Webster's dictionary defines "perspective" as "a true understanding of the relative importance of things; a sense of proportion." This is accurate, but, like most dictionary entries, it lacks emotion. We prefer to think of the word as having a greater, more enticing meaning. My dad, in his infinite, bourbon-and-old-British-car-fueled wisdom, once called perspective the key to everything. I like that.
That, in turn, brings us to today's Commenter of the Day. When Ben posted on the Indian death-defying deadly wall of death this afternoon, no one had much to say. We were about to move on to something else when we saw Optixtruf's picture.
The image can be seen below, and you can be forgiven if you don't know what's going on. It depicts two cars on a wooden — or "board" — track in either the 1910s or 1920s. In the age before large-scale paved ovals, most of America's permanent race tracks looked like this.
Board tracks were essentially oversized toothpick sculptures, heavily banked speed courses built from two-by-fours and millions of nails. They offered 100-mph-plus speeds, no upper guardrails, shoddy construction, and the constant threat of death. (Spin? Fly off the top! Boards come loose and catapult you into an endo! Random holes catapult you into an endo! Fire doesn't stop burning! Etc.) When most of them were torn down in the 1930s, every racing driver worth his salt breathed a sigh of relief. Kind of makes an Indian death wall look like small change, doesn't it?
Google it indeed. Be careful, or you just might lose an afternoon. (Barring that, try Griff Borgeson's excellent The Golden Age of the American Racing Car. That book changed my life.)