Arch,

Your musings are the posts I'm most likely to read. I know they are
always offered with the best of intentions. You are a gentle person
who has devoted his life to healing rahter than hurting, even though
sometimes the two are inextricably linked.

Let me tell you why I responded.

It has been a long time since I was invloved in the AAW, but when I
was on the board of directors, there was a sizeable portion of the
general membership who were quite vocal in their belief that if it
wasn't round and brown then it wasn't woodturning and it shouldn't be
in the symposium instant gallery, it shouldn't be in the American
Woodturner, it shouldn't be in the books. Fortunately their formulas
for determining what was woodturning and what wasn't always excluded
someone's work they liked, so no rules were ever instituted. The work
of people like Ray Allen, Ron Fleming, and Max Krimmel are good
examples of who would have been excluded under "percentages" or
materials definitions.

We do need definitions for the purposes of facile communication, and
maybe that's more what you meant in your post. It just makes me
nervous when I see people fishing near the shoals of secterianism. In
the long run, the excluders are the ones who get cheated out of the
most.

And in the words of St. Arnold, "I think I'll have another beer."

Clay


(Arch) wrote in message ...
Ruth & Clay, Your posts are always thoughtful and much appreciated. My
musings are meant to stimulate courteous debate and opinion and not
meant to be
'ex cathedra' nor as mean and divisive trolls. I always hope my posts
will pry up lots of lively give and take re woodturning. Sometimes that
doesn't happen and I'm left to wonder if I missed the mark or if this ng
needs or even wants these sorts of threads. There I go, musing again!

Clay, you are no interloper. You have a name and it's a good one. I
meant that the work, not the turners, might fly under false colors and
deserve a flag of their own. I was musing about the _turned wood bowl
and should have taken more care not to appear critical of the book's
editors or the artisans. Didn't St. Benedict say that fine wood bowls
can be made off the lathe without recourse to turning at all?
Anyway, I'm too myopic about my hobby,

Regards to the both of you, Arch

Fortiter,


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings