The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!
Readers may be aware that Iceland has been very hard hit by the recent credit squeeze. The Government there has taken over the three largest banks: and whilst it's guaranteed the deposits of Icelandic citizens, it's said that it can't afford to guarantee the deposits of foreigners, attracted by the very high interest rates offered by the banks. In response, British authorities have frozen about four billion pounds of Icelandic assets in the U.K. as security against the three billion pounds or so believed to have been deposited in Icelandic banks by its citizens, companies and government authorities. Needless to say, this hasn't gone down well in Iceland.
It appears that a disgruntled British account-holder thought up an ingenious way to express his dissatisfaction. He put the entire nation of Iceland up for sale on eBay!
Click the picture for a full page view of the listing. Sadly, eBay's already withdrawn it - but not before the price reached ten million pounds!
The seller cautioned that pop singer Bjork was not included in the sale, doubtless to the disappointment of her fans.
I'm an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and this sort of thing fascinates me. I've never attempted microphotography - the equipment involved is very expensive, just for a start! - but it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful and complex the tiniest details of life can be. Of course, given that I'm a man of faith, I see God's creative hand in it all: but even an atheist can surely appreciate the marvels of evolution! We'll agree to differ on who started it all.
Here are a few examples from previous years of the competition. Click the pictures for a larger view.
A chicken embryo:
Mangrove fern leaf:
Micro-flow patterns on a soap film:
Soap bubbles in water:
Willowherb seeds:
Wing scales of a sunset moth:
Fascinating stuff! If you're interested in photography, take time to browse through the galleries of past winners of the competition. There are hundreds more interesting photographs there.
When two white tiger cubs were born during a hurricane they had to be separated from their mother after their sanctuary flooded.
However they have since found an unlikely surrogate mother in chimpanzee Anjana, who has taken on the role of caring for the cubs.
The two-year-old chimp has been helping keeper China York care for the 21-day-old cubs at The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS) in South Carolina.
'Mitra and Shiva, were born during Hurricane Hannah,' said Dr Bhagavan, founder of TIGERS. "During that time everything flooded in the sanctuary and they had to be moved into the house as their mother became stressed.
'It was important for their safety that they were separated.'
Placed into the care of infant animal care giver China and her chimpanzee companion, Anjna, the cubs have become almost inseparable from their new motherly figures.
Dr Bhagavan added: 'China's role means that she is care giver to hundreds of animals when they are born.
'Anjana has been with China, side by side, ever since she was born and has joined her in caring and raising baby animals.
'So she helped her and acted as a surrogate mother to these animals and she has done these same with these baby white tigers.
'She gives them a bottle, lies with them and acts as a surrogate mother. She has a close contact and bond and gives them a nurturing.'
China has looked after Anjana the female chimpanzee since she was born, and they have been inseparable ever since.
This has also resulted in Anjana copying China's caring behaviour.
'She has raised leopards, lions, orangutans,' said Dr Bhagavan. 'Monkey see as monkey do, and she has taken on this copycat personality and helps China raise the animals.
'She has just finished raising four lions and they were inseparable. She is a great assistant.'
It's a lovely story, and the pictures are heartwarming . . . but what about when the tigers get a little larger? Don't they normally eat monkeys and apes? Will their pleasure in Anjana's company turn into a rather more . . . er, digestive anticipation? I suppose they'll be separated from her before they get old enough to want to eat her, just in case!
It's an interesting thought. I've seen predators raised by humans remember their foster 'parents', and show them affection in adult life instead of attacking them, as they normally would. I've helped to raise cheetah cubs at a sanctuary in South Africa, and remember them with great pleasure. A very well-known example is Christian the lion.
In 1969 a young Australian, John Rendall and his friend Ace Bourke, bought a small lion cub from Harrods pet department, which was then legal. ‘Christian’ was kept in the basement of a furniture shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea, the heart of the swinging sixties. Loved by all, the affectionate cub ate in a local restaurant, played in a nearby graveyard, but was growing fast…
A chance encounter with Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna led to a new life for Christian. He came to live in an enclosure and slept in a caravan at their Surrey home. Then in 1971 he was flown to Kenya, his ancestral home, and returned to the wild by lion-man George Adamson. Almost a year later in 1972, John and Ace returned to Kora in Kenya and it is their reunion with Christian at this time that is shown in the clip.
It was an emotional reunion: “He ran towards us, threw himself onto us, knocked us over and hugged us, with his paws on our shoulders.”
Christian left the Kora Reserve in 1973. George Adamson believed that he made his new territory along the Tana river, but when the Wakamba herdsmen brought their livestock to his hunting ground, he moved on. George said in his autobiography, "I used to count the days on which we hadn't seen Christian, but when they reached 97, I gave up recording them in my diary." Because a lion can live from 12 to 15 years in the wild, Adamson believed that Christian ended his days in the Meru National Reserve only a few miles up river.
The clip below is of a recent interview with Rendall and Bourke.
A lesser-known Medal of Honor winner, whose deeds were, if anything, even more remarkable than Sergeant York's, was First Lieutenant Samuel Woodfill.
His Medal of Honor citation reads:
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 60th Infantry, 5th Division.
Place and date: At Cunel, France, 12 October 1918.
Citation: While he was leading his company against the enemy, his line came under heavy machinegun fire, which threatened to hold up the advance. Followed by 2 soldiers at 25 yards, this officer went out ahead of his first line toward a machinegun nest and worked his way around its flank, leaving the 2 soldiers in front. When he got within 10 yards of the gun it ceased firing, and 4 of the enemy appeared, 3 of whom were shot by 1st Lt. Woodfill. The fourth, an officer, rushed at 1st Lt. Woodfill, who attempted to club the officer with his rifle. After a hand-to-hand struggle, 1st Lt. Woodfill killed the officer with his pistol. His company thereupon continued to advance, until shortly afterwards another machinegun nest was encountered. Calling on his men to follow, 1st Lt. Woodfill rushed ahead of his line in the face of heavy fire from the nest, and when several of the enemy appeared above the nest he shot them, capturing 3 other members of the crew and silencing the gun. A few minutes later this officer for the third time demonstrated conspicuous daring by charging another machinegun position, killing 5 men in one machinegun pit with his rifle. He then drew his revolver and started to jump into the pit, when 2 other gunners only a few yards away turned their gun on him. Failing to kill them with his revolver, he grabbed a pick lying nearby and killed both of them. Inspired by the exceptional courage displayed by this officer, his men pressed on to their objective under severe shell and machinegun fire.
