The last laugh

[Bruce]

I'm With You 100 %

But that burnt star $'s coffee, I gotta cut it loose, never enjoyed it, probably never will.
Not many bears around here now, but the coyote is rebounding by many leaps, look out you lesser chef's...........

[NNICKB]

My original thought was more about the man than the machine. What has happened to the man? Why can't he go out in the blizzard when there is a need? Why is he not prepared to take care of his family?

My answer to these questions is possibly over-simplified but here it is...A man becomes a man when a man is needed. Men have not been needed in my neighborhood for a long time.

One of my old friends was (and is) the consummate woodsman. We always said that if you placed him in the middle of the woods, perhaps with a knife or ax, you could come back a year later and find a cabin there, with a nice fire and a bearskin rug. Today he is married to a corporate executive, and is able to buy and sell these types of things. But he is not really "needed," and, I suspect, not very happy.

Which is why the "thing" is not so important. If it was, men without indoor plumbing would be superior in character to the rest of us, instead of just dumber. We have a lot of Amish around here, and they live under all these rules on what they can and can't have. They are always trying to get around them.

There are at least five Honda minivans within my extended family. They are fast, good handling, and have racked up six figure odometer readings without any problems. As far as snow travel is concerned, they are at least as good as any of the other 2WD vehicles that most of us have in our stable. Their owners are mostly respectful of the vehicles that I drive, even if they consider me to be somewhat eccentric. We have visited Starbucks together on a few occasions, though usually when at least one of us was on an expense account. If your life is good, you might as well take advantage of it.

There is a book on the market that all of you should read. It is called "Shop Class as Soulcraft, an Inquiry into the Value of Work," by Matthew B. Crawford. The book has a little too much 'zen" in it for my taste, but nevertheless makes some very important points. Specifically, that the most satisfying jobs require both intellectual AND physical challenges. And, although the author strives to be somewhat 'gender neutral,' the book has more obvious value to men than to the opposite sex.

The book starts with a criticism of the elimination of shop classes from academic programs. You know, back in the '70s, where they built all these vocational schools, and told the "smart" kids they had to be accountants, and the "dumb" kids they had to be bricklayers. I have been very critical of this educational model for most of my adult life. All it has given us is suburbs full of accountants and bricklayers who are convinced it is not within their capacity to do anything else.

The book points out that the many of of today's "craftsmen" work in service type industries like plumbing. You cannot get someone from China to come and fix your sink. These guys have a high job satisfaction, much of which comes from the fact that they are well paid.

We now live in an "information age" where manufacturing has become a dirty word. Our Power Wagons were designed and built by men with brains, and of physical strength. They were no doubt proud of what they created. Now we are being outsmarted and outworked by men in foreign countries. It is the number one problem facing our country, and no one wants to admit it. It is much easier to sniff about how THEY are ruining our lives, not US, or that everything we do and make is somehow better, even if it is not. And, at the risk of sounding "political," it has given us a level of socialism far more ominous than that which our forefathers fought against and sometimes died to prevent us from living under.

The measure of a man is what he can do, not what he has. Work is what makes men (and boys) happy. The central unit of society is the family, not the state. If I can pass these notions on to my sons, I will have been successful in life.

The great appeal of what Gordon has given us in his magazine is that men who make and fix things can also write and speak of them, if they are given to. The trucks we drive speak to our minds and souls, not just our hands. Like great books, they are the lives and works of those who have gone before us....

[Bruce]

Local Boy

After the book was released, the local Time's Dispatch did a review of the book, review was OK-good. I thought it was a fair read? BTW, It's available @ amazon, new & used.

http://www.matthewbcrawford.com/

[Kevin Mienke]

My old friend Herschel Henry once told me “If you can’t identify the fool in your first ten minutes in a room, then you’re the fool.” I have complied a list of the things I think will keep us from finding ourselves to be the fool.

They are mostly simple things, accomplished with hands, brain, and simple tools, yet they make us worthy men in a world where so many things are jobbed out.

Know how to:
1) Frame a wall
2) Back up a trailer
3) Start a fire
4) Put out a fire
5) Wire an outlet and switch
6) Sharpen a knife
7) Find North with a compass
8) Find North without a compass
9) Do CPR
10) Do Heimlich maneuver
11) Tie a bowline knot
12) Shoot a firearm
13) Clean a firearm
14) Bait a hook
15) Change a tire
16) Change oil and filter
17) Bleed brakes
18) Fix a toilet
19) Climb a ladder
20) Read a manual
21) Fold a flag
22) Use a soldering iron
23) Drive a manual transmission
24) Adjust a carburetor
25) Hang a door
26) Use a framing square
27) Use a stick welder
28) Use a torque wrench
29) Make a meal (a good meal)
30) Jump start a car
31) Drive in the snow
32) Pour a pad of concrete
33) Train a dog
34) Give a massage
35) Fell a tree
36) Console a crying woman
37) Calm a crying baby
38) Carve a turkey
39) Get the family out of a housefire
40) Be able to answer common questions like:
A) Do these clothes make me look fat?
B) Did you think that girl was pretty?
C) Who was the best lover you ever had?

