Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today, we have reports from Complex, Medium and The Atlantic.
Reflecting On The Mustang's Impact In Car Culture In The Past 50 Years – Complex
It might be the Ford Mustang's birthday, but it's also been a celebration about the people who brought it into existence and the people who've been touched by it. Photographer Douglas Sonders and his Mustang stories.
It's been more than 15 years, and I can still vividly remember the rumble of the 289-cubic-inch V8 with Nirvana's "In Utero"blaring on the tiny speakers of my fire engine red 1966 Mustang Convertible. To this day, I can't fathom how the troublemaking 17-year-old me didn't get killed for pushing my luck doing lackluster burnouts and power slides in that car. I'm almost certain it was responsible for a few bad test grades, because I was too busy daydreaming throughout study hall about where I would drive next — barring any catastrophic fluid leaks or parts falling off.
The Navy Wants to Scrap a Perfectly Good Cruiser – Medium
The Navy has its reasons, but still sounds like a waste.
Port Royal could have another 20 years of useful service ahead of her. So it's a mystery why the Navy wants to decommission the 567-foot-long vessel as fast as possible. Especially since a Congress watchdog group insists there's nothing wrong with the ship.
What Happened to Skywriting? – The Atlantic
Yeah, haven't seen a good skywriting in a while.
But as the practice became more common, people began the kind of handwringing that new technology so often prompts. Mainly, they began to wonder if maybe things were better before skywriting appeared.
The New York Times called the practice "celestial vandalism," describing a future in which the skies would be so smoke-choked that apartment dwellers on high floors would have to keep their windows closed. (One might argue that seeing Lucky Strike's letters in the sky was far less irritating than hearing them shouted repeatedly in television commercials, an approach that came in later decades.)
Photo: AP Images