Splomo's Profile

Great story, and those compositions tickle me a lot. More pictures, please?

Give this book: "How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants" by David Rees, with introduction by John Hodgman.

Coupled with a collection of supplies in a handsome case, such as unsharpened pencils (Ticonderoga and Dixon are good and easy to find), an apron, safety glasses or headband magnifier, sandpaper (220 or above), a pocket knife, plastic tubing, and shatter-proof tubes and caps.

And, if this is for a serious friend to whom you desire to bare your own biases and tastes, give your favorite manual pencil sharpener. For example, the Alvin triple-hole, dual-stage magnesium pocket sharpener would set even my calloused heart aflutter.

Kudos, Maxwell, that People published your observations and credits you as an authority on Style. (Which is something most of us here already knew.) Way to go!

I'm also amused that "the great indoors" is OUT (what?) and intrigued by a Rowling novel "fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations."

Not interested enough to buy a People magazine, necessarily.

Perhaps an intrepid hacker could assemble two OPEN signs to toggle between OPEN/NOPE. Heh. For when one needs to send a strong and unambiguous indicator. ;)

Aw, Dan, you dodged a bullet, man. Because lemme tell you... a One that is not cold, is scarcely a One at all.

Speechless also ... Gorgeous, fun, meaningful, uplifting, gracious ... oh yes. Thank you!!

I adore old tech. I collect tube amps and manual typewriters, my kids have an old TV on which they can play DDR, and there was one rather weird day when we were playing with old view masters and my five-year-old asked me to hand him a different DVD. I said it was a reel, like for film, and he had NO IDEA what those things were. I feel like a member of the last generation native to both the between the manual/mechanical/analog/electromagnetic/incandescent, and digital/computerized/automatic/PCB/LED technological worlds. And then I wonder if every generation gets to feel this way at some point?

Personally, were I in your area, I would totally buy them off CL for $15 each. I really like them, they look comfy and nostalgic, and I like to make cushions and refinish wood. They're not designer chairs, but if they are structurally sound, they will "do up" nicely under than hands of a modestly skilled amateur refurbisher.

Reminds me I had a friend who once deconstructed a box spring, and reused the springs to make party decorations with a figure popping up, jack-in-the-box style. Great reuse of materials, and The Home Project has completed and blogged lots of other interesting projects.

Who says the ledge has to be flat and horizontal? One could install an "anti-shelf" at a 45-degree or greater angle, which would keep the space above open, transition from the narrowness below, and prevent any objects (animate or in-) from gathering on the ledge.

If it were my home, I would use a secure but reversible installation method, to permit the ledge to return to duty as a display shelf in the future, after the child has acquired a fear of fall-down-and-go-boom.