On Broke & Pointless

 

The Korean Connection

 I first learned of hanta virus years ago from my brother who worked at USAMRIID. He was quite the fan of hemorrhagic diseases and would regale us for hours about various zoonitic diseases like Ebola. He would have had a field day with the recent unpleasantness inflicted on us by Fauci the dog-killer, alas my brother died decades ago. 

I had to read up on hantavirus when there was an outbreak back in '93 in the Four Corners ares. It was then that I learned that hanta was not a Navajo word, rather it was named after the Hantan river in Korea, where the disease was first discovered. 

But enough about that. The other day I watched "The French Connection" which starred Gene Hackman. I had read the book years ago and saw the movie when it first hit the theaters. I decided to rewatch it after Mr. Hackman's recent death just to see how it has held up. 

William Friedkin did a good job directing that movie, and back when it was released I was very familiar with many of the places it was filmed. My late ex-FiL was in police work in NYC back in those days and he fancied himself another Popeye Doyle. He liked driving like a maniac under the el and putting on and taking off hats while tailing suspects. His career was more like Serpico in that he was invalided out due to an on-the-job injury, and he lived on his gubmint pension for another 20 years or so. Good for him, he had a difficult life, including getting PTSD at the Battle of the Bulge. 

So when I watch that movie I am taken back to that time and place. Friedkin captured what is known as to some as the "grittiness" of the city. The rest of us call just call it filth, degeneracy and lawlessness, so in that regard it is a time capsule. 

The chase scene is pretty darned good. Of course, the whole movie is a chase scene. But the interesting part to me was that Friedkin mounted the camera low on the car (and the train) to enhance the sense of speed, and he also undercranked the camera to 18 frames per second. They used the wrong make and model car for smuggling in the movie, the story telling has lots of holes, and the resolution is ambiguous. But what are you going to do, eh? The cars on the road and in the junkyard are a trip down memory lane, including one like I used to drive. 

Anyway, Hackman's wife caught hantavirus and it killed her. Without his caregiver, he was not long for this world. Being 95 and having dementia without any backup for care is a tough way to go. I hope his remaining dogs are okay.

On Fiddling Around & Autopens

 

After reading a report yesterday of evidence that an autopen had been used on all the official documents collected so far that President Biden had supposedly read, approved and signed during his term as president (except for the one stating he wouldn't be running again which bore his real signature) another piece of the internal puzzle I hold regarding Biden's behavior, cognition and presidency, fell into place.  I also found it curious that Obama was the first president to have had his autopen signature put on a bill, with it done while he was vacationing in Hawaii, 4,800 miles away from the Oval Office.  What came in handy for him then, also appears to a have come in handy for whomever was handling the responsibility of managing Biden's presidency when Biden was no longer capable of doing so himself.  All of which makes the big, bold, confident and unmistakably distinctive signature our current President has been openly placing on his official documents all the more personal, intentional and impressive.  

"Harry Truman was the first President to use one in office and Kennedy allegedly made substantial use of the device. However, the White House autopen was a closely guarded secret until Gerald Ford’s administration publicly acknowledged its use. Traditionally, the autopen has been reserved for personal correspondence and documents. More recently though, it has taken on a higher profile role in the White House. Barack Obama was the first American President to use the autopen to sign a bill into law, which he first did on May 26, 2011 when he authorized an extension of the Patriot Act from France. And now he’s used it again to approve the fiscal cliff deal from more than 4,800 miles away and, in so doing, has returned the autopen to the national spotlight."   From The Smithsonian

Looks like it's back in the spotlight again.  As is President Trump with this visual, repeated over and over again in front of the media. 

On Down to Size & Back in Shape

 

The giant oak burl that I sawed last year yielded many large 

pieces of wood and several bowl blanks.

Two of the slabs and a burl cap looked like this when 

I brought them home:

The largest is approximately three feet by three feet, and it was 

a bear to move around. 

I managed to get it out of my car and into my shop, but it was

right at the limit of what I can lift. I needed to get it onto my 

CNC in order to mill it flat, and prior to lifting it I thought that 

I should weigh it so that I would know precisely what I was 

working with. I took my scale out to the shop and I was able

to wrangle the slab enough to get the scale under it.

It turns out that prior to milling it weighed 145 pounds, 

so I enlisted the help of a neighbor to lift it up and onto the 

bed of the machine, then I set about milling it.

Using a 3” diameter spoil board flattening bit I 

systematically got one side reasonably 

flat, then I flipped it over and repeated that process 

on the other side. By then both sides of the slab were 

parallel and I had removed enough wood to be able 

to move it around by myself, so I took it off the machine 

and weighed it again. It weighed 95 pounds at 

that point which means that I had converted 50 pounds 

of burl wood into chips and dust. And boy, did that 

make a mess in my shop! For those of you who are 

also woodworkers and wondering what I use for dust collection, 

I use the floor. Simple, gravity powered, and quiet. Low 

tech for the win!

This is what it looked like after I took it off the CNC:

I like the figure and I think it will make a great table top when it is 

thoroughly dried.

I have turned a number of bowls out of the burl. This one is nearly 

finished and I really like the figure:

I finished this platter quickly because I dried it in the microwave. 

Oh yeah, instant platter!

Since the grain in the burl was, in a sense, random, 

I couldn’t determine prior to 

turning how to saw the blank that I used for this bowl. 

It was significantly ovalized when I started finish turning 

it but I had left enough wall thickness to make a round

bowl, but just barely, hence the thin walls. 

That’s actually a good thing as this wood is quite dense and heavy.

I sawed a number of book-matched panels out of the burl:

Those are going to be awesome!

A rough turned bowl:

I am going to wait until later this year to finish turn that one.

This big block has not decided what it wants to be yet, 

but as soon as it lets me know, then I will make it happen!

And, for review, here is what the burl looked like when 

we started sawing it. It was huge.

I took that saw into the shop this morning to see 

about replacing the power head,the guy suggested that 

I get it repaired, again, and time will tell if that is 

an economical decision. I really want a saw that is 

easier to start. As I approach three quarters of a century 

I really want a saw that doesn't fight me when I 

want to start it.