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.

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

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."

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."

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.

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.

Bad News for Clemson

First the Florida State mascot, now see what's next. Damn.

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!

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.

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

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.

"Good fences make good neighbors."

You are probably familiar with Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" and its familiar pro-fence catch-line "Good fences make good neighbors." But the poem is actually anti-fence. It begins "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall" and continues with what that something might be:

"That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast."

In the poem, the poet and his neighbor walk their common stone-wall fence in the spring, picking up and replacing rocks and stones that have fallen during the winter. After some time, the poet observes

"There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was liketo give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.”

And the poem ends:

"He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”

I was reminded of this when a fence was erected this week along the edge of part of Hamilton Lake.

The purpose of the fence, which is supposed to be temporary, is to protect the newly planted grass from the lake's geese population.

Now, if neighbors want to fence off their yards from the geese, more power to them, but I look forward to the public path being fence-free.

By the way, the collection of almost all the lake's geese population seen in the lower photo was because one family of juvenile goslings had gotten through the fence and couldn't figure out how to get back. They got very upset by dogs walking on the path, even though the dogs paid no attention to them. After several minutes they found a way under the fencing and back to the rest of the geese, and geese-life got back to normal on the lake.

New Neighbors

There is a new family in the neighborhood. This picture was take on June 13. When I first saw the new family on June 6, the little ones were half the size they are in this photo.

New Construction

A week or two ago, city councilman Tom Phillips blogged about the new construction at the airport and the FedEx site, including several photos.

Not to be outdone, I want to blog about new construction on the Lake Henderson walking trail, specifically the new Friendly Road bypass. Presently, only the rough grading has been done, but when completed, the new section will connect Lakewood Drive with the Starmount Drive path, bypassing the stone gates at Friendly Road. This will necessitate one new bridge construction. I'm guessing that even after Friendly Road is widened (the stone entrance gates are not supposed to be affected in the widening) the present path behind the stone wall will remain, and the new path will just be a short-cut. Here are some photos:


New Path

Path Construction


Bridge site


Path Behind Stone Wall

Another Small Pleasure Gone

One of life's small pleasures has bitten the dust. For as long as I can remember, folks have fed the ducks at Hamilton Lake. Here the McBride family partakes in the feeding ritual in 2000.


Now someone has decided that feeding is a bad idea and has posted signs asking people not to feed the ducks and geese.


I suspect this is to discourage the geese as much as it is for their long-term benefit, and I'm thinking the birds would not have supported this step had they be given a vote. I wonder if the folks who backed the Don't Feed The Geese movement would support a similar tough-love approach to human welfare programs?