Actual Mileage May Vary

Have you ever noticed that in an ad for a car they brag about how great the

mileage is, and how it gets so many miles per gallon or kilometres per

liter? Then in the fine print you often see a disclaimer which says

something like "Actual Mileage May Vary", which is another way of saying

that you are never going to get those results, unless you turn off the

engine and get a towtruck to drag you along, preferably downhill. The

things we are led to expect by the government, mutual funds, the media, or in fact most any

institution, are a lot like that. So here you get a whole new perspective

on Life, the Universe, and Everything, by looking anew not at Things To Come, but Things That Were.

It is not just history that is remembered here, but also past history.