Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Thanks, City

My driveway goes into Henderson Road, which is not curb-and-guttered along my yard. About every ten years or so, the junction of the driveway and the street gets washed out and a ledge of several inches develops at the street pavement. I thought I'd see if the city could do anything to help the situation, so I called to inquire. I got out the trusty Blue Pages in the phone book and under the city listing was a number for Shoulder Maintenance, which sounded like it might be the right place to start.

I called, and after listening thru several minutes of recorded messages, I got to talk to a live person. After explaining my problem, the lady said she'd have a supervisor come by and look at the situation to see what could be done. She said the supervisor would call me with a report.

Within an hour, a gentleman called to say he'd looked at the driveway, and he could authorize a truck to come by and put some gravel in the low spots, filling-in a couple of feet from the street, if that would be satisfactory. He said if I wanted concrete apron or curb/gutter work, that was above his authority. The gravel was just fine I said, and I thanked him for his quick response.

Before long, there was a dump truck in my driveway dumping gravel and a crew smoothing it out. They did a very nice job and quietly left.

It took less than two hours from first phone call to completion. Thanks for a job done promptly and well.

Here is what the repair looks like.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Remembering Friends Lost

Ed Cone remembers the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. Some time ago I came across the web-site for the Virtual Wall which has a lot of info about men who were killed in Vietnam.

I often recall two friends who were killed there. Tommy Rose was from Greensboro and we were friends from church and scouting. That's Tommy on the left.


Robert Walden was a friend and fellow menber of the Pershing Rifles drill team at Clemson.

I think of them both often, and we should honor their sacrifice for our country.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Second Chances

I believe in second chances. I am personally glad that people get them. Yesterday, while following some links on the Beauchamp/TNR story I came across a phrase, "flat ass rules", that was new to me: I googled it and found this document which contains the lines:


3. Leadership
Understand the difference between a mistake and a breakdown in discipline. Identify, correct, and lead through mistakes. Utilize every ounce of your leadership to stamp out discipline lapses. I neither expect nor demand unending perfection. Perfection is attainable, but only for select periods. I do demand consistent
excellence and a dedicated commitment to improving the readiness of our Squadron.

I like that line "Identify, correct, and lead through mistakes." I don't fully understand the phrase "breakdown of discipline", but if I translate it to mean failure to follow proper procedures, this makes a lot of sense.

Today Michael Yon has posted a great essay on second chances.

All this reminded me of our current city management/police department situation. I've come to believe that Mitch Johnson needs to go as city manager, but maybe council candidate Bill Knight has a better idea. Bill has suggested finding some other spot in city government for Johnson, and I first thought this was just a way to avoid firing him.

On second thought, maybe it is the best way. Mitch has many supporters who believe he is a talented and valuable manager. He made a serious mistake in the way he handled the Wray situation, but perhaps he deserves a second chance. I could support giving him a choice of moving to some other open job with the city and letting him earn a second chance.

We need to find a solution to this mess, and I think Bill's suggestion has some merit.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Come on Guys, You Can Do Better

Ann Althouse linked to this article. It is a fascinating story, but I was struck by the following, "Ms. Gibson will receive the promised $15,000 reward from the seller, as well as a smaller finder’s fee from Sotheby’s, which the auction house declined to disclose." Let's see, doesn't the auction house get a 20% commission. That's $200,000 if the painting in fact sells for a million dollars. Surely Sotheby's can pony up more than a piddling couple of thou. In this case, I think they should split the commission more nearly 50:50.

ConvergeSouth

I attended the ConvergeSouth conference this past week-end and really enjoyed it. Though I don't blog much, as you can see, I wanted to learn more about blogging, and the registration fee was right. I did learn a lot, saw some old friends, and met several bloggers whose work I read and admire. You all know who you are.

I've been critical of the political slant of the conference (here, here, and here among others) but otherwise I thought the organizers did a great job of putting on the event. As volunteers, they have my appreciation, and I'll do what I can to help in the future.

