“You should not go to France. it is too dangerous.” My American friends expressed their concern when I flew out to France for a summer vacation in early July.
I must admit that the news coverage of what happened in that country in late June was pretty scary: riots for five days and nights, hundreds of burnt cars, carcasses of buses left on the streets, black débris remaining after the many acts of arson, smashed storefronts and bus stops, and plundered shops and supermarkets.
In Montreuil, a suburb east of Paris, the demonstrators had used fireworks as a shield of smoke against the police. Videos showed children as young as 12 taking part in this wild rampage, running away from looted stores loaded with clothes and other goods.
After I landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, I expected to find widespread devastation with violence and vandalism still apparent.
But no, the country seemed normal, traffic was as heavy as usual, restaurants full, people were flocking to outdoor markets and golf fans were eager to play their 18 holes over the weekend.
The explosion of anger against the police is not new in France with recurrent complaints against alleged police brutality and racial profiling. But this time it reached an unprecedented intensity.
It all started when Nahel Merzouk was shot on June 27 after refusing to stop his car when summoned to do so by police officers. One month after the shooting, Le Monde published a description of what happened, based on the preliminary results of the inquiry.
The traffic police had been alerted that a Mercedes was speeding through Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, and that it carried guns. The traffic police then started chasing the car, which entered the bus lane, ran red lights and crossed a junction without slowing down. Finally the police managed to stop the yellow Mercedes AM, as shown on a video. This particular model has an incredible acceleration capacity and can reach a speed of 100 km per hour within less than four seconds.
As the police officers, with blaring sirens, ordered Algerian-born Nahel Merzouk to pull over, the latter Instead made his vehicle surge away and attempted to flee. This is when the police shot the young man.
Apparently the Mercedes had been rented the day before from a place, which opened for business just three months prior. It seems odd that a 17-year old would rent such a fancy car, particularly when, in France, the age to get a driver’s license is 18.
Riots and pillaging occurred in cities all over France including in the capital city of Paris. File photo by Randy Colas on Unsplash
The atmosphere of hatred was also directed against any symbol of public authority vested in central or local governments, such as town halls and police barracks were sacked. Schools, gyms, social centers, and 300 bank branches were destroyed. Public buildings were damaged. In Nanterre, the rioters vandalized a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. In Marseilles, the largest public library, named Alcazar, was also damaged.
After the violence abated, the population was left with a feeling of total paralysis. It was the middle class that had been primarily hit. Hundreds of shopkeepers saw their merchandise and also their stocks pillaged. Curfews and closures of public transport affected mostly the working population in poor suburbs.
Threat and insults were hurled at local elected officials among the 35,000 municipalities existing in France. The private home of the mayor of l’Hay-les-Roses, a small town south of Paris, went up in smoke and his family was attacked.
On June 30, President Macron had to cancel his official visit to Germany – the first time that has ever happened.
French police face protesters on a street blocked with garbage cans. Photo by Oscar Brouchot on Unsplash
The government deployed 45,000 police, including RAID ( Research, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion), which is an élite unit of the French police, and GIGN ( Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale). Since 2016, the law has authorized police to use firearms in cases of self-defense and to shoot a vehicle fleeing at traffic stops. More than 3,500 demonstrators were arrested. Macron threatened to cut off social networks at times of riots. He was he was accused of authoritarianism for saying that.
The financial sequels of the unrest are enormous. It is estimated at about one billion Euros, including the anticipated loss on future business. Who is going to pay? As usual, the taxpayers and mostly the little guy. The close to 1,000 shopkeepers, who suffered loss and damage, may get 10,000 Euros compensation paid by insurance . Financial aid will be provided by chambers of commerce and private associations. The cost of all this assistance will eventually be borne by the community.
The French population is deeply divided on the topic of police responsibility. Attempting a discussion is like entering a mine-field and you feel like you are walking on eggshells whenever you dare to express an opinion.
Conservatives and middle of the road people want law and order. They want scenes of violence in the street to be curbed. They admire the courage of police, who are so often exposed to angry mobs and to a society increasingly hostile. Hundreds of those police have been injured in recent years. The police should not be “above” the law but, at the same time, should not be “under” the law, they say. For the other segment of the population, police are the enemy with the presumption of culpability against them latent.
The two sides of public opinion are so irreconcilable that they create immense tension and the possibility that a clash may happen at any time.