This citation doesn't even begin to cover the true story of Lt. Woodfill's heroism - or the fact that his exploits were perhaps the single greatest act of marksmanship recorded by a US soldier in World War I. An article by Darryl Davis fills out the picture.
General Pershing did not want American soldiers to learn to be cave-dwelling trench denizens. He wanted cross-country fire and movement to be the major calling, with trench adeptness as sideline. But "fire," "shooting," "marksmanship," have no standard meaning. Those with equipment familiarity think it applies to what they can do. Those with rifle marksmanship skills (e.g., who have fired more than 1500 rounds, each carefully aimed, each result carefully inspected) hear it as referring to their much higher capacity. Pershing thought of it in the latter sense, hence his regard for Captain Woodfill, who had been a target shooter for many years before the war and had skills accordingly. He also was a skilled hunter.
The vagueness and distortion in Woodfill's Medal of Honor citation (quoted in the summer 1996 issue of Relevance) practically erases Woodfill's stellar marksmanship performance. The text is symbolic of the fact that marksmanship's ineffability and invisibility kept it from the notice of the non-proficient with the result that it was seriously neglected in training and seriously under-utilized in live-fire under American control. Troops were even delivered to Europe without having fired one clip of rifle cartridges. And troops in Europe were not thought of as in need of more rifle practice once they had been trained. When pulled back from the line they would be given squad marching and company marching and other things to do with never a thought of instead being sent to the rifle range or at least doing some dry-firing. Time available to train them to shoot better was not used.
Two separate rifle marksmanship communities were present during the war. One was the vast number of those with "equipment familiarity." They "knew" they were getting the best out of the splendid Enfields (M1917) and Springfields. Some had vague knowledge of other individuals who seemed to be able to do magical things, far beyond the ordinary, with the same equipment, but it seemed to be some sort of innate gift, beyond scrutiny. The other community, rifle marksmanship practitioners, never existed outside of a civilian shooting range, and there never was a "community", but only solitary individuals. These underutilized, under-equipped, unorganized, unnamed bearers of the lengthily acquired skills were never able to explain what it was or that others could become as skilled with practice. Those in charge of them never realized that a rifleman with skills is a radically different weapons system with features not the same as those of ordinary riflemen. Rifle marksmanship stayed hidden with the fingers of the practitioners, and has not yet emerged, except into the sniper ghetto.
Woodfill's citation was assembled by those who did not realize what he did. His cited performance was very dangerous work, but it was not the valiant defiance of death. Nor was he engaged in saving lives through removing the less able from danger. Instead, he was saving lives by eliminating the threat. He was using his stalking skills to allow his rifle marksmanship a chance to be used (i.e., moving to acquire line-of-sight to the target, not moving to achieve proximity to it). As a force manager, he was unleashing a powerful weapon, his own skills, against the enemy threat because he had the highest skills of all those within his command. He was doing that which none of his soldiers could do. His skills exemplified Davis's Rule of ten (a corollary of de Saxe's Rule of ten) that a person with rifle marksmanship skills can reach ten times further or hit things one-tenth as big as a person trained to equipment familiarity. Woodfill's exploit at Cunel has appeared in print several times in various places, and is as follows.[Note 2]
When his company began to cross the fields toward the village of Cunel and came under machine-gun fire, Woodfill detailed himself to stalk and take out the machine guns. His reach with a rifle was as long as that of a machine gun (except for indirect fire, of course), as with his neurophysiological control he could emulate the steadiness of a tripod. He lacked the noisy, inconspicuous visibility of a machine gun, and his aiming skills were superior to those of a machine gunner. His reach was considerable. Suffice to say, he could make the rifle hit as if it were locked in a vise. This would be shooting (on a very bad day) within a four-inch circle at 200 yards, or shooting within a cone of probability with a diameter of two minutes of arc. Woodfill saw several machine gun sites. He began with the church tower, where little flashes could be seen in the belfry, around 300-plus yards away. He aimed behind the flash, where the gunner would sit, and very carefully and slowly put a clip of five rounds into that spot, timing successive shots to meet the four replacement gunners. The gun was silent. The stealth characteristics of rifle marksmanship do not reveal the nature of the threat to succeeding gunners who are new viewers to the scene.
To the left of the church, bright muzzle flashes were seen from the loft inside a stable. Only one shot silenced this machine gun. (Was it one of those slimmed-down Spandaus?) In stalking the third machine gun he had seen, he suffered mustard gas poisoning in a shell hole, but continued. He took cover behind a pile of gravel in a ditch, sighting on a machine-gun muzzle poking through a clump of foliage about 40 yards away (this distance is in dispute), and laid out his Ml9l I pistol. Through his stinging eyes, he finally saw a face and fired. He finished his five-round clip on four succeeding faces. A sixth crew member tried to escape and was shot with the pistol (the rifle was empty) through the head -- a moving target at more than 40 yards distance, Inspecting the site, he shot a seventh crew member with a pistol when attacked. Shortly thereafter, one of his runners pointed out camouflage in a tree and Woodfill potted a German sniper before he could fire. Advancing through the Bois de la Pultiere. After Cunel, he spotted another machine gun crew. and five more rounds resulted in five more head shots. Three ammunition carriers then wisely surrendered.
A few minutes later he spotted a fifth machine gun with a crew of five, and serviced them also with five more rounds. Then he had to jump into a trench occupied by two Germans. The first took a .45 bullet from the M191 1, which then jammed. A pick was used on the second German, and then on the first who was shooting his Luger instead of concentrating on his stomach wound. Later, reporting to battalion, Woodfill said, "I got a few." He had eliminated five machine guns by shooting 21 crew members with 21 rounds [Note 3], three pistol rounds, and the application of a digging implement, suffering no injury from the enemy in the process. His performance was in excess of what one would expect because of the Hermann Phenomenon ("individuals with rifle marksmanship skills average one and a half shots per hit in live-fire"). Comparing this with the citation, we find the long-range shooting at the belfry and the stable is missing, and there is no inkling of the 40-yard head shot on the moving target. The text suggests he was leading attacks and charges to close with the enemy, such as to within grenade range, when instead he was in front, alone, stalking to acquire line of sight. Conspicuous daring by charging another machine gun position, killing five men in one machine gun pit with his rifle." This should read, "Conspicuous daring by stalking another machine gun position, then in plain sight of the machine gun killing five successive machine-gunners with five rifle shots to the head."
