326. Chevrolets and napping

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Afternoon naps

Martha Grimes, in her Richard Jury mysteries, likes to portray a London club as the place the members go to sleep during the day. This reminds me of a lounge in ASU’s Memorial Union -- back when I was a student -- where I would go to nap after lunch. There were too comfortable chairs and white noise. I wouldn’t object to finding a place like that now. Mostly I was in the library at this time of day, which was much less comfortable. The carrels by the windows provided a certain amount of privacy but you inevitably fell asleep face down on a book.

Accounts of fancier restaurants late in the 19th century or early in the 20th, sometimes mention private rooms upstairs which makes one think of romantic liaisons. Yet there must have been at least the occasional older gentleman napping in private after his meal.

See the USA in your Chevrolet

I really can’t recall the last time I thought Chevrolet had a good looking car, but I like both the current Impala and Malibu models, which got me thinking... 

My family owned the very first Impala in 1958. 

This could be our Impala.

I still think that is one of the best looking American cars ever. My family saw the USA between Louisville and Boulder repeatedly in that Impala, and we saw much of Colorado and Wyoming as well, and later much of California and Arizona in my dad’s Chevys. 

Prior to 1958 my dad drove a classic Chevy Bel Air. In 1958 the Bel Air went from being one of the best looking cars ever, to being the model below the Impala. This was most evident in the rear lights -- the Impala had three on each side while the Bel Air only had two on each side. That same year Chevrolet also introduced the Biscayne which looked almost exactly like a Bel Air except that it had been hit lightly with the ugly stick. In the ‘60s both the Bel Air and especially the Biscayne would be pounded ever harder with the ugly stick, so the car buyer would suffer for not buying the top of the line Impala.

I’m not going to bother to do the (simple) research, but I suspect the sub-models also had smaller engines. I suspect this because my dad always got Impalas from his company and if there wasn’t a solid reason (power) I suspect they would have given him a cheaper model instead.

It wasn’t until 1964 that Chevy introduced the Malibu, a smaller, sportier vehicle. It was like an upscale version of the little Nova, introduced in 1962. Since 1958 Chevrolet had been trying to push their customers up their model list, but with the SS program (SuperSport) -- started on a very modest scale in 1961 -- they instead allowed the customer to tart-up lesser models. The Nova in particular I mostly recall in its SS version. By the late ‘60s it was Pontiac that had the best looking GM cars and Chevrolet has been boring ever since.

Now, still without doing any real research, my impression is that the Malibu is to the Impala what the Bel Air was in 1958. But they both look better than I’m used to Chevys looking. No one would confuse them with a Tesla, but it’s a start.

325. Library/WPA model tour

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Back to spontaneity

Last night I started re-reading this blog and was reminded that the idea was to do more spontaneous writing. It's a good indication of how un-spontaneous I am that I had forgotten all about that. But I still think it's a good idea, so I will give it another try.

Today I'm sitting in the basement at the Bank Cafe. Not for the greater protection from gamma rays or the convenience to the bathrooms, but because they are finally starting to remodel the inside of this building and this is now where most of the seating is... such as it is.

I was under the impression this was going to be done in phases, but having said that, I can imagine what actually happened. When the architect and contractor presented the plan to the clients -- Capital One 360 and Peet's Coffee -- I'm sure they responded to concerns about interference with their business with assurances that the work could be done in phases so people would hardly even know they were working in the building. Then, as the time approached to start the work, they came back and explained that while they could do the work in phases, that would take much longer and cost much more and the people in corporate who actually write the checks said, screw that. 

So now half the ground floor is blocked off, including the stairs to the mezzanine, and even two walls of the basement are sealed off. We're packed in here like rats in the terminal phase of those over-crowding experiments. I'm trying to keep my back to a wall so I can spot the first signs of cannibalism. And the bean bags never returned to the small area of de rigueur stadium seating, so you can sit there but not comfortably.



Two days ago my friend Cindy and I wrapped up our multi-day expedition to see the WPA model of San Francisco currently on display in our public libraries. (I've violated my tradition of only giving the initial of people I write about because I'm about to give you a link to her blog about the model. HERE.)

