The NYTimes has a rather entertaining set of 'How to' articles called 'Tip', including 'How to sculpt with a Chainsaw' and 'How to brush a Gorilla's teeth'. For that last one, i appreciate that the person wielding the toothbrush also used a similar technique when training her own children.
i went fishing last week down to the Gulf, and passed an area bar that hosted bi-weekly belt-sander races. As a friend and i had to explain to her grandma, belt sanders are power tools wherein a belt of sandpaper rotates, to sand items; this rotating belt can also provide a locomotive force to move the rest of the tool. The bar in question had a rather extensive race course (table?) lined up, and so i tweeted a picture. James T requested an explanation, and so i further researched it, kicking up this article from the San Antonio Express News about that particular bar, "Depending on the motor, Gaff owner Kip Shannon said, a belt sander can cover 75 feet in anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds". The article also states that sander racing may have originated in Boston, and a NYTimes article mentions that it's also popular in Washington state. Anyhow, here is an instructable about how to build your own, and here is a (defunct?) blog devoted to the subject. Given the number of dead links present in my google search, it seems as though the sport may be experiencing a bit of a decline in places-other-than-south-Texas.
Parquetry refers to the use of pieces of wood to form a geometric patterned floor. This is not to be confused with marquetry, which is the decoration of something-not-a-floor using veneers, or adhering decorative panels; "The veneers used are primarily woods, but may include bone, ivory, turtle-shell (conventionally called "tortoiseshell"), mother-of-pearl, pewter, brass or fine metals. Marquetry using colored straw
was a specialty of some European spa resorts from the end of the 18th
century. Many exotic woods as well as common European varieties can be
employed, from the near-white of boxwood to the near-black of ebony, with veneers that retain stains well, like sycamore, dyed to provide colors not found in nature. "
It might be worthwhile to read this discussion of politics and deflection/distraction of topics, as manifest through 'bright shiny objects' (here, a certain D. Trump). Since we're on the topic of the GOP, Kelly AT recently linked this article by Dan Rather called "Ignoring science isn't just a Republican problem. It's an American problem." Any writer who can work words like 'balkanization' into articles has my respect, but the erroneous address of scientific topics by politicians is something that i've kvetched about to Kelly before (and likely will again), so the article was refreshing. It contained a link to a wikipedia article for the phrase, "I'm not a scientist", which linked to this similarly-titled NYTimes article.
The word 'kvetch' is Yiddish, btw, meaning to complain. Another word that occasionally comes up to 'cavil', meaning to complain about petty issues, followed by the related word 'pettifog', or quibbling over trivial matters, from the word 'pettyfogger', apparently a combination of 'petty' and 'fog', as in "state of mind characterized by lethargy and confusion". That got complicated fast.
Again, i am a definite fan of Pope Frances, and particularly appreciated this article which highlights his pragmatic approach to leading the Church. To celebrate the papal visit to the United States, this Pennsylvania priest created a model of the Vatican using legos.
For those Harry Potter fans out there, i came across this older article regarding how she crafted the Prologue to the series.
Random bit of information regarding the preparation of beans in Tex-Mex cooking (this is from an somewhat complicated discussion with my mother), From the Spanish word for 'horseman', Charro beans refer to the cookery of pinto beans with garlic, tomatoes, onions and bacon, forming something like a bean soup. Borracho beans seems to be a similar prep method with the addition of beer ('borracho' meaning 'drunk'). When done well, these are certainly worth the effort and differentiation.
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