Postblogging Technology, June 1956: The Querulous Old Man And the Central Bank

That is quite the artist's impression of the King of Rock and Roll. 

R_.,C_.
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada


Dear Father:

In anticipation of your question, this month's Fortune, claims that Sievert Thurston and Western Hotels now have the inside track on Uncle Henry's "Hawaiian Village." My first assumption is that Thurston planted the story with Fortune, probably just the column editor. It's not like Henry Luce is taking an interest in our affairs! That doesn't mean Hilton is out. My theory is that Uncle Henry is shaking them down, and that it will blow up in Uncle Henry's face, as usual, and that we should keep our money out of Uncle Henry's hands, as usual. I mean, his developments usually do get built, and Hawaii is the coming thing, but this just seems a bit rich for my blood. 

"One of the earlier geodesic domes constructed in the United States." Photo credit https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Harald-Reportagen, or Kurt Liese (1915--2010)

 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

The Chairman's Little Helper: A Technical Appendix to Postblogging, May 1956

 (If you're wondering over The Engineer, my tentative theory is that it briefly appeared on the Hold shelves during my August trip and has by now been retracted back into the stacks, possibly without notice of same reaching my Library Account, although it is at least as likely that I just didn't register some notification or email. I shall try again.)

I thought about running this last week, but, on the other hand, it's officially a thing when there's two different articles about barbiturates in the same week. The age of Homo medicus! (Which turns out to be some dietician-anthropologist-paleontologist science thing, my apologies to Edward H. Hagen for not searching out some more authentically patronising Fifties  label for patients using psychotherapeutics. 

Postblogging Technology, May 1956, II: "A Shabby Little Man"

Too old to rock and roll. 

R_.C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada




Dear Father:

Just a month to the end of school! It's like I'm eighteen again, except for the part where I'm not! We have arranged for the kids to fly with  Dr. K. K., who is flying into Vancouver to give a "job" paper, and is, like graduate students everywhere, willing to take on a bit of extra work involving minding the younger set. Uncle George is right. It pays to cultivate these connections! 

Speaking of which, I have passed my FBI clearance check and am now allowed to work with Bill and David (in a very junior capacity, mind!) on their initial public offering, which will go ahead next year, obviously you didn't hear it from me, etc. I guess you should especially not tell the FBI, all things considered!

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

Postblogging Technology, May 1956, I: A New Age

R_.C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada



Dear Father:

Interesting to see this in 1956!

I am glad to hear that you will take on the children at Nakusp in July and for the first half of August. It doesn't seem fair to deprive them of their summer just because their parents have to make some pretence of furthering their careers. And while the senior partners might be able to get away with "Sell in May and go away," that is certainly not me this  year! 

It is quite exciting to see the Conway coming to America, and while I do not know the Rolls Royce people behind it as well as I know the Tyne team, who knows what might happen? I see that Canadian Pacific is set to adopt it as well. And having begun with aviation, so shall I end, with a little victory lap at the latest sad Proteus debacle. Turboprops are harder to build than they look! What that means for BOAC is entirely another matter. But probably 707s, and it is very hard not to be a bit smug about that, as the British really have brought it on themselves. 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

The Iron Age Revival of the State XXVIII: some Road Trip Thoughts

 

Two things seem safe to say here:

i) The Siege of Troy is the most significant historical event of the Mediterranean Iron Age, whenever it occurred, and there is every reason, archaeologically speaking, to think that it happened, to the extent that it happened at all, around 750BC, and that the textual evidence for the traditional "Late Bronze Age Collapse" dating is weaker than is often assumed.

ii) The revitalisation of the downtowns of the small towns of the interior of southern British Columbia is a work in progress closely tied to the problem of the province's indigenous racialised minority, aka "the Indians."

T 

 (Lots of ruins at the west end of Hope still, very appropriate on an apocalyptic day. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the "character" Coldwater Hotel in downtown Merritt that Booking.com directed me to.)

Summer Road Trip 2026: Apocalypsing Outside

 

So I’m taking a day in Hope for various reasons not limited to the hellacious wildfire smoke and I’ve ended up sitting down for dinner for one in what I expected to be a quiet restaurant and proved anything but. I’m going to sit out on the deck, which is empty, but my waiter is properly sceptical. It’s apocalypsing outside, you see.

To finish the day I watched the latest episode of Silo and learned that, as of this point the eponymous hole in the ground was built, not against the thread of imminent apocalypse, but rather in a “come at me, bro” spirit of taking on any and all potential apocalypses. We’ll see if that holds up in the show. In the real world it seems pretty assholish.

Look, we used to have a pre-gasoline infrastructure, because we used to not have ICE vehicles. Yes, we blew it up, and there were many more consequences than are visible. (Not enough commutable small town jobs for young people, for one.) But little towns like Princeton (shown here being Princeton, and, yes, that’s approximately the heart of downtown) are doing their best to put it all back together again.

Is it daft? Sure. But every journey of a thousand years starts with taking ownership of being “the bronze sculpture capital of Canada.” We need to be in this together, for the long haul, not hiding in a hole in the ground.

A

Tinkertoy to Dexion: A Technical Appendix to Postblogging Technology, April 1956

By susiq5555 - ebay #120137669430,

permission granted [1], CC BY-SA 3.0,

 

"Tinkertoy" is the title because it is what comes to mind when I think about the building sets of my earliest childhood. (Next up are my rich cousins' Lego sets, please don't tell them I called them "rich.") I do not, however, have much of a sense of a Tinkertoy set, as opposed to oddments at the bottom of a toy chest. Tinkertoy Construction Sets are an American product dating to 1914. Their signature feature is the use of wood, which makes it easy to implement wheels and pulleys with child friendly components, but there were lots of wood construction sets. The issue here, it tuns out, is the non-wood one.

The departure point for today's appendix is  the use of Dexion components for field repairs of DC3s. 

 Dexion turns out still be a thing, although such is the state of Google Search today that you won't find them on the main page. essentially A "slotted angle steel strip construciton system," it rather reminds me of the various aircraft-building systems of the Twenties and Thirties that often had their origins in prefabricated steel building sets. But we did Nissen huts around here a long time ago. Dexion seems like an everyday product with a primordial use case and a secure  business plan, so I was a bit surprised to learn that  "it ran into difficulties" and "eventually ceased trading" story, in 2003. The Dexion trademark was bought out, by Swedes, perhaps, and the product is now made in factories in Germany  and Romania. 

The other inciting even this week is that quaint Danish general strike over the forty hour week. Not only is this sure to lead to a wage-price spiral and inflation, but now Britain's supply of butter and bacon is in trouble! And since there isn't much going on in Denmark to my knowledge except bicycling, which they have to share with the Netherlands, and Lego, we might as well go there. And the ever worthy Meccano, of course.