This morning, I stumbled on the ConvergeSouth Flickr site and was reminded of one of the best pieces of photographic advice I've ever gotten: If you want to improve your photography, don't show all your pictures. I just couldn't look thru 500 photos to find any that interested me.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

A Modest Proposal

I didn't get to the Wyndham Championship (nee: GGO) this year, but the News & Record says it was a success ("Sunday's gripping final round transformed it into an artistic success"). If this is so, I have a modest proposal to improve the tournament next year: cut the purse from $5,000,000 to $1,000.000. Will fewer golfers enter? No, the field will still be full. Will the field be weaker? I don't think so. Where else are they going to play that week, a half-million dollar Nationwide Tour event? They will still enter for the chance to win a tour exemption and money on the overall prize list. And we can put $4 million back into the community!

OK, just so we won't appear selfish and short-sighted, I propose we add to the total purse if we attract a better field: say increase the total purse by$1 million if Tiger enters, add $100,000 for each entrant from 2-10 on the World Golf rankings, and maybe $20,000 more for golfers 11-50 on the world list. This year we had one top-50 golfer in the field.

I think this way we'd either have a lot stronger field at next years's event or we'd have a lot more money to do some good things around the city.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

What Drought?


Some folks don't have to worry about watering restrictions, at least for now.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

What If Elvis Had Never Been Born?

The Blogfather cites this interesting article about Elvis on the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death.

"Today Elvis is an industry. For 35,000 Elvis impersonators around the world he's a livelihood, to the city of Memphis he's a huge tourist attraction - his home, Graceland, being the second most visited house in America after the White House. And to others, he's a semi-mythical creature at the head of some weird devotional Elvis religion."

As they say, "Read the whole thing."

Joke of the Day

James Lileks recognized today as National Tell-a-Joke-Day and asked his readers to submit their favorites. A number of folks did, with varying degrees of humor. One, however was good enough to make my Joke of the day.

A young farm lad goes off to college, but about 1/3 of the way through the semester, he has foolishly squandered away all of the money his parents gave him.
Then he gets an idea. He calls his daddy. "Dad," he says, "you won't believe the wonders that modern education is coming up with! Why, they actually have a program here at Auburn that will teach our dog Ole Blue how to talk!"
"That's absolutely amazing," his father says. "How do I get him in that program?" "Just send him down here with $1,000" the boy says. "I'll get him into the course." So, his father sends the dog and the $1,000.
About 2/3 way through the semester, the money runs out. The boy calls his father again.
"So how's Ole Blue doing, son," his father asks."Awesome, Dad, he's talking up a storm," he says, "but you just won't believe this--they've had such good results with this program that they've implemented a new one to teach the animals how to READ!"
"READ," says his father, "No kidding! What do I have to do to get him in that program?"
Just send $2,500, I'll get him in the class." His father sends the money.
The boy now has a problem. At the end of the year, his father will find out that the dog can neither talk, nor read. So he shoots the dog.
When he gets home at the end of the semester, his father is all excited. "Where's Ole Blue? I just can't wait to see him talk and read something!"
"Dad," the boy says, "I have some grim news. Yesterday morning, just before we left to drive home, Ole Blue was in the living room kicked back in the recliner, reading the Wall Street Journal, like he usually does. Then he turned to me and asked, 'So, is your daddy still messin' around with that little redhead who lives in town?'
The father says, "I hope you SHOT that son of a bitch before he talks to your Mother!"
"I sure did, Dad!"
"That's my boy!"

Who knew?

Zombies?

Justice?

Let's see. Two young men, each prominent in his community, are involved in traffic accidents involving alcohol and resulting in the death of another young person. One gets two years in the pokey, the other gets, what, . . . I forget. This week-end's exercise is to compare and contrast the cases of Tolly Carr and Ted Kennedy.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

That's Captain Poirier to you!

I wrote about the Wake Forest Law School student who won a recent case before the US Court of Appeals. The National Law Journal has more on the story.

"Meghan Poirier, 28, a West Point graduate and now a captain in the U.S. Army who is about to begin training in the Judge Advocate General corps, handled the appeal of John D. Mooney as part of an appellate clinic at Wake Forest University School of Law. She argued the appeal just two days after graduation in May, according to John Korzen, law professor in appellate writing who directed the clinic at Wake Forest, which is in Winston-Salem, N.C. [Case details snipped.]

