On ending a cruel captivity................

"He handed me the box as he gently worked to remove the cork, allowing the contents to breathe for the first time in almost half a century."


-full story here

The history major in me................

...............................................thinks this is likely true.



"One person can make a gigantic difference and there aren't always alternative candidates who could come close to that performance."

Thank God............................

There are mysteries in this universe.  Glorious mysteries.  Ponder that.

Fifty years ago................................

Jefferson Airplane.............................................................In Time

Fifty years ago.............................

Ten Years After.............with another Willie Dixon* tune.... Help Me

 

*with a little help from Sonny Boy Williamson and Ralph Bass

Fifty years ago..............................

Ten Years After.............................................................Spoonful

 

The chimney............................

 
     In the old days, the Old School was heated by a coal-fired boiler.  Part of that heating system was a 70' + high chimney (pictured below).    Coal eventually gave way to natural gas.   The first winter we owned the building we shut the boiler down.   When the gas meter spins fast enough to be audible, you know you need a bigger check book than we had available.  We knew that the conversion to apartment units would require air conditioning, which the Old School did not have, so the boiler system would have to be replaced anyway.   So, the chimney sat idle for the past six years.   While overall the brick work is in pretty good shape, there was a corner near the top of the chimney that had deteriorated and some bricks had fallen out.  We proposed to the historical folks that, rather than repair that brick, we lower the chimney about 30'.   They said, "nope."   Fix it we did.

The tall brick thing is the chimney in question

If you squint your eyes you can see the missing brick near the upper corner

Missing bricks replaced.   The remaining bricks are more solid than they look.

Once washed down, the replacement brick will hardly be noticeable.

So, while repairing the chimney, the question was asked, "what happens to the rain water that falls into the unused chimney?  And should we do something about it now, while we have a super tall lift on site?"   Hmm.   Let's cap it.

While the chimney cap is in surprisingly good condition, the decision was
made to put a sheet metal cap over it.

Suspecting the original architect called for lightning rods at each of the
corners of the chimney cap

Super high lift in action.  Sheet metal for cap is visible
on the left side of the lift

The answer is yes, I put on the appropriate harness and
rode up to the top of the chimney.   Pretty good views of
Newark from up there.

Pop quiz........................

..............Mark Perry wonders how much we know about the Declaration of Independence.  Eleven out of fourteen isn't too bad, considering how long it has been since I studied that stuff (although Nicholas Gage did provide an assist or two).   Here is one that I missed:

A question...................................

................................................................worth pondering.

Fifty years ago..........................

At the movies..........Paul Newman in the Secret War of Harry Frigg

It happens this time every year.............

My Sweetie and I made the long half-mile trek to the Newark Campus of OSU for the annual 4th of July celebration that actually happens on the 3rd of July.   Two or three thousand folks enjoyed a hot summer's eve; first listening to the Heisey Wind Ensemble play music from the likes of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Sousa (with a little OSU music thrown in), followed up by as many fireworks as you can pack in fifteen minutes.  A good time was had by all.

A tough ticket.........................

Must have been some sort of cultural offering going on:

If the question is.....................

................"Should we worry about Jeff Bezos's growing empire?",
here is one answer that says "nope".   A wee excerpt:

Of course, all these fears are terribly dramatic and overblown, falling into the classic error that confuses corporate power with government power. While governments can use police and military forces to compel people to behave in a certain way, the only power corporations have in a free market is to offer to buy and sell goods. No one is obliged to do business with them, and they depend entirely on keeping their customers happy.

Of course the history majors amongst us might point out the occasional times when corporate power suborned governmental power.  And, its not like corporate power controls the media...oh, wait.  So, just in case:

More Amazon goodies here

Fifty years ago.......................

Sweet Inspirations..........................................Sweet Inspiration

Gone but not forgotten......................

..................Ernest Hemingway died this day in 1961.

image via

Opening paragraphs........................

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.  In the first forty days a boy had been with him.  But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.  It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast.   The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.

-Ernest Hemingway,  The Old Man and the Sea

Wait, what?.............................

“Wine is not an investment if you drink it as soon as you buy it.”
-Johnny Depp, as culled from this post about the difference between income and wealth

"Work is not work"......................

....................................................................Details here.

"obedience to the unenforceable."..........

...............................................................Context here.

Fifty years ago............................

Eric Burdon & the Animals...........................................Monterey

 

A wee bit of Bobby Burns...............

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, 

In proving foresight may be vain: 

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men 

          Gang aft agley, 

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, 

          For promis’d joy! 

Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me! 

The present only toucheth thee: 

But Och! I backward cast my e’e, 

          On prospects drear! 

An’ forward tho’ I canna see, 

          I guess an’ fear!

-Robert Burns, as he concludes To A Mouse

Problem solved........................

The best laid plans..............So, we are closing in on finishing the Old School project - with the exception of the old boiler room.   The old boiler room, affectionately called "the dungeon" by My Sweetie, is an 1,800 square foot multi-level space at the rear of the building.   While it is more than just a basement, it passes for the basement.  Not all, but much of it is well below street grade.  For a number of reasons, its redevelopment into a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom apartment has trailed the rest of the project. Given its general separation, including its private entrance, from the balance of the 30,000 square foot building, we can get occupancy permits for the other 28 units before this last unit is completed.  And we have proceeded accordingly.
      Anyway, last Thursday the plumbers approached me with a look on their faces that typically means "we have a problem."  Said problem was that "there is NO WAY we can get the 5' one-piece fiberglass shower unit into the master bathroom of the basement apartment."   The two doorways they have to navigate to get the the master bathroom are too small for the shower unit to pass through.   As this is the second time they have tried - the first unit turned out to have a crack in it.  No word on whether the crack was pre-existing or occurred in the attempt to jam the shower unit through a too-small opening.   While I like people who offer solutions when they bring you problems, the solutions they proposed didn't pass muster.  The first idea was using a four-piece shower unit instead of a one-piece (not acceptable to me).  The second idea was building the shower out of ceramic tile (too expensive).  Hmmm.   What to do, what to do?
        To provide a window for the master bedroom of this apartment, we had to cut out an old make-up air vent and replace it with a double window.  The recently installed window had not yet been caulked in.  A quick call was made to the the glass company asking that they come finalize the job and caulk this window, with the suggestion that before they do that, they first take the window all the way out first and then re-install it.   What?  Once the situation was explained, they had a crew on site within two hours.    The whole process went something like this:

A short section of the newly installed wrought iron fencing
had to be removed to provide access to the window

window carefully removed

Window set to the side

why carry when lifts are around?

This better fit

Of course it does

Final resting place for the shower

window back in place

The whole process, from problem presented to problem solved, took four hours and cost about $400.  If only all problems were as amenable to solution.

Fifty years ago.................................

Simon & Garfunkel......................................Scarborough Fair