As stated on the Halloween thread, I do enjoy Halloween.
But last night I realized the eve of the Holiday has nearly completely subsumed the actual holiday (except, maybe, for Mexico). It is all hallows eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. I would guess less than 20% of Americans under the age of 45 even know this. It would be as if Christmas Eve became so popular that people forgot there is a Christmas Day.
Is there any other holiday eve that has had this effect? The day before subsuming and co-opting the meaning of the day after? Maybe New Year’s Eve, but that’s different because the changing of one day to the other is the point of the celebration. One minute after midnight, New Year’s Day, is as essential to the celebration as one minute prior, on New Year’s Eve.
Looking for an old post, I ran across a LinkedIn post from 2014 by a ‘global industry analyst’, who said:
“Today’s businesses drive most of their value through service, intellectual property, innovation, and creativity. Even if you’re a manufacturer, your ability to sell, serve, and support your product (and the design itself) is more important than the ability to manufacture. So each year a higher and higher percentage of your work is dependent on the roles which have “hyper performer” distributions.”
This kind of drive-by assumption about manufacturing has been frequently encountered in business writings over the last couple of decades: the assumption that manufacturing is a field inherently lacking in creativity, and (strongly implied in the above quote) that “hyper performers” are not important in this area in the way that they are in sales, product design, and customer service.
In reality, process innovation is as important as product innovation. The failure of so many influential people to grasp this point has been a major factor in enabling America’s dependence on China.
David Foster,
100% correct. It’s amazing to me how many professional people in America are clueless regarding engineering, construction, material design…
Spend a year working side by side with folks running a manufacturing operation. You’ll be amazed by the creative, practical and innovative things they think up and see to implementation every, single day.
Rufus T:
Having lived several years in Mexico, my middle daughter makes it a point to celebrate “day of the dead” every year with a collage made from the photos of departed friends and relatives. Last night she had a Hallowe’en party for dozens of neighbors (we now live in Appalachia), who passed this collage on their way into the house. A few asked about the wall of photos, but most just passed by on their way to the drinks and treats. I always spend time at her display, though. All of my nuclear family have photos on that wall.
Alas, all of her guests are, I am sure, too hung over to be celebrating All Saints Day today. Or else they are too focused on the OSU football game at noon to be thinking of any saints.
David Foster, excellent comment. My husband spent a career in manufacturing management. Four different times, over a period of decades, he went into failing manufacturing plants and within one year significantly improved quality and doubled production with the same number of employees. His last effort, as a consultant after formal retirement, was a failing plant in New Jersey, which became a company superstar.
Thanks, sdferr. It would also warm my heart if legal means could be found to put the insurrectionist governors Newsance and Putzker in the hoosgow!
November???? I got up this morning to a temperature of 39 degrees….yes, here in Florida. More like mid January. Not what I signed up for. 🙂
Process innovation…Penicillin discovery is properly credited to Alexander Fleming, but practical use of the drug depended on the development of ways to produce it in high volume:
James Watt developed an improved steam engine, but it wouldn’t have been of much use without the improved cylinder-boring methods developed by John WIlkinson:
Ford’s Model T was a great car design for the times, but it wouldn’t have become a common purchase among Americans absent Ford’s introduction of the assembly line and other productivity-improving techniques.
David Foster,
And that Model T was not at all easy to drive…required some real learning and coordination:
My grandfather told me his first family car was a model T but they used it as a stationary engine on the farm rather than for transport.
More like mid January. Not what I signed up for.
The first time I was in Florida was for the launch of STS-61-B November 26. Mary Cleave invited a bunch of us from USU to the launch and we got to sit in the bleachers for the night launch. And it was cold, around 40 F. I recall looking wistfully at the hotel pool and thinking “no way.” Definitely not what I was expecting.
“Time gets mighty precious when there is less of it to waste.” Bonnie Riatt
And Nov 2025, guess as of today I might be considered a senior citizen
Re: Florida low temps
I remember a winter night as a kid when the temperature was supposed to drop to 20. My mother panicked and went shopping for extra blankets lest we freeze to death before morning.
My wonderful daughter just texted me this joke because she’s so wonderful.
Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Ohm are in a car.
