Jon Stewart on why “get on board or shut the f* up” is not exactly a pro-democracy rallying cry.
As if I wasn’t already behind on my projects, I picked up a chair today for $5. I don’t know anything about identifying chair styles or age. Obviously that square of wood nailed to the top of the seat isn’t original. Maybe it used to have a drop in seat or was a rush seat?
Steve Robinson on the death of his father. I know what this kind of conflicted memory is like. I’m grateful to him for honestly expressing it.
For as long as I can remember, my heroes have almost always been old men. Maybe because my first hero was my maternal grandfather, who died when I was eleven. As I think about it, this tendency is probably something that has shaped my life in certain ways.
From American Peasant, a new book by Christopher Schwarz:
So then, what does the craft [of woodworking] demand? 1) An understanding of its essential tools, materials and processes; 2) a commitment to repeating them until they are internalized and performed competently; and 3) a level of competence that allows its knowledge and skills to be taught to others.
And no more.
The craft welcomes you. And it begs you to find your place in it. To unearth a little bit of its history, embrace it and share it with others before we are drowned in a sea of plastic and petroleum by-products.
First tadpoles we’ve seen in the pond this year!
It’s always sad and yet predictable when small towns and nonprofits are victims of fraud. And it’s almost always the same story: an understaffed entity with no internal controls. In this case, a small town in the area had $71k stolen through fraud by the clerk-treasurer. (Actually, just read the State Board of Accounts report linked at the bottom of the article. The article itself is not particularly well written.)
My point in posting this is to say that if you are involved with a small nonprofit (which are particularly vulnerable entities), please make sure there are good controls in place. If the same person is recording deposits in the software, making the deposits to the bank, and performing the bank reconciliations, the entity is exposing itself to serious risk. Even with a small staff, there can be separation of duties.
And, of course, fraud can still happen to an entity with good internal controls. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. But some basic, sound procedures would prevent most of what I’ve seen over the years.
Tom Johnson’s repair of this table leg is a joy to watch.
A garden is a gathering of spirits, of old friends and new, of allies and companions. They are great, thronging crowds of voices whispering, cajoling, and summoning you to the life you summon for them. And when you leave a garden, they come with you, long trains of spirits singing and laughing as you lead them across the earth to their new home.
The exact dates of the Dog Days can vary from source to source, and because they are traditionally tied to the dawn rising of Sirius, they have changed over time. However, most sources agree that the Dog Days occur in mid-to-late summer.
Here at the Old Farmer’s Almanac, we consider the Dog Days to be the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11. These days occur soon after the summer solstice in late June, which also tends to be the beginning of the worst of summer’s heat.