Korzen said of Poirier, "She did it all. She did the research and drafting of the briefs. We had three or four practice rounds of oral argument."

Poirier called the 4th Circuit argument an "opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime."

Poirier spent three years serving in the military police in Germany before returning to law school at Wake Forest on an Army scholarship. She said she finished her bar exam last week and will know in a few months if she passed.

Meanwhile, she begins three years with the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell this month."

You go girl!

Thursday, August 09, 2007

65 Years!

I celebrated my 65th birthday last week, and I posted some pictures showing how I've aged. I really don't think there has been much change, do you? All the photos are here, with only a few years missing.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Who was the Lawyer?

A post on the Volokh Conspiracy led to the court decision on an interesting case before the Fourth Circuit US Court of Appeals, argued (and won) by a third-year Wake Forest Law School student.

Best I can figure, the facts are as follows: A felon disarms his drunk wife (who had threatened to shoot him) and takes the gun directly to his work place, intending to turn it over to the police. When he gets there, the police are waiting and arrest him for having the gun in his possession. He pleads guilty after his lawyer tells him there is no "justification defense" and is sentenced to 15 years in the pokey. (OK, this is a very brief summary of the case.)

After reading some of the decision and the comments on the original blog posts, I wonder why the original prosecutor felt it necessary to prosecute this case in the first place. It seems such a travesty of justice. The poor guy did four years for trying to do the right thing, primarily because he got rotten legal advice. The prosecutor gets off the hook but also so does the defense attorney. Shouldn't at least his name be published to protect other citizens?

Friday, July 20, 2007

Call Homeland Security

After the sink-hole event on Wendover this week, I'm prepared to agree with James Lileks on the source of these things. "I still think these are the result of the Mole People probing our defenses."

Friday, July 13, 2007

More Law Enforcement Trouble

According to a link from James Lileks wonderful Buzz.mn blog (scroll down a little to the Scott Joplin entry if necessary), it looks like Greensboro isn't the only law enforcemeny organization with questionable members needing investigation. I wonder how long the chief/sheriff will last there?

Thursday, January 11, 2007

More Photoshop Magic

Michelle Malkin posted this photo of the slums of Baghdad:



It would have been greatly improved by a quick trip to Photoshop and the application of the Highlight Shadow Adjustment:

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Follow-up on Photoshop

Powerline did get a corrected version of the Kerry mess hall photo. Theirs was even better than mine, but then I'm not much of a color corrector. I have had a lot of experience in trying to improve these "available darkness " shots like this one, though.
Theirs:


















Mine:

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Gerald Ford

On the passing of former president Ford, I offer this photo. Just six years out of office, he came to Durham to participate in the 1982 Duke Childrens Classic. Pictured here with some other golfer and one of Perry Como's show business friends, I remember being struck then by the unobtrusive security around th ex-president--just a few guys in casual dress with "hearing aids".

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Ain't Photoshop Something

Powerline used this photo of John Kerry to make a point.

They could have applied a little fundamental color correction in Photoshop and made the point much better.



One of the remarkable things about digital photos is how much detail is hidden in the shadows.
You can find my favorite color correction text here.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Waiting for Santa

Other blogs have posted old Christmas photos, so I thought I'd join in.

One of my Favorite Night-Before-Christmas's was in 1969. Our dachshund "Punkin" had just had a litter of puppies, so we included them in the wait for Santa.

Here is a picture of my first wife with some of the puppies:

Friday, October 13, 2006

Nachos

This is a little early, but next Saturday is the International Day of the Nacho, so looking at the origin of the word is appropriate.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

The Worst Word in the English Language

I was actually going to write the word "******" for the title of this post, but I couldn't do it. I guess that makes "******" the worst word in the English lanaguage. I don''t believe that word should be used as an epithet, but I do think it has other uses and shouldn't be absolutely banned.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Language Log

I bookmarked Language Log some time ago, but I haven't checked it often. After yesterday's entry, I think I'll look in more often. It is the most interesting commentary I've seen on the Mel Gibson affair.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

The Fourth of July

If you haven't sung the National Anthem today, sing along with this one.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Words of the Day

With Dictionaries.com, it is now easy to translate what Peggy Noonan meant when she used "termagant" and "phenomenological" to describe Hillery Clinton. That makes these the Words of the Day.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Amazing Street Painter

I've always liked the work of street artists. Here are photos of one in Barcelona and others in San Diego.



