Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Posted by Mickey Z on 06/18 at 08:47 AM

There’s a very wide Canal Street in New Orleans too, probably similar history, not to mention the mind boggling engineering of the Mississippi in that entire region...I had to park my car on the 6th level of a highrise garage a couple of days ago, and found the residual heat from internal combustion engines so stifling that I took the outer stairs instead of the elevator. Most people hardly ever appreciate the sheer physical energy generated by these powerplants (not even talking about jet engines), and subsequently they remain so blase about driving ridiculously overpowered vehicles. I learned yesterday that a guy who sits close to me at work drives almost 80 miles one way in his 4 door heavy duty diesel pickup truck which pumps out 500+ pounds-feet of torque--good enough for a school bus. Before the electric starter motor came along, when cars had to be manually cranked, people had at least some physical contact with the forces they were unleashing, even if those vehicles had less power than some modern lawn mowers…

Posted by sk on from 06/18 at 12:49 PM

Thanks, SK...you really hit it on the head. What’s so distressing is how few people are aware of what you write about. We are trained to take so much for granted.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/18 at 03:43 PM