Nicole Prévost Logan
About the author: Nicole Prévost Logan divides her time between Essex and Paris, spending summers in the former and winters in the latter. She writes an occasional column for us from her Paris home where her topics will include politics, economy, social unrest — mostly in France — but also in other European countries. She also covers a variety of art exhibits and the performing arts in Europe. Logan is the author of ‘Forever on the Road: A Franco-American Family’s Thirty Years in the Foreign Service,’ an autobiography of her life as the wife of an overseas diplomat, who lived in 10 foreign countries on three continents. Her experiences during her foreign service life included being in Lebanon when civil war erupted, excavating a medieval city in Moscow and spending a week under house arrest in Guinea.
Editor’s Note:This is the opinion of Nicole Prévost Logan.
Subsequent to the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, which took place 60 years after USSR First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in 1944, the strategically-important peninsula has frequently made news headlines.
I visited the region twice and have always been fascinated by the important events and famous people with which it is associated.
In July 1990, my husband Alan, four friends and myself were sailing around the Black Sea on “Katy II”, our French-built 44 ft. ketch. After a 24-hour stretch from Sochi, we proceeded south through the Sea of Azov. Lightning followed us throughout the night. (Alan’s comment was, “That was a hell of a good sail,” while mine was along the lines of, “That was a hellish sail in spades!” )
We reached the Crimean coast, carefully keeping away from the naval base of Feodosia. We passed Koktebel, famous for its writers’ colony, which has existed there since 1911. Some of the greatest Russian poets, among them Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsetaeva, spent time at the colony.
As we approached the port town of Alushta, a booming voice from a loudspeaker barked, ” What are you doing there?”
Soon after, we were boarded by the Soviet Coast Guard. Their metal launch rammed violently into our boat.
But the encounter turned out to be pleasant. The sailors enjoyed having their picture taken with Jane, our young crew member from California.
Then we sailed along a beautiful coast, reminiscent of the French Riviera. with elegant residences, hotels and casinos. This was the resort of Gurzuf where Alexander Pushkin spent a few months in exile in 1821 for having written a piece about freedom.
Yalta is located in a spectacular setting, with a mountainous backdrop reminding me of Table Mountain in Cape Town. Initially, we tied “Katy II” near a boardwalk in the center of town. The people had never seen a foreign sail boat before, so you can imagine the crowd.
It was on Yalta‘s boardwalk that Anton Chekhov staged one his most charming short stories entitled, ” The Lady and the Dog.” The Russian playwright, sick with tuberculosis, spent his final days in the mild Mediterranean climate of Crimea.
While staying in Yalta, we toured the vineyards’ cellars to taste some of the many sweet wines, like Porto, Tokaï or Muscat, grown on the sun-drenched hills.
Nicholas II, Alexandra and their five children spent several blissful summers in their Livadia palace, near Yalta. The elegant, neo-classical buildings overlook the Black Sea.
In February 1945, the conference of the “Big Three” took place in this gorgeous area. US President Roosevelt stayed in the last Tsar’s summer residence. A special apartment was arranged for him on the ground floor. A few miles away, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill settled in the Vorontsov Palace – an extravagant architectural complex combining Moorish and gothic styles. S0viet Union Premiiiapi Stalin took his lodgings in the Koreiz palace also nearby.
As we cleared a rocky promontory, west of Yalta, the Russian Coast Guard paid us another “visit”. The reason this time was that we were too close to the seaside “dacha” of Gorbachev in Soros.
In 1992, I accompanied the team from the Pushkin museum Department of Ancient Art and Archaeology to the ancient site of Pantikapeon * (or modern Kerch) on the most eastern point of the Crimean peninsula. I knew the team since I had taken part in the excavation of a 17th century estate located on the grounds of the Pushkin museum in Moscow.
After a 28-hour train ride with the friendly group, lots of singing and a fair amount of vodka, we reached our dig-house at the foot of Mount Mithridates.
In the 7th century BC, Pantikapeon was one of the most important settlements created by the wealthy Greek cities of Asia Minor (or modern Turkey) on the northern shore of the Black Sea. Numerous archaeological sites are being excavated by Russians, Ukrainians as well as Westerners in this part of the world.
Offset poster for US lecture-series Energy Plan for the Western Man (1974) by Joseph Beuys,.