This project was fun because of the model, which is both interesting and infuriating -- always a good combination -- but also because we got to visit all the public libraries. Some of my favorites (like the Noe Valley and Golden Gate Valley branches) are Carnegie buildings. Others (like Bayview and Portola) are new buildings that I wish I lived closer to. The Visitation Valley branch, in one of the worst neighborhoods in SF, may have been my favorite just as a venue for reading.

Something that's been ageing in casks 

I still have some things I've written but never gotten round to posting. I'm going to try to get rid of them.

What I don't like about Starbucks is that they put my dead-simple iced tea order in the cue with all the fancy drinks, instead of just doing it first, like they do at Peete's. They do a better job of having electrical outlets and even wireless chargers, but I'm not quite in need of those services. Soon, though.

324. Calypso plus

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Calypso

by David Sedaris

A House Divided
It’s an odd sort of bonus that one of his siblings is also a public figure. When he describes Amy as having blown her inheritance on candy, you can more easily imagine it. 

Probably what fascinates me about large families -- large for me being greater than one -- is the way siblings are identity mirrors for each other. They stand in contrast to each other -- the “smart” one or the “pretty” one -- but they also reaffirm each other’s identities. You have to wonder if, with Tiffany, all the good identities were already taken. 

I should go down the list, but it seems like a surprising number of our book club books, especially the fiction or autobiographical ones, have been about siblings. Curious and interesting for me, an only child, but I suppose this is just the norm for most people.


The Perfect Fit
Charming to read but would drive me nuts if I had to be there.


Leviathan (why?)
I’ve always focused on the advantages of being an only child as my parents were dying, but I can see that there would also be substantial advantages to having siblings, if you got along at all. My cousins were almost as helpful, but not quite the same.

David again talks about observing, in middle age, people who are only a couple decades older and being shocked by the personal implications. The problem with this is that people age so differently. My dad’s body was shot before he quite reached 80. My mother “made it” to 86, but in a physically and mentally diminished state. Yet some people are still trucking along past 90. There are no convincing conclusions to draw from any of this. 

Kind of shocked that I don’t know the name Hank Mobley. He died in the mid-80’s while in his mid-50s, but he must have been popular in the 60s and 70s when I was listening to a lot of jazz.

Why Aren’t You Laughing?
This is the most serious essay so far, only slightly lightened by humor. There’s a great line about people on a TV show called Intervention, “The authors of the letters often cry, perhaps because what they’ve written is so poorly constructed.”

But the subject is chemical dependence and how families deal with it. My dad was first in AA in the very early ‘60s but it didn’t take. So there was no need, later on, for me to bring up the subject. My only hope was to avoid the scenes when my mother would bring it up. My greatest hope was to avoid the scenes entirely by getting out on my own, and this was before I was twelve. Still, I do remember lots of good times in the later years. It really is like there are two people.

Sedaris writes well about how close the siblings were to their mother, and how distant he was from his father. I can actually top that. One of the things I discovered after my dad died were audio tapes he had recorded while driving around Arizona for work. I listened to them and they are interesting. He was a better storyteller than I am and he told lots of stories from various times in his life. What I couldn’t help noticing though, was there was almost nothing about me. I didn’t hold this against him, we were never that close, but it was revealing. I always assumed I was a disappointment to him, but it would seem that he didn’t really think much about me at all. Kind of like I never thought much about him after I moved away from home. 

The Comey Memo
Again he does a good job of balancing serious with frivolous family stuff. Amy, and her rabbit, is always good for a needed laugh. 

I suppose you could describe their letting their father continue living the way he is as typical Libtard behavior. Just as the way they didn’t intervene with their mother because it was her life. In that situation I did push my mother into an Independent Living situation, but I do have 2nd thoughts about that as well. It was a reasonable thing to do and it was better for me, but I can’t say without reservation that it was better for my mother. 

There ought to be a way for people to test the waters in a retirement community. Unfortunately, there’s usually a waiting list for these units so there’s no incentive for the people running the places to go to any trouble to lure in the reluctant elderly. And should people who can’t take care of their houses be allowed to vote for president?

It is so tempting to want to dig in and fix people’s lives. Especially when it involves throwing out junk, and a quick home makeover. It would be fun and satisfying... but would the recipient appreciate it at all? I kind of doubt it. 

