My University of Phoenix Experience or The Ol' Fart Just Shakes His Head

Hello all. I hope that, those of you, that celebrate Thanksgiving Day had a pleasant day. Those of you that don't celebrate Thanksgiving I hope that you had a pleasant day also. For the two of us, in this household, that have been battling crude that has been going around, it was a day of laying around, watching TV and trying to get better. I finally went to the store and purchased  a bottle of vodka to see if that could get rid of this crap that I have had. Nothing else seemed to be working.
   On Tuesday evening I and my classmates finished the last class of HUM/186. The evening was, to say the least, enlightening, interesting and really illustrated to me how ignorant that some of the "whipper snappers" that attend class with me are. Let me give you an illustration. The subject of art (not Carney) came up in our discussion. Two of the brainyacks piped up and commented on how the arts really didn't have any value in our society at all. They went on to comment on how if a "fagot pussy" came up with some art form and how this "fagot pussy" was a "fagot pussy" really didn't have any rhyme or reason to be on the face of the earth and how these "fagot pussy's" and their art was irrelevant in the whole scheme of things. I sure was glad that I was in college at the moment. I have told you before that the Ol' fart is 61 years old. I have been around the block a couple of times but can anyone tell me what a "fagot pussy" is? Now I know that a "fagot" is a derogatory remark about a gay man and a "pussy" is either a kitty cat or a vulgar slang term about a certain area of a woman's anatomy. So what the hell is a "fagot pussy? A homosexual male cat? A gay man that has had a sex change? See what you all are missing by not being a Phoenix. I get to pay for this edumacation. Fear not it gets better as the evening rolled on. The one idiot, that shall remain anonymous, shortly after he declared his disdain for the arts, homosexuals and women got up and walked to the door and proclaimed he was dropping out of the UoP. Well thank God for small favors. One less moron that I have to listen to.
  In retrospect I should have spoke up but I didn't. For one thing I was in a state of shock that the instructor did not say anything to these homophobes but he may have been in a state of disbelief also. The class is around twenty people and at least half are women and not a peep from any of them. I am constantly reminded that I am attending a class of albeit only twenty something "whipper snappers" but I do find the level of homophobic rhetoric and disregard for women quite amazing. But I must keep this in perspective that the class is only twenty people and we are in New Mexico.
  The other jaw dropper that evening was a classmate whom I refer to as "knowitall". I anointed this classmate with this tittle because he knows it all (just ask him) and it kinda rhymes with his name. His brilliant comment was the "flowers don't have any value in our society". WHAT, could you please repeat that remark? I am old and my hearing ain't what it used to be. So the asinine remark is repeated. I shake my head. My question to him was "do you like to breath? Do you ever eat honey, tomatoes or strawberries? How about those jeans ya have on...where did they come from. Duh. His retort was that he was talking about flowers that you put in a vase and look at. Oh "so you have never received or given flowers to anyone to express gratitude, grief or joy"? I have told you about the "deer lookin' into the headlights" response that I get when I sometimes voice my opinion. His response was that I would need to take a psychology class to understand. My response was I didn't need to take a psychology class to understand that flowers do have a value in our society but that I may need to take a psychology class to understand his idiotic remark. About that time the teach changed the subject.
  I shake my head. I am constantly amazed at the level of disconnect with this group about our environment, our Constitutional rights, respect of women, homophobia and a lack of grasp of the English language. It will be interesting to observe if this changes as we progress in the University of Phoenix experience.

All for now.

I wish you all the best of the holidays.

God be with you and yours.

Until we meet again.

Happy Trails

Duane

Collectibles I Have Found or I Got Out Of The House And Found Some Stuff

I found some more interesting antiques and collectibles, the other day, that I would like to share with you. all of these items are listed for sale in my eBay store.



Dere Mable Love Letters From A Rookie

This WWI book contains illustrations and humoures, unabridged letters from the war front back home to Mable. The interesting thing that I found about this book is that it has an ownership inscription, on the inside cover, with the owners name, including his battalion and company that he was with. 

 

Fifty Two Sunday Dinners

A cookbook printed in 1913 and compiled by Elizabeth O. Hiller. The book has recipes and cooking hints from that time but was also promoting "Cottolene" as a substitute for butter and lard. The cookbook has endorsements of Cottolene from cooking experts and eminent physicians.