Woodfill astonishes those knowledgeable about rifle marksmanship with his successful stalking and his very accurate shooting, especially with his coolness in taking out the first gunners on every machine gun. It is one thing to carry out calm deliberation of a shooting range, and quite another when the Spandau is swiveling in your face. To those whose rifle knowledge is limited to equipment familiarity or the supervision of the acquisition of same, his actions must have seemed magical in view of the usual cost of taking out a machine gun nest. (In Belleau Wood was the average cost one death or two?) The garbled and misleading citation results from profound ignorance of rifle marksmanship on the part of the vast majority of force managers. This continues through the present time.
Lt. Woodfill went on to be promoted to Captain, and emerged as the most decorated US soldier of World War I, according to Wikipedia, with "the Medal of Honor (presented by General Pershing), the French Croix de Guerre with palm, and made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Italy's Meriot di Guerra, and the Cross of Prince Danilo, First Class".
Being enlisted for the duration of hostilities only, he lost his commission when he was released from service in 1919. He re-enlisted as a non-commissioned officer, rising to the rank of Sergeant before again leaving the Army in 1923. He farmed for many years, and along with Sergeant York, was commissioned as a Major in the Army during World War II. He died on his farm in Indiana in 1951.
A marksman and a hero in the true sense of the word. Would that we had more like him today!
The video clip below demonstrates very graphically how dangerous a ricochet from an improperly erected or inadequate backstop can be to the shooter.
(WARNING - language alert!)
Looking at the video, I can see a couple of potential problems. First, the backstop is very steeply sloped. Ideally a backstop should be more gradually sloped, offering a greater angle to the ground to redirect ricochets. Second, it's very dark soil. I don't know what type of soil was used, but a sandy, softer soil is always better than a thicker, harder soil - and it goes without saying (or it should!) that there should be no stones or rocks in the soil, as these are ricochets looking for a place to happen!
Another factor is to check with the range staff how long it's been since the backstop was sieved for old bullets. I've been on ranges where this hasn't been done for a long time, and the backstops are simply full of old bullets. Guess what? If your bullet hits one of them at just the right angle, it can ricochet off it just as it would off a rock.
You'll notice in the slow-motion replay that there's a puff of dust ahead of the shooter just before the bullet strikes him. Obviously, his shot bounced off the backstop (or something in it), hit the ground, and then ricocheted upwards into his head. He's amazingly fortunate that it didn't hit an inch or two lower. That would almost certainly have killed him.
This is also why you should not shoot at targets, or target frames or posts, made of steel - at least, not with high-power rifle rounds. Handguns, which have much lower energy, can often be safely fired at such targets from a safe distance. However, rifle rounds pack far more energy (typically four to eight times as much, or even more, than a typical handgun round), and all that energy has to go somewhere! In this case, it expended itself in a ricochet that nearly went into the shooter's head!
Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20.
This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.
The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50!
However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.”
The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.
Then they never saw the man nor his assistant ever again, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.
An article in the Daily Mail led me to the Web site of Wally Pacholka. He specializes in taking photographs of well-known American landscapes at night, highlighting the stars. I'm amazed! He has some spectacularly beautiful prints available. Here's a small selection. Click the pictures for a larger view - they're worth it.
False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park, Utah:
The America Southwest is home to thousands of caves that were once home for millenniums of various Indian cliff dwellers. Few are as hauntingly beautiful as "False Kiva", given it's name for the round stone circle that normally would have a room below, but in this case does not. This hidden cave sits half way down a mesa cliff and has a stunning "room with a view" of the Monument Valley like rock formations in Canyonlands National Park in eastern Utah. One can only imagine the thousands of times individuals through the ages saw this same view of Jupiter and the Milky Way parade across the heavens from their very own back yard.
Martian Moonrise:
The moon rises brightly through Arch Rock with Mars captured in the top right corner in The Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
Comet Hale-Bopp Over Joshua Tree:
Comet Hale Bopp Trails across the sky over Joshua Tree National Park, California.
Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite National Park, with Sirius:
Grand Tetons National Park at night:
I'm going to look through the many pictures on his Web site at my leisure over the next couple of days. I think a couple of 16"x20" prints are in my future, to be framed and hung on my newly-painted walls. (And no, I don't get any commission or free prints for recommending him - he's never heard of me. I just like his work.)
A Rhode Island man faces charges after the cigarette he was smoking inside a car apparently ignited fireworks.
Police arrested the 28-year-old Sunday after an officer found a sedan smoking in the middle of the street. Firefighters were called to extinguish the blaze. No one was injured.
The man told police he was smoking a cigarette in the car when fireworks near his feet ignited. Witnesses told police they saw a passenger tossing fireworks out shortly before police arrived.
Why one would drive with fireworks at one's feet is more than I can figure out!
A Swedish teenager has been charged for starting a fire after dropping a burning letter of unrequited love near a wooded area in Gothenburg.
The 16-year-old told police he was out for a walk with his school class in the city’s Slottsskogen park when he received a letter in response to a previous overture he’d delivered to a female classmate, the Metro newspaper reports.
Upon reading the letter, the boy learned that the object of his desire didn’t share the same feelings for him as he did for her.
Heartbroken and enraged, the boy wanted to “get rid of” and “destroy” the letter as quickly as possible, he told police.
He set fire to the letter with a lighter he found in his pocket, but as the flames began to burn the tips of his fingers, the boy dropped the flaming message into a patch of dry grass, which quickly ignited.
Despite the boy’s vain attempts to extinguish it, the fire quickly spread, eventually consuming 2000 square metres of trees and bushes.
Six firefighters were eventually able to contain the blaze, which also caused the nearby children’s zoo to shut down.
