Word: detroits
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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PLUMB WRITES ABOUT everything from Detroit today to insane asylums for the last half millenium, and in case anyone objects that the two really are not so different, he throws in reflections on Samuel Pepys's diaries, Victorian social habits, and the tempo of life in Edwardian England...
...WEAKEST essay in his book, Plumb comments on Detroit and modern American cities. It is evidently a subject he is remarkably ignorant of, and his points--though they may be perceptive--are generally tangential to the main problems which face American urban culture...
Crash Program. The main source of Detroit's troubles is the internal combustion engine. Although safe, reliable and easily maintained, it spews out at least three noxious gases. The Clean Air Act, which is mostly concerned with public health, specifies that the emissions of two-carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons-be cut 90% of 1970-model levels in 1975-model cars, and orders the same decrease in nitrogen oxides in 1976 models. Moreover, the automakers must guarantee the emission controls for 50,000 miles...
...Detroit reeled when the law was passed, then threw its top engineers into a crash effort to meet the requirements. Given too short a lead time-to retool assembly lines normally takes about two years-the best antipollution device the engineers could come up with was the catalytic converter. Shaped like a standard muffler and attached to the exhaust system, the converter would completely burn hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide,* turning them into harmless water vapor and gas. Estimated cost to the consumer: at least...
Peddling is work, sometimes hard work, and anyone attending Irene ought to be forewarned that much of it is about as playful as a Detroit assembly line. The assembly-line touch might even be called the essence of Gower Champion. As a director, he is the relentless master of mindless mechanics. He has never paid more than trifling attention to the meaning of a show. A virtually meaningless show like Irene is an irresistible challenge to him since he can drive the cast and dancers into assembling the pieces, faster and faster and faster. As a result, his direction, like...