Vintage Battery Operated Marx Bengal Tiger

This is a hard to find collectible. The Marx battery operated toy was produced in the late 1950's or early 1960's. The made in Japan toy was a must have for many kids of that era. For a full description and price click on the link and it will take you to the eBay listing.

Vintage Happy Santa Battery Operated Toy

This is a very hard to find vintage battery operated toy from the 1960's. For a detailed description and price click on the link.

Antique Diamond Match Company Tin

Antique Diamond Match Company Tin

This tin is a very rare find. The tin box was produced in the late 1800's to the early 1900's. For a full detailed description and additional photos click on the link above.

That is all I have found of late. I wish you all the best of the holiday season.

Until we meet again

Happy Trails

Duane

The Learning Team Experience or The Ol' Farts Edumacation at the UoP

I have touched on the University of Phoenix's socialist concept of the "learning team" to further our edumacation at the UoP. I r a Phoenix. I have also stated that we are in HUM/186 with Mr. Kolander "Sonny" as the instructor. I again reiterate that 'Sonny" do make it at least interesting. In all seriousness he is a very good teacher. If he is reading this I am not stating this because I am "brown nosing". I am old enough to know where my nose has to go in order for it to turn brown. So JK take it as a compliment and realize that I don't hand them out very often.
  My learning team "Learning Team E" the E stands for excellence is made up of myself, the old and wizened one, and three 'grasshoppers". Actually they are all good young folk that desire to learn and excel. The team members consist of Evan, an ex Marine and Irag veteran, Jerrad an unemployed banker and the vivacious Clarie a hard working single mom. Evan is 24, Jerrad is 27 and Clarie is old enough to know better. You know that a guy isn't supposed to ask a gal her age so I am guessing thirty something. One thing about the socialist learning team concept is that we all have a life and schedules don't always match up. I have to write my blog and list on eBay, root around looking for crap, excuse me antiques and collectibles, Evan is a disabled vet and stays home and takes care of his new little baby while his wife is off to work, Jerrad is, ya know I don't know what Jerrad does and Clarie works full time and keeps her hands full with a 9 and 11 year old. So you see we are varied people with varied lives. So this schedule thing can get complicated but because the team prescribes to being academic professionals, and we have a team charter to prove it, we seem to be able to work thing out.
 So that gives you a little background on the particulars in our learning team. This weeks assignment is to take a position of the ethics and legalities of online content. Which in my intital research is a pretty big deal in the online world. This issue includes copyright infringement, first amendment rights and monetizing through using other peoples work and so on and so forth.
  As the story goes working the schedule thing out got a little complicated but through some extra effort on Jerrad and myself we were able to work through it. What the team was going to present was how online blogs are a part of this society's daily routine in receiving news, how these news aggregators have had a tremendous impact on the traditional news sources, namely newspapers, how this translates into violations or skirting of copyright and the use of intellectual property, defining copyright laws and how they relate to the digital world, how host sites protect themselves from user content and how the laws can affect people like me that are bloggers and how this all affects our first amendment rights. Quite a mouthful to be able to present within a 12 to 15 minute period huh?
 You need to keep in mind that I haven't ever made a presentation like this and it has been awhile since I was in front of a group of people and made some kind of speech. I have had a little Toastmaster experience and I am full of bull shit so I usually don't have a problem communicating my thought. I was able to research this issue and came across a dot org site that had a wealth of information about online news blogs. I also found some information about copyright laws, terms of service agreements and an article on how blogger's can protect their first amendment rights and avoid penalties and pitfalls from what they blog and the content in which they use.
  Jerrad and I met on Saturday evening and discussed out approach and divided up the assignment between the members. I was to do the intro and give some background on news aggregators, Evan was to compile some information about copyright laws, Jerrad was to give examples of terms of service agreements and Claire was to present information about the penalties associated with user content and how to preserve your first amendment rights as a blogger. The team met on Monday evening, at the University, to prepare for our presentation at the Tuesday evening class. Now keep in mind that this is a power point presentation, which I know nothing about, but fortunately some of my team mates do. Our power point presentation included animation, graphics and bullet points as we all made our presentations. I thought it turned out pretty cool. The team practiced our various assignments. We even discussed how the presentation should flow even down to oral cues for the next speaker and to the point of where we were to stand and how we were able to not cross paths as the next speaker came forward. My point is that the team did put a great deal of effort into this presentation.
  So last night (Tuesday Nov. 16th 2010) we went to class to make our presentation. This presentation is of course graded and critiqued by our instructor (Sonny) on several different facets. We were to be graded not only on the subject but also presentation which included how we were dressed. Which meant slacks, dress shoes and ties. I had to dig deep in my closet to find a tie but I was able to access the appropriate attire to make this presentation. I must say even at 61 I clean up well. The entire team was decked out for the occasion. I reminded Clarie about how lucky she was to be associated with such handsome men. Of course she agreed.
  Our class has four learning teams so there was to be four different presentations. After each presentation the instructor escorted us out into the hall and gave us his analysis of our performance. My learning team took the occasion to be the first to make our presentation. Which in hind sight I am glad we did, because in my opinion, we set the bar for the rest of the evening. I went first, followed by Evan, Jerrad and Clarie. I was a little nervous but I had taken the time to memorize my portion of the presentation. We all did very well and the presentation went off without a hitch. When were were through we followed the instructor into the hall to give us his evaluation. Other than some very helpful suggestions his critique was that we did very well and we received high praise from JK. His inspiration only encouraged us to do even better next time which will probably be fairly soon.
 The advantage of having the first presentation was that we got to sit back and watch the rest of them. Learning team E had set the bar and it was my impression that one team came close but the other teams walked under the bar that we had set. It was obvious of who put effort into their presentation and who did not. Of course these other teams don't have the advantage of having the "wizened Ol' fart" on their team. Some of my teammates refer to me as "an over achiever". So be it. We did hit a home run last night. Nest time we will be looking for the shut out. But I guess that is why we all are in college and receiving our edumacation at the University of Phoenix. I r a Phoenix.
  Well that's 'bout it. I hope that you found it interesting. There will be more.

