Headlines: Detroit. Write Your Own Obituary. Brazil. Postcard to the President. Boeing.

If teenagers are any guide, Americans’ love affair with the automobile may no longer be something car makers can bank on.

The percentage of teens with a driver’s license has tumbled in the last few decades and more young people are delaying purchasing their first car—if buying one at all, say analysts, generational experts and car industry executives.

WSJ

Seems the era of our teens/driving in their cool machines/is about to end at last/which will leave Detroit aghast/Kids would rather speed and race/with their games on cyberspace/This lets parents off the hook/and replenishes bankbook.

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Once you resolve to write your own obit, how do you get the job done? My advice is to set aside 15 to 30 minutes once or twice a week until you finish. Don’t fuss about literary flourishes. Just write the story simply, in your own voice. As for structure, I’m going with chronological order. It may not show much imagination, but it provides a clear path for the writer and the reader.

James R. Hagerty.  WSJ

Born upon September morn/in the Minnesota corn/Never was one much for school/ran away to be a fool/Worked for Ringling off and on/often had my things in pawn/Had eight kids with just one wife/Crowning glory of my life/Now I'm old and fat and write/poetry that's awful trite.

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BRASÍLIA—Brazilian judges are ratcheting up a campaign against what they deem to be misleading press coverage and offensive social-media posts, raising concerns among free-speech advocates.

Following a Supreme Court order, police this week raided homes and seized documents and computers of several Facebook and Twitter users who had accused the court on social media of corruption and other crimes, according to press reports and some of the targeted people.

WSJ

With their high and holy calling

judges in Brazil are bawling

for their citizens to cease

agitating cyber-peace.

Those who turn their face in scorn,

to the courtroom swiftly borne,

find themselves behind steel bars --

with time enough to write memoirs.

So if to Rio you must go,

watch your Facebook postings, bro;

otherwise a nice cadeia

is the hotel where you'll staya.

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Postcard to the President

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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — When Boeing broke ground on its new factory near Charleston in 2009, the plant was trumpeted as a state-of-the-art manufacturing hub, building one of the most advanced aircraft in the world. But in the decade since, the factory, which makes the 787 Dreamliner, has been plagued by shoddy production and weak oversight that have threatened to compromise safety.

NYT

I think that I shall never fly

in Boeing planes up in the sky.

Their factories do shoddy work,

with wiring that goes berserk.

They used to be reliable

but now are way too pliable

with standards and their training schools --

employees scratch their heads at tools.

I think their unions better say

to immigrants "Please come and stay!"

"We need your fresh and younger brains

to once again make safer planes!"