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CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

February 9, 2012

South Beach Art Deco
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

TBW and I just got back from a few days relaxing in South Beach (Miami Beach, FL). We enjoyed a few days in the sun…a pleasant diversion from our winter routine. TBW gets a bit down during the short winter days, so a trip towards the sun seems to brighten everything. When Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

We especially enjoyed the South Beach Art Deco Walking Tour. Here’s the photo from their website.

We learned that the Art Deco buildings that began to be built in the 1930s were getting torn down rapidly in the 1980s. One woman, Barbara Capitman, spearheaded a movement to save the Art Deco buildings. In fact, she got almost one square mile of South Beach on the National Register of Historic Places. After that coup, changes could only come slowly and with much deliberation. It’s cool to see the results when someone strives to make a difference. Here are a couple of my favorite photos from the walking tour.

We did our share of shopping on this trip and I loved the mannequin heads pictured below. What a great way for the retailer to differentiate themselves and get us in the store.

Of course, I had to work lots of extra hours before we left and more when we got home, but it’s good to get away…even if only for a few days. Spring seems much closer now.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

February 1, 2012

Beware the Shibboleth
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

I was reading Henry Petroski‘s An Engineer’s Alphabet which has him playfully pontificating on various engineering and construction terms. When he gets to “C”, he writes the following about concrete:

Because concrete is often called “cement” by lay persons, the usage of the word serves as a kind of shibboleth distinguishing the technically illiterate from the technically literate.

So, what in the world is a shibboleth? As I read the quote above, I had just shut down my computer for the night. My first thought was, “I guess I’ll wait till morning to look it up on Dictionary.com.” Then I remembered that I have a great dictionary in my desk drawer, I just haven’t used it in years. I had to chuckle realizing that I’d almost forgotten to even think about a book dictionary. The Net Generation and all that follow won’t even consider that option.

But back to shibboleth. Turns out, it means “a word or pronunciation that distinguishes people of one group or class from those of another.” One of my favorite customers always talks about the “cement floors” and “pouring the cement” just because he knows it drives me crazy.

I got to thinking about other words or phrases that peg the “Idiot Meter” in my brain. Lots of folks call any piece of construction equipment a bulldozer. I have to force myself not to explain that a bulldozer pushes and then to properly name and describe the backhoe, loader or whatever other piece of equipment they see.

When I hear someone call any piece of structural steel an “I Beam” I immediately reassess their intelligence level. Same with any piece of lumber being called a “2 by 4”.  Sorry, I know a better person would be more understanding and less judgmental, but that ain’t me.

Can you think of any other construction words or phases that act as a shibboleth? Leave me a comment and let me know the ones that goad you. Or am I the only one that’s this shallow?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

January 13, 2012

Construction Dancing for Some Friday Fun
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgtOQZ-rtnE

Thought this might make you giggle a bit on a Friday.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

December 17, 2011

Signing Off with Style
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

When I was a teenager, I loved reading Richard Brautigan stories. He had a character in A Confederate General at Big Sur that wrote many letters in the novel and used the closing “As Always,”. For years that was the closing I used, it amused me to write it when everything in my life seemed to be changing constantly. As usual, it never entertained anyone else as much as it delighted me. I stopped using “As Always,” as a closing for letters when it became true in my life.

Lex sent me the following letter that Ben Franklin wrote to a friend of 30 years. It just makes me happy. Here is a guy who believed in his cause and wrote accordingly:

The text transcript:

Philada. July 5. 1775

Mr. Strahan

You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that Majority which has doomed my Country to Destruction. You have begun to burn our Towns and murder our People. — Look upon your hands! They are stained with the Blood of your Relations! — You and I were long Friends:— You are now my Enemy, — and

I am,

Yours.

B. Franklin

Wow, now that’s great writing.

When you sign off your letters and notes, do you have anything special you write? Understand that our communication helps define us. If you want to be all business with no sense of humor, that’s fine, but you miss an opportunity to both raise your value and to have fun. Leave a comment with any thoughts.

For the last few years, I’ve just ended all my correspondence with “Thanks,” because I really am grateful for all the help I seem to get in this life. I am considering jazzing that up a bit, though. Let me know if you have any thoughts. Thanks, Ned

PS: I have a previous post about Richard Brautigan and his final signing off with style, probably the most creative suicide note ever written.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

December 9, 2011

Making Dam Breaks Fun
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

For a bit of Friday fun, I thought about nearby Speedwell Forge Lake and how the nervous nelly state engineers required it to be drained because of safety concerns about the dam. These engineers work to factors of safety far exceeding the likelihood of dying in a plane crash, but it’s almost impossible to convince engineers they are being too conservative. So while there’s not much fun in conservative engineers destroying recreational spots, the actual dam breaks do intrigue.

Here’s a video of some guys making the best of a flooding situation. By the way, their likelihood of dying exceeds the commercial airline risk.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuwQJRA1KYk

Then to add a bit of redneck flavor (because you really can’t get enough videos of simple people doing stupid things), here’s an innovative way to clear a beaver dam.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHgbOLF9J5o

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and do at least one stupid thing that brings you joy.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

November 29, 2011

Hunting with the DiCicco Boys
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — nedpelger

I just got back from a few days at deer camp, along with most contractors in PA. I had the pleasure of taking my son-in-law and 10 year old grandson along for their first deer camp experience. The first night in a cabin full of men producing chain saw snoring and flatulence created a lasting impression for the DiCicco boys. Nothing in their previous lives prepared them for the cacophony of sounds and smells.