Until we meet again

Happy Trails

Duane

 
 

Platt & Munk Animal Friends & Farm Animal Vintage Jigsaw Puzzles

You now me, well some of you are getting to know me. At least know me on this blog. Because I am the grouchy ol' fart, people person that I am this is probably about as close as you want to get. I want to share a "find" with you that I thought was kinda interesting and artistic. Now these items that I am going to share with you were made at a time when art was appreciated and children were kept entertained with doing something. Like putting a jigsaw puzzle together instead of spending countless untold hours in front of the mindless television or playing some sort of shoot 'em up video game. Which in itself is interesting due to the fact that we are discussing the subject of the effects of video games upon our society at the University of Phoenix. I will have an update of the outcome of that discussion in an upcoming post. Now back to the subject at hand.
 I came across a bunch of Platt and Munk children's jigsaw puzzles the other day. Like I have told you before I attempt to research most vintage items that I find to get a grasp on as much of the background of the subject as I can. That is one thing about the Internet is that it provides you with the ability to find out about "stuff" at the click of a button. What I found is that Platt and Munk were publishers of children's books. One series of books that they published was "Animal Friends" and "Farm Animals". These books were delightful. colorful picture books depicting different animals and their young ones. These books were published back in the 1940's. The artist for these books was C. M. (Clara) Burd who was a renowned children's book illustrator. Today her work is highly sought after because of her talent to combine color, shading and graphics to various children's themes. Platt and Munk used the illustrations from these two books to manufacture a series of children's jigsaw puzzles. That is what I am showing you here. One interesting thing about these puzzles is that the center pieces created a different design or outline of a cat, duck, star or rooster. To me and you may find also is that for one thing they ain't makin' these anymore and they really are a unique American piece of art. I hope you enjoy looking at them.

Horses



Rabbits

Pigs

Sheep

Chickens

Cows

Donkeys

Turkeys

Goats

Dogs

Ducks

You can find these collectibles and many other items in my eBay store.

Until we meet again.