I just realized who the other father figure is I’ve been thinking about while reading this. I recently watched a bunch of Kathleen Madigan stand up YouTube videos where her dad is a major character. (The one where her father agrees that Jesus was a suicide "and that family isn’t going to collect a dime" is classic. HERE.) Kathleen does a better job, I think, of showing us her dad in his prime. Like his job is key to that great story, yet I don’t recall what David’s father did. Are we told? (Something at IBM, I was reminded.) The only story about his dad where the father comes off well and in an interesting way, is when he does the U-turn so his daughter can get a better look at the guy exposing himself. 


All this really to say that David is still learning to deal with his dad and that process is really not all that interesting. At least to me. I had some intense last days with my dad as he was dying, but he was past the point of meaningful communication. We both just learned some lessons about death at the same time, but not exactly together. If there’s any truth to the near death trope, my first words to him when I’m dying will be, “I’m really sorry about all that but I was learning on the job and doing the best I could.” Or, he might say those words to me about my childhood. Since this will probably be happening in the last functioning neurons in my brain, maybe both these things will happen.

Some really old content below...

enki design magazine

The other day I finished reading a section of TMM and then my laptop ran out of battery so I was forced back on my unfinished copy of "enki". So lovely in every way. The content, of course, but mostly the presentation. They do seem to share my color preferences, so that’s a part of it, but everything about the typefaces and layout appeals to me. 

And then I looked up and, because of that train of thought, noticed a particularly well dressed woman sitting opposite me. I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t have noticed this if I hadn’t been admiring the magazine.

The Butcher’s Son

I’m taking advantage of what may be the last of our Indian Summer weather to come to Berkeley and have all the good things. Yesterday was Tartine in the Mission, which was excellent, but this is just so decadent for me. Who would ever have dreamed that there would be vegan delicatessens? It’s like being normal again.

And I even went to the gym this morning, so I’m being pretty damn good, overall. I figure I have five months to get my shoulder back in shape so I’m working on a plan to eliminate the possibilities of what is messing with it. This involves removing one exercise at a time until I find out what is the problem. I’m also icing the shoulder after the gym, which helps a lot. Maybe too much. 

323. Golden Age for the casual study of military history

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Military history

I've been sitting on something I started months ago about this being the Golden Age for the casual study of military history, thanks to all the great things on YouTube. I may pull that in here, but, at least to start, I'm going to talk about last night.

It was cold and I decided to stay in with a bottle of wine and amuse myself on the computer. I had nothing particular in mind. So here's how I ended up spending my evening: "The Great War" channel was back with a new host and an episode on the German revolutions of 1918 and 1919. This got me off in a military history direction. 

The day before I had watched a "Military History Not Visualized" episode on "The Rzhev Meat Grinder." 

HERE's the link.

This was a Soviet campaign in 1942 that doesn't get the attention it deserves because there was very little movement. The Soviets attempted to smash in the German salient near Rzhev (it looks like the more famous Battle of the Bulge in 1944, but the German line held.) So, having been thinking about the consequences of that action, I finally clicked on something I had been ignoring for a long time, "TIK's" "Fall Blau 1942."

HERE's the link.

Military History Visualized, and now Military History Not Visualized, are often interesting and sometimes go into great detail on subjects like the actual composition of German divisions at various times during the war. But TIK may be my favorite military history presenter. His background is in economics and he's relatively new to military history. Unlike most of us, who have been reading about these topics for decades and who often started reading sub-standard books full of misinformation, he is starting fresh with the best sources he can get his hands on. And his economics background works to his advantage when it comes to logistics and the essential economic aspect of modern war. (Really any war.) His episode on the importance of oil for the Germans in WW2 is probably the first thing a student of the subject should view.

TIK has also done videos where he carefully looked at German and Soviet troop strength from year to year and where he broke down German reinforcements not just by year but by the particular front -- North, Center, South -- they were sent to. All this to show that much "common knowledge" about the relative strength in numbers of the two sides is simply wrong.

What I wanted to see in his presentation of Fall Blau, was if my guess from watching the Rzhev video was correct, that the Soviet offensives in the Center prevented sufficient strength from being sent to the South, where the Germans would fail to capture the oil resources they desperately required in the Caucasus. And the answer is, maybe.