For me, the actual deer hunting will be a time I’ll remember. Though hunting really doesn’t work as a word to describe what we did. Deer scaring, perhaps, or Official Deer Alert System.

At one point, when we were at the top of the mountain, I said, “Let’s try to walk real quietly down to that next bench to get a better vantage point.” My son-in-law said, “Walk quietly? We might as well tie pots and pans to ourselves.” Which I thought was pretty funny. As I chuckled I heard my grandson stumble on the steep slope, fall and literally do a forward roll ending on his back with his feet facing down hill. As he lay there giggling, he said, “Well…that was embarrassing.”

If you shot a buck on Monday, you should probably thank us because we probably spooked him in your direction. I can’t imagine too many deer in Penn’s Woods didn’t hear us out there.

Here are the boys doing some pre-hunt scouting. It was an adventure.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

November 23, 2011

Does Your Dog Bite?
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — nedpelger

You owe it to yourself to watch this clip and remember how truly blessed you are.

Do you have a room?

We are renovating the third floor of the General Sutter hotel right now and they actually have room keys that look just like the one in the Peter Seller’s clip. It’s a curious thing these days to be handed a hotel room key with a big “So it don’t get lost” weight on it.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Do something fun.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

September 28, 2011

Smart Alec Answers
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

The construction business employes a high percentage of funny folks willing to say what pops into their heads. It makes for fun job sites. The wide open nature of construction work tends to attract more colorful characters.

So I love when I hear a perfect Smart Alec comment…and I read one this morning. A death-row prisoner in Oregon decided he’s done with all the appeals and court nonsense. He’s asked the judge to just get his execution done, annoyed by all the (in his words), “Tree huggers trying to save me.” His Smart Alec comment below makes me laugh every time I read it.

In May, when a judge asked Haugen if he understood the effect of the death sentence, Haugen responded, “Well, one of them will be that we’ll never have to have this conversation again,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Truly worthy of construction site humor, well, except for the brutally murdering two people part. By the way, do you know where the phrase Smart Alec comes from? Apparently Alec Hoag was a celebrated pimp, thief and confidence man in New York City in the 1840s. He developed a new method of stealing from johns as described below in The Straight Dope.

The “panel game” consisted of sliding walls that would enable Mr. Hoag to sneak in whilst the mark was sleeping and steal valuables. Before Mr. Hoag, a prostitute’s accomplices would wait until the mark was asleep, then burst into the room. But the marks got wise and would block the door with a table or chair propped up under the doorknob, thinking they would then be safe from intruders. “Smart” Alec Hoag, because he never woke the victim, would be on the other side of  town before the rube even knew what had happened.

So, the next time you’re ready to make some Smart Alec remark on the job site, forget everything you’ve read here and just let it fly. We all have a responsibility to keep this business fun.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

August 23, 2011

Mining the Forum: What’s Mine is Urine
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

TBW and I were at our niece’s wedding this past weekend. Our nephew was an usher. I had to smile when I saw him and thought of this story.

My nephew John works as a leadman, and sometimes foreman, for a paving company. He loves practical jokes (must be genetic) and played a real doozy this past week. A buddy of his was real worried one day because his back hurt the previous night and he’d taken a painkiller from his Mom. He worried that the random drug test van might pull up and then he’d test positive for a drug with no prescription.

John saw the opportunity and pounced on it. He mentioned that someone called from the office and warned that the drug testing van, in fact, was on the way to their jobsite. The worried guy freaked, debating if he should hide on the jobsite or just go home. They convinced him these options weren’t practical.

John had a better idea. He’d heard of a guy who had a bag of clean urine taped to his thigh, so when he went in to give the sample, he could tap from that bag. Being a good friend, John then offered to provide such a bag of urine. When John handed the worried guy the quite full bag of urine, he warned him that he had to keep all of it taped to his thigh, because the testers also checked the temperature of the sample and having this much would keep the temperature up.

They then gave him a roll of Duct tape and sent him into the portable toilet. Since the worried guy is also a real hairy guy, the thought of all that Duct tape on his thighs made it even funnier (kindness isn’t the first attribute that springs to mind on most construction sites). Now word had spread around the site, so lots of people were chucking and waiting for the worried guy to come out of the toilet, walking a little funny, with a bulge in his pants.

He came out walking normally, but a closer look showed wetness all down his pant legs. Seems the pee bag broke as he was taping it on. Isn’t it wonderful to have good friends?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

July 29, 2011

I’m Not Saying We Wouldn’t Get Our Hair Mussed
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

As we watch our American leaders struggle to make tough decisions, I think we all benefit by recalling the wisdom of Gen Buck Turginson.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFEiSNMcARU&feature=feedrec_grec_index

I love his line, “Truth is not always a pleasant thing.”

Happy Friday. Do something fun this weekend.

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