Happy Trails

Duane

Collectibles I Have Found or Duane Has Been Rootin' Round Again

Yep, I have been rootin' round again. Kinda like an old pig snortin' round the trough. I have my favorite spots here in Albuquerque that I go in search of various "stuff" to peddle on eBay. Sometimes I am able to find some good stuff and other times all I find is a bunch of Ka Ka. Do you notice how much I have cleaned up my language since I started to get my edumacation? So when I decide to wander outside of the compound and endure the crazy ass drivers here in Albquirky I usually head to two or three spots where I have some fairly good success. Some ask "do you go to yard sales" and my reply is "hell no". I know that there are good deals at yard sales but I hate driving all over Gods creation lookin' for crap. Oh er ah vintage collectibles and antiques. So I go to a couple of different flea markets or antique stores and look at the stuff that other people have picked up after driving all over God's creation to find. I take my pen and note pad and wander around the store jotting down information about various things to take back home and do a little research on why the dealer was asking ten prices. They know me at these stores now so they don't follow me around asking why I am writing stuff down in my trusty little note pad. One time I told a gal that I was an undercover cop and was investigation stolen items. "Oh my" was her astonished reply "we don't allow dealers to sell stolen merchandise here ". As I peered into her anguished face I said in my most authoritative voice as I looked at my note pad "we shall see Miss". Fortunately the owner of the store knows me and clued her in. Her panties were starting to wad up a bit. You know a guy has to have a little fun once in a while.



Solid Brass Lyre Shaped Stand

I found this beautiful brass bell stand. The lyre shaped stand is beautifully etched with a flower and leaf motif. The stand is about 17 inches tall and in very good condition.

Landers Frary & Clark Coffee Grinder

This Regal all metal coffee grinder is from all indications from the 1920's or early 1930's. This is back when this country made things that would last. That is why you find so much of this old crap ,er ah mumble mumble hurmph cough antiques and collectibles still around. The icons of industry at that time weren't a bunch of money grubbing, anti American bail out takiin' bastards. Manufactures at that time made things to last and had a concern about their customers. On unusual thing about this coffee grinder is the little tin receptacle cup. The handle fits into the little slot and catches just the right amount of coffee to make a pot. Most of the time the cups are long gone.

Vintage Swingspout Oil Can

Here is an moldy oldie. A vintage, probably from the 1950's, thump activated oil dispensing can. Remember back when gasoline was 25cents a gallon and the attendant had a tie on and a white cap that would run out to your car and wash your window, check the air in your tires, check the water and oil levels? Then when he was through filling up your tank he would hand you some green stamps or some other kind of promotional gift. After all of that you would thank him and hand him a five dollar bill for filling up your twenty five gallon tank and then you would roar off in your 17 foot Oldsmobile that had enough power to provide electricity for half of the town that you lived in.  Boy those days are dust huh? Well this oil can is from that era. Wonderfully used with the dents and corrosion to prove it.

Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Oil Can

One thing about living in Albquirky is that there is a significant amount of railroad memorabilia around. Albuquerque and really what made AAlbuquerque is that the city was a central hub for the Santa Fe rail lines. Even though parts of where the rail repair shop and other areas of the rail yard are now a Super Fund site the city of Albuquerque has transformed that area into an attractive urban renewal site. This old oil can, which has stamped on the bottom" ToSf" is from those old rail yards. Wonderfully patinaed the can is a reminder of days gone by here in New Mexico.



AT & SF Handlan Coal Oil Can

This is another remnant of that bustling area in the history of Albuquerque. This is a can manufactured by Handlan of St Louis. This can is a great collectible for the railroad enthusiast.

Well that is all I have to show you today. I did go look at some other junk, er ah humph cough mumble antiques and collectibles today. Yes I took my trusty little note pad with me and have researched some items so I will be contacting the seller tomorrow to start the negotiations. Just how much do you pay for these fine examples of Americana?

