Joseph Mirachi: Fuel Efficiency

Automakers have come a long way to their bailout-begging today since the days when Consumers Union published this (very funny) cartoon. I scanned it from an old issue of Consumer Reports, the April 1963 "Facts You Need Before You Buy" issue with a brown cover and red/black letters. A treasure from a bygone era! This was the auto buying guide for 1963, "including ratings of all makes, 6-year repair records, service notes, checks on safety details, etc., etc." And there isn't a single foreign car listed. Not even one.

Joseph Mirachi did over 500 cartoons for publications like the New Yorker and Playboy. He passed away in 1991.

Update: A post I did on the US bailout did not seem relevant to Kurashi, but you'll be the judge. Today (Friday) we hear them lie about the need to support the car industry. Here is what I posted:

We read that the three big automakers are in Washington trying to get elected congressmen and -women to bail them out, or else. Taxpayers will not get to know the details of the agreement, that is going to be kept secret. I truly couldn't care less about the state of the state of the SUV-making, energy-wasting bastards. Hope they sink into the garbage pile of history just like the sweatshop factories of the 19th Century. Politicians should allocate money to better education for the children of the future, who need new skills to save this precious planet and avoid useless wars for oil and other (scarce) resources.

I'm reminded of a U2 song I like a lot, from 1991, called Acrobat.



And I must be an acrobat
To talk like this
And act like that
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And you can find
Your own way out
You can build
And I can will
And you can call
I can't wait until
You can stash
And you can seize
In dreams begin
Responsibilities
And I can love
And I can love
And I know that the tide is turning 'round
So don't let the bastards grind you down