Thumbtacks: a Blog Off post

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "Thumbtacks"

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To preface this one a bit, the brilliant Rufus Dogg was having a conversation with the novelist and essayist Jane Devin about blog topics. Jane said, “I think some bloggers could write about thumbtacks and their ‘community’ will be pleased.”

Rufus took that as some sort of thrown gauntlet and here we are a week later with "thumbtacks" as a Blog Off topic. While I can't guarantee that'll I'll please my community with this one, I'm sure going to give it a try.

I'm a history nerd of the highest order and when I was thinking about all of this over the weekend it hit me. I'm going to write about the invention of the thumbtack.

Who knew that something so mundane as a thumbtack could have such a controversial history. For starters, three inventors in three separate countries claimed the thumbtack as his own, all three of them around the turn of the last century. Of the three, Mick Clay's is the most pathetic so that's the one I'm going to believe is the true inventor of the thumbtack. All invention involved suffering and disappointment, right?

Mick Clay is a man lost to the mists of history. His lasting contribution to civilization however was something the English call a drawing pin. In 1903, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire; Mick Clay invented a little device that drafters could use to fasten their drawings to their drawing tables. Hence the English term drawing pin. In the US, they were called thumbtacks, but their purpose and original use was the same.

Before getting a patent on his idea, Clay sold the idea to Otto Lindstedt. Lindstedt was a wealthy business man who was granted a patent for Clay's idea in 1904.

From all accounts, Lindstedt went on to even further fame and fortune with the proceeds from Clay's idea. Lindstedt was the toast of the Continent, feted by royalty and commoner alike. Clay disappeared and even though I ca'tn verify it, I see him dying in obscurity in some Dickensian workhouse somewhere while shaking his fist at Lindstedt and being ignored by his fellows. Poor guy.

Actual metal thumbtacks, or drawing pins depending on your side of the Atlantic have all been replaced by something that's technically a map pin.

Thumbtacks have an annoying habit of landing pin side up when dropped, something I remember with searing clarity from my childhood. Stepping on a tack in bare feet is a pain like none other, let me tell you.

The shape of a map pin makes such a deadly landing impossible and their widespread use have made workplaces and households infinitely safer places.

However, I rather like the idea of office supplies that fight back. A little hazard now and again is good for the soul. I say we bring back the old metal thumbtack.

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As the day goes on, the rest of the participants in today's Blog Off will appear miraculously at the end of this post. Keep checking back and check out everybody's posts. You can follow along in Twitter as well, just look for the hashtag #LetsBlogOff. If you'd like more information about about the Blog Off or if you'd like to see the results of previous Blog Offs, you can find the main website here.

Travel plans

Venice isn't the only city in Italy with canali, the old part of Bologna is full of them.

2011 is turning out to be the year that keeps on giving. Even though my plans to go to The Bahamas this week have been thwarted, I have two more locations to look forward to this month. The Italian Trade Commission, in it's North American incarnation as Ceramic Tiles of Italy, is sending me to Cersaie in Bologna. I leave on September 17 and what awaits is the largest tile and bath show in the world. I have a couple of days of free time when I get to Italy and I cannot wait to park myself in a cafe, grab a copy of Corriere della Sera, and read all about Silvio Berlusconi's latest offenses. That I'll be up to  my elbows in tile and bath products is the kind of bonus only I can imagine.

I'll be in Bologna from September 17th through the 22nd when I depart Bologna for London
where I'll catch the tail end of the London Design Festival. I've been selected as one of the design bloggers being sent to London by Modenus.com. If you don't know Modenus, you really ought to.

London is part of what's being called BlogTour2011 and it's an attempt to unite design bloggers in the UK and the US. Something the scale of Blog Tour has never been attempted before and I cannot thank Veronika Miller of Modenus enough for including me. Blog Tour has its own website and all of the participants' updates will be syndicated there. The sponsors of the Modenus Blog Tour 2011 are Modenus of course, the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, MyDeco.com, Blanco, DuVerre hardware, Spirit of Sports, Wallunica, Samuel Heath, 100% Design, The London Design Festival, Decorex International, The Society of British Interior Design, Tent London, and Design Junction.