Well until we meet again.
Happy Trails

Duane

Assignment From University of Phoenix....Rock and Roll

I have talked to you about my experience of being an ol' fart and attending college with a bunch of "whipper snappers". We are all assigned to learning teams. This is a part of the so called learning process that the University of Phoenix has as part of their curriculum. The learning team concept is modeled after corrupt corporate America's team building concept. The concept is supposed to encourage leadership skills, communication skills, working as a team on projects and so on and so forth. Personally I think it looks good as a theory but in reality, well the reality is a different story. The one problem with the team concept is that it is made up of "people". In my view when you put different people with different attitudes, personal problems, different goals and values it is difficult to come together for a common goal. There are examples of teams of people that have come together, in sports, the corporate arena, volunteer events you name it, that have come together and been very successful. But it has been my experience, in life, having been involved in not only school but in politics, service organization and business associations that there are the "let's get it done crowd" and the "gosh isn't this fun to sit back and watch those other people do all the work and I get credit for it" crowd. But when your grade or employment depend upon the "team" to succeed the "let's get it going " crowd drag the rest of 'em along.
    I find it ironic or just plain disgusting that in our society today greedy corporate America and the greedy, corrupt icons of that industry that receive bailouts, perks, special consideration (like not going to prison) and tax benefits galore are the loudest to rail against some government policy (like health care) that is "undermining the free market system" and claim that it is "socialism" are the same ones that advocate the "team" concept which is about a socialist as it gets.
   Anyway as I climb off of my soap box I will continue on with the purpose of this article. My team "Learning Team E" and the rest of the learning teams have been assigned a team assignment to write a thesis statement and a corresponding supporting paragraph. The class we are currently in is discussing the different forms of media and how they affect our culture. We could chose from movies, television, music or books to illustrate our thesis statement. The supportive paragraph is to be at least 350 words. For me 350 words is a walk in the park but you should hear the moans and groans from some of the "whipper snappers". Of course they spend untold hours tweeting and texting and facebook and whatever the hell else they do but heaven forbid trying to think and put it down on paper. Hell they don't even have to put it down on paper it is all electronic with spell check, word count and we can submit our parers to "Write Check" for grammar and punctuation errors. The University of Phoenix also provides a "plagiarism check" because heaven forbid even though they promote socialism they certainly don't promote plagiarism. I wish that they would promote "hedonism" so it could be a little more interesting. Or how about this one "truthism", what a novel concept that would be. I see that I have climbed back up on my soapbox.
   Back to the learning team assignment. The "team" met on Monday (11-08) at the University's resource library. Well as it turns out we all three had some different approaches which is to be expected and in fact I encourage it. I always look at it as I am willing to justify my research and argue to support it so the "young 'uns" can too.  So after some deliberation we were able to come up with a convergence of ideas to be able to complete the team assignment. The basis of our thesis statement was how the liberal and graphic nature of rock and roll lyrics had an affect on the rising teen pregnancy rate of the 1970's and 1980's. Here is what we submitted.....

While other documented factors may of had an influence, because of the increased graphic lyrical content to rock n roll, our society experienced an increase in teen pregnancy.

In the early days of rock n roll the lyrics were highly censored, restricted and benign.  They focused mainly on schools, cars and “puppy love”.   As rock n roll changed and the lyrics became more graphic and less censored, the country saw a spike in the teen pregnancy rate. (Boonstra, H. 2008)  From a high in the 1950’s there was a downward trend before the 1970’s.  In the 70’s there was a dramatic spike leading into the 80’s.  Rock n Roll has historically had an influence on teen sexual activity.  With the introduction of more graphic lyrics and less censorship, this caused a spike in the teen pregnancies. ZZ Top, and their graphic lyrics of an oral sex act in “She wore a pearl necklace”, and Aerosmith’s reference to male genitalia in “The big ten inch” directly influences the sexual mindset of the listener.  In the 80’s there was Madonna with “Like a virgin” and Van Halen  “Hot for teacher” that depict more lewd and sexual acts upon the listener.  With the introduction of music videos in the 80’s, this allowed visual interpretation of graphic lyrics.  Not until 1985, through pressure of various parental organizations’ did the music labels provide warning for people under the age of 18. 

Well here it is the culmination of old and young. This is what I get to do in school. I must give credit to the other two authors of this statement and accompanying paragraph (Erdmann, E, & Luciana, J 2010).

So there you have it.

Oh by the way

Please buy something from my eBay store

I need the money to pay for this edumacation that i am getting.