For a truly amazing street painter, look at this!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Today's Sports Quiz

Who are DeSagana Diop, Udonis Haslem, Antoine Walker, Adrian Griffin, and Jason Terry?

A. Reserves for the Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup hockey team.
B. Members of the USA World Cup Soccer team.
C. Starters in the NBA finals.

I would guess "B" and be wrong. The correct answer here.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Favorite Irish Joke

In recognition of St. Patrick's Day, here is my favorite Irish joke. Some twenty-five years ago it was named one of the Ten Best Clean Jokes of that year.

The CIA has lost contact with one of its operatives in Ireland, so it sends another spy to try to locate the man. All the new guy knows is that the operative's name is Murphy and the password phrase is "It's a beautiful day today" and the response is "and it will be a beautiful day tomorrow".

The new man flies to Shannon airport, rents a car, and heads out hunting for Murphy. He stops at the first village he comes to, goes into a pub, and tells the pubkeeper he's looking for a man named Murphy. The pubkeeper tells him, "Well, there's Murphy the pharmacist, there's Murphy the plumber, even I myself am a Murphy." The CIA guy thanks him, and as he is leaving says, "It's a beautiful day today."

The Pubkeeper replies, "Oh, it's Murphy the spy you'll be looking for then."

Interesting New Tool

This is a couple of weeks early, but I saw this tool on the internet and thought others might like to get one. It is certainly versatile.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Nychthemeron

The word of the day is "Nychthemeron". I've never heard of it before.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Old Family Photos

If you want to see some old family photos, check out these, and here, too. They are among the oldest color photos in the world--only a hundred or so years old.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Saturday, January 21, 2006

An Expert Slips

The right side of Blogostan has been atwitter this week about a photo in the New York Times that mis-identified a piece of ordnance in Pakistan. Powerline cited it, and the American Thinker has gotten in a pissing contest with the Times I over it. They report:

"Ned Barnett is an expert on military technology, and frequently serves as a contributor to The History Channel on mil-tech issues. He has plenty of experience researching military ordnance.

"He told me: “Based on my extensive experience in researching military technology, I can verify that this is a 152mm or 155mm artillery shell – unfired – and by the looks of it, fairly old. It also looks like it has a fuse in it, suggesting that the guys in the photo are either ditch-water dumb or have a death-wish."

He has missed the boat on the "unfired" part. The shell has obviously been fired. Note the grooves on the rotating band near the base of the shell The rotating band engages the rifiling grooves in the gun barrel and cause the shell to rotate during flight. If unfired, there would be no grooves on the shell's rotating band.

Does This Make Sense to You?

Michael Feldman's What Do You Know quiz referenced this USA Today Survey that makes absolutely no sense to me. In case the link doesn't work, the survey says "More than nine in 10 investors say they would chose a financial services company with strong ethics; only 5% prefer higher returns." Surely something is missing somewhere.

I am reminded of a comment on Wall Street Week many years ago. Someone had inquired about a "socially conscious mutual fund that would return 20% annually". One of the regular panelists (Eddie Brown, I think) observed with a wry smile that he'd deal with the Devil for a 20% return. I can't imagine 1% of investors being primarily concerned about Ethics, much less 92%

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Scott McBride

I haven't written much about my (former) step-son Scott McBride. But on his recent return from a year-long business trip in Baghdad, I thought I'd give him some pixels on SawdustForBrains.


Scott & Brenda in 1989

When Brenda and I got married in 1990. I hardly knew Scott. He had lived with his father when Brenda's first marriage broke up, so I had only seen him only on rare occasions when her family got together. Scott graduated from Elon in 1990 and couldn't find a job he really wanted. In early 1991 he enlisted in the Army because it would give him a leg-up on the state wildlife service job he really wanted.