Check out all those sites and keep posted for my updates from the other side of the pond.

Cat Island updates and developments

The first airlifts of food and supplies have started to arrive on Cat Island. There are four or five resorts on Cat and I use the term resort loosely. Cat Island resorts aren't the kind of places where you get hot stone massages or room service. Rather, they're places to go unplug and unwind. The bonds forged at those resorts though, are lifelong. Two of those resorts have stepped up and turned themselves into aid organizations. The Bahamian government is overwhelmed by the widespread damage and supplies are stretched thin to say the least.

The two resorts, Greenwood and Fernandez Bay Village, are distributing food and supplies to anyone who needs it over there. The Bahamians who own and run Fernandez Bay are people I know and trust implicitly. Pam and Tony Armbrister, the people behind Fernandez Bay, are two of the most decent people I've ever met. Tony's family has been on Cat Island since the 1700s and he's a walking repository of that island's history and culture.
Tony and Pam have a daughter who lives in For Lauderdale and she's taken over as the point person for aid destined for Cat Island.

Cat Island is reachable by air and by the once-weekly visit by a mail boat. The mail boat leaves Fort Lauderdale and works its way though the Family Islands (formerly the Out Islands). It's on this mail boat that the bulk of the material aid destined for Cat Island gets delivered.

Air lifts are a great way to get emergency supplies over there, but it's what ends up on the mail boat that will sustain everybody until they can rebuild themselves.

I'm still planning to fly down there on Tuesday but Hurricane Katia looks like it's positioned to thwart my plans. Even though Katia isn't going to threaten Cat Island directly, the disturbance she's causing will make flying prohibitively dangerous. Add to that the lack of outside news available on the island once there and it's looking pretty grim.

My fundraising has been an incredible success and I thank everyone who's donated with every fiber of my being. Every dime you sent will go directly to the people who need it. If I don't make it down there this week, I'm going to wire the money we've raised to Fort Lauderdale and to the Armbristers of Fernandez Bay. Once in the hands of the Armbristers, your donations will be turned into food that'll be distributed to anyone who's hungry and in need. If you want material aid to go to the orphanage or to schools, just let them know. You can also donate to Remote Island Ministries, they too have pledged to donate every penny they collect.

In addition to raising money, the Armbristers are collecting and distributing non-financial assistance. They're loading up the mail boat and giving away anything that comes their way. If you, your church or your school wants to donate something other than money, the gang at Fernandez Bay will take anything. In particular, they need soap, first aid supplies, Home Depot gift cards, flashlights, batteries, tarps, nails, Publix gift cards, canned food, Costco gift cards, candles, games, children's books, school supplies and clothing. You can send any donations to Tameron Armbrister at 151 North Nob Hill Rd., #310, Plantation, FL. 33324. Fernandez Bay will cover the costs of shipping everything to the island.

In addition to that, my best friend in the universe and able pilot JD has sweetened the pot for the next two weeks. He's kicked in $250 to the money we've raised so far and he's agreed to match every donation, dollar for dollar, for the next two weeks. Please take him up on this generous offer. I love him to death but even so, make this hurt!

JD in better days on Cat Island

Fernandez Bay will be open for business again on November 1st and if you're looking for a getaway, I can think of no better place. Buoying the Bahamian economy is another way to help them rebuild. From now through June 30th, 2012, Fernandez Bay is running a promotion to make that easier to do. If you book four days at Fernandez Bay through Majestic Tours, they will fly you from Nassau to New Bight for free.
If you're planning to spend a week on a cruise or at the Atlantis, or Sandals or Club Med change your plans. Those places don't need your money but the smaller spots on the Family Islands do.
To make it easier, here are those links again.
Fernandez Bay VillageThe Greenwood Beach ResortMajestic Tours
This video was recorded this past week and in it you can get a feel for the scope of this disaster and a glimpse into the character of the people who call Cat Island home.