Until we meet again

Happy Trails

Duane

More of My University of Phoenix Experience As I Get My Edumacation

Yes "I am a Phoenix". As a class we have moved on into Humanities. This class is taught by a gentleman by the name of (I don't usually name names in my blog but this time I am making an exception) of Jacob Kolander. Mr. Kolander's day job is as a high school teacher of English at a charter school here Albuquirky. The reason I brought up his name is that he at least makes this class interesting. I don't know what the UoP is paying Kolander (I am sure that they spared no expense the cheap bastards) but they are not paying him enough. In my humble opinion I would say that he is a credit to the teaching profession. If you ever read this Jacob, you get the big Phoenix bird thumbs up. Because I am a Phoenix and I gettin' my edumacation thar.
 I have explained to you in an earlier post that I have entered college at the ripe old age of 61. Last Tuesday evening the vast generational difference was illustrated between I and not only my classmates but the instructor as well. The teach, or who I fondly refer to as "Sonny" prescribed a short individual class assignment that evening. I must back track. In this class we are discussing the influence on our society (what's left of it) of the media. The media would of course include all of the different forms that we have had throughout this countries history up to today. Tuesday evening we discussed such interesting topics as the news media and its affect upon our society and we also got into talking about musics affect upon our culture. Hey all well and good and we actually had a half way stimulating conversation that evening. anyway back to the individual class assignment.
 Well Kolander who I so fondly refer to him as "Sonny"  ever since he informed me that I was seven years younger than his father. To which I replied "so what's your point Sonny?". So I did a little calculation and figured out that I am at least 20 years older than "Sonny". So the assignment was to research what the top rock and roll tunes were when we graduated from high school. I gradumatated from Coquille High School in Coquille, Oregon in June of 1967. Yes that is forty mumble mumble hurmph cough choke three friggin' years ago. You can see that since I am now a college student that I still use the "F" word but since I am getting edumacated I have cleaned it up some but I assure you that it still means the same. So I trotted off the the library resource center (a fancy term that the UoP uses to describe the commons where all of the computers are) to look up what songs were popular in the year of our Lord 1967 AD.
 Some of you may remember that the #1 song by the #1 group was "Penny Lane" by the Beatles. The flip side was "Strawberry Fields Forever". The #2 song that year was "Respect" by Aretha Franklyn and the #3 song was "Let's Spend The Night Together" by Mick and the gang. Those of you that were there (1967 not Coquille) can remember, well at least most of you can, those great tunes. So after I had so proudly obtained the information required of "Sonny" I limped back to class. Previously when I say I trotted up to the resource center well I was just being artistically descriptive.
 Since I am the oldest in the class ol' JK had me go first. I informed the class that in 1967 is when we actually had music. Of course when I say 1967 all I get is this blank deer starein' in the headlight look. Just to illustrate one of my classmates refers to his 1990 Mustang as a classic car. So I proceeded with my presentation reminding the class that this is when this country had real music instead of the crap that they call music today. I refereed to the Rolling Stones song and relayed to the class that I watched them on the Ed Sullivan Show when they first sang that song live in the United States. I told the story of how Ed Sullivan made the group change the tittle to "Let's Spend Some Time Together" so the song would not be so controversial. Again the deer starein' into the headlight look. I tell ya that the more that I am with these young people the more that I believe that they think that the world started when they were born.
 So to illustrate the vast generational difference the teach asked who was the next person that had graduated from high school. So after some tense moments of looking at each other and the teach counting down the decades one individual raised his hand and stated "1999". Yes that is right you can do the math.....32 years. My reaction was that there had been a hell of a lot of music going on in between. The last student to respond was 2004. Hell these kids just barely learned to wipe their ass.
 It is no wonder that when I get home from school on Tuesday evening that i feel so old. My learning team has an assignment next week to come up with a thesis statement on how rock and roll has had an effect upon our culture other than for entertainment value. All I can say is my teammates are lucky to have such a resource as I to help them out with that assignment. Like I have mentioned to them "hey sex, drugs and rock and roll what more information do you need".
 Well that is my little adventure from the University of Phoenix. I is a Phoenix. Hey did you notice that there are no links to my eBay store. How 'bout that huh?

 Until we meet again

Happy Trails

Duane

The Transformation of A Vintage Chair or the Combination of Cultures

Howdy. In the furniture upholstery business and particularly if you are dealing with an upholster that is at the master craftsman level you can think "out of the box" with how you want to recover the chair. In the thirty plus years that I have been in the upholstery business I have found no "rule book" that says that you have to recover your own furniture in a certain fabric, to make it look a certain way or to stay within the realms of the style and age of the furniture. Today "the sky is the limit" and I say if you want to take an antique or vintage piece of furniture and make it look southwest or southeast or north or south. Hey more power to you. As a craftsman I rather enjoy doing this kind of work.

A customer in Santa Fe contacted me to just that with her chair. The chair is in wonderful condition and the fabric (actually a blanket) had vibrant colors and geometric design that are fairly typical of a southwest fabric. According to my customer, who is an antique art and pottery dealer, she purchased this chair in France. It is a large, high back arm chair with heavy wood carvings. When I first saw the chair I was thinking along the lines of a Rococo style of furniture. But after looking at it further you can defiantly see the French influence. The chair also has a hint or look of a Spanish influence. So let's call it an international influence.