A burn ban had been in place at the time due as a lack of rain had led to extremely dry conditions.
The boy expressed his regret over the incident to the court, but must nevertheless face charges of reckless endangerment of the public for his role in starting the fire.
Police said a man was arrested after he used a cigarette lighter while trying to siphon gasoline from a van. The man, who was visiting friends, went to drive home early Saturday but realized that he didn't have enough gas in his SUV.
Police said the man tried to siphon the gas with help from another woman, but he couldn't see how much gas was in the container, so he used the lighter to check.
A blast of fire burned his hands and caused nearby residents to call police.
Police said he and the woman were located later in a store parking lot. He was arrested for theft and negligent use of burning materials.
The woman was referred to authorities for being party to theft. Formal charges haven't been filed.
Checking the gasoline level with a cigarette lighter . . . how dumb can you get???
Those are our pyrotechnic Doofi for the night. Never fear - there are plenty more Doofi to keep this regular feature going. All we have to do is keep our eyes open for them!
As a shooter, I'm aware of the history of the development of modern firearms. Samuel Colt developed the first modern revolver, producing his 'Paterson' model in 1836.
Some Patersons were bought by the Texas Rangers, but Major Samuel Walker wanted something more. He found the .36-inch caliber of the Patersons inadequate as a "stopper", and also wanted a sixth round. He's said to have made a special trip to New York to meet with Sam Colt, explain his ideas to him, and get him to produce the pistol the Rangers wanted. The result was the Walker Colt.
This monster revolver was intended to be carried in holsters attached to a horse's saddle, not in a belt holster - it was far too bulky and heavy for that, weighing over 4½ pounds and measuring sixteen inches long! It was in .44-inch caliber, firing a .454-inch projectile propelled by a full 60 grains of blackpowder. This made it the most powerful handgun ever manufactured until the advent of the .357 Magnum cartridge in the 1930's.
Only 1,100 Walker Colts were made, just in time to be issued to the Texas Rangers and others for the Mexican-American War in 1847. Captain Walker was to lose his life in this conflict. The combat experience gained with the Walker Colt led Sam Colt to reduce its size and powder charge slightly, producing the Dragoon model of 1848, which in turn led to the .36-inch caliber Navy Colt of 1851, the .44-inch Army Colt of 1860 and the .36-inch Navy Colt of 1861 (a revision of the earlier 1851 model). These (and many copies of them, particularly illegal copies by Confederate gunsmiths and manufacturers such as the Dance Brothers of Texas) were the dominant handguns of the American Civil War.
These 'cap-and-ball' revolvers were only supplanted by the first centerfire cartridge revolvers, the Smith & Wesson No. 3 or 'Russian' model in 1870, and the world-famous Colt Single Action Army revolver, also known as the 'Peacemaker' or simply the 'Colt .45', in 1873. Even after these cartridge weapons appeared, blackpowder revolvers continued in widespread use, partly because there were so many of them, partly because the new handguns cost the equivalent of a month's pay for many people. It took over a decade before cartridge revolvers widely replaced their cap-and-ball predecessors.
RARE AND HISTORIC COLT WHITNEYVILLE-WALKER PISTOL “A COMPANY # 210” AND ORIGINAL FLASK ISSUED AT VERA CRUZ IN 1847 TO PRIVATE SAM WILSON (TEXAS RANGER), LATER OBTAINED BY BREVET MAJOR GENERAL JOHN REESE KENLY OF MARYLAND AND BELIEVED TO BE THE FINEST EXAMPLE OF A MARTIAL WALKER EXTANT.
(Click the pictures for a larger view.)
If only this gun could talk! It's been through the Mexican-American War of 1847 and who knows how many armed exchanges since! The stories it could tell . . .
Readers who are familiar only with modern cartridge-loaded firearms may not understand why Civil War cavalrymen often carried between four and six cap-and-ball revolvers on their saddles and persons. The reason was simple - the darn things took so long to reload! Here's a video of a modern replica Walker Colt (basically identical to the one just sold) being loaded and fired. It makes the process clear, and shows why cartridges were such a huge advance in firearms technology. The clip's about nine minutes long, but worth watching for those interested in such things.
I was reading up about pumpkins recently, trying to understand why they're associated with Halloween (a season not celebrated in South Africa, where I grew up), and learn more about them. What intrigued me were all the things people use them for - not just as food, or for carving lanterns and gargoyles.
Rich "JR" Hildebrandt is always looking for ways to raise money for the Tri-City Children's Dream Foundation Inc., a Nekoosa organization that grants dreams to children with special needs.
His latest venture is to paddle an 800-pound pumpkin down the Wisconsin River from Nekoosa to Prairie du Chien. He started his trip Monday and will go through the Portage area this week.
Along the way, Hildebrandt said he hopes people will donate to raise funds for a new project for the foundation. The trip works out to be about 150 miles, which he figures will take about eight days. He has eight stops along the way, and he said he hopes people seeing the pumpkin or hearing about the trip will make donations to the group at each stop.
At 8 a.m. Thursday, the pumpkin will leave River's Edge Resort in Wisconsin Dells to set out for the Portage area and then to Hooker's Resort near Poynette. He will stay overnight there.
The Tri-City Children's Dream Foundation has sent special children to Walt Disney World and to NASCAR races. Hildebrandt and the foundation's board of directors now want to expand to build a special children's dream retreat, a place where the children and families can go to get away from the day-to-day routine and enjoy family time together, but not have to worry about any cost. The projected cost of the retreat is about $1 million.
Apparently Mr. Hildebrandt has hollowed out his giant pumpkin sufficiently to contain a propane heater, because it's cold on the river at this time of year. No word on whether this results in his sailing along in a slowly cooking pumpkin pie!
Best of luck to you, Mr. Hildebrandt!
Reading further, I was fascinated to find that pumpkin racing is a widespread sport. Here's a CNN report providing more information:
And here's a demonstration of how tricky it can be (not to mention downright competitive!):
Finally, some maniacs enthusiasts even put outboard motors on the darn things!
To each his own . . . but I think I'll stick to regular boats, thank you very much, and buy pumpkins for internal rather than external use!