They get pulled over. Heisenberg is driving and the cop asks him “Do you know how fast you were going?” “No, but I know exactly where I am” Heisenberg replies.
The cop says “You were doing 55 in a 35.” Heisenberg throws up his hands and shouts
“Great! Now I’m lost!” The cop thinks this is suspicious and orders him to pop open the trunk. He checks it out and says “Do you know you have a dead cat back here?”
“We do now, asshole!” shouts Schrodinger.
The cop moves to arrest them. Ohm resists.
Happy birthday, Skip!
Mike Plaiss, that’s great!
Thanks for sharing the joke.
David Foster, RTF, and Kate: ref mfg, agree 1000%!.
I came to understand manufacturing to be the use of information to manipulate materials to create a good (item, object) or support a service. Thus proper design should include consideration of the information needed to achieve the desired functionality, produce and test it, ship or deliver it, and provide service/ support once it is in the customer’s hands.
I have a fantasy when I work on my cars of having the engineers who designed the thing arrive in dress white shirts and I tell THEM to make the desired maintenance or repair action, just to see how dirty they get because they gave short shrift to the maintenance element of design.
Physics Guy, today in central FL it started out at 50 and warmed up nicely. I delayed making a minor electrical repair outside until that area had become shady, but it was really nice to complete that work and not be sweating like a pig. And that even included my usual being half way done and realizing I had skipped a step, so I had to un-do and re-do some of my work. 🙁
There’s nothing like a good science joke.
I would say November got here by arriving.
My husband once worked for a company that made fairly simple medical devices.
It gave me an appreciation for all that goes into design and functional engineering. After that experience, I consider my simple toaster – that works every time – an engineering marvel.
@ Rufus > “But last night I realized the eve of the Holiday has nearly completely subsumed the actual holiday (except, maybe, for Mexico). It is all hallows eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. I would guess less than 20% of Americans under the age of 45 even know this.”
I know this, even though neither Baptists (as I was) nor Latter-day Saints (as I am) celebrate All Saints Day, which recognizes the canonized Catholic saints IIRC — but I haven’t been under the age of 45 for some time.
I second your motion to have automobile design engineers perform routine vehicle maintenance on their designs, although my frustration with much of their work leads me to want to incorporate medieval torture devices at the end of the process, to encourage them to be more considerate of the consumer on the other end of their designs.
Oil filters, spark plugs, oil pain drain plugs, battery terminals… Maybe those should be easily accessible. How hard is it to design the plastic cowling under the car with a cut out notch exposing the oil drain plug? I have heard of more than one car that requires the engine to be lifted to reach a spark plug!
And what’s the point of a sealed transmission? One of our cars has miraculously survived for more miles than its designers anticipated. That’s a good thing. However, it seems like the transmission fluid viscosity is rather sluggish and my guess is some of it has dissipated. (I can’t know for sure, because it also has no dipstick to check.) But, because it is a sealed transmission (and front wheel drive), a simple task like draining the old fluid and replacing it with new fluid is impossible for a home mechanic and would cost about 10 times what the car is worth.
And why are all cars front or all wheel drive? Front and all wheel drive is a boon for folks who live where there is often snow and ice, but for the other 80% of us Americans who do not, owning a car where the transmission is jammed into the same space as the engine makes car maintenance nearly impossible. Everything requires lifting the engine, or taking off the front end of the car. I’ve had two cars where the headlights had to be reached by removing the front tires and accessing the bulbs through the wheel wells. You need to jack up the car to change a light bulb!
In the rear wheel drive days one could replace a clutch in one’s driveway with a minimum of tools and cost. Now it’s a minimum of 2 grand due to the need to lift the engine out of the way due to front wheel drive. And all that torque on the turning wheels plays havoc with ball joints.
Engine in the front. Transmission in the middle. Differential in the rear.
And why can’t modern brake rotors be turned, and reused?
Time marches on, especially if you are older!
Open threat – Sunday:
Russia’s new “Skyfall’ Missile – Evaluation & the Danger of “Superweapon Syndrome – Perun
Timestamps:
00:00 — Opening Words
01:50 — What Am I Talking About?
03:51 — Burevestnik
13:35 — What is It Capable of?