Upon closer inspection, of the chair, I determined that it was a manufactured reproduction and its vintage probably was around the late 1940's or early 1950's. When I remove the back fabric I found the original fabric underneath. That is how I determined the age of the chair.

The chair was in very good condition with the hand tied spring system nice and tight and the wood just needed a little polishing to bring out the character of the grain and the detail of the carvings.

This is the fabric that my customer provided. Like I said it is a chenille throw but it is colorful with great southwest motif. After I took the seat fabric off I found that the springs were covered with a layer of horsehair and a very thin layer of polyurethane which I believe was added when it was last upholstered. I retained all of that padding and added a thin layer of cotton batting over the top.

Once the seat cushion cover was expertly applied I then had to apply the numerous decorative tacks (over 600) to the chair. The tacks are nailed in one at a time with my trusty little tack hammer. It is a "pain in the ass" process especially with this chair being made with such hard wood. I probably threw away about 100 tacks because they didn't go in straight. But the effect is dramatic.

So the next step was to remove the fabric from the back and apply the new fabric and place the decorative tacks. When I finished with the back I applied a little "Mar-A-way" to the wood. This product, which I have been using for years" doesn't remove the finish but removes dirt, old polish and covers up little nicks and scratches.

This chair is not for sale but I do have a few pieces in my eBay store that are for sale. Check 'em out.

Well, that's about it for now. After last nights election I have to go learn how to make "tea". But I will never drink the "tea" (or  kool-aid) like so many Americans did last night.

Until next time

Happy Trails

Duane







The Passing of Maurice Lucas NBA Portland Trailblazer

One great thing about having a blog is that you can express yourself and it at times reaches the world. As I got up this morning (which is usually about 5:00 A.M. MDT) I read that Maurice Lucas had lost his battle with cancer. I never meet the man but I was living in Portland, Oregon at the time that the Trailblazers won the NBA championship. What a time that was. I would attend a Blazer game on occasion but that year you couldn't get even close to getting a ticket to the Memorial Coliseum. So when the Trailblazers started the playoffs television was blacked out in Portland and you would have to listen to the game on the radio. That team had that town buzzing.

During the games a bunch of us would get together and sit around a radio, drink beer, eat junk food and listen to Bill Schonely artfully describe the game. "Rip City" was on every one's mind. That was the year of Bill Walton, Bobby Gross, Terry Porter and there are others that I can't remember right off of the top of my head. then of course there was Maurice Lucas. How can anyone forget the plaid outfits that there coach, Jack Ramsey, wore. Of course in 1977 everybody was stylin'. It was a memorable and exciting time that I was fortunate to have been able to witness. Who can ever forget the non-fight that he and Darryl Dawkins got into. There was some dance moves goin' on there. If either one of them would have landed a punch there would have been a homicide investigation.

That Trailblazer team was beloved by nearly everyone in Portland. Unlike the more recent teams which seem to have been comprised by a bunch of thugs who have been referred to as the "Jailblazers". Of course I don't keep up with the Trailblazers today. That group of men were highly respected and were an active and contributing part of the Portland community. Maurice Lucas was a large part of that.

It is always difficult when you see a sports hero pass. Especially one that is younger than you. But they are only mortal men. I just wanted to take this venue to recognize his passing. Maurice is no longer shackled by the ravages of his illness and has gone on to that hard court in the sky. I also would extend my sympathies to any of Maurice's friends or family. I am sure that they will have a deep sense of loss.

Maurice Lucas

R.I.P.

How To Cut-Up A Pork Butt And Make Country Style Spareribs & Save $$$

Hello All. Thank you for reading my posts I do hope that they are of interest to you. any comments please feel free to leave them. I have control of the delete button. As I have told you in past postings that when I was younger I was a meat cutter. I started working in a small meat department in Coquille, Oregon when I was a junior in high school. I started out as a clean up boy going in after school and working until the store closed at 9:00 pm. It was a great experience. I learned fast and I was fortunate to work for the meat manager who was a good teacher. This is in the day when meat departments received full quarters of beef. This would be back in the late 1960's say around 1966. At that time there was talk of cry-o-vac meat but it was just talk. Today that is all you have in grocery store meat departments. The only way you can find beef on the quarter today is to go to a farmer or a local butcher shop that still gets quarters of beef. The beef then was much better. We would let it hang for about ten days so all of the blood and juice would drain out. Today they kill the animal, let it hang long enough for the fat to coagulate and start processing it. All of that blood and juice and stuff is still in the meat and drains into the cry-o-vac bag. That way the meat business gets to charge you $5.00 a pound for water.