The Kerch region still shows traces of the fierce combats, which took place between the German and Soviet forces, particularly between 1941and 1942. Out of the tragic scenes of devastation and killings came an amazing story of redemption though it is disputed by German military sources.
It is the story of the controversial modern German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1985). He was flying with the Luftwaffe during World War II over Crimea. His plane was shot down and a Tatar shaman rescued him. (A shaman is someone who interacts with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance.)
The shaman saved the pilot’s life by rubbing sheep fat on his skin and covering him with a felt blanket. From then on, felt and grease constituted the central part of the artist’s works and “installations.”
Wikipedia notes, however, that, “Records state that Beuys remained conscious, was recovered by a German search commando, and that there were no Tatars in the village at the time.”
Today, Beuys is considered an icon in Berlin.
Author’s Note: For more information about the Pantikapeon excavation, access my article titled, ‘The View from Mount Mithridates’, published in the November/December 1994 edition of ‘Archaeology’ magazine.
Nicole Prévost Logan
About the author: Nicole Prévost Logan divides her time between Essex and Paris, spending summers in the former and winters in the latter. She writes an occasional column for us from her Paris home where her topics will include politics, economy, social unrest — mostly in France — but also in other European countries. She also covers a variety of art exhibits and the performing arts in Europe. Logan is the author of ‘Forever on the Road: A Franco-American Family’s Thirty Years in the Foreign Service,’ an autobiography of her life as the wife of an overseas diplomat, who lived in 10 foreign countries on three continents. Her experiences during her foreign service life included being in Lebanon when civil war erupted, excavating a medieval city in Moscow and spending a week under house arrest in Guinea.
Editor’s Notes: i) This is the opinion of Nicole Prévost Logan.
“Rock the Phoebe’s”joyful acknowledgement of the century and a quarter anniversary of the founding of Old Lyme’s Phoebe Griffin Noyes (PGN) Library in 1898 was scheduled for the evening of June 23.
The funny things:
A letter, signed by 23 members of the Greater Old Lyme community was sent to the library on May 25. This was then followed by another letter on June 16, which was signed by 135.
The letters questioned the suitability of two titles available in the library’s “Teens & Tweens” section and called for the removal of Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships and Being a Human, by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan and You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty and Other Things, by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth from that section. Perhaps even more startling they also requested a “… proper review of the materials in the ‘Teen-Tween’ room in hopes that no other content like this is available in that space.”
Nevertheless, “Rock the Phoebe” went on as planned; and a few days later, more than 400 Old Lyme and Lyme residents responded formally in a letter opposing the actions proposed in the two earlier letters.
This “View” is not about the two ‘offending’ titles; and I am not going to present a play-by-play of the situation as it developed and was finally resolved without removal or relocation of the two books — that has all been exhaustively covered in the regional and national print and broadcast media.
I will not weigh in on the arguments regarding whether these actions represent a ban on the two books, or whether either book was “unbecoming of our community values”.
Rather, I will explore these actions in a broader context to get a feel of how unique the Old Lyme experience was, but first, I will return to the era of the “founding”.
The Free Library Movement:
This movement really began in the 1840s when New Hampshire, followed by Massachusetts, and then Maine; authorized towns to levy taxes for the establishment and support of public libraries. The movement spread and continued through much of the second half of the 19th and early-20th centuries.
The designation “free” means open to the public at no charge and was used to provide a distinction from the subscription libraries that were common in many communities at that time.
The movement was advanced by the philanthropy of industrialist Andrew Carnegie, whose support between 1883 and 1929 led to the construction of a system of 1,689 public libraries across the United States. These include 11 in Connecticut, but none in southeast Connecticut.
Local Activism:
Old Lyme has been blessed with an activist cleric, who is a strong advocate for social justice. The Rev. Steven R. Jungkeit, senior minister at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme (FCCOL), has publicly stated his concerns regarding guns, book bans, and systemic racism. Apparently, a few are uncomfortable with such advocacy, especially when it came from the pulpit.
I was particularly troubled by an aggressive response to one of his sermons by a local political party leader, published at the end of March in another online source of community news. In my opinion, the language used in the response was insulting and almost threatening.
Is Old Lyme unique?
Yes, of course … but not in terms of book challenges.
Some candid observations of the broader environment:
PEN America, the nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression, identified nearly 1,477 incidents of books being prohibited during the first half of the 2022-23 academic year, up 28.5 percent from 1,149 cases in the previous semester. Overall, the organization has recorded more than 4,000 such incidents of banned books in the United States since it started tracking cases in July 2021. Such incidents are most prevalent in five states: — Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina.