27:07 — Why is It Stupid?
37:48 — What if It Did Work?
47:24 — Hallmarks of Superweapon Syndrome
57:19 — What Next?
58:33 — Channel Update
R2L & Rufus, re: manufacturing design
Yes, testability, “diagnos-ability”, & maintenance deserve more priority in the designing phase!
I’m willing to pay a little more, for it!
From R2L: “I have a fantasy when I work on my cars of having the engineers who designed the thing arrive in dress white shirts and I tell THEM to make the desired maintenance or repair action, just to see how dirty they get because they gave short shrift to the maintenance element of design.”
Yes, and how bloody they get! Personal experience working on computers. The chasis, et al, usually have sharp raw metal edges.
Rufus: changing car light bulbs:
We had a 2002 Nissan that required front bumper removal to replace a dead headlight.
It was brutal!
And some parts in the way were fragile … argh!!
There were frayed nerves & ugly words used that day.
Lol.
All Saints Day commemorates all the saints who have gone before us, not just “canonized” ones.
Kate, good point on saints!
…
On your comment about your husband’s career in manufacturing management:
That’s fantastic! Certainly, something to be congratulated and proud!
I hope his subordinates or customers learned much to apply and pass on.
@ Rufus > ” I have heard of more than one car that requires the engine to be lifted to reach a spark plug!”
I’ll add 2 more to your list, both belonging to one of our sons. They like the small cars, but it costs $200-400 to change the (no longer all that cheap) spark plugs.
I know there are manufacturing and design constraints to get everything into those small cars, but this is a clear case of management saying “not my monkey” after the car is sold. I suspect the engineers would actually enjoy the challenge of making the things maintainable for less than the cost of the vehicle, especially if they drive their own creations.
I finished a biography of Alexander earlier tonight. This one was by Peter Green; I had, some years ago, read the one published around the same time by Robin Lane Fox. I’m rather glad that Alexander is dead, though occasionally facisimiles pop up – Napoleon in particular comes to mind.
RTF, fortunately my vehicles have usually not been quite that difficult to maintain, although recall my earlier remark that we now don’t need to skimp on things like paying a local mechanic to do more of that work. My experience is that oil drain plugs have been generally accessible, but for the life of me I don’t know why oil filters have to be mounted on horizontal, rather than vertical, threaded tubes, thus ensuring an oil spill on some part of the vehicle before entering the drain pan.
But my most violent fantasy involves slow (or idiot) drivers in front of me, wherein I wish I had telekinetic powers to make them steer into a ditch by the side of the road, and if my ire is really exercised, also then cause their heads to explode. [I am a much more mellow driver with age and retirement, but I am still not totally innocent of this fantasy.]
Philip Sells, I suspect that we can believe that the son of King Philip (!!) would feel pretty entitled, … literally. But if we are looking for facsimiles, Napoleon was a piker (and relatively civilized) compared to some others we could select. We have to remember that “all men are created equal” was not “self evident” to all, and it did not derive from any cultures outside of the Judeo-Christian one. Thus, our mindset is set in a pattern unknown to people of that time and place.
Marlene,
It is inexcusable to require bumper removal to replace a light bulb. I would have been outraged.
The bottom line on the car maintenance woes is this: because simple, routine, and/or frequent fixes are now difficult, expensive, and require professionals to accomplish, a LOT of people either put them off too long, or don’t do them at all, making the decline of their vehicles more likely, and also affecting the safety of everyone around them on the road.
I also note that many of the reasons cars are small, and engines awkward, is due to Government Regulations on gas mileage — which includes “aerodynamic” design (bowing to the Climate Change gods idols), and safety (some wise, some not).
Necessity is not in the picture at all.
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Voter Guides: Virginia and New Jersey Christian Voter Guides – pass them out at services!!
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/11/voter-guides-virginia-and-new-jersey.html
As stated on the Halloween thread, I do enjoy Halloween.
But last night I realized the eve of the Holiday has nearly completely subsumed the actual holiday (except, maybe, for Mexico). It is all hallows eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. I would guess less than 20% of Americans under the age of 45 even know this. It would be as if Christmas Eve became so popular that people forgot there is a Christmas Day.
