Last February I received an email from an owner of a Cadillac CTS, saying that to buy a vehicle he must “first fall in love” with it. In a PBS interview, Clotaire Rapaille concurs: “The PT Cruiser is a car [that] when people see it, they say, “Wow, I want it.” Some people hate it; […]

Who are SUV buyers? Based on large scale market surveys performed yearly for the automobile industry, Keith Bradsher describes them as having little self-confidence and being conceited. They are often insecure about their marriage and uncomfortable with parenthood. They often lack assurance in their driving abilities. They are above all “self-centered” and “self-absorbed”, with little […]

In the following weeks, I invite you to a series of seven chronicles on the theme: Why do we love… or hate a vehicle? To shed light on this question, I will use two vehicles whose philosophies are a world apart: the Hummer and the MINI. Let us begin with the largest one. The Hummer […]

Chapter 3 of my next book, Consommation et luxe (Consumption and luxury), is devoted to the study of expects (this a contraction of expectancies or expectations, a catchy term I have coined to best translate the French notion of «attentes». Here is an excerpt. The theory of the needs, still used today as the basis […]

Today, I start publishing my blog anew with the following three paragraphs drawn from a first version of Consommation et luxe (Consumption and luxury), my next book, to be published this fall (in French only for the time being). « These Romans are crazy! » Many remember Obelix’s trademark phrase in the famed adventures of […]

Monopolized by the drafting of my book, « Consommation et luxe » (Consumption and luxury), to be published next fall, it is impossible for me to continue publishing a weekly chronicle. I will thus take a short break and begin anew in September. To receive word of my chronicles’ resumption, I invite you to subscribe […]

The G8 summit is an occasion for me to make a return on the chronicle «Kyoto and consumption» chronicle, published on April 27, 2007, in which I wrote: «Are those highly virtuous citizens, allegedly worried about the environment, truly willing to make an effort to change their habits and reduce their consumption?» I was then, […]

Last weekend, wanting to eradicate undesirable weeds that invade our terrace, I went to a gardening centre to buy an herbicide; I accept the fact that dandelion be part of our lawn’s ecological balance but refuse to see it invade the patio. On the other hand, concerned to use a weed killer without any toxicity […]

Absorbed with grading student papers and exams, I present a shorter than usual chronicle today. While briefer, it will nonetheless be interesting, because I know the subject to be highly controversial and that my comments will leave no one indifferent. Some will applaud my intervention, but others, perhaps a majority, will disagree with me. I […]

Again this year, the SAAQ (Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec) displays a lack of discernment in its choice of advertising theme. Confronted with a degrading road safety record, it chooses to use fear and guilt to induce an attitude change in faulty drivers. The chosen theme for 2007 is «Accidents hurt… a lot of […]