The Connecticut Library Association has identified 38 active book challenges across the state, including Newtown, Westport, Darien, Brookfield, Fairfield, and Guilford; up from about nine at this time last year.
In Guilford, some residents called for parental notification for books they regarded as “vulgar and inappropriate”. Perhaps that could be called the “I’m telling on you” program? (Note: that is my own suggestion, not Guilford Memorial Library’s.)
Fairfield Library’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted to not remove “Let’s Talk About It,” from its shelves last October, with staff stating, “The book belongs exactly where it is.”
Old Lyme PGN Library Director Katie Huffman has reported that the two contested titles were the third and fourth books challenged at the library in the last two years, with no books removed so far.
PEN America also found that book challenges are not new, but the tactics are changing. Once provoked primarily by concerned parents, challenges are increasingly driven by organized groups, elected leaders and legislation targeting titles that “don’t align with their own values”.
Of the national groups, Moms for Liberty (M4L), formed in Florida in 2021, has become widespread and militant. The group began by campaigning against COVID-19 protections, including masks and vaccines. Moms for Liberty advocates against school curricula that mention LGBTQ rights, Critical Race Theory, ethnicity, and/or discrimination. Many chapters have also campaigned to ban books that address gender and sexuality. The Southern Poverty Law Center characterized M4L as a far-right, extremist organization with close ties to the Republican Party rather than a genuine grassroots organization. Two chapters of this group are active in Connecticut. Is that really possible? At the very least, I will quote from the oft-banned book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in which Alice says, “Curiouser and curiouser.”
Aaron Sorkin’s new stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (which is based on the also frequently banned book of the same name) begins with Scout Finch telling the audience, ““Something didn’t make sense,” which, in retrospect, I could have used to introduce this “View.”
Avra Montazella, a senior at Lyme-Old Lyme High School, founded the Banned Books Club during her freshman year when she saw many books she loved being censored across the country.
Since 1982, the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week has been held in the fall as an annual awareness campaign to celebrate the freedom to read and stress the importance of ensuring access, even to unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints. The week is now co-sponsored by a coalition of organizations dedicated to free expression.
For 15 minutes of fame?
Our library has an established process for initiating a challenge to materials in its collection. It is simple and begins by filing a Request for Reconsideration … but of course, this process does not generate the media coverage or produce the angst that occurred here.
Note that the “Sources” section below includes everything I reviewed in preparing this piece and, if interested in the underlying journalism, please refer to the sources that I have cited, which are readily available online.
Editor’s Note: This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.
About the Author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.
Author’s Notes: I wholly support a parent’s right to oversee their ‘teen’s & tween’s’ book selections, but feel strongly that they do not have the right to make those decisions for other parents. My advice — based on personal experience — would be to talk with your children and endeavor to create an environment in which they are comfortable approaching you for advice or feedback on any number of issues.
‘The Day’s’ editorial board stated last month that, ”… while the letters contend the request to remove these books from the teen-tween section of the library does not constitute book banning, it is obvious that is exactly what is being advocated here.”
In closing, perhaps I can add some lighter perspective to this difficult subject by recalling the wisdom of Detective Sergeant Nick Yemana of NYPD’s 12th Precinct, who once told Captain Bernard “Barney” Miller, Commanding Officer of the detectives’ squad, that (sic) “What you gotta do is develop an Oriental philosophy. My grandfather used to say that many things look bleak at the moment of occurrence; but at least we ain’t got locusts.”
Sources:
Barnett, S. “’Mama bears’ may be the 2024 race’s soccer moms; some see extremism as GOP seeks votes”. The Day. 07/23/2023.
Brownstein, R. “The Book Bans Debate Has Finally Reached a Turning Point”. The Atlantic. 05/10/2023.
Chavez, N. “About a third of book bans reported in fall 2022 were a result of new state laws, free speech group says” CNN. 04/20/2023.
Chen, J. “Two adolescent sex-ed books challenged at Old Lyme library”. NBC-CT. 06/27/2023.
Dunne, S. “Old Lyme library facing calls to ban two sex-ed books from teen section”. Hartford Courant. 06/28/2023
Dunne, S. “More than 400 residents of a small CT town oppose sex-ed book ban attempt”. Hartford Courant. 08/07/2023
Editorial Board. “Let parents pick their kids’ books”. The Day. 07/11/2023.