Scott at Induction


Scott went into the infantry, and Brenda and I (and Scott's sister Heather) went to Ft. Benning to his basic training graduation, as much as any other reason, I admit, so I could revisit my ROTC Summer Camp experience from thirty years earlier. It was eye-opening to see the Army of the 90's compared to the army of the 60's that I knew. There were two big differences: 1.) Scott's basic training company was mostly white— only a couple of "brothers" out of 150 soldiers, and 2.) Everyone wanted to be there. All the time I was in the army between starting basic ROTC in 1960 until I mustered out as a lieutenant in 1968, if they had said I could go home, I'd be gone. But Scott's fellow soldiers all wanted to be there and looked forward to their army service.

Scott was assigned to the 10th (Mountain) Infantry Division (this was Audie Murphy's and Bob Dole's unit in WW2) and moved to Fort Drum outside Watertown, NY. In October, 1991, his unit (2nd Btn, 22nd Infantry regiment ("the Triple Deuce") was sent to Somalia to replace another10th Mountain unit that had been in the middle of the middle of the Battle of Mogadishu that was the subject of the book (and movie) Blackhawk Down.

Scott spent 6 months in Somalia but has never talked much about his experiences there. He also had a short stay in Haiti in 1994 when the 10th Mtn was sent there. In 1995 he moved from the infantry to Armored Cavalry and he and his family moved to Ft. Carson CO. There, he realized what he really wanted to do in the army was fly helicopters. At first he wasn't selected for Warrant Officer Candidate School, a pre-requisite for helicopter school, and was sent to Germany for a short assignment, but in early 1995 went to Ft. Rucker in Alabama, first for Warrant Officer School and then for two years of helicopter school.


Warrant Officer McBride
He almost didn't make it out of WO school, when he was discovered to have "contraband" in his locker (a tin of snuff), but an NCO on the school staff stood up for Scott when he was honest and admitted his error, and scott was only held back one class rather than being dismissed from the school.


Pilot McBride
After a year of basic flight school, Scott chose to fly AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and spent another year at Ft. Rucker learning Apaches. He then spent a year in Korea, after which he was assigned to the 229th Attack Helicoptor Regiment at Ft. Bragg, and we got to see a lot more of him. After about six months in Fayetteville, his unit was sent to Afghanistan



He spent six months there in the fall of 2001 and returned to the US just before Christmas. His unit was transferred to the Third Infantry Division and he went to Iraq with that unit in late 2004.
He has just returned to Ft. Bragg from Iraq and he will be there with his new wife Heather ("the other Heather") until summer when he will probably be moving to Ft. Gordon (Savannah, GA) and rejoin the rest of the 3rdID.

I haven't seen much of Scott since Brenda decided she didn't want to be married in 2003, but I'm proud of him, as we should all be of the dedicated folks who protect us from "the bad guys", and it's good to have him back in the western hemisphere.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Not Guilty again

As previously reported, I had nothing to do with this.
I don't know nothing about this either.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Today's "Easy" Question

What is Rudyard Kipling's first name?

OK, it's not up there with "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb", but if you subscribed to the Writer's Almanac, you'd know.

Friday, November 18, 2005

The Big Game

In today's Wall Street Journal there is an article about big football rivalries around the country, but they completely miss the biggest (at least in South Carolina): the South Carolina/Clemson game.

Folks not in SC find it hard to imagine how everyone in the Palmetto state must chose one or the other of these two schools--there is no waffling. Regardless of what team one may normally root for, everyone in the state must choose the Tigers or the Gamecocks for this game.

My personal experience with The Game goes back to 1960, the first year The Game began its home-and-home run between Clemson and Columbia after being played on Thursday of State Fair Week for years. I was a freshman at Clemson that year.





It had been traditional at Clemson for all freshman men ("Rats") to have their heads shaved and be required to wear a beanie ("rat hat") until the Big Thursday Game and on until Thanksgiving if Clemson lost to Carolina. There was some controversy that fall since the game had ben moved from mid October to the end of November but since Clemson won that day, it aas the end of rat hats that year.

