Has anyone else stopped and thought how it’s slightly odd that Orange County, California became a sleepier, suburban, family-oriented area, in stark contrast to how the west side of Los Angeles and even Malibu developed? Seems like some low-hanging fruit for some alternate history, especially … Continue readingAn Alternate History of the California Coast
In the alternate timeline I write in, I’m deliberately vague about highway, route, and road numbers, largely because it starts to diverge from real life around 1900, and diverges in earnest around World War I in 1914…which is before even the United States Numbered Highway … Continue readingThe US Routes in my Alternate History
There are times when I think the most salient class divide, a huge piece of the dark matter that undergirds our lives in this country, is whether or not you’re part of the driver class, those who have no choice but to regularly get behind … Continue readingAngelenos, You Know Nothing of Hell
We associate roundabouts with the British, but really, when you dive deep into it it’s surprising that Americans didn’t become the roundabout nation. After all, the first traffic circles, such as Columbus Circle (not to mention all manner of rotaries), were first developed and built … Continue readingGoing Round, and Round, and Round…
We’ve all heard the mantra “Build Back Better” so beloved by our political leaders, including President Joe Biden, but what does it mean? At last we have an answer on the White House website, as encapsulated in “The Life of Linda”. Here I will go … Continue readingUpgrading the Life of Linda
What if I had a country to call my own, one that belonged to me, my very own answer to the Principalities of Liechtenstein or Monaco? First and foremost I’d want it to be a refuge of liberty, a free society where the best of … Continue readingIf I Had a Country
Imaginations have long been captivated by the idea of a manned mission to Mars; colonization, in the form of permanent settlement of Mars, is the logical next step that has also held sway over the minds of men. Yet for all the attention (rightly) given … Continue readingRoad Trains of Mars