According to TIK, the Germans were so successful in the opening phases of Fall Blau, that they concluded, mistakenly, that the Soviet Army in the South was broken and the battle was won. They then redeployed significant forces to the North and Center and even sent some divisions to the West, as the Anglo-Saxon Allies were starting to get a bit frisky. So you could argue that it was the strain of the Soviet attacks on the North and Center that pulled those troops up from the South where the Germans would soon run out of gas before reaching Grozny, and where the 6th Army would get trapped at Stalingrad when the remaining German forces in the South proved too weak to break them out.

But, of course, there's another way to look at this. When I said the Germans "ran out of gas" I meant this literally as well as figuratively. They were simply overextended. Every success had pushed their lines further from home and made the supply situation worse. They now had an increasingly active line to defend starting at Leningrad, running almost to Moscow, and then south past Stalingrad and into the Caucasus. And unlike the Allied shortage of supplies in France in 1944, this shortage wasn't temporary. Wasn't going to be made better in time as oil pipelines connected France to Britain and as the Allies finally won port facilities. For the Germans, with the failure to take the Caucasus, the future was simply the inevitable consumption of what little oil they had on hand.

What I don't know is which of the two factors most drove the decision to remove divisions from the army groups in the South. Was it mostly logistics or mostly the strain on the other fronts? Or was it an even blend of the two? 

Though it may not matter that much. One of the things I noticed watching TIK's excellent coverage of the British Operation Crusader in North Africa in 1941, is that you can look at these extended WW2 campaigns in the same way you look at a Napoleonic battle that takes place over a day or two. If you imagine Napoleon (and Berthier) in command on the Soviet side of this fight, they would have done exactly what the Soviets did. They would have spread the Germans out as thinly as possible, waited until they spent their attack, and then launched a shock attack. Stalingrad was a more vulnerable salient than the one at Rzhev and, since the Soviets actually had more to lose in the South anyway, breaking the German line there was almost ideal. It relieved Astrakhan as well as the Caucasus.

But this was just the start of my evening. Next was "The Chieftain's" lecture on the development of armored warfare by the French Army leading up to 1940. 

HERE's a link to his coverage of the Renault R35.

HERE's a link to part 1 for the SOMUA S35. Part 2 HERE.
The Chieftain is one of my experts on tanks and armored warfare. He has the distinction of actually being a tank commander with fairly recent experience in M-1 Abrams tanks. He's done a long series of videos about particular Armored Fighting Vehicles (AVFs) describing them inside and out -- with way too much information about track maintenance -- but his insights into the ergonomics of the various machines is particularly useful. And this is particularly true when it comes to the French Army tanks of 1940. After watching his videos, shot inside the turrets of these French tanks, you feel nothing but pity for the poor French tank crews. 

But this video is about the development of French tank doctrine and the uncomfortable relationship between the Army and the government in France at the time. He has done a similar video on the British situation which resulted in a fatally flawed doctrine that didn't get improved until 1942 -- and I still don't understand how the Brits screwed this up so badly. The French infantry, the French cavalry, and de Gaulle, all had quite reasonable ideas about what their armored warfare doctrine should be, but political factors seem to have made it impossible to implement these ideas. 

(Now, knowing something of the doctrine of the U.S. Army, the German, the British, and the French armies, it would seem that the French were actually closest to having it right in the 1930s. The Germans would end up having the advantage as they were able to learn from their mistakes in some relatively easy early operations, and at least their main tanks were solid enough to remain useful throughout the war.)

The ergonomic failures of the French tanks, especially their tiny turrets and the inability to see the battlefield around them, or to communicate with supporting elements, would not have been so fatal if the tanks had been used in the combined arms formations that everyone wrote about. Instead, nearly blind French tanks, in small numbers and unsupported by infantry or artillery, had to joust with Panzers that could see them, communicate with each other on the radio, and that had three man turret crews to efficiently deploy their weaponry. 


And finally, just as I was about to go to bed, Drachinifel, my favorite source of naval history information, posted his 29th question and answer video. Another 47 minutes of geeky delight. 