Is there any other holiday eve that has had this effect? The day before subsuming and co-opting the meaning of the day after? Maybe New Year’s Eve, but that’s different because the changing of one day to the other is the point of the celebration. One minute after midnight, New Year’s Day, is as essential to the celebration as one minute prior, on New Year’s Eve.
Looking for an old post, I ran across a LinkedIn post from 2014 by a ‘global industry analyst’, who said:
“Today’s businesses drive most of their value through service, intellectual property, innovation, and creativity. Even if you’re a manufacturer, your ability to sell, serve, and support your product (and the design itself) is more important than the ability to manufacture. So each year a higher and higher percentage of your work is dependent on the roles which have “hyper performer” distributions.”
This kind of drive-by assumption about manufacturing has been frequently encountered in business writings over the last couple of decades: the assumption that manufacturing is a field inherently lacking in creativity, and (strongly implied in the above quote) that “hyper performers” are not important in this area in the way that they are in sales, product design, and customer service.
In reality, process innovation is as important as product innovation. The failure of so many influential people to grasp this point has been a major factor in enabling America’s dependence on China.
David Foster,
100% correct. It’s amazing to me how many professional people in America are clueless regarding engineering, construction, material design…
Spend a year working side by side with folks running a manufacturing operation. You’ll be amazed by the creative, practical and innovative things they think up and see to implementation every, single day.
Rufus T:
Having lived several years in Mexico, my middle daughter makes it a point to celebrate “day of the dead” every year with a collage made from the photos of departed friends and relatives. Last night she had a Hallowe’en party for dozens of neighbors (we now live in Appalachia), who passed this collage on their way into the house. A few asked about the wall of photos, but most just passed by on their way to the drinks and treats. I always spend time at her display, though. All of my nuclear family have photos on that wall.
Alas, all of her guests are, I am sure, too hung over to be celebrating All Saints Day today. Or else they are too focused on the OSU football game at noon to be thinking of any saints.
David Foster, excellent comment. My husband spent a career in manufacturing management. Four different times, over a period of decades, he went into failing manufacturing plants and within one year significantly improved quality and doubled production with the same number of employees. His last effort, as a consultant after formal retirement, was a failing plant in New Jersey, which became a company superstar.
(From yesterday https://thenewneo.com/2025/10/31/our-old-friend-judge-boasberg-enabled-arctic-frost/#comment-2828354)
“arrest Judge Boasberg for spying on Congress and hiding the spying from Congress, and arrest Jack Smith as his co-conspirator.”
Thanks, sdferr. It would also warm my heart if legal means could be found to put the insurrectionist governors Newsance and Putzker in the hoosgow!
November???? I got up this morning to a temperature of 39 degrees….yes, here in Florida. More like mid January. Not what I signed up for. 🙂
Process innovation…Penicillin discovery is properly credited to Alexander Fleming, but practical use of the drug depended on the development of ways to produce it in high volume:
https://www.facebook.com/thewittyhistorian/posts/pfbid02tu3tinppsdwvxJE6uXFxacvbq6sc6GXyvxXFq5i75tbUrf16PbeT2E2KtDRZFJmdl
James Watt developed an improved steam engine, but it wouldn’t have been of much use without the improved cylinder-boring methods developed by John WIlkinson:
https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=4755
Ford’s Model T was a great car design for the times, but it wouldn’t have become a common purchase among Americans absent Ford’s introduction of the assembly line and other productivity-improving techniques.
David Foster,
And that Model T was not at all easy to drive…required some real learning and coordination:
https://youtu.be/cPTtXpzLBSs?si=u4LTi-6OaJd2RAyr
My grandfather told me his first family car was a model T but they used it as a stationary engine on the farm rather than for transport.
More like mid January. Not what I signed up for.
The first time I was in Florida was for the launch of STS-61-B November 26. Mary Cleave invited a bunch of us from USU to the launch and we got to sit in the bleachers for the night launch. And it was cold, around 40 F. I recall looking wistfully at the hotel pool and thinking “no way.” Definitely not what I was expecting.
