"frank megaweege" wrote in message
oups.com...

Goedjn wrote:
I'd probably hire that guy. I've had 3 roofing contractors come out
and none of them seemed to know what a cricket was when I asked if they
thought I needed one. Maybe it's an arbitrary criteria in light of the
job in it's entirety, but I've decided I won't hire anyone who doesn't
give me a competent description of why I do or don't need a cricket.

Of course, what you're calling a cricket, I'd call a saddle.
It's probably only called a cricket because victorians didn't
like it when it was called a crotchet, anyway.

What you're using as a criterion is filtering out people
who don't have a particular linguistic tradition, not
people who don't know much about roofs.


No. It's not like I called them up and said "define the word
'cricket'". I told them that my roof leaks around the chimney and in
addition to better flashing did they think that, given the width of my
chimney, that a cricket might help. At which point they stare blankly
or begin blustering nonsense about how to handle the leaking, with no
indication that they understood the concept of a cricket, crotchet or
saddle. Whatever you want to call it. One guy eventually called me
back and said building what I wanted (I had attempted to describe what
I meant by 'cricket') would cost an additional $3000 ($6000 without it.
And of course I asked if he meant $300, not thousand. No dice). He
seemed honestly perplexed at my laughter and said he would send the
estimate in writing with labor and materials so I could see why that
price wasn't out of line. Unfortunately, I never received it. I was
curious to get some clue as to what he was planning to build for 3
grand. It sure as hell wasn't a cricket or a saddle. Not even a
crotchet.


Sounds like he was going to have it made by the Ethan Allen furniture
factory, using some sort of rare wood normally reserved for fancy guitar
inlays.