HERE's a link to the episode.

What amazes me is that these people can all find audiences. I certainly don't know anyone who would willingly submit to watching this much military history, or listening to, since all of these channels are mostly audio with some providing images or maps when absolutely required. 

And there is yet another channel, "Forgotten Weapons", that specializes in in-depth information about particular weapons. (The "Forgotten" part is a little confusing at this point as he also covers the best known weapons as well.) His episode on the first domestic machine gun used by the French Army is an engineering delight. 

In some ways, Forgotten Weapons is the best of these channels in that it presents information in a way that no other media could equal. Neither a documentary nor a book could be as informative as Ian taking apart, reassembling, and often firing the weapon in question. Watching Ian try to control a fully automatic M-14 tells you everything you need to know about why the weapon was a failure -- and it also suggests why the U.S. Army held on to the heavy B.A.R. as long as it did.

HERE's the link to the French St Etienne Mle machine gun of 1907.

322. On Luck and mid-century houses

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Dwell mid-century homes

Since I got on Dwell’s daily email list I get notices of so many mid-century modern houses that are either on the market or that have been either brought up to date or restored to close to their original appearance. While these houses are much nicer than anything my family ever lived in, there are aspects that are stunningly familiar. One recent house, both available online and in the current issue of the magazine, even preserved the electric stove and oven we had in Boulder -- the kind with two ovens at eye height and stove burners in a drawer that you could close to free up more room and hide the burners. Why isn’t there a modern version of this? (I looked and there seem to be only some survivors on the market.) 

The ‘60s were hardly the best of times for me, but seeing these old houses takes me back in a positive way. That Boulder house, that we built in 1960, was the best house we ever lived in. Though the crawl space under the main level of our split level was a terrible idea. And, since I was still the smallest, it was my job to access that storage area. I wonder if anyone has DIYd an automated storage system for those spaces?

Dwell also covered a show about the Eameses that is currently at the Oakland museum. Along with Richard Feynman, meeting the Eameses is something else that would have been possible for me when we lived in SoCal if only I had known about them. And I was already interested in both design and particle physics, so it wouldn’t have been impossible. I could at least have visited some of the Case Study houses, which would have included the Eames house -- the least glazed of them all, I believe, and the one I really like best.

On luck

I do believe in luck, though I prefer the Roman concept of Fortune. Sulla, one of the best and most successful Roman commanders, was so aware of the importance of Fortune that he built a temple in honor of that goddess or concept. And he added Felix to his name. He came to the same conclusion Clausewitz would arrive at centuries later, that being lucky was essential to success in war.

My belief in fortune, and in my good fortune, is on a less grand and less bloody scale. And it has a very odd side -- in general I seem to be unlucky. But that’s fine with me as I seem to be lucky with the bigger things. I’m thinking about this because I’ve been having a rather spectacular run of bad luck in little things. I could choose any one of three pharmacies to get a prescription filled and I randomly chose the one that is not open on holidays. So I have to wait a day, not a problem. When booking tickets for a trip I randomly chose one of even more options for where a bus could pick you up and take you to the train. When the software wouldn’t accept that option, I assumed that they were not doing the bus anymore, for some reason. It turned out they had just limited the pickup options and I had picked the wrong one. I called in and got the reservation revised to include the pickup point they still service. Again, puzzling, but no real problem. 

My near constantly bad bus luck is the most regular example of my bad luck. It takes on the appearance of a cosmic joke when I arrive at my stop only to see the infrequent bus pulling away.

And yet I do see myself as fortunate. My draft lottery number kept me out of prison in 1970. My being freakishly ill in 1997 resulted in my buying the place I now live. If I had had the energy to find another place to rent, I would not be able to afford to live in SF today. 

I have problems with one of my eyes as a result of a car accident I was in, also in 1970. The driver in the other vehicle died and there were two different instants during the course of the accident -- we hit ice on a four lane mountain highway and crashed into the K-rail at the precipice before bouncing off, into oncoming traffic, and finally ending up against the hillside on the other side of the road -- when I acknowledged that I was going to die. But I didn’t. So having some annoying problems with one eye almost fifty years later seems like good fortune to me.