Being in the midst of renovations, I've been browsing online to find bits and pieces I need to improve my home. One such search led me to an intriguing article about the 'Vertebrae' bathroom fitting gizmo.
It looks like an art installation inspired by a hi-tech corkscrew or Swiss army penknife.
But this is no ornament or sculpture. It is, in fact, the world's first fold-up vertical bathroom.
Called the Vertebrae, it stacks a toilet, sink, water cistern and two showers into one 8ft-tall steel column.
It has a price tag of £9,000 [about US $15,500] and is aimed at space-conscious householders who struggle to fit a traditional shower, sink and toilet into their bathroom space.
The Vertebrae is the brainchild of award-winning designer Paul Hernon, of Huddersfield, who created it with small apartments in mind.
He said: 'I did lots of research and it became obvious to me that bathroom space was decreasing, particularly in apartments.
'I have created an intriguing but functional and simplistic space-saving bathroom by stacking the contents of a bathroom on top of one another.
'It's designed to utilise vertical space instead of horizontal floor space. It is quick to assemble and easy to maintain - all you need is a wet room to put it in.
'I think it pushes the boundariesof anything that has been done before. People who have seen it are completely blown away.'
The two showers - one for adults and one for children - both rotate 180 degrees while the other units all rotate a full 360 degrees.
They all twist around a steel column which contains all the piping, and each part simply pushes out when it is required.
Mr Hernon, 38, said his creation could fit into a smaller space than a traditional bathroom, meaning architects could design smaller bathrooms and free up more space for other rooms.
But he warned that the Vertebrae - named after the human spine - weighs 150 kilos, or more than 23 stone [330 pounds], and that householders might have to reinforce their bathroom floor before fitting it.
The Vertebrae is expected to go on sale in the new year. Bespoke versions will be available with shaving mirrors, lights and other additions.
I can see the utility of this design, particularly in small modern 'convenience' apartments. However, there's one potential snag.
Have you ever used a Swiss Army knife? Ever had the blade (or implement) snap back into the handle unexpectedly, because you hadn't locked it open properly? Ever cut your fingers as a result? I certainly have.
Well, if this 'Swiss Army bathroom' suffers from the same problem - what's to prevent the partly-opened loo from retracting itself unexpectedly, ejecting you at high speed from the 'throne' and precipitating you through the door, screaming loudly?
Our Doofus today is a Swedish doctor, who clearly didn't listen during Anatomy 101.
A Swedish woman was supposed to have her appendix removed, but when the operation was completed she discovered surgeons had instead removed one of her ovaries and a Fallopian tube.
It was back in October 2007 when the woman from Ångermanland in northern Sweden suffered from the medical mishap.
The incident is now being reported by the county hospital in Sundsvall-Härnösand to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), as stipulated by Sweden’s Lex Maria rules governing medical accidents.
The Västernorrland County Council, which manages the hospital, said in a statement that the operation’s complexity may have contributed to the mistake.
An appendix removal, complex? Oh, come on! This has to be one of the commonest, most frequent surgeries encountered in hospitals anywhere in the world! It's been performed by military field medics in the bush, using a fighting knife! It's certainly one of the best-understood surgical procedures in existence.
Come to think of it, I had an emergency appendectomy a couple of decades ago. I'm glad it wasn't at this hospital. With my luck, since I don't have any of my own, they'd have implanted an ovary and Fallopian tubes in me, just for fun!
I'vewrittenseveraltimesbefore about the looming crisis in Mexico, with crime spiraling out of control and the Government there seemingly powerless to do anything about it.
Today, we learn that Phoenix, AZ is becoming the "kidnap capital" of the USA, with criminals abducting other criminals - and their families - in an attempt to extort money. Innocent people are being caught up in the violence. Unsurprisingly, criminals from Mexico are involved on both sides.
The criminal underworld in the sun-baked Arizona capital of Phoenix has long enjoyed the hot money profits from illicit smuggling of drugs and people over the border from Mexico.
But now its members are living in fear as they are stalked by kidnappers after their proceeds, authorities say.
Police in the desert city say specialized kidnap rings are snatching suspected criminals and their families from their homes, running them off the roads and even grabbing them at shopping malls in a spiraling spate of abductions.
"Phoenix is ground zero for illegal narcotics smuggling and illegal human smuggling in the United States," said Phil Roberts, a Phoenix Police Department detective.
"There's a lot of illegal cash out there in the valley, and a lot of people want to get their hands on it."
Last year alone, Phoenix police reported 357 extortion-related abductions -- up by nearly half from 2005 -- targeting individuals with ties to Mexican smuggling rings.
In addition, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement police have also recorded cases of kidnappers snatching illegal immigrant day laborers off the street for ransom.
Agents have also recorded a growing number of "virtual kidnappings," in which abductors cold-call an immigrant's family falsely claiming that they are holding them hostage. The tactic is used frequently Mexico, where abduction is a lucrative and sophisticated industry.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are smuggled through Arizona from Mexico, most heading on to join relatives living and working in the shadows in towns and cities across the United States.
The desert state also straddles a furiously trafficked corridor for drugs, especially marijuana, more than 400 tons of which were seized last year by the U.S. Border Patrol alone. Profits from the two crimes amount to billions of dollars.
Police say the kidnappers are most often Mexican criminals, sometimes helped by local street gangs in Phoenix. They single out cash-flush targets from among the drug traffickers and "coyotes" -- as human smugglers are known -- in the criminal community.
Cell members may trail identified targets for a couple of days, looking for the moment to pounce. Others may be asking around, looking for likely victims, often big spenders "who throw their money around" in bars and clubs, Roberts said.
Aside from the smugglers themselves, victims have included their wives, girlfriends and even children. They are often held in darkened rooms where they are routinely beaten, tortured or sexually assaulted to extort a ransom that can range from $50,000 to $1 million.
. . .
In one recent kidnapping, a 14-year-old girl from south Phoenix was mistakenly picked up on the street by a gun-toting snatch squad looking for the daughter of a known drug dealer. The girl was subsequently released by her captors.
"She happened to be standing outside in front of the home ... they grabbed her in broad daylight ... threw her in the vehicle and took off," said Roberts.