Fitzgerald, W. “Op-ed: Book Banning Is About More Than Book Banning”. LymeLine. 07/03/2023
Gregorian, V. “Remembering Andrew Carnegie’s Legacy”. American Libraries Magazine.09/30/2019.
Fleishman, J. “School librarians vilified as the ‘arm of Satan’ in book-banning wars”. L.A. Times. 01/27/2023.
Friedman, J. & Farid-Johnson, N. “Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools”. PEN America.09/19/2022.
Harkay, J. “Newtown is weighing a book ban. It’s not the only CT town to do so”. CT Mirror. 06/01/2023
Jungkeit, S.R., Fitzpatrick-Nager, L., & Gerber. C. “Opinion: The banning of books – all books – is wrong”. Hartford Courant. 08/03/2023
LaBella, J. “Fairfield Library decides to not remove controversial book”. Fairfield Citizen. 10/12/2022.
Littlefield, “The Real Agenda of Moms for Liberty”. The Nation. 08/07/2023.
Logan, O. “More Than 400 Sign Letter Supporting Old Lyme Library, Urging Rejection of Censorship Requests ‘In Their Entirety’”. LymeLine.com 06/29/1023
Mazariegos, M. “In a record year for book ban attempts, ALA says these 10 books were challenged most”. NPR. 04/04/2022
Mongkol, C. “Old Lyme residents challenge two sex education books in library over sexual content”. NH Register. 06/28/2023.
Logan, O. “Old Lyme Library Board Issues New Statement Answering Additional Questions Related to Recent Book Challenges”. LymeLine.com 07/27/2023.
Nixon, R.A. “Sermonizing a ‘Complete Misrepresentation of the Facts’ in Old Lyme” CT Examiner. 03/31/2023.
Perreault, E. “Old Lyme library votes against banning sex education books after community backlash”. WTNH. 07/12/2023
Petri, A. E. “Book bans are on the rise in U.S. schools, fueled by new laws in Republican-led states”. L.A. Times. 04/22/2023.
Putterman, A. “The national book banning debate has come to CT: ‘It’s kind of tearing the community apart’”. CTInsider. 05/30/2023.
Regan, E. “Containing multitudes: minister, social justice activist, Marx scholar shakes things up in Old Lyme. The Day. 05/15/2021.
Regan, E. “National culture war blows through Old Lyme’s town center”.The Day. 07/29/2023
Regan, E. “Old Lyme ‘kerfuffle’ over sex education book spills into Lyme”. The Day. 07/28/2023.
Shadmi, K. “Sketchbook/ Reality Hurts”. The NYT Book Review. 08/13/2023.
Shakelford, K. “Opinion. — Religious Freedom Is Under Attack Like Never Before”. Newsweek. 08/05/2020.
Sims, D. “A New Way of Looking at ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’”. The Atlantic. 12/2019.
Torres, L. C. “Old Lyme library will keep two sex-education books in the teen section”. CT Public Radio. 07/11/202
After some sluggish early sales, there has been a considerable increase in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads in the United States. EVs comprised 5.8 percent of all new vehicle sales in the United States in 2022; up from 3.2 percent in 2021; and that’s more than three-quarters of a million of the roughly 14 million new cars and light trucks sold in 2022.
The Day reviewed EV registration data from the Connecticut DMV and reported that at the end of 2022, there were 30,186 EVs registered in Connecticut; of which 60 percent were all-electric vehicles, also known as battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which get all their power from energy stored in rechargeable battery packs.
The state registered only five fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), which are powered by an on-board fuel cell that generates electricity using oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen, emitting water vapor and heat.
Notably, in the final six months of 2022, Connecticut EV registrations totaled 6,373, the most for any six-month period over the past several years.
EV101:
I review the case for EVs in this “View”, and explore Americans’ early reluctance to make that purchase. I will also wax nostalgic on how the California car culture of the 1950s and ‘60s became embedded in the collective ethos of we baby boomers by rock bands like The Beach Boys and their contemporaries; possibly affecting our future attitudes regarding EVs; — perhaps more so, but not exclusively, the males; I will not recommend any brand.
Note: I use either “gas-powered “equivalent or “similar conventionally-powered car” in this essay to contrast an EV to an otherwise comparable car model powered by an internal combustion engine (ICE).