Of course I like the illness in 1997 best because who else would view the only time I’ve felt ill for more than a day or so since I was a child as an instance of good fortune. There were no symptoms to speak of and it ended as abruptly as it began. I didn’t have a doctor at the time -- since I never get sick -- and the doctor I found (in the building out my kitchen window) didn’t know what to make of it. I could hardly get out of bed for over a week and then, suddenly, I was better, but it took time to regain my strength. And that was when I became a condo owner. The best financial decision I only sort-of made.


Of course writing this makes me recall a great James Thurber story “The Luck of Jad Peters.” That projectile may be heading for me even as I type this.

The WPA San Francisco Model and Muni

One of the many local WPA projects was a model of the city in painted wood. It was displayed briefly and then went into storage. Now sections are being displayed in most of our library branches, plus Main and SFMOMA. I friend is blogging about the model and I've been in charge of getting us to the branches by public transport. When you bring someone unfamiliar with Muni onto Muni buses and trains, you can't help seeing (and smelling) it with their senses. It is not always pleasant.

Since I don't have a car, I don't have any option but to ride Muni, but I also think the experience is valuable for a local citizen. You can't hide from the city's problems or from the reality of what many of our fellow citizens are like when you are riding the bus. I'm convinced that people with naive, liberal ideas of how all our problems can be solved with just the right mix of laws and program funding, do not ride the bus regularly.

I think the same is true for most of the people who are opposed to the ride share companies -- the remainder of the opponents either drive taxis or can't afford even the reduced cost of ride shares and want the rest of the world to share their lot. Ride shares -- especially the kind where you share the ride with a number of people -- are simply a better form of transportation that society should be helping to support rather than fight against. 

Which is not to say there aren't some problems that need to be addressed. Uber and Lyft are contributing to increased traffic here because so many of their drivers are on the streets. 

I'm still waiting for the app that will finally compel me to buy a smartphone, and there's a chance it will be a ride share app. (Though I'm still hoping for that hearing protection/hearing aid/phone/music device that will do everything at once.)

321. Mid-century Battleships

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Mid-20th Century Battleships

I’ve written before about how often military units are not used in the way that was intended -- a mountain division first seeing action on a Dutch island that was entirely below sea level except for some levees, or a Panzer division sent to the front as infantry when their tanks were intercepted by the enemy. Similar to this is military equipment used in ways not foreseen like B-25s used as strafers rather than as high altitude bombers, or US Army pursuit planes used for ground attack. But there’s also a spectacular naval example of this same phenomenon.

For several generations battleships were developed as a modern version of the traditional line-of-battle ships from which they derived their name. They would sail in lines and fight similar lines of enemy ships. The Battle of Jutland is the best example of what was intended. By the end of 1941 the US Navy (USN) had built up a force of seventeen battleships for use in this manner. The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had a similar force of ten ships. Due to the naval treaties following the Great War and the effects of the Great Depression, several of these ships on both sides were quite old and already considered obsolete. The IJN shortage of ships was one of the reasons they attempted to level the playing filed by sinking the USN battle fleet at Pearl Harbor. 

In the short term, they removed seven BBs from the US fleet -- so that the numbers now stood at USN ten vs IJN ten. In the long run they only succeeded in removing two BBs from the fleet while the other five returned to service and three returned as vastly improved warships. Meanwhile the USN was steadily adding newer and more capable BBs to their fleet while the IJN concentrated on producing two super battleships.

But what I want to look at here is how the ships were actually used. After Pearl Harbor the USN had two new, fast BBs which could be used to contain German BBs in the North Atlantic, before they were transferred to the Pacific where they acted primarily as platforms for Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) in defense of the aircraft carriers that had become the prime naval weapons of the war. This fast BB force grew to six and finally to ten by the end of the war. Only once, in desperation, were the new BBs thrown into a surface engagement against the IJN.