“Time gets mighty precious when there is less of it to waste.” Bonnie Riatt
And Nov 2025, guess as of today I might be considered a senior citizen
Re: Florida low temps
I remember a winter night as a kid when the temperature was supposed to drop to 20. My mother panicked and went shopping for extra blankets lest we freeze to death before morning.
My wonderful daughter just texted me this joke because she’s so wonderful.
Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Ohm are in a car.
They get pulled over. Heisenberg is driving and the cop asks him “Do you know how fast you were going?” “No, but I know exactly where I am” Heisenberg replies.
The cop says “You were doing 55 in a 35.” Heisenberg throws up his hands and shouts
“Great! Now I’m lost!” The cop thinks this is suspicious and orders him to pop open the trunk. He checks it out and says “Do you know you have a dead cat back here?”
“We do now, asshole!” shouts Schrodinger.
The cop moves to arrest them. Ohm resists.
Happy birthday, Skip!
Mike Plaiss, that’s great!
Thanks for sharing the joke.
David Foster, RTF, and Kate: ref mfg, agree 1000%!.
I came to understand manufacturing to be the use of information to manipulate materials to create a good (item, object) or support a service. Thus proper design should include consideration of the information needed to achieve the desired functionality, produce and test it, ship or deliver it, and provide service/ support once it is in the customer’s hands.
I have a fantasy when I work on my cars of having the engineers who designed the thing arrive in dress white shirts and I tell THEM to make the desired maintenance or repair action, just to see how dirty they get because they gave short shrift to the maintenance element of design.
Physics Guy, today in central FL it started out at 50 and warmed up nicely. I delayed making a minor electrical repair outside until that area had become shady, but it was really nice to complete that work and not be sweating like a pig. And that even included my usual being half way done and realizing I had skipped a step, so I had to un-do and re-do some of my work. 🙁
There’s nothing like a good science joke.
I would say November got here by arriving.
My husband once worked for a company that made fairly simple medical devices.
It gave me an appreciation for all that goes into design and functional engineering. After that experience, I consider my simple toaster – that works every time – an engineering marvel.
@ Rufus > “But last night I realized the eve of the Holiday has nearly completely subsumed the actual holiday (except, maybe, for Mexico). It is all hallows eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. I would guess less than 20% of Americans under the age of 45 even know this.”
I know this, even though neither Baptists (as I was) nor Latter-day Saints (as I am) celebrate All Saints Day, which recognizes the canonized Catholic saints IIRC — but I haven’t been under the age of 45 for some time.
However, here is a nice prayer for the Christian Holiday, although addressed to the Holy Evening before.
https://westernrifleshooters.online/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2ad9d247c87eeee40609be81b1fa73a4.webp
R2L,
I second your motion to have automobile design engineers perform routine vehicle maintenance on their designs, although my frustration with much of their work leads me to want to incorporate medieval torture devices at the end of the process, to encourage them to be more considerate of the consumer on the other end of their designs.
Oil filters, spark plugs, oil pain drain plugs, battery terminals… Maybe those should be easily accessible. How hard is it to design the plastic cowling under the car with a cut out notch exposing the oil drain plug? I have heard of more than one car that requires the engine to be lifted to reach a spark plug!
And what’s the point of a sealed transmission? One of our cars has miraculously survived for more miles than its designers anticipated. That’s a good thing. However, it seems like the transmission fluid viscosity is rather sluggish and my guess is some of it has dissipated. (I can’t know for sure, because it also has no dipstick to check.) But, because it is a sealed transmission (and front wheel drive), a simple task like draining the old fluid and replacing it with new fluid is impossible for a home mechanic and would cost about 10 times what the car is worth.
And why are all cars front or all wheel drive? Front and all wheel drive is a boon for folks who live where there is often snow and ice, but for the other 80% of us Americans who do not, owning a car where the transmission is jammed into the same space as the engine makes car maintenance nearly impossible. Everything requires lifting the engine, or taking off the front end of the car. I’ve had two cars where the headlights had to be reached by removing the front tires and accessing the bulbs through the wheel wells. You need to jack up the car to change a light bulb!
In the rear wheel drive days one could replace a clutch in one’s driveway with a minimum of tools and cost. Now it’s a minimum of 2 grand due to the need to lift the engine out of the way due to front wheel drive. And all that torque on the turning wheels plays havoc with ball joints.