Another interesting custom was that on the Friday night before the Big Game, all Rats painted their faces and went out to "guard" the campus, protecting it from USC vandals. Here is a typical group.


My second Clemson/USC game, my sophmore year, had several interesting highlights. I was in the Clemson precision drill team, the Pershing Rifles, and we pereformed on the field just prior to the game.



As we were waiting to begin our performance, a USC fraternity came out on the field and did a warm-up routine making considerable fun of the folks from the cow college.



We got in our fun as well. As the drill team was marching into the stadium, one of our members, Bill Miller, the Rear Guide (and shortest man on the team) picked up a dead rooster from a Clemson fan and tied it to his side during the performance. For our Finale, we formed in two facing lines and fired a salute, and just as the salute was fired, Bill tossed the rooster high between the two lines, and it loooked for all the world like that that chicken had been plugged by32 M-1 rounds!

I don't know how reliable the linked account is, butI clearly recall that the game ended with Clemson inside the USC 10 and threatening to score the winning touchdown but losing 21-14. This was followed by a number of fights both on the field and in the stands, and I was happy we still had our drill rifles with us.


Monday, October 10, 2005

Just Wondering . . .

James Taranto, in his Best of the Web column today, links to this article in the NYTimes. I don't know much about the NY mayoral election and I care even less, but I wonder whether the NY Times reporter didn't know about the David Kaczynski connection, or whether he/she thought it wasn't relevent to their story. The first seems inept and the second misleading. At least no one asked what the Unabomber and Miss West Virginia have in common.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

The Death of Photography

OK, maybe it isn't the end of photography as we know it, but we are getting closer to the end of old family photos. Instapundit cited some old family pictures last week. This made me glad my father had been a photographer, and particularly glad he had "splurged" on taking color slides instead of black & white prints. Here are some pre-WWII photos he took that look almost as good today as they did when they were taken more than 60 years ago.

This is one of the earliest photos he took (well, I guess someone else took it since there was no self-timer on his Kodak Retina camera). I think it was made in 1939 at a beach in the Florida panhandle. The slide is so sharp that you can almost read the grafitti on the post next to them.


This 1940 photo is of my mother, pregnant with my older sister (who is now my younger sister).

My father's camera would be laughable today--a 35-mm folding model sort of like a current point-and-shoot camera, except no auto-focus, no auto-exposure, no auto-loading, even no flash. Indoor photos were time exposures (and with an f/3.5 lens and ASA 10 Kodachrome, they must have been pretty long exposures). Here are two Christmas morning scenes, after Santa came but before the kids got up. The first is 1947 and the second is 1949. The third photo shows what that room looked like in 2004.


So, you ask, what does this have to do with the Death of Old Pictures? It's just that the current boom in photography is all in digital photos. These are easy to take and easy to distribute via e-mail or sharing on the web, but they are very "fragile" as far as keeping for years and years is concerned. Sure, the CD's or DVD's on which they are archived may still exist, but what are the chances that machines will exist to read them. Digital photos from 25-years ago were stored on magnetic tape. Most have been lost because tape-readers no longer exist.

I hope if you take digital family photos, you will take seriously the issue keeping them alive so folks can enjoy them in 50 years.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Today's Pop Quiz

What percentage of US Army troops are presently deployed in Iraq?
A. 5% B. 10% C. 25% D. 40%

I'd have missed it.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Lowboys

One summer school course at RCC Fine and Creative Woodworking program is a study of 18th century American furniture styles. Part of the course is building a Queen Anne Dressing Table (Lowboy). Each student's piece is virtually identical to the others in size and style. The only variations allowed are in whether the top is solid or book-and-butt-matched veneer, whether the drawers are overlay style or inset with cockbeading, whether the lower apron, sides and back are cockbeaded, and whether the top has square or scalloped, "baby-butt" corners. Primary wood could be mahogany, walnut, or cherry.

This year's lowboys were a varitety. All except Kevin's were mahogany; his was cherry. All looked great when finished. I think all of us were very pleased with how each of our pieces turned out. I know mine was the best piece I've ever made!