I remained a meat cutter for the next 15 years. Working mainly in retail grocery stores in the Portland, Oregon area. I tired of it and at the age of thirty went to work for my father to learn the upholstery business. That being a whole other story.

Anyway to the task at hand. Because of my training as a meat cutter I like to not spend any more money than I have to at the grocery store. So I look for deals and primal cuts of meat that I can take home and process myself without paying for the marketing that the meat department does. This particular primal is a whole pork butt. This piece of the pig is where the meat department cuts pork steak, pork roasts and those country style boneless spareribs that you will see in the meat counter. I paid a $1.99 a pound for this pork butt at a total of a little over $17.00. Usually the boneless country style spareribs retail for $1.00 more per pound than what I paid. So you can see how with a sharp knife and a little bit of knowledge you can save at the meat department.

As you may know I sell Chicago Cutlery and cookware in my eBay store, AnuDirection.

So iffin' ya don't have a good sharp knife ya might take a look at the offerings that I have. Since we are on the subject of knives I would like to share some knowledge with you. Some of you may or may not know about how to care for and keep your knives sharp. Don't put them in the dishwasher. I know, I know but it takes so long to hand wash them. Poppycock. If you don't know what poppycock means well you probably shouldn't be handling a sharp object anyway. Today's modern manufactured knives, well any with any quality at all have a ground in edge. That edge is what keeps the knife sharp. Regularly running the knife over a steel (that round thing that looks like a file that is in your knife block) that will for the most part keep your knife sharp. It does not hurt them to put them into the dishwasher but what happens is it is likely to get knocked around or bang into other utensils and nick the blade which will cause it to lose its edge. So take the 5 seconds that it takes to hand wash your knife with some hot soapy water and dry it off and put it back into the wood block for which it was made for.

I put the pork butt into the sink and opened up the package. this will let all of the water that you paid $1.99 a pound for go down the drain.

Pat dry the butt (no not your husband) with some paper towels and place it onto a clean cutting board. You want the bone facing you. This bone is shaped something like an "h" and we need to cut it out of the pork butt.

The other end of the bone

If you have the pork butt laying with the fat side down and the bone facing you like I have shown in the photo the bone will be flat on the top side. Take your knife and cut the meat away along the top of the bone. Oh by the way keep your damn fingers out of the way or keep a handy supply of bandages or a tourniquet nearby. Keep cutting and pulling the meat back until you see the edge of the bone.

Now flip the butt (no not your wife) over with the fat side up (again no not your wife). Now we will be cutting around the "h" part. Just keep running your knife along the bone and pulling the meat back with your other hand until you have removed the bone from the pork butt.

The pork butt with the bone removed laying on the cutting board with the fat side down and the face of the butt facing to your right (reverse this process if you are left handed.

With your knife in one hand and holding the meat with the other (with your spouse standing nearby with the tourniquet and 911 on pre-dial) slice down through the pork and towards you trying to keep your cuts as straight as you can. I cut my country style ribs about an inch thick. Here in the picture I made three slices because I want the one end for a pork roast. If you want more country style ribs you don't have to have a roast.

If you have made a roast set it aside and lay the pieces that you are going to make country style ribs with flat on the cutting board. Slice them in tow and sit upright.

Drum Roll....Ta Dah....you have country style spareribs. This butt was fairly large (no I am not referring to either one of you) so I am going to cut them in two to make twice as many ribs as I have.

So I have I pork roast, two packages of six country style ribs for a little over $17.00 and about a half hour of my time. It took me much longer to write this post than it did to do the actual work. There are only two of us in this house so this pork butt serve up at least 10 entrees for us. That works out to $1.70 or less per meal. Add some veggies or a baked potato or what ever else that you want and you have some pretty good eats at a very reasonable price.

I hope that this was helpful to you. If not....what ever

Until we meat (get it meat instead of meet) again

Happy Trails

Duane