel engines, the prime mover that offered proof of concept for the more successful two-stroke diesels General Motors subsequently created.  We have long been hopeful that the train will run again.  Alas, the gentleman who was the principal advocate of its restoration has crossed the final summit, and some combination of New Hampshire and ferroequinologist politics has kept that from happening.  Once, it seemed like the Yankee would be the third Budd articulated train of the Thirties either restored or operable.

That the train was, by 1957, a bit clapped out as well as subject to the limitations of a fixed consist might have had something to do with its being retired. That some railway preservation societies have more will than they have wallet is a reality. I can think of a few Burlington Zephyrs of that era that are still extant but real basket cases.

Since then, one of those basket cases, the Mark Twain Zephyr, has been undergoing restoration in Wisconsin, with a realistic rollout date soon to come.  The Nebraska Zephyr set is back in service at Illinois Railway Museum, now that more conventional seat cleaning methods are again in order.  I do not know the status of the other Twin Zephyr set or the Denver Zephyr set that went to Saudi Arabia.

GOVERNMENT IS FORCE.

When "public affairs" programming turns almost all of its focus on National Policy, and within that focus on the Presidency (can't the guy just inaugurated at least arrange the busts in the Oval before the Sunday conversation turns to "Who's up next?") does it come as any surprise that the National Government, and the Presidency, become destructive of the Life and Liberty of the People?  Oh, it's in their interests to act that way.  "What would all those pontificators on the Sunday shows, and the noisier wannabes on the opinion networks ever do if the Conventional Wisdom stopped treating The Presidency as the secular incarnation of The Messiah?"

But if the point of the presidency is to have an elected king issuing ukases, is anybody surprised when base individuals seek the office to issue ukases?

THE GALES OF NOVEMBER, REMEMBERED.

Our annual Edmund Fitzgerald retrospective.

Paul Michaels photograph.

The 2015 post includes a roundup of previous posts and tributes, including Gordon Lightfoot's song.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE POWER BAR?

Hershey’s Crafted a Special Treat for the Troops.  It couldn't melt, and it couldn't be too tasty.

When Captain Paul Logan of the United States Army Quartermaster General’s office started concocting the tactically smartest chocolate to give to U.S. soldiers during operations, he issued an unusual directive: Don’t make it too delicious.

It was 1935, still the Great Depression, and the military was working with a limited budget. As Logan collaborated with Hershey’s to create these rations, he was firm that the product should “taste a little better than a boiled potato.” Logan wanted a bar dense with the most essential nutrients, supplying carbohydrates, protein, fats and minerals to replenish troops in emergencies—but not so irresistible that the soldiers would eat any more than they needed.

A lot of work went into those precursors.

Besides an unpleasant taste, Logan had other stipulations for the chocolate: It had to weigh no more than four ounces, for portability in pockets; it needed to be a strong and efficient energy source; and it needed to remain solid at high temperatures so it wouldn’t melt and go to waste.

Hershey’s chief chemist Sam Hinkle tackled the job of producing this innovative candy (if something so bitter can be called candy). He devised a creation that was tantamount to a rock in texture and feel, and that soldiers would have to cut with a sharp knife, as it was almost impossible to bite into—and certainly not advisable, if you valued your teeth. The guide for eating the Ration D, as Hershey’s called it, suggested nibbling on the bar over the course of half an hour, or else letting it dissolve in water as a drink. Each bar delivered a valuable 600 calories or more to armed consumers, who were directed only to eat them as a last resort, to prevent starvation in extraordinary circumstances. Hinkle also modified the recipe to incorporate vitamin B1 in the form of thiamine hydrochloride—useful in tropical climates, where troops might be susceptible to vitamin deficiencies and associated diseases, like beriberi. Astonishingly, given how many ration bars Hershey’s produced, these wartime chocolates had to be molded by hand, as they were too dense and rich for the machines of the day to have any accuracy; Hershey’s equipment required partially melted chocolate, and Ration D did not melt at any reasonable temperature.

On occasion, they fulfilled that mission. "In one instance, Louis Zamperini, an Olympic distance runner turned Army Air Corps lieutenant, gave thanks for Ration D after his aircraft crashed over the Pacific in 1943, forcing him to drift on a lifeboat for 47 days with only a few chocolate bars and whatever fish he could procure at sea for sustenance." In other instances, soldiers spurned them. "Meals Rejected by Ethiopians" is simply the latest way the troops grouse about the grub.

Over time, military commanders decided they wanted a more appetizing option. Consequently, the Army directed Hershey’s to remake the bar with a more appealing (but not too appealing) flavor. This need led to the creation in 1943 of the Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate Bar, which came in both one- and two-ounce blocks. While production of the Ration D came to an end shortly after the end of World War II, the Tropical Bar remained a staple in subsequent wars, fed astronauts on the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in the summer of 1971 and was doled out to soldiers until as late as 1991.

It's possible that developments in the civilian nutrition bar market influenced subsequent procurement of emergency rations.

A MISLEADING "FIRST?"

It is a truth universally understood that the fourth estate's coverage of things that run on rails is going to be inaccurate.  So it goes with reporting out of Toledo.  "First ever all-electric switcher locomotive provides green alternative for railroads."  It's nowhere near the first all electric switching locomotive, nor the first battery-electric switching locomotive, nor the first battery-powered locomotive in a diesel carbody.

Midwest Terminals in Toledo reconfigured a diesel locomotive from the 1950s into a 100% battery-powered locomotive. This is the first of its kind within the United States.

The designers and builders of the recommissioned, zero-emission 1957 GP-9 locomotive say that the operations of battery-powered locomotives are all the same as its diesel counterparts, making the transitions from diesel to electric-powered locomotives seamless for its operators.

In the winter, this particular locomotive - a switcher - is often left idling overnight in order to keep its parts warm for operation. According to Midwest Terminals, this burns 4.5 gallons of gas per hour.

“It’s no different than an electric vehicle on the highway,” Robert Holtz, the Vice President of Operation for Midwest Terminals of Toledo said. “We just transformed that kind of technology to a locomotive space.”

The transportation sector emits the highest amount of greenhouse gases, with the rail industry only contributing to two percent of those emissions, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. However, any effort taken to combat global warming is integral, and Midwest Terminals of Toledo, with the help of the Ohio EPA, has recognized its role in the green initiative.

"Transformed that kind of technology" sounds so much more highfalutin' than "took out the prime mover and put batteries in its place."  Because the 1957 GP-9 locomotive is a diesel-electric locomotive with automatic transition, wiring the battery power circuits into the control stand is straightforward, and the engineer is still doing the same things with reverser, throttle, and brakes he was on the diesel.

Overnight, they plug the locomotive in for recharging, right?  On the traditional steeple cab switcher with a trolley pole, in the morning you put up the pole, wait for the compressor to charge the brake system, and off you go.

I suppose we should be grateful nobody heard that compressor kick in and made reference to "chugging."