Happy Solstice to All...

This came to me through the auspices of the wonderful Jim Moon the author of the The Moon Lens blog and broadcaster of the podcast by the same name.

Christmas List - Micronauts

Before the marketing geniuses at Kenner got hold of the Star Wars franchise and issued action figures for all characters, major and minor, there was a time when toys weren't spin-offs. Okay, I'll admit that's a lie. Since time immemorial there always have been spin-off toys. Whether you were talking about Buck Rogers or Roy Rogers somebody somewhere was making cheap knockoff guns, space ships, and the equivalent of action figures for the prepubescent consumer. In 1976 the toy-de-jour took the form of Micronauts.

Micronauts was the American name for the metal and plastic miniature action figures produced by the Japanese company, Takara. They were space men, or cyborgs, or time travelers, or I'm really not sure what. To be honest, their back story never was clear to me. I just knew that they were cool and I wanted them all. What did I like about them? Well, they were heavy. Yeah, that is a weird reason, but I was nine. If you look at the picture to the left, everything that's silver is made of metal. The plastic bodies were of a fairly heavy gauge too, making each tiny figure hefty and remarkably durable for a children's toy. My brother and I used to set them up on our dresser, creating a kind of shooting gallery. We'd use rubber bands to pick the little guys off, something my parents who paid for our targets never really appreciated. But, that's the purpose of being a child, isn't it? Gradually edging your parents toward the precipice of insanity and then giving them that last shove?

Looking back, I realize the reason for their frustration. Due to their construction techniques and the fact they were imports from Japan, Micronauts were expensive, and my father was paying for them out of a less than ample salary. The cost (and the fact we used them for target practice) meant that my brother and I never had more than two or three Micronauts compared to the hundreds of Star Wars figures that littered the width and breadth of our childhood. Now, forty years later, I find myself longing for the days of these little guys. They're a bridge back to another time and Christmas mornings gone by.

Halloween Candy - Chuckles

One of my favorites, Chuckles. I still get them from vending machines whenever I have a chance.

Halloween Candy - 5th Avenue

I don't know if I've ever had a 5th Avenue bar, probably have and just don't remember. Wasn't a common find in the Halloween bag, that's for sure.

Stutz Motor Company

My apologies for getting a late start to posting the regular Sunday automotive musings. Blame it on the season and the weather, we spent Saturday carousing with some good friends and a rainy gloom has fallen over the city, making daybreak seem to arrive sometime around eleven-thirty. Regardless, I've managed to shake the cobwebs off and I thought in honor of last night's festivities I'd do a little holiday piece. No, that doesn't mean images of Santa riding cars or ads extolling the virtues of buying an automobile for your honey's stocking (though I think I'll do both of those in coming holiday seasons). Instead I'm taking a more sidelong approach. As I've mentioned before, Kelly and I belong to several swing clubs and this year one of them held its annual Christmas Ball at the Stutz Building here in Indianapolis which meant we got to spend some time in the company of some great old cars.

The Stutz Bearcat on display at the Stutz Business Center, Indianapolis, IN

The Stutz Motor Company made high-end cars here in Indy starting as the Ideal Motor Car Company around 1911 and produced vehicles all the way up to 1995. Possibly one of the most famous of Stutz's cars is the Bearcat which featured one of the first multi-valve engines to appear in automobiles. 1919 brought stockholder troubles and in 1922 control of the company had changed as did its focus.  The re-imagined Stutz produced "safety cars", that is to say automobiles which featured innovations such as windshields made of safety glass, a low center of gravity for better handling, and the "Noback" transmission designed to hold hills.

The Stutz Black Hawk Streamline LSR Car at the Stutz Business Center, Indianapolis, IN

In 1927 Stutz set the world land speed record, averaging 68 miles per hour over 24 hours and in 1928 driver Frank Lockhart employed a pair of supercharged DOHC 1.5 liter engines to power his Stutz Black Hawk streamline racer.  Lockhart turned in a speed of 198.29 mph in his first pass with the Black Hawk, but in his second run a blown tire resulted in a violent crash which ejected Lockhart from the vehicle killing him instantly.

1973 Stutz Blackhawk at the Stutz Business Center, Indianapolis, IN

Stutz production came to an end in 1935 and didn't resume until 1968 when a New York banker funded Stutz Motor Car of America. In 1970 the prototype Stutz Blackhawk was distributed featuring GM parts. These cars featured all the luxuries the 70's could offer: power steering, automatic transmission, power brakes, electric windows, air conditioning, power locks, electric seats, and all leather upholstery. Initially the venture was successful, Elvis Presley bought a Blackhawk in 1971 and other Stutz owners included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Evel Knievel, Barry White, Lucille Ball, and Sammy Davis Jr. The high cost of a Stutz meant an extremely small production run (less than 700 vehicles between 1971 and 1882).

Wiki-rumors have Stutz currently designing an electric vehicle, but that seems to be wishful thinking. With competitors like Tesla Motors, Fisker, BMW, Cadillac, and Mercedes in the market it seems unlikely that a niche manufacturer like Stutz could make inroads.

Happy Father's Day

You might think that Father’s Day is one of those holidays that’s been around for a long time. You’d be wrong. In fact in the US Father’s Day has only existed since 1972. It’s possible that fathers lingered so far behind mothers because they didn’t pose such a ready and obvious market for the flower and card industries, but the origin of the holiday could be traced back to July 5, 1908, when a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers. This Sunday sermon was held to memorialize 362 men who perished in a December 1907 explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah. This was a one-time commemoration, though, and it wasn’t until a year later that Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. Dodd went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers, and government officials in her quest to garner support and she was successful. In 1910 Washington State became the first in the nation to celebrate a statewide Father’s Day.

The holiday slowly spread across the country. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to remotely unfurl a flag in Spokane. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge made the case for state governments to observe Father’s Day. However, ironically, it was men themselves who stood in the way of the holiday’s acceptance. As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products--often paid for by the father himself.”

In the 1920s and 1930s a movement to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in favor of a single holiday called Parents’ Day gained support. Rallies were held in New York’s Central Park on Mother’s Day. In a stroke of irony, it was the Great Depression that came to the rescue of Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day, though it hadn’t become official). Struggling retailers and advertisers rallied behind the idea of another holiday to promote sales, redoubling their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men and promoting goods such as neckties, hats, socks, pipes and tobacco, golf clubs and other sporting goods, and greeting cards. When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it was a national institution.

So, in 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday at last. Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts.

Here’s a hearty Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I hope you find your Dad’s Day stocking filled with all sorts of manly goodness.