Once again, the link to donate is:

If that button doesn't work, click this link instead.

Hansgrohe and Axor are giving away a $10,000 bathroom

Do you want your life to look like this?

How about a bath that looks like this?

To celebrate their new Facebook page, Hansgrohe and their designer brand Axor are giving away $10,000 in bath fixtures. There's no trick or trial to go through in order to qualify. All you need to do is go to Hansgrohe's new Facebook page, give it a like and then fill out the entry form. The contest is running from now through October 31st, but don't put it off.

I take a shower every morning under a Hansgrohe fixture, I have the Pura Vida handheld and I love it. Though given the option, I'd add a few more fixtures to my set up. With $10 grand worth of Hansgrohe and Axor shower stuff I don't doubt for a second that my life would end up looking like this.

So go register on Hansgrohe's new Facebook page today.

Check out my Cat Island/ Hurricane Irene fundraiser too if you'd be so kind.

The best book I ever read: a Blog Off post

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "What's the best book you ever read?"

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This is a tough one and I'm having a hard time narrowing it down to just one. I've been a prolific reader my whole life and different periods have always revolved around different books. I remember reading Alex Haley's Roots when I was in sixth grade and I thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever read.

In high school I bounced between Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace. When I went away to college I was all about Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage until I ran into John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire. I thought that was the most profound thing I'd ever read. A couple of years later I stumbled across John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces and it held the title of best book I ever read for a number of years.

I learned to read when I was around four and since then I've cycled through countless Best Books I Ever Read. Whether fiction or non-fiction, there's always been something at the top of the pile. But I suppose the last ten years or so have brought with them a less flexible sense of the Best Books. I have my lifetime favorites of course and I do go back and re-read some of them from time to time. But not all of them are great. These same last ten years have had me gravitating toward the social criticism (fiction and non-) from the late 19th early part of the 20th Centuries.

The times we live in now are largely the result of societal shifts that took place over the last 100 years. Going back and reading what was a contemporary commentary from 1890 and seeing how times have changed or not changed since then is endlessly fascinating to me. It drives home the point that history is a continuum and that I'm part of that same continuum. It also tells me that human beings have always been human beings. We have the same emotional range, regardless of the era and the times. There's nothing I feel or think today that hasn't been felt or thought in an endless loop since Homo sapiens first graced the scene.

So with that said, there are three books that sit at the top of my favorite book pantheon and they've help that spot for a while. I'm sure it'll shift with time but on 31 August 2011, those three books are:

Jacob Riis' How The Other Half Lives. In 1890, Jacob Riis exposed the horrific conditions that New York's tenement dwellers lived in. Due to his book and its accompanying photographs, there arose a movement to clean up the inner cities in this country and at the same time a sense that there are minimum standards in which people should live and that it's in a society's best interest to establish and enforce those minimum standards.

Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt from 1922 is a scathing indictment of conformity, suburban and bohemian alike. George F. Babbitt is a Realtor and early in the novel his professional life's described as making "nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry,” but that he is “nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.” It's scathing and prescient at the same time. Lewis wasn't the first to point out the holes in the American dream but I don't think anyone's ever done it better.

Finally, John Steinbeck's 1939 masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath holds a place so near and dear to me I struggle to find words to describe what an important work it is. Most people are forced to read Grapes when they're in high school and that's unfortunate. Few 17 year olds have the life experience to appreciate what goes on between the covers of that novel. In some ways it picks up where Babbitt left off. The Grapes of Wrath is all about the dark underbelly of capitalism, and underbelly that's become vogue to ignore again. If you haven't read The Grapes of Wrath since high school, read it again. If you've never read, read it for the first time. Read it before the next election.

What about you? What book or books hold the title great in your world?

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As the day goes on, the rest of the participants in today's Blog Off will appear miraculously at the end of this post. Keep checking back and check out everybody's posts. You can follow along in Twitter as well, just look for the hashtag #LetsBlogOff. If you'd like more information about about the Blog Off or if you'd like to see the results of previous Blog Offs, you can find the main website here.