Why EVs?
The transportation sector of the economy is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, nearly one-third of the total; — most of which comes from light-duty vehicles, i.e., passenger cars and light-duty trucks that use gasoline or diesel. BEVs, on the other hand, have zero tailpipe emissions and so, are much better for the environment.
Climate scientists consider “vehicle electrification” as one of the best ways to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA released new pollution standards for passenger cars and trucks earlier this year; and legacy automotive companies like Ford, Volkswagen, and GM have committed to increase their development of EVs or even stop the production of gas-powered vehicles.
The transition to EVs is expected to be beneficial for those who don’t even drive one. A large-scale study by investigators at USC’s Keck School of Medicine found that BEVs are associated with a statistically significant reduction in air pollution and respiratory diseases They demonstrated a 3.2 percent drop in the rate of asthma-related emergency room visits “for every 20 additional BEVs on the road per 1,000 people”.
While a 3.2 percent decrease may appear modest, the continued replacement of gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles with EVs should continue to yield substantial benefits for the public’s health; — i.e., with reductions in emissions and improved air quality, fewer people will inhale harmful quantities of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, which have been linked to high blood pressure and respiratory problems.
Why the Early Reluctance?
Aside from the usual “wait and see” period associated with the adoption of any new or somewhat unproven core technology, EVs often had higher upfront prices than similar gas-powered automobiles. Further, prospective buyers were also concerned about driving range, i.e., the number of miles an EV can travel on a fully charged battery. The scarcity of easily accessible charging stations near home or on trips was also of concern.
American automakers have now focused EV production on “the heart of the U.S. auto market.” Photo by Precious Madubuike on Unsplash.com.
Turning the Corner:
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides subsidies (up to $7.5 billion in total) for the development of a national network of charging stations. In addition, federal and CT tax incentivesthat support the purchase of EVs are nowavailable.
Further, an analysis by “Consumer Reports” stated that EVs are considerably cheaper to operate and maintain; and provide sizable savings to owners over the expected lifetime of the EV, when compared to similar gas or diesel- powered vehicles.
Finally, automobile industry analysts observe that “in their first rollouts, America’s automakers targeted people who value short-range economy cars. Then came EVs for luxury buyers and drivers of pickups and delivery vans. Now, the companies are focused on “the heart of the U.S. auto market”, — the compact SUV; and promoting their new models as having the range, price and features to rival their gas-powered competitors.
It is expected that “prices are likely to more closely align with conventional vehicles, as production volumes increase and battery technologies continue to mature”.
I was a student at the MindszentySchool, a Catholic prep school inwestern New York state, when the music of The Beach Boys began to reach the northeast. This was before The Beatles had made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” or sang live before 55,000 people at Shea Stadium; and before CBS and Ed Sullivan censored the lyrics performed by The Rolling Stones.
It was a few years after the Cuban Missile crisis brought us to the brink of a nuclear confrontation with the Soviets, which was followed just about a year later by the assassination of JFK in Dallas. Moreover, the War in Vietnam was expanding rapidly and we feared, even while completing our college applications, that those future college years would be interrupted or curtailed by a draft lottery system scheduled for implementation in our near futures.
Clearly, we needed a diversion.
I will illustrate how the music and lyrics of that era’s California-themed rock groups may have influenced the eventual EV buying decisions below with excerpts from their songs. This is not science, so if I fail in this salute to some of the music of my teen years, it is entirely feasible that “you just had to be there.”
The genre was generally referred to as the California sound, and highlighted the So-Cal culture of surfing, the beach, and high performance cars. Drag racing and street racing were prominent lyrical motifs, as were mechanical techniques for “souping up” your car. These “muscle cars” were loud, generally American-made, and highly modified for power and acceleration.
This is only a small sample selected from almost a thousand published works of The Beach Boys and their contemporaries; and included in this essay because I felt that they characterized the car culture of the time.
Let me be clear. I am not suggesting that any of their lyrics bear any resemblance to the works of Frost, Longfellow, Whitman, or even Jerry Garcia; but the group was one of the American rock bands that sustained their standing through the sneaky British invasion of our music in the mid-1960s by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who, amongst many others.
