On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:25:43 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

Well, I don't personally hate him. Don't even know the guy.

But that's the title of the latest piece by one of my favorite
columnists in the /Berkeley Daily Planet/, Matt Cantor, local owner of a
home-inspection business who writes a weekly column on home repair and
maintenance.

Here's a sample:

I do genuinely hate these specific shows: "Hometime," "This Old House"
and "The New Yankee Workshop."

First off I don't think it's fair to lump Hometime in with TOH. The
latter no longer offers any educational value whatsoever while the
former does a pretty good job. And they have even spent time showing
how to assemble knock down cabinets, so if that's over their heads
then please don't ever let them touch a hammer. In any case the idea
is really to give the homeowner some idea of what goes on so they are
better able to ask the right questions of the pros, not necessarily to
make them able to do it themselves.

Norm, well I doubt I would be where I am today if it weren't for him.
Sure everything always goes swimmingly for him, and really you learn
the most from your mistakes and by never showing anything going wrong
that opportunity is never presented. As the saying goes, the
difference between an amateur and a pro is the pro knows how to fix
his mistakes. But for the format of the show it just isn't feasible.

There's a lot of accumulation of knowledge that has to happen. If
Norm makes it look easy and people try and give up, that really isn't
Norm's fault. But if he gives you a look at what is possible and you
find your own way from there, that's a good thing. There's a lot of
well equipped shops out there with everything but someone who knows
what to do with it, but that's true of every hobby.

-Kevin