[W_A_Watson_II]

9) Do CPR
11) Tie a bowline knot
20) Read a manual Read? Who me?
21) Fold a flag
24) Adjust a carburetor Not worth a darn
33) Train a dog A Dog, I can't even train my Wife!
38) Carve a turkey Why when I smoke them they fall apart, no need to carve.

Well I'm close, but some of these I'm not sure about, particularly # 40. Those answers could end in death or divorce!

[Kevin Mienke]

Will,

Dogs are easier to train than wives. Adjusting a carb goes hand in hand with reading the manual.

About #40, it is imperative that you do not waiver in your answers. For instance, when she asks you "Did you think that girl was pretty?, you must answer no and stick with it. She will press you and you must be prepared.

It will go like this if you are not prepared:

Did you think that girl was pretty?

No.

Oh come on, I know you like brunettes.

I like brunettes because you are a brunette.

So you admit you like brunettes?

You have now lost.

Stick with a resolute NO and you will be fine.

[Bruce]

That's Some List

I have mastered most of it.......with the exception of # 40 in particular! I have had some issues with hanging a door correctly the first time. ;~})

[Kevin Mienke]

I have mastered most of it.......with the exception of # 40 in particular! I have had some issues with hanging a door correctly the first time. ;~})

Bruce,
Remember that if you are exceptionally good at #29 or #34, then #40 is no longer a great concern.

[NNICKB]

Can do most of 'em. I've navigated 40 a b and c pretty well, since my wife is a pretty brunette. But the question that trips me up every time is "What are you thinking?"

[Kevin Mienke]

Can do most of 'em. I've navigated 40 a b and c pretty well, since my wife is a pretty brunette. But the question that trips me up every time is "What are you thinking?"

I feel your pain.

My wife, bless her heart, after 21 years has finally grown weary of my incomplete answers to that question.

Now she leans more toward "Do you feel like talking about whatever is on your mind?"

You see it's been simplified to a yes or no answer then. Bless her heart.

[maineSS]

I'm wondering if some of the Romans in the last days of Empire exchanged similar thoughts... we're far down the same road. Let's see- a society fixated on entertainment spectacles and leisure, burdened with an enormous amount of debt drawn against a largely worthless currency, supporting a large welfare class and neverending foreign wars with an ever-diminishing pool of heavily taxed workers, and reliant on foreign imports for many necessities of daily life. After the crash, many Roman cities disappeared so completely it was difficult to find proof of their former existence- London vanished entirely for at least two centuries. Wonder how we"ll make out?

[Bruce]

Soooo Eminent

I'm wondering if some of the Romans in the last days of Empire exchanged similar thoughts... we're far down the same road. Let's see- a society fixated on entertainment spectacles and leisure, burdened with an enormous amount of debt drawn against a largely worthless currency, supporting a large welfare class and neverending foreign wars with an ever-diminishing pool of heavily taxed workers, and reliant on foreign imports for many necessities of daily life. After the crash, many Roman cities disappeared so completely it was difficult to find proof of their former existence- London vanished entirely for at least two centuries. Wonder how we"ll make out?

Eminent might not be the best word, but 200 years! Norm where are you when we need your level headed-ideology?

[Kevin Mienke]

I don’t know.

I have read this entire thread over again. It’s no wonder my wife doesn’t ask me what I’m thinking anymore. We have gone from minivans, snow blowers, orthodontists and box stores to Chevrolets, manicures and highlights.

Saber tooth cats and grizzly bears, suburbia and the uselessness of today’s man, Starbuck’s coffee and the aging of man’s soul. Dogs and hunting, woodsmen, cabins and bearskin rugs, trucks, minds, souls and great books. Evaluating what skills we have other than liking brunettes. Finally we are contemplating the fall of the Roman Empire. The funny thing is, the thread has not been hijacked…it is all relevant.

I sometimes have bad dreams, waking me like a freight train in my head. She never asks me about my dreams.

I wonder if the ice is thick enough to go fishing.

I will check this thread in the morning.

[MasterYota]

This has been, by far, the best thread in quite some time.

Its eye-opening to draw similarites in such a way with the Fall of the Roman empire and the foibles of todays modern society.

I can't wait for the historians and political pundits to start hashing this out in a new thread...

[712edf]

This has been, by far, the best thread in quite some time.

Its eye-opening to draw similarites in such a way with the Fall of the Roman empire and the foibles of todays modern society.

I can't wait for the historians and political pundits to start hashing this out in a new thread...

Sometimes the best drives/trips are the ones with no given destination, agenda, or itinerary.

Bucky