December 2024 - Richard M. Langworth

Munro in the Civil & Military Gazette, Lahore, 1 January 1942

Happy New Year: “May we all come through safe and with honour”

31 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

As the last minutes of 1941 ticked away, Churchill’s special train was steaming south on New York Central's broad tracks along the Hudson. Appropriately close to Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, the Prime Minister called staff and reporters to the dining car. He entered the carriage amid cheers and applause, raising his glass to the company. “It was with no illusions,” he wrote, “that I wished them all a glorious New Year.... 'Here’s to 1942, here’s to a year of toil—a year of struggle and peril, and a long step forward towards victory. May we all come through safe and with honour.'"

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Churchill’s Christmas, 1882-1947: Halcyon and Sterner Days

25 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

At Christmas 1932, Churchill received as a present “a huge bottle of brandy, and decided to paint it, accompanied by lesser bottles," Johnnie Churchill remembered. "He sent us children scurrying around Chartwell to find them: 'Fetch me associate and fraternal bottles to form a bodyguard to this majestic container.'"

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The Language: Canceling Clichés and Issues over “Issues”

20 December 2024 Comments 3 Comments

Commentator Bill O’Reilly proposes a new Cancel Culture for a collection of jargon that Churchill would define as “grimaces.” A cliché, he says, is “a phrase or opinion that is overused and lacks original thought.” Here are his nominations for grimaces we never need to hear again. He forgot “issues” but it’s not a bad list! Celebrate O’Reilly’s modest proposal: Avoid fashionable filters and fad-words in language. “Short words are best,” Churchill said, “and the old words, when short, are best of all.”

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Virgil Exner, Part 2, Chrysler: Birth of the Tailfin

15 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

With acres of glass, low beltlines and slim roof pillars, Exner’s 1957 Flite-Sweep Chrysler products were unchallenged by any rival and prefigured the shape of American cars for the next decade.The most important thing about them was their revolutionary lowness, which was no accident. Exner had demanded that they stand five inches lower than the ‘56s. Coupled with such innovations as “Torsion-Aire” ride, TorqueFlite automatic and potent V-8 engines, they represented a pinnacle, a company reborn. They were Virgil Exner’s finest hour.

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Churchill-Syria Analogies: A Syrious Situation

10 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

Charles Krauthammer, sage as ever, cautioned against comparing modern situations like Syria (we might now add Ukraine or Gaza) to the Second World War: “There is a difference of scale…. The Second World War was an existential struggle where the future of civilization was in the balance. It could be that Syria, or these other trouble spots, will develop into a World War-like conflict. But that is fairly unlikely right now. It is not a conflict in which the existence of ways of life is at stake.”

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The Loewy Studios at Studebaker, Exner at right with Bob Bourke. Behind them are Bob Koto and Gordon Buehrig. (Photos from author’s collection)

Virgil Exner, Part 1, Studebaker: How Ex Marked His Spot

5 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

At Studebaker, Exner and the Loewy Associates had revolutionary ideas: integral fenders, vast areas of curved glass, doors cut into the roof. Raymond Loewy detested the use of chrome as embellishment. He preferred slim, tapered shapes, and practical devices like glass or clear plastic headlamp covers to improve streamlining. Loewy also preached lightness, warning of the cost of excess weight in fuel consumption and performance. Throughout the studio, on walls, floors and ceilings, he posted signs reading: WEIGHT IS THE ENEMY.

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