High Performance Cars:
In the lyrics below,“409”, “413”, and “389” all refer to engine displacement, which is a measure of the cylinder volume in an internal combustion engine, and often used not only as an expression of the engine’s size, but a gauge of its power. Carburetors get highlighted in the lyrics; and “dual quads” and “three deuces” refer to the configuration of the carburetors in highly modified ICEs; — i.e., two “four barrel” and three “two barrel” carburetors, respectively.
Carburetors are/were used in an ICE to control the mix of fuel and air that then gets fired in the cylinders, powering the pistons The usual stock engine in a family car would typically have a single carburetor servicing all cylinders. Note that manufacturers stopped using carburetors in the late 1980s after the development of newer and more efficient technologies like fuel injection, which also appears below.
The few mentions of “rubber” refer to a car that is so powerful that the driver can spin the wheels or “lay rubber”, even when shifting to the higher gears.
The Lyrics:
“When I take her to the track, she really shines; she always turns in the fastest times; — my four speed, dual quad, posi-traction 409”.
“It happened on the strip where the road is wide; two cool shorts standing side by side. Yeah, my fuel injected stingray and a 413; were revving up our engines and it sounds real mean”.
“Pedal’s to the floor, hear the dual quads drink; and now the 413’s lead is starting to shrink”.
“I get pushed out of shape, and it’s hard to steer; when I get rubber in all four gears”.
“When the flag went down, you could hear rubber burn”.
“Little GTO, you’re really looking fine; three deuces and a four-speed and a 389”.
Women Drivers:
“Well, she got her daddy’s car and she cruised through the hamburger stand now; seems she forgot all about the library like she told her old man now. And with the radio blasting goes cruising just as fast as she can now. Well, the girls can’t stand her ‘ause she walks, looks and drives like an ace now; she makes the Indy 500 look like the Roman chariot race now.”
“The little old lady from Pasadena has a pretty little flowerbed of white gardenias; but parked in a rickety, old garage is a brand new, shiny, red, super-stock Dodge. Well, she’s gonna get a ticket now sooner or later, because she can’t keep her foot off the accelerator.”
The Irony of Engineering:
EVs can accelerate faster than their gas-powered equivalents, and it’s all about torque, i.e., the twisting force that that gets the gears, axles, and wheels turning. Very, very simply, torque is produced in an internal combustion engine by firing the fuel-air mix in the cylinders, which causes the pistons to slide up and down; and as they do, rotates the crankshaft that is attached to a gearbox, which in turn, powers the car’s wheels. To speed up this process and reach maximum torque, drivers may rev up the engine.
EVs, on the other hand, have a much simpler design and their electrical drive motors have few moving parts. When you step on an EV’s accelerator, electricity is sent from the battery to the electric motor, whose rotor begins spinning rapidly. The rotor is somewhat analogous to a crankshaft and it feeds torque to the wheels through the transmission via a differential. This all happens instantaneously without revving because the motor can provide instant torque at the maximum level.
A larger battery pack can provide more power to the electric motor, which can result both in faster acceleration and increased range. However, electrifying vehicles adds substantial weight; — e.g., the electric version of the Ford F-150 small pickup is much heavier than the gas version of the same vehicle, weighing 35 percent more, primarily because of the massive battery and required structural support.
Most EVs weigh about one-third more than their gas-powered equivalents, which is troubling, because EVs can be more deadly during crashes than similar conventionally-powered cars and trucks because that extra weight effectively increases the force of a crash.
Author’s Notes: Note that the above artists did not invent the car-centric genre. In 1928, recording artists Billy Jones & Ernest Hare published “Henry’s Made A Lady Out Of Lizzie.”, about the brand new Ford Model A, which replaced the Model T “Tin Lizzie”.
“No more chug chug chug chug-bang! No more cuss words, no more slang!”.
I focused on BEVs in this essay, but if you are not yet ready to commit to a plug-in; there are many great hybrid alternatives available, which combine a conventional internal combustion engine with an electric propulsion system. Many of the EVs sold today offer both hybrid and non-hybrid models.
EVs have rounded another corner in their drive to firm their position in the automotive mainstream. The first fully-electric Grand Prix racing series, the FIA Formula E Championship, was launched in 2014. and scheduled in 10 center-city street courses worldwide.
NASCAR is exploring the development of an all-electric racing series, which could operate as a companion to the well-established NASCAR Cup Series.
The Indianapolis 500 has not committed. I guess the question is whether feeling the rumble of the engines and hearing the roar of the exhaust is important to racing fans.