"Here is the perfect example of a young girl who has nothing to do with this, her family has nothing to do with this, she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Again, I urge any of my readers who live in states bordering Mexico, or with large Hispanic populations, to be aware of the situation. Crime, violence and social destabilization are spreading north from the border. Things are going to get worse before they get better . . . if they ever get better.
Given our tough economic times, criminals will be widening their net in search of easier money. That makes all of us potential targets.
Apparently there's a new method to catch those who exceed the speed limit. Britain's about to introduce a new generation of speed cameras that can talk to one another over a network, track a car for up to 30 miles, and have a computer system automatically issue a summons if the car's average speed is greater than the authorized limit.
The devices stop motorists evading a ticket by braking suddenly before a camera and then speeding up immediately afterwards.
The new cameras could cover whole areas of cities or suburban housing estates, guarding any number of entry and exit points.
By ‘talking’ to each other down phone or internet lines, they calculate a car’s average speed – even if it makes a series of left and right turns down a variety of roads.
The cameras are already in use, but mainly on the motorways. They are now likely to appear on rural and urban roads.
Transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick yesterday told a road safety conference that the latest cameras would be a key weapon in the fight to reduce road casualties.
Supporters say they are ‘fairer’, have so far reduced casualties by 50 per cent and encourage a smoother traffic flow and safer, more consistent driving behaviour.
But critics say it is merely a new chapter in the Government’s war on motorists, who paid £106million in fines last year.
One system, costing £200,000 to £1million depending on the size of the area covered, could replace many fixed-point speed cameras.
The cameras photograph a number-plate as a vehicle enters the speed restriction zone, and then again when it leaves.
The system then calculates the car’s average speed between the two points.
If it is higher than the speed limit, the driver is automatically sent a fixed penalty fine.
Apparently the system has already been tested in Spain, and found to be satisfactory - by the authorities, anyway.
Personally, I'm getting fed up with red-light cameras, speed-trap cameras and all the other recording devices increasingly deployed by the authorities. They seem to me to be nothing more than revenue-enhancing devices, installed out of greed rather than any concern for road safety. Trouble is, people meekly accept them and tolerate the increasingly intrusive "surveillance society" that they represent. It's just another symptom of our government taking on "Big Brother" characteristics. Our e-mails, text messages and Internet activities are snooped on by law enforcement ("to watch for terrorists"); our vehicles are tracked, photographed, and (increasingly) monitored by factory-installed "black box" computers, so that our driving habits can be analyzed at the push of a button; and we can't get on an airplane or train or bus without being subject to official harassment, bureaucratic bungling and an infuriating amount of red tape.
If this is our "Brave New World", someone stop it - I want to get off!
A parent brought a dead bat to Stevensville Elementary School earlier this week, and now health officials are evaluating which students may need rabies shots.
Stevensville Superintendent Kent Kultgen says the woman brought the dead bat to school Monday morning and allowed kindergarten and fifth-grade students in her children’s classes to touch the dead animal.
While the risk of contracting the disease from the dead bad are extremely low, Ravalli County health officials are trying to determine who may have touched the animals’ mouth to decide who may need the month-long series of vaccines.
Rabies is a potentially fatal neurological virus that can be spread through saliva.
Kultgen says the school district’s insurance policy will cover the cost of the shots, which could be up to $800 per student.
According to ParentDish, the dead bat tested positive for rabies, and some 90 students are now receiving the course of injections - at a cost to the school's insurers of some $70,000!
Our second Doofus made a mistake of a considerably less dangerous nature - but nevertheless embarrassing.
A rare Egyptian jug, which just nine months ago was valued at £100, has sold for an astonishing £3.1 million.
The carved rock crystal 'ewer', which dates back to the Fatimid rulers of Cairo in the late 10th century, has been described as the 'Holy Grail' of Islamic art.
Experts at Christie's billed it as 'one of the rarest and most desirable works of art from the Islamic world'.
But back at Lawrences Auction House in Crewkerne, Somerset, there were no doubt a few red faces as the bidding spiralled. For in January this year one of their valuers estimated its worth at between £100 and £200 when they mistook it for a cheap French claret pitcher.
When bidding at that auction quickly soared to £220,000 the panic-stricken vendor realised its value may have been underestimated and pulled the plug on the sale.
Today it was back under the hammer at Christie's King Street auction rooms.
The slim-necked jug ewer is one of only seven of its kind known to exist in the world.
Decorated with elaborate engravings of cheetahs, it was made for the court of the Cairo-based Fatimid dynasty, which ruled across a swathe of the Middle East and North Africa between 908 and 1187 A.D.
Fatimid rulers conquered Egypt in 969 and renamed their new capital city Al-Qahira, which remains the Arabic name for Cairo.
Only six similar ewers are known to survive, including one in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. 'If it's genuine as they say it is, then it's a tremendous discovery,' said Anna Contadini, an Islamic art expert.
The new owner, who paid £3,177,250 for the jug, has not been identified.
I imagine the doofus - er, valuer - at Lawrences Auction House is rather red-faced about that! Still, I'm sure the seller is delighted. It's a nice jump from 'a cheap French claret pitcher' to 'the Holy Grail of Islamic art' - not to mention getting a price almost sixteen thousand times higher than the best estimate of the valuer!
I love the understated comment about the first auction. 'When bidding at that auction quickly soared to £220,000 the panic-stricken vendor realised its value may have been underestimated . . . ' No s***, Sherlock!
Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 8th, marks the 90th anniversary of one of the most celebrated feats of arms in US military history.
On October 8th, 1918, Corporal Alvin C. York of the 328th Infantry Regiment displayed the heroism which led to his being awarded the Medal of Honor.
His MOH citation reads:
After his platoon had suffered heavy casualties and 3 other noncommissioned officers had become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading 7 men, he charged with great daring a machinegun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat the machinegun nest was taken, together with 4 officers and 128 men and several guns.
