Every time I drive to my parents’ house in central Texas, I tell the family to be on the lookout for zebras. The hot, dry environment is similar to the African savannah, making it perfect for exotic game ranches. Of course, wild animals prefer to avoid open spaces in general, and noisy areas such as highways in particular. So our vigilance — well, mine — went for naught.
Guess what we saw Friday, not 100 yards from the highway? Four zebra, big as life.
Inflation in Brazil reached an astonishing 2,000 percent in 1993. Prices for everything were increasing overnight, literally. It’s a phenomenon known as hyperinflation. Paychecks were immediately cashed and spent, since they would be worth significantly less the next day. Planning for the future was impossible.
The great Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” That concept is difficult for us to understand in a world that has never not known automobiles. But we read about a world (there may even be a few souls left who remember one) in which the quality of your horse or horses determined the quality of your journey. Knowing a better way now, it seems silly to yearn for yesteryear.
