On Sat, 09 Oct 2010 05:53:00 -0700, Denis G. wrote:
On Oct 9, 12:25*am, Richard J Kinch wrote:
Denis G. writes:
Is it possible to describe yourself as a "jack of all trades" or a
tinkerer without evoking the negative connotations of those names?

Yes. Call yourself a "bricoleur".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricolage

I never heard that one. Thanks. I'm going to research it some more.

Whenever people ask me, "And what do you do?" I say, "Oh, pretty much
anything I can get away with. ;-)"

Once, I got invited to a party where everyone was from some other country
or another. I was milling around the back yard, some guy says "Hi," I say
"Hi," and he asks, "And what are you doing?"

I refrained from saying, "Standing here in the back yard talking to some
guy whose first language clearly isn't idiomatic English!"

Cheers!
Rich