However, this brief summary doesn't do justice to his feat. In his own words, written later that day in his diary:
"....there was 17 of us boys went around on the left flank to see if we couldn't put those guns out of action. So when we went around and fell in behind those guns, we first saw two Germans with Red Cross bands on their arms. So we asked them to stop and they did not. So one of the boys shot at them and they run back to our right. So we all run after them, and when we jumped across a little stream of water that was there, they was about 15 or 20 Germans jumped up and threw up their hands and said, 'Kame rad!' So the one in charge of us boys told us not to shoot; they was going to give up anyway. By this time some of the Germans from on the hill was shooting at us. Well, I was giving them the best I had, and by this time the Germans had got their machine guns turned around and fired on us. So they killed six and wounded three of us. So that just left 8, and then we got into it right by this time. So we had a hard battle for a little while, and I got hold of the German major and he told me if I wouldn't kill any more of them he would make them quit firing. So I told him all right if he would do it now. So he blew a little whistle and they quit shooting and come down and gave up. I had killed over 20 before the German major said he would make them give up. I covered him with my automatic and told him if he didn't make them stop firing I would take his head off next. And he knew I meant it. After he blew his whistle, all but one of them came off the hill with their hands up, and just before that one got to me he threw a little hand grenade which burst in the air in front of me. I had to touch him off. The rest surrendered without any more trouble. There were nearly a 100 of them. We had about 80 or 90 Germans there disarmed, and had another line of Germans to go through to get out. So I called for my men, and one of them answered from behind a big oak tree, and the others were on my right in the brush. So I said, 'Let's get these Germans out of here.' One of my men said, 'It is impossible.' So I said, 'No; let's get them out of here.' So when my man said that, the German major said, 'How many have you got?' And I said that, 'I have got plenty,' and pointed my pistol at him all the time. In this battle I was using a rifle and a .45 Colt automatic. So I lined the Germans up in a line of two's, and I got between the ones in front, and I had the German major before me. So I marched them straight into those other machine guns and I got them. So when I got back to my major's P.C. (post of command) I had 132 prisoners."
His superiors in the 82nd Division reported the following day:
"The part which Corporal York individually played in the attack is difficult to estimate. Practically unassisted he captured 132 Germans (three of whom were officers), took about thirty-five machine guns, and killed no less than twenty-five of the enemy, later found by others on the scene of York's extraordinary exploit. The story has been carefully checked in every possible detail from headquarters of this division and is entirely substantiated. Although York's statement tends to underestimate the desperate odds which he overcame, it has been decided to forward to higher authorities the account given in his own name. The success of this assault had a far-reaching effect in relieving the enemy pressure against American forces in the heart of the Argonne Forest."
In the thick of the fight was Lieutenant Paul Jürgen Vollmer. Vollmer, or 'Kuno', as his friends called him, was a highly decorated officer who had recently assumed command of the 120th Württemberg Landwehr Regiment’s 1st Battalion, most of whose soldiers were from Ulm (in the semiautonomous German state of Württemberg), where Vollmer had been the assistant postmaster before the war.
. . .
Suddenly, down the side of the far hill, a group of German soldiers came running to the command post yelling, "Die Amerikaner kommen!" Then, off to the right, Vollmer saw a group of 210th soldiers drop their weapons and yell, Kamerad, their hands high in the air. Bewildered, Vollmer drew his pistol and ordered them to pick up their weapons. Behind Vollmer came several Americans charging down the hill. Believing it was a large American attack, the 210th surrendered. Before Vollmer realized what had happened, a large American with a red mustache, broad features and a freckled face had captured him as well. That Yank, from the 82nd Division, was Corporal Alvin C. York.
. . .
As the 17 Americans busily gathered their 70-plus prisoners, the 4th and 6th companies of the 125th Württemberg Landwehr on Humser Hill saw what was happening below. They signaled to the captured Germans to lie down and then opened fire. The hail of bullets killed six and wounded three of their captors. Several prisoners were also killed by the machine-gunners, which caused the surviving captured men to wave their hands wildly in the air and yell, "Don’t shoot — there are Germans here!" Lieutenant Paul Adolph August Lipp, commander of the 6th Company, had his men aim more carefully. He brought up riflemen to join the machine-gunners in killing the Americans.
Of the eight American survivors, Corporal York was the only noncommissioned officer still standing. He worked his way partly up the slope where the German machine-gunners were. For the gunners to fire at York, they had to expose their heads above their positions. Whenever York saw a German helmet, he fired his .30-caliber rifle, hitting his target every time.
Vollmer, the nearest to York, was appalled to see 25 of his comrades fall victim to the Tennessean’s unerring marksmanship. At least three machine gun crews were killed in this manner, all while York, a devout Christian who did not want to kill any more than he had to, intermittently yelled at them to "Give up and come on down!" Meanwhile Lieutenant Endriss, seeing that Vollmer was in trouble, led a valiant charge against York. York used a hunting skill he learned when faced with a flock of turkeys. He knew that if the first soldier was shot, those behind would take cover. To prevent that, he fired his M1911 Colt .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, targeting the men from the back to the front. The last German he shot was Endriss, who fell to the ground screaming in agony. York later wrote in his diary that he had shot five German soldiers and an officer like wild turkeys with his pistol.
Vollmer was not sure how many Germans were killed in that assault, but knew it was a lot. Worse yet, his wounded friend Endriss needed help. In the middle of the fight, Vollmer, who had lived in Chicago before the war, stood up, walked over to York and yelled above the din of battle, "English?" York replied, "No, not English." Vollmer then inquired, "What?" "American," York answered. Vollmer exclaimed: "Good Lord! If you won’t shoot any more I will make them give up."
York told him to go ahead. Vollmer blew a whistle and yelled an order. Upon hearing Vollmer’s order, Lipp told his men on the hill above to drop their weapons and make their way down the hill to join the other prisoners.
York directed Vollmer to line up the Germans in a column and have them carry out the six wounded Americans. He then placed the German officers at the head of the formation, with Vollmer in the lead. York stood directly behind him, with the .45-caliber Colt pointed at the German’s back. Vollmer suggested that York take the men down a gully in front of Humser Hill to the left, which was still occupied by a large group of German soldiers. Sensing a trap, York took them instead down the road that skirted Hill 2 and led back to Castle Hill and Châtel Chéhéry.
Meanwhile, forward of York and the prisoners was Lieutenant Kübler and his platoon. He told his second in command, Warrant Officer Haegele, that things just don’t look right. Kübler ordered his men to follow him to the battalion command post. As they approached, he was surrounded by several of York’s men. Kübler and his platoon surrendered. Vollmer told them to drop their weapons and equipment belts.
