----- Original Message -----
From: "Art Todesco"

stuff snipped

The disasters are only responsible for part of the "strictest" codes.
Unions and other organized entities have had a lot to do with it as
well.

Unions and the Mafia exerting undue influence in NYC and Chicago? Next
thing you'll be telling me is that LBJ stole his elections to the House
and
Senate! (-:

--
Bobby G.

Ya, after living in the Chicago area suburbs all my life (until
recently), I kind off know how the codes go. I don't know if it is
that way today in Chi-town, not too many years ago, all electrical
wiring had to be in rigid conduit, not thin wall. Plumbing could
not be copper or PVC, including drains. I think they have finally
eased up on that in recent years.

New York City was much the same. I can remember my poor dad cutting his
thumb pretty deeply on the ragged end of a BX cable and howling like a
banshee, blood spilling everywhere. Working with BX was a little like being
a snake wrangler.

I also remember the look on my mother's face when we went upstairs to clean
and bandage it. It was a look I'd see often as both Dad and I injured
ourselves in various ways during car and home repair exercises. Ironically,
the worst injury I sustained in the home was opening a pop-top cat food can
and slicing the web of skin between the thumb and forefinger. The bathroom
looked like a CSI crime scene and I ruined a nice cordless telephone by
bleeding all over it calling neighbor to drive me to the hospital. When I
showed the stitched up wound to our outfit's head librarian she stuck out
her horribly scarred hand and began reciting: "Carrot slicing, hand through
the window, fish deboning, etc."

Reminded me of Dirty Jobs where Mike Rowe points to his missing fingernail
and asks his interview subject "Ever lost a fingernail?" and the guys holds
up a hand with one finger that's much, much shorter than all the others.
Touche!

--
Bobby G.