Author: Wendell Noble

It occurred to me recently that my common slang vocabulary has diminished over the years. Many of those colorful words or expressions were used as well-directed insults or derogatory references. Others were just colorfully descriptive. I didn’t coin any of these. I learned them from my long-gone elders. When I was just a “little squirt,” I…

I trust that many of us are old enough to remember who Rube Goldberg was. He was, among other things, an engineer and a cartoonist. He is best known for his humorous cartoons depicting complicated mechanisms to perform simple tasks. His designs were fictitious, but I’ve encountered some real-life examples that have gotten into production…

Among the names on the long list of people I had never heard of was Jim Moylan. From what I have read recently, he was well known in certain circles. He invented the Moylan Arrow, which I also had not heard of. While working for Ford in the ‘80s, he had the same experience most…

I think I can speak for us all in saying that what makes our vintage cars appealing to us are the ways in which they differ from the modern everyday drivers that we all own. By comparison to my prewar collection of cars, modern cars are more powerful, reliable, comfortable, fuel efficient, and full of…

Will all those who have heard of the Lexington automobile please raise their hands. Hmm … I see but one. That’s the hand of VAE member Hamilton Hayes. There’s one in his family tree.  The Lexington Motor Company was established in 1909 in Lexington, Kentucky. That’s Kentucky, not Massachusetts, although the connection was not lost on…

Our September VAE event was a very nice gathering of members with their cars on display at the Burnham  Memorial Library in Colchester. I arrived in my ’29 Plymouth roadster. As soon as I got out of the car, a young boy came over immediately to examine it. I would guess his age to be…

The media, Wall Street gurus, and us plebeian folks are all atwitter about A1 (Artificial Intelligence). What is it? Where is it? Will it take away our jobs? Will it make our lives better or will it terrorize our lives?  I’ll define AI as any computer coded algorithm that can access stored or new information…

I’m a member of a vanishing minority group. I don’t own an SUV as my everyday driver passenger car. As we all know, SUV is an acronym for Sport Utility Vehicle. The definition of what constitutes an SUV is in the eye of the beholder. It features 4-wheel drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD). It’s…

I was recently fussing about the apparent intent of Microsoft to torpedo Windows 10 users to force them to upgrade to Windows 11 which, in most cases, means the cost of buying a new computer. A friend responded with the simple comment, “Planned Obsolescence.” That is a term that has been in our lexicon for…