Bob Smith's Lowboy


Jorge Pardo's Lowboy


Jennifer Kalbus's Lowboy


Kevin Chrystie's Lowboy


My Lowboy

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Happy Birthday, Mr. Kennedy

As I've written before, I enjoy the Writer's Almanac, an account of each day's doings in literature. Today is X. J. Kennedy's birthday. Who is X. J. Kennedy you ask? He wrote one of the great poems of the late 20th century. I particularly like this verse:

"For when time takes you out for a spin in his car
You'll be hard-pressed to stop him from going too far
And be left by the roadside, for all your good deeds
Two toadstools for tits and a face full of weeds."

Now that is real poetry! Read the whole thing. It rhymes and scans--something rare in poetry these days.

I Don't Know Nothing About A Baby . . .

So Brittany is having a boy! I had nothing to do with it:
“They’re mulling several names, but the one they favor is Preston."

Friday, August 19, 2005

A Man About Town

Powerline links to a story in the NY Daily News about the possible solution to the mystery of what happened to Judge Crater, who they call the "missingest man in America." I was more struck by their description of him as "a Tammany Hall stalwart, justice of the state Supreme Court and dapper man about town".

"There were two or three things that I wanted to know. I do not care about a mystery. So I began to inquire.

"It took me two weeks to find out what women carry in dress suit cases. And then I began to ask why a mattress is made in two pieces. This serious query was at first received with suspicion because it sounded like a conundrum. I was at last assured that its double form of construction was designed to make lighter the burden of woman, who makes up beds. I was so foolish as to persist, begging to know why, then, they were not made in two equal pieces; whereupon I was shunned.

"The third draught that I craved from the fount of knowledge was enlightenment concerning the character known as A Man About Town. He was more vague in my mind than a type should be. We must have a concrete idea of anything, even if it be an imaginary idea, before we can comprehend it. Now, I have a mental picture of John Doe that is as clear as a steel engraving. His eyes are weak blue; he wears a brown vest and a shiny black serge coat."

Read the whole thing.

Free Sex With Fill-up

Instapundit links to this piece and this one. Both ignore the story Lewis Grizzard told on Designing Women :

Bubba and Earl are driving back to Athens from Atlanta when they notice they need some gas. They start looking for a gas station and see a sign that reads "Free Sex with Fill-up." They pull in and tell the attendant to "fill 'er up." After he's done the attendant goes to the window and says that it would be $18.00 for the gas. (This is an old story.)

They pay and as the attendant starts to walk away Bubba yells "What about my free sex?". The attendant rolls his eyes and goes to the window and says, "OK, but you have to guess the magic number. It's a number between 1 and 10." Bubba said, "6." The attendant says "No, the number is 3. Sorry."

As the attendant starts to walk off Earl says, "Give me a try." The attendant says "OK." Earl says, "7." And the attendant says "No, I told you the number was 3."


Bubba then speeds off and Earl looks over and says, "I think that game was fixed. There is no way to win." To which Bubba replies, "Uh, Uh, my sister won three times last week."

Friday, August 12, 2005

Today in Baseball History

One of my favorite daily stops on the Internet is to Today In Baseball History. When I clicked on today's entry, I got this. I was particularly struck by this entry:

1943 An Armed Forces All-Star team managed by Babe Ruth and featuring Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams play a fund-raising game against the Braves in Boston. The All Stars win on a Splendid Splinter's' home run, 9-8.

This sounds like it was a terrific game. Also listed:

1901 At Boston's Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds, Cy Young of the Americans seven-hits the A's, 5-3, to win his 300th game. The 34-year old will win an additional 211 games to establish an amazing major league record of 511 career victories.

1932 After setting a major league record in the first game with nine doubles, the Cubs and Cardinals combined to hit another twenty-three two-baggers in the second game for an incredible total of thirty-two doubles in their doubleheader.

1945 Braves' outfielder Tommy Holmes goes hitless ending his consecutive-game hitting streak at 37 which sets a National League record. The mark will stand until Pete Rose surpasses it in 1978.

