The word of the day* for January 21, 2007 is “shovel” — noun 1 a : a hand implement consisting of a broad scoop or a more or less hollowed out blade with a handle used to lift and throw material b : something that resembles a shovel c : an excavating machine; especially : a hydraulic diesel-engine driven power shovel. 2 : SHOVELFUL.
I wanted to make a snowman, but Mother Nature disapproved. The snow was too dry to form balls, but wet enough to clump on the shovel. Lloyd was just out to remove snow; so he was not disappointed. We agreed that his putting snow melt on the drive and walk before the snow got very deep was a good idea.
Last night the news team interviewed a man who had been unable to shovel the ice we had gotten in the previous storm—as did we all. He demonstrated that one can move ice sheets with what he described as a “pitch fork”. Now I don’t pretend to know all about tools, but what he was using was a spade fork. Pitch forks have longer, thinner tines. Anyway, he showed that his fork would do the job. Now Lloyd doesn’t have to lay out money for one of the ice breakers.
The quote† for today is from Stuart Chase (1888–1985), U.S. Men and Machines, ch. 2, Macmillan (1929):
The learned professors have been at considerable pains in their attempts to make a distinction between tools and implements on the one hand, and machinery on the other. Nor have they arrived much of anywhere. The one is continually shading into the other. Here is an ordinary shovel used by a day labourer in a ditch; here is the same shovel with a somewhat thicker handle, containing a pneumatic attachment which is said to improve its digging power; here is a very much larger shovel with curved ends and steel teeth, hitched to an arm that is hitched to a steam engine, which can gobble up a cartload of dirt at one mouthful. Where does the tool stop and the machine begin? … And what is one to do with treadmills for grinding corn, whose motive power is said by some to be the donkey, and by some the carrot in front of his nose?
;^) Jan
* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition and is used by permission.
† The quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or The Quotation Pages and is used by permission.
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1 comment:
From Rae:
I have been considering using my spade (sharp shooter) to break up the ice in my driveway. I don't have anything with tines, except a garden rake. I'm also not terribly motivated to do anything other than cleaning out closets! I keep finding excuses to stop doing that, too.
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