Editor’s Note: This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.
About the author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.
Author’s Notes: Sources: Hallenbeck, B. “Electric vehicles continue to gain ground, —slowly”. The Day. 04/15/2023. Harto, C. “Today’s Electric vehicles offer big savings for consumers”. Consumer Reports. 10/2020 Associated Press. “Automakers targeting average households with new crop of EVs”. Hartford Courant.07/19/2022 Moritz, J. “CT lawmakers vote to add thousands of electric vehicles in decade. CT Insider. 04/29/2022 Moore, G. “Customers Are Still Slow to Adopt Innovative New Tech. Why the Lag?” Entrepreneur. 03/21/2014. Ornelas, A. “Why do Electric Cars accelerate faster?”. The Motor Digest. 01/18/2022. “Penney, V. “Electric Cars are better for the planet. – and often your budget, too”. New York Times. 01/15/2021. Puko, T. “Biden looks to remake auto industry with toughest emissions limits ever”. The Day. 04/12/2023. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2021”. EPA 430-R-23-002. 2023 Shaffer, B. “Make electric vehicles lighter to maximize climate and safety benefits”. Nature. 10/12/2021. Voelcker, J. “Why are EVs So Quick?”. Car and Driver. 02/2022. Wood. J. “Electric vehicles: The 3 main factors holding back sales”. 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27. 11/2022.
Set List: “409” (The Beach Boys; 1962) “Shut Down” (The Beach Boys; 1963). “Little Deuce Coupe” (The Beach Boys; 1963). “Hey Little Cobra” ( The Rip Chords; 1963). “Little GTO (Ronnie and the Daytonas; 1964). “Fun, fun, fun” (The Beach Boys,1964). “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena”; (Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, 1964).
Director Christopher Nolan has broken ground by applying his style of non-linear storytelling to biopics, which tend to be predictable Oscar-bait consisting of exceptional costumes, set design, and performances that attempt to master said protagonist’s quirks. With that said, expect to have difficulty following along, but your first impressions will be strong enough to inspire a second screening, which will provide clarity and further appreciation (as is quintessential for Nolan movies, save for The Dark Knight trilogy).
Throughout his career, Nolan has given us countless examples of his fascination with our place in the cosmos. Inception was rooted in psychology and the subconscious, Interstellar dealt with space and time, and now Oppenheimer focuses on the laws of the universe that not only give life but can take it away at mass levels.
The film also tackles the moral issues that led to the Manhattan Project and, ultimately, the arms race of the Cold War, in addition to our pursuit of scientific knowledge being equivalent to the myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man (the source material being the biographer on Oppenheimer American Prometheus).
Cillian Murphy takes the lead as the title character J. Robert Oppenheimer. His performance consists of a man whose innovation is never switched off, often contemplating the how’s and why’s of nature and the consequences that should follow.
He is accompanied by an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey, Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Kenneth Branagh, Florence Pugh and countless others whose A-list status helps magnify even the briefest cameo to match their importance with this historic figure’s story.
Beyond the narrative and performances, there is much to praise. Particularly the visual and audio effects, as we are given glimpses into nuclear physics, in addition to a haunting score by Ludwig Göransson.
The editing can be overwhelming at times, which matches the narrative Nolan has established.
I see this movie not only as a must see that will age exceptionally, but also as a front-runner during awards season this year. I would be stunned if it came home empty-handed at the Oscars.
If, upon seeing the movie, you feel overpowered at the global magnitude of the arms race that followed Oppenheimer’s successful creation of nuclear weapons, I recommend checking out a classic comedy, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which perfectly satirizes the absurdity of the Cold War that terrorized us.
The atomic bomb tapped into the basics of our universe, and Mel Brooks observed that comedy was just another defense in our arsenal.
What could be more consoling than Peter Sellers’ performance as the title character explaining mutually-assured-destruction and pointing out that we had even botched our implementation of that doctrine?
About the Author: Though no longer a resident of Lyme, Kevin knows he can never sever his roots to the tree of his identity. When not attending to his job in Boston, he is committed to ensuring a better grasp of current (and past) releases of cinema to his home community as he strives to leave his own mark in the same field that has always been his guide to understanding life. If you enjoy his published reviews here on LymeLine.com, follow him on his website at ‘The City of Cinema‘ and read more of his unique insights into entertainment.