USS Washington - One of the first modern, 16" BBs and the victor at 2nd Guadalcanal

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, the USN also had one ridiculously old BB (the USS Arkansas), 

USS Arkansas - The last of the USN 12" gun BBs

two very old 14" armed BBs (The USS New York and USS Texas), four standard Great War era BBs, and a single improved, post WW1 BB (the USS Colorado). In the Pacific some of these ships were held out as a desperation guard in case of a Japanese assault on the West Coast -- which the IJN didn’t have enough oil to mount. While the remainder of the ships were used to protect convoys in the Atlantic. Even ships like the Arkansas were ideal for this role as, while slow, they were faster than a convoy, which could only sail as quickly as its slowest ship. They acted as an effective deterrent to any German surface raider. This is the way the USN BBs spent 1942 while the ships sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor were raised and repaired.

USS California - A typical 14" BB before Pearl Harbor 

USS California - As rebuilt after Pearl Harbor. 

When the Allies started the series of amphibious landings in both theaters of the war, which were the defining aspect of WW2 for the US and the UK, the older BBs, now edging up in numbers as damaged ships returned to service, found a new role in shore bombardment. From Casablanca and Tarawa through the invasions of the South of France and Okinawa, BBs protected the landing forces while battering enemy positions ashore. Both the new and the old BBs blasted Iwo Jima before the invasion, but the new BBs, despite their more powerful guns, were less successful in the role than the older ships with more practice in this aspect of naval warfare. It was only during the Battle of Leyte Gulf that the older BBs on both sides finally met each other in a traditional naval battle, and by that time the short term IJN advantage of Pearl Harbor had been made good and the result was a massacre. (One of the ironies of the war is that the IJN, in keeping with Western notions of a “Decisive Engagement,” always called for the “annihilation” of their enemies. They did achieve this at the early Battles of the Java Sea, Sunda Strait, and the destruction of Force Z. But after those early months of the war, the most obvious cases of “annihilation” were suffered by the IJN carrier force at Midway and, especially, by the Southern Force at Surigao Strait during the Leyte Gulf battles.)

So during the whole of the Pacific War battleships only did what they were created to do on two nights.


While the older USN BBs had busy and productive service histories, six of the older IJN BBs did almost nothing but consume oil. The other four older IJN BBs were, technically, not battleships at all but rather battlecruisers. Though very powerful ones. 

Kongo - Designed and built during the 2nd decade of the 20th century, this class of 14" armed ships performed well throughout the Pacific War. 

These were the only IJN BBs that were worth the investment the nation spent on them. They were fast enough to keep up with the aircraft carriers, so they could serve as escorts like the USN fast BBs, and in a pinch, they could be risked to support IJN operations in the constricted waters of the Solomon Islands -- though two of them would be sunk there, so the risk would not pay off.

Still, the four Kongo class ships would see action from the beginning of the war to the last IJN fleet actions, while the other battleships would be expensive, oil guzzling assets that were carefully conserved until it was too late, and then proved incapable of even "annihilating" little Taffy 3 at the Battle Off Samar. Though they did look impressive.

Haruna - IJN equivalent of the USS Colorado class

Yamato - super battleship

320. So random

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Every Breath You Take

The day after I returned from Portland I walked down to the Bank Cafe only to find it closed with a vague sign saying they hoped to be open soon. The reason I was going there was because they have a good (corporate) HVAC system and that was a particularly smokey day. I figured being there would be the best thing for the health of my lungs given the poor air quality.

When I tried again on Wednesday, after the air had cleared, I discovered they had been closed because of the poor air quality. The logic of this eludes me as I suspect my air cleaner at home is better than what most people have. Some schools closed for the same reason, which was even worse as, with nothing else to do, some of the kids just went outside and played in the murky air. How many people have HVAC systems at home with air cleaning capacity? I would love to have one of those high end systems that bring in air, filter it, run it through a heat exchanger, and then distribute it around the apartment. There’s a second fan pulling air out of the apartment, and through the heat exchanger. You can even adjust the power of the two fans so that your space is positively or negatively pressurized (I’d go with positively to keep the neighbor’s cigarette smoke out.) I’d also like world peace. My guess is that operating a system like that -- even with the heating and cooling units off -- would take more electricity than I currently use for everything else.

After Black Friday or The day after...