1949 The first All-Star game which includes black players is played at Ebbets Field. Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe represent the National League in an 11-7 loss to Larry Dolby and his AL teammates.

1955 At Milwaukee's County Stadium, Stan Musial comes to bat in the bottom of 12th inning of a 5-5 All Star deadlock. American League catcher Yogi Berra complains about his feet hurting and Musial tells him "Don't worry, I'll have you home in a minute"......then 'the Man' hits a game-winning home run on the next pitch.

1979 After a delay of an hour and 16 minutes, the White Sox are forced to forfeit the second game of twi-night doubleheader against the Tigers when over 5000 adolescent fans refuse to leave the field during Disco Demolition Night. Mike Veeck's promotion involves admitting fans for .98 cents with a disco record, collecting the vinyl and then literally blowing up the LPs and .45s in center field.

1997 Pitching for the first time in Fenway not wearing a Red Sox uniform, Roger Clemens strikes out sixteen as the Blue Jays defeat Boston, 3-1. During the game, it appears the 'Rocket' is continually glaring up at Dan Duquette in the general manager's suite.

I took a little while to realize we had the month wrong--this all happened on July 12, not August 12, but it was still a great day in baseball history. Read the whole thing.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Birkenstocks

Those Birkenstocks are looking better and better--thanks to the Cub Scouts. (from Powerlineblog).
Many of the shoes were sold to the scouts by Birkenstock, a local shoe manufacturer, for discounted prices… allowing the troop to send high quality sandals for the girls to wear in the upcoming school year. According to Wei, the girls were thrilled with the gift. “They were just so extremely happy to get a new pair of shoes,” he said.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Friday, August 05, 2005

More "Bird Table" Pictures

Here are two more pictures of Dan Overby's demilune table:

The Plame Affair Explained

If you've been as puzzled as I have about the ins-and-outs of the Valerie Plame affair, you'll be happy to know I've discovered the full story. Now it all makes sense to me!

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Dan Overby's Prizewinning Table

Following up on a previous post, here are some photos of Dan Overby's demilune table that won an Honorable Mention award at the AWSF show in Las Vegas last week.

The birds on the top are marquetry, made from wood veneers of different species and colors and inlayed in the bird's-eye maple veneer top.

I'm trying to get some better shots, but these can do in a pinch.


Table-top Detail

Corvette For Sale

May require a little work. Click here for photo.

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Quagmire in Iraq

Yes, it is beginning to look like a quagmire in Iraq.

Josh Williams Runs the Table in Vegas

Art Pentz, one of the RCC woodworking program instructors, who attended the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas sends the following report:

"I'm pleased to report that the RCC Fine and Creative Woodworking program was extremely successful in the Student Design Competition at the AWFS fair in Las Vegas. All entries from RCC received recognition from the judges:

Dan Overby received an honorable mention for his demilune table

Josh Williams swept the competition by receiving 5(!) awards:

First place (traditional chair category) for his corner chair.

First place (traditional case goods category) for his block front desk.

"Best in Show" for the desk - this means his piece was selected over all entries by the judges regardless of category.

"Peoples Choice Award" - voted on by attendees of the AWFS show as the best piece in the competition.

"Craftsmanship Award" - bestowed by Fine Woodworking editors as the piece exhibiting the best craftsmanship in the competition.

I expect Josh and his desk will be in all the woodworking magazines over the next few months - he has also received several employment inquiries from attendees at the show.

Congratulations to Dan and Josh for their fine work and professional representation of RCC at the show."

(Click photo for larger view.)


Josh and his desk

Front View of Desk

Desk Side View

Desk Foot Detail

Josh's Corner Chair

Saturday, July 16, 2005

What He Said . . .

I was introduced to blogs by a piece on NPR, in 2002 I think, and the first blog I read regularly was Andrew Sullivan. I enjoyed his conservative perspective and he was the source of a number of interesting links. As he seemed to veer leftward in 2004, I lost some interest in his writings. His harping on gay marriage issues, his support for Candidate Kerry, and, lately, his continuing criticism of the "torture" at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have all become tiresome.

Stephen Green at Vodkapundit has gotten the criticism exactly right, I think.