If you’re on the lookout for good writing, you discover it in all kinds of places. (Though the same goes for bad writing, and more frequently). John Phillips’ column in the current issue of Car and Driver magazine is a short personality sketch of Ferdinand Piëch, former CEO of Volkswagen, and it bristles with excellent characterizations:
“Courtrooms fall silent just before the judge reads a verdict, and Piëch exerts a similar effect on any chamber he approaches. It isn’t exactly charisma, and isn’t his physical presence, because the guy vaguely resembles a talking human tendon ... He sometimes sports a two-day stubble of albino beard, lending him the countenance of a high-school janitor who lives in the basement.”
However ...
“His cheeks are pinkish from capillaries that ruptured when employees made the same mistake twice ... “
“His smile has been known to lower ambient temperatures 15 degrees ... “
“...underestimated by his adversaries, many of whom now work as night managers at Der Wienerschnitzel.”
Have a good picture of Piëch now—not only his physical appearance but also his manner and style? I do. The whole column, by the way, runs about 900 words.
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