The first two blocks of Stockton street are carpeted and entirely free of construction stuff, but I can’t tell if this is the usual just-for-the-season change or if they are actually done. I passed a dog having a nearly orgasmic roll on the grass-like carpet. I can’t tell if they are not finished setting up the holiday street furniture or what. (They weren't finished yet.) The first block seems in good shape but the next block seems incomplete or thrown together at the last moment. Since this is possibly the last year the street will be pedestrianized -- as the subway is supposed to open next year -- you’d think they would go all out. And that second block is the one with the puppies and kittens in the Macy’s windows. Last year it was kind of a mess because several areas -- like the shaft down to the station one hundred feet below -- were still blocked off. This year the entire block is clear.

Black Friday it rained all day but today is sunny and perfect, really. I’m not having any luck thinking of things I need to shop for. Aside from some groceries. I’m ashamed to admit this, but I really have better luck ordering clothes from LL Bean than from dropping into a store. The decline of local retail is one problem I do contribute to. Though, considering how few clothes I buy... And I do try to save something for Christmas Eve. Sadly, the only thing on my wish list so far is having my apartment cleaned by someone other than me. And I usually end up regretting that.

I've been holding on to this hoping to resolve the question of the future of Stockton Street. I believe they are going to return it to traffic use as soon at they complete the electrical work and possibly repave the sidewalk outside Neiman Marcus. The next block up is still blocked off as a staging site for work on the subway, except for a single lane. Maybe they will wait until that's freed up as well. Though it would be odd to have two, newly paved yet unused blocks of street in the heart of Union Square.

Bank Cafe

Now that the scaffolding is down outside, they’ve moved the comfortable chairs back to the corner window. Where I’m now sitting. And so I’m noticing that the Amazon Go store is now open diagonally across the intersection under the Crocker Tower. I’m curious to see how it works, but I’m afraid if I go over there they will grab me and throw me out on the sidewalk for the crime of not owning a smartphone.

Politics... but not what you're thinking

I’ve written before (I’m pretty sure) about San Francisco’s ridiculously large political footprint in California politics. Both our U.S. Senators and our new Governor have held city offices, two of the three were mayors. But now it’s getting out of hand. The former city DA and former California Attorney General and newly elected US Senator is now running for President. I assume she’s trying to steal a march on Gavin Newsom, our newly elected Governor (and ex-Mayor) as they are both such obviously attractive Democratic candidates. Only I can’t support her this time.

The problem is that she has no administrative or legislative experience. I’m sure she would be better than Trump, but that’s a very low bar. Also, it would be nice if she were to do the job we just elected her to do for at least a couple years before running for something else. I’m still waiting to see if Newsom has learned from the mistakes he made as Mayor. If so, then he would be an excellent candidate in four or so years. 


Kamala Harris would probably be a very good U.S. Attorney General if someone else were to be elected President, but I would still like to see her serve out her Senate term. The only silver lining I can see here would be if she moved on and then Newsom appointed Willie Brown to fill her seat for the rest of her term. Now that would be spectacular.

“Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.”

― Sun Tzu

While I really like this quote, I think it’s only true in part. I can think of plenty of battles and wars that were lost before they were fought, but there are also battles that were won against the odds by playing the situation just right. Midway would be an example. And there are other battles won by the side that made the fewest mistakes -- that would be a long list.

But it is true that you need to be prepared to win. El Alamein would be a battle Sun Tzu would have appreciated. Also the Battle of Nashville.

IJN After action assessment

The DDs were great, just not enough of them as the war progressed. CAs also excellent. CLs 2nd rate, Japan could and should have upgraded here. BBs  only the Kongo class was really useful. The USN got better service out of even the antique Arkansas than the IJN did out of its “real” BBs. 

Besides CLs the IJN should have invested in super cruisers, ships with the speed of a CA, the same weapons with perhaps a heavier main battery, and better protection. A description might sound like the Deutschland class, but what I have in mind is more a large CA than a small BB. The IJN could have gotten much more use from these ships than they did from the Yamatos. (6 x 11” in twin turrets, probably 15-20k displacement.) Ironically, the USN thought the IJN was working on larger cruisers like this which is why they built the Alaska class ships. Only the IJN didn't think seriously about it until they learned of the Alaska class, and then it was too late as even the Alaskas didn't get into service until the last year of the war. The Alaskas are actually a bit more ship than I have in mind. The Des Moines class ships are more like it, though they took advantage of rapid-fire 8" guns rather than larger guns.