The Explorers Club
No. CLXXX - Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (1883-1939) & the founding of United Artists.









Bonus: Fairbanks was born on Narwhal Day!

Autobahn
The week just past was a perilous one in motoring as I twice found involved in automotive collisions, neither time as driver & both times while sitting in the front passenger's seat. On Monday, The Professor's late model Ford Fusion was struck on Century Boulevard by a nearly identical vehicle that has just run a red light. The jolt was considerable, but to my surprise did not, and this I suppose because the primary impact was from the rear, trigger the airbags; we were, however, knocked into the rear of the mid-2000s Chevrolet Impala ahead. The Professor tried his best to avoid the secondary collision and was very nearly able to get away to the side, but the Fusion's front right corner struck the Impala's rear right. There was no doubt that I was in La-La-Land, because from the front passenger seat of the Impala emerged a comely young lady clutching to her chest a Chihuahua; not once did she set the wee dog down on the ground. Yesterday, my father's mid-'90s Chevrolet Caprice station wagon was struck on the entrance ramp to I-475 from I-69 by an early 2000s Buick Regal; I blame the crash on President Obama, for reasons discussed in the following section. The motorcars ahead of the wagon braked abruptly at the bottom of the entrance ramp. To avoid colliding with the car ahead, Dad slammed on the brakes. The woman driving the Regal was trailing a hair too closely or pressed her brake pedal just a hair too slowly, and her attempt to pass to our right side fell short by, again, a hair. Her front left clipped our rear right, mangling the corner of the Caprice's rear bumper and leaving no visible damage on the Regal. There was no doubt that I was in Flinttown, because the first post-crash call was to the police, but after exchanging insurance information and talking to both insurance companies and waiting quite a spell in addition to this and seeing neither hide nor hair of a prowler, paddy wagon, or any other police vehicle, both parties decided against filling a police report. We might well be waiting for the police yet had we not skedaddled.

Vote for Kodos
Traffic collisions happen. I agree with the film Hot Fuzz that they should not be called accidents, because an accident implies that no one is at fault. The Century Boulevard collision was completely and solely the fault of the dolt who drove straight through a red light and into The Professor & me. The I-475 collision was partially the fault of the Regal driver, partially the fault of the abrupt brakers ahead of us, and partially the fault of Mr. Barack Hussein Obama.

I acknowledge the reality of life in sacred Michigan, that there are, after a fashion, only two seasons of the year: winter and the construction season. Michigan has uniquely high semi-truck load allowances, one of several contributing factors to our notoriously crummy roads. Those high loads and the resultant road damage are the fair price we paid for decades of prosperity; I don't blame anyone for the state of our roads, not Governor Granholm, nor former Governors Engler nor Blanchard, nor the Genesee County Road Commission, nor the United States Department of Transportation. Our highways and byways need to be repaired from time to time, that's just life, and into every life a little rain must fall. But the recent tearing up and relaying of I-475 is qualitatively different for one reason: all along the length of the project are signs proclaiming that it is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a.k.a. President Obama's much vaunted $787,000,000,000 "stimulus" bill. Worse yet are smaller signs atop the larger signs, emblazoned with the indefensible line of propaganda, "Putting America to work." These signs are a cynical attempt by the Obama Administration to claim credit for any benefits that might be derived coincidentally from the project's costs. I do not blame anyone for construction, construction just happens. But the Obama Administration is trying to gain credit for this particular bit of construction; President Obama might not have, and almost certainly did not, personally approve the Ministry of Truth-style A.R.R.A. & "Putting America to work" signs, but as President Truman taught us, "The buck stops here," on the president's desk. So, if President Obama wants credit for the tearing up and recreating (almost precisely as it was before being torn up, rendering it a make-work project from beginning to end) of I-475, then he also deserves blame for the consequences of that construction.

The motorcars ahead of the Caprice braked abruptly because I-475 is still strewn with construction barrels, even though no visible work has been done for weeks. Where I-69 diverts traffic onto I-475, there are two lanes open to traffic. But the construction barrels are arrayed in such a slipshod fashion that there are really only one-and-a-half lanes open to traffic. Panicking at this unnecessary, illogical, and indefensible bottleneck, the drivers ahead of us chose to come to a sudden, complete stop at the bottom of the entrance ramp. President Obama wants the credit for employing the workers who blocked off traffic with those carelessly strewn barrels; so, he also deserves the blame for the collision caused by the carelessness with which those barrels were strewn all about the motorway. Yesterday's collision was President Obama's fault, but wouldn't be if he hadn't installed those odious pieces of Minitrue-style propaganda.

The Queue
I was reluctant to cease temporarily reading Defend the Realm in order to re-read Scott Pilgrim ahead of seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on the silver screen, but I knew doing so was the proper course of action. Similarly, I've had a jones to read The Prisoner of Zenda and knew that if I didn't do so before resuming Defend the Realm then Ruritania would have to wait until after I'd finished The Authorized History of MI5. I didn't really want to take this sabbatical from the Security Service, but now that I have I might as well make the most of it.

Recently
Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim, Volumes 1-6:
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe
Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

Currently
Anthony Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda
Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (paused)

Presently
Karen E. Olson, Pretty in Ink
Len Deighton, Berlin Game
~
Len Deighton, Mexico Set
Len Deighton, London Match
John Toland, The Great Dirigibles
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Anthony Hope, Rupert of Hentzau
Anthony Hope, The Heart of Princess Osra
Saki, When William Came: A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Sex Bob-omb, "Threshold" from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (T.L.A.M.)