Tuesday Turbo Boost

Climb On!

Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola: Lee Morse

We haven't listened to Lee Morse for quite a while, and she was masterful in making the switch to electric microphones during the mid-1920's,  "I Like Pie, I Like Cake" is a fun one.

Our Era Of War Began 100 Years Ago...

Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were murdered on this date, 100 years ago.  The Great War began a month later, and this world hasn't had much rest from fighting since.  We'll be posting a few poems, and songs as a reminder of the tragedy of what is now known as World War I, at least until it all becomes too depressing.

Don Marquis, the Illinois author and newspaper writer posted a very good thought in his writings by archy:

"the league...incidentally i wonder why europe of today
                    is always referred to by highbrow writers
                    as post war europe
                    they seem to think that the war
                    which started in nineteen fourteen
                    is over with whereas there have been
                    merely a few brief truces
                    that war is merely worrying through
                    its first half century
                    and will only cease permanently
                    when a generation comes along
                    which has forgotten all the old feuds
                                                archy the cockroach"

This was written during the 1920's so we can forgive Mr. Marquis for missing by at least half....

E. L. Doctorow, in the novel Ragtime wrote just a few words at the beginning and end of his book that have stuck in my head.  Here they are, beginning at the end of Ragtime, and then going back to Chapter One:

 "Houdini realized he was now raised to his assigned height...He was upside down over Broadway, the year was 1914, and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was reported to have been assassinated.  It was at this moment that an image composed itself in Houdini's mind.  The image was of a small boy looking at himself in the shiny brass headlamp of an automobile...(previously)...The little boy had followed the magician to the street and now stood at the front of the Pope-Toledo gazing at the distorted macrocephalic image of himself in the shiny brass fitting of the headlight.  Houdini thought the boy comely, fair like his mother, and tow-headed, but a little soft-looking.  He leaned over the side door.  Goodbye, Sonny, he said holding out his hand.  Warn the Duke, the little boy said."

Weekend Steam: Mostly New, 6 HP Russell Engine

I read about this little beauty in Engineers and Engines Magazine.  This was a discarded, worn out engine that had been scavenged for parts by steam hobbyists for years, when the old boy you see operating bought it and began restoring it.  Most of the parts you see are new.  The boiler, the rear wheels, the crosshead guide, and most other parts were lovingly re-created by the owner and his wife.  If you like this sort of thing you really should subscribe to one or more antique engine publications.  I started reading the Iron Men Album in 1965, and that created a lifetime hobby.  Anyhow, watch this little cutey go!

Ninety Trips Around The Sun...

...Today she's starting 91!  Happy Birthday, Pattie Ann!

"there is no hope for the world unless politicians of all sorts are completely abolished", Don Marquis

Aftermath

Have you forgotten yet?
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same-and War's a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz -
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench -
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"

Do you remember the hour of din before the attack -
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads - those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

Have you fotgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget.

Siegfried Sassoon, 1919

Crankin' It Up: The 100th Anniversary Of An Era Passing...

...E.L. Doctorow in the novel Ragtime opines that the era of Ragtime basically ended with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914.  It would be hard to argue against that.  Everything changed when the Great War began, and we have had turmoil ever since.  These two sides are good examples of entertainment before the war.

Dropping A School Marm

School marms have a well deserved reputation for being dangerous trees to cut.  They tend to break apart, or go in directions you don't want, so when you have the honors of tackling one, you walk around and assess it from a few different angles.  This one turned out to be easy.
 
The sapwood on this tree was rotted and falling off, but the heartwood was solid all the way through.  The base was tall and the two halves appeared to be well attached.  The aiming was done by finding the spot where both stems lay in the same plane.  Luckily, there was hardly any side lean at that spot. The tree was pretty well balanced fore and aft, and I didn't know if it would go by itself, so I set wedges before cutting it loose.  The hinge was made 2" thick all the way across, so there was plenty of strength to hold the tree in place until I tipped it.

Melding Old Iron; A Neat Idea

Say you have an old WD45 with no engine, and a gas engine with no cart to move it around.  That's what this looks like to me.  This is a pretty cool way to get more enjoyment from your old gas engine.