Lieutenant Thoma, the 7th Bavarian commander, was not far off and heard Vollmer’s order to Kübler to surrender. Thoma ordered his men to follow him with fixed bayonets and yelled to the 100-plus German prisoners, "Don’t take off your belts!" Thoma’s men took a position near the road for a fight. York shoved his pistol in Vollmer’s back and demanded that he order Thoma to surrender.
Vollmer cried out, "You must surrender!" Thoma insisted that he would not. "It is useless," Vollmer said. "We are surrounded." Thoma then said, "I will do so on your responsibility!" Vollmer replied that he would take all responsibility. With that, Thoma and his group, which included elements of the 2nd Machine Gun Company, dropped their weapons and belts and joined the prisoners.
As the large formation crossed the valley, York’s battalion adjutant, Lieutenant Joseph A. Woods, saw the group of men and, believing that it was a German counterattack, gathered as many soldiers as he could for a fight. After a closer look, however, he realized that the Germans were unarmed. York, at the head of the formation, saluted and said, "Corporal York reports with prisoners, sir."
"How many prisoners have you, Corporal?"
"Honest, Lieutenant," York replied, "I don’t know." Woods, who must have been stunned but kept his composure, ordered, "Take them back to Châtel Chéhéry, and I will count them as they go by."
His count: 132 Germans.
. . .
In 1929 Vollmer was asked to provide a statement about the events of October 8, 1918, to the German Archives in Potsdam, which he did not want to do. After several formal requests, he arrived to answer questions. He was visibly uneasy about submitting a formal report. Vollmer insisted that there was a large group of Americans, not just York and his small squad. It must have seemed impossible that so few men could have captured so many highly trained German soldiers.
A hero indeed! Sergeant York refused all opportunities to enrich himself in the world of commerce by taking advantage of his reputation and his Medal of Honor, and returned to a farmer's life in Tennessee. He remained a modest man for the rest of his life, initially opposing US involvement in World War II, but later changing his opinions and working hard to support the war effort.
Sergeant York died in 1964.
Today, a simple plaque marks the spot in the Argonne Forest where he won his Medal of Honor.
There is a trail through the forest where modern admirers can retrace his steps, and those of his comrades and prisoners.
Every year the little town of Marino in the wine-making region of the Alban Hills south of Rome holds a festival to mark an historic event more than 400 years ago, celebrating the occasion by having sparkling white wine flow instead of water from the public fountain in the town square.
But this week the pipes from the local vineyard which supply the marble fountain during the event were hooked up instead to the domestic water supply for much of the town.
When mayor Adriano Palozzi, the parish priest and locals gathered round the fountain, with glasses at the ready for a drop of crisp dry white, they were left disappointed as the everyday water poured out.
But minutes later came the shout of 'Miracolo' from a house overlooking the square. The householder rushed out onto her balcony to reveal that wine was flowing from her kitchen tap.
Yesterday the event was the talk of the town as plumbers fixed the pipework.
One local named Anna said: 'I was in the kitchen ready to do the housework and filled up a bucket of water to mop the floor. But I noticed the smell - and realised it was white wine.
'I called my neighbours and they turned on their taps to find they had the wine too.
The word quickly spread and everyone filled up bottles and plastic containers with the wine.
'Everyone thought it was a miracle.'
Mayor Palozzi said: 'It was a surprise and completely unexpected - workmen are fixing the problem which obviously came about through a technical error.
'Many houses have been affected. People were calling it a miracle, but it wasn't, it was a mistake.
'I don't think it dampened the enthusiasm of people at the festival though, and everyone still had a good time.'
The Sagra dell Uva festival commemorates the return of admiral Marcantonio Colonna to his hometown of Marino following his victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571.
The town sent more than 250 sailors to the battle and the Sagra is celebrated every October to give thanks for their safe return.
Hmm. I wonder how many bathtubs were rapidly filled before the plumbers could correct the error? And how many townsfolk will wander around, growing increasingly smelly, but so happily soused that they won't notice a thing until the vino runs out?
The contractor had to remove the toilet in my bathroom, to allow his painters to get at the wall behind it. While removing it, he found that the floor was somewhat spongy, and investigated further. Turns out that the toilet had been incorrectly installed about eighteen months ago by the plumbers sent to do the job by Lowe's, from whom I bought it when the old one cracked. They hadn't sealed it to the pipe correctly: so the fiberboard top layer of the bathroom floor, beneath the vinyl, had been absorbing seepage all this time. Result - a nasty, foul-smelling mess!
I called Lowe's to complain, since it was their installation team that had put it in. The nice lady on the other end of the phone was very sympathetic, but she couldn't help me: their installation warranty's only for a year, so my complaint came too late. I remonstrated that I could hardly be expected to detect the problem, but that didn't sway her. I guess I'm going to have to absorb the increased costs myself.
A poor workman had to spend most of the afternoon carving away the sodden fiberboard and scraping the underlying floorboards clean. It's drying out overnight (fortunately the boards and joists seem OK). I'm running a heater in the bathroom to speed up the drying process, and we've scrubbed the floorboards thoroughly with disinfectant. Tomorrow the contractor will put down a new top layer of thick, dense plywood. After the walls are painted, he'll reinstall the toilet (this time properly sealed to the pipe!).
As an interim measure I've had to hire a Porta-Potty, which now stands in regal splendor beneath a tree outside my front door. I've just had the post-midnight pleasure of going outside to use it, complete with flashlight, shorts and slippers - only to be interrupted by a passing armadillo, curious about this new structure on its nightly path, and wanting to come inside to investigate! Believe me, it's a wonderful cure for constipation to have something snuffling and clawing at the door of your Porta-Potty at oh-dark-thirty! Fortunately, I was able to restrain myself, and didn't put a bullet hole through the door. That might have taken some explaining to the toilet hire company!
I suppose I should be grateful for the fire that led to this renovation project. If the contractor hadn't spotted this problem, I might have sat down on the 'throne' one day and disappeared through the floor! Fortunately, the damage has been caught in time to rectify it.