Engine in the front. Transmission in the middle. Differential in the rear.
And why can’t modern brake rotors be turned, and reused?
Time marches on, especially if you are older!
Open threat – Sunday:
Russia’s new “Skyfall’ Missile – Evaluation & the Danger of “Superweapon Syndrome – Perun
https://youtu.be/M0t8UYZ9rrQ
R2L & Rufus, re: manufacturing design
Yes, testability, “diagnos-ability”, & maintenance deserve more priority in the designing phase!
I’m willing to pay a little more, for it!
From R2L: “I have a fantasy when I work on my cars of having the engineers who designed the thing arrive in dress white shirts and I tell THEM to make the desired maintenance or repair action, just to see how dirty they get because they gave short shrift to the maintenance element of design.”
Yes, and how bloody they get! Personal experience working on computers. The chasis, et al, usually have sharp raw metal edges.
Rufus: changing car light bulbs:
We had a 2002 Nissan that required front bumper removal to replace a dead headlight.
It was brutal!
And some parts in the way were fragile … argh!!
There were frayed nerves & ugly words used that day.
Lol.
All Saints Day commemorates all the saints who have gone before us, not just “canonized” ones.
Kate, good point on saints!
…
On your comment about your husband’s career in manufacturing management:
That’s fantastic! Certainly, something to be congratulated and proud!
I hope his subordinates or customers learned much to apply and pass on.
“Arizona judge resigns after being caught allegedly urinating on street near courthouse”
There is no evidence that she was pi$$ing on a Constitution.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/arizona-judge-resigns-after-being-caught-allegedly-urinating-street-near-courthouse-this-disgusting
@ Rufus > ” I have heard of more than one car that requires the engine to be lifted to reach a spark plug!”
I’ll add 2 more to your list, both belonging to one of our sons. They like the small cars, but it costs $200-400 to change the (no longer all that cheap) spark plugs.
I know there are manufacturing and design constraints to get everything into those small cars, but this is a clear case of management saying “not my monkey” after the car is sold. I suspect the engineers would actually enjoy the challenge of making the things maintainable for less than the cost of the vehicle, especially if they drive their own creations.
I finished a biography of Alexander earlier tonight. This one was by Peter Green; I had, some years ago, read the one published around the same time by Robin Lane Fox. I’m rather glad that Alexander is dead, though occasionally facisimiles pop up – Napoleon in particular comes to mind.
RTF, fortunately my vehicles have usually not been quite that difficult to maintain, although recall my earlier remark that we now don’t need to skimp on things like paying a local mechanic to do more of that work. My experience is that oil drain plugs have been generally accessible, but for the life of me I don’t know why oil filters have to be mounted on horizontal, rather than vertical, threaded tubes, thus ensuring an oil spill on some part of the vehicle before entering the drain pan.
But my most violent fantasy involves slow (or idiot) drivers in front of me, wherein I wish I had telekinetic powers to make them steer into a ditch by the side of the road, and if my ire is really exercised, also then cause their heads to explode. [I am a much more mellow driver with age and retirement, but I am still not totally innocent of this fantasy.]
Philip Sells, I suspect that we can believe that the son of King Philip (!!) would feel pretty entitled, … literally. But if we are looking for facsimiles, Napoleon was a piker (and relatively civilized) compared to some others we could select. We have to remember that “all men are created equal” was not “self evident” to all, and it did not derive from any cultures outside of the Judeo-Christian one. Thus, our mindset is set in a pattern unknown to people of that time and place.
Marlene,
It is inexcusable to require bumper removal to replace a light bulb. I would have been outraged.
The bottom line on the car maintenance woes is this: because simple, routine, and/or frequent fixes are now difficult, expensive, and require professionals to accomplish, a LOT of people either put them off too long, or don’t do them at all, making the decline of their vehicles more likely, and also affecting the safety of everyone around them on the road.
I also note that many of the reasons cars are small, and engines awkward, is due to Government Regulations on gas mileage — which includes “aerodynamic” design (bowing to the Climate Change
godsidols), and safety (some wise, some not).Necessity is not in the picture at all.