VIGNETTES of VENRICK, Bill, THE WORDWRIGHT, that is...

The following cascades of thoughts were among some writings I once shared with some friends and I am sharing them with readers of THE WORDWRIGHT. It's been a little longer than I like to admit that I have "put pen to ink" with an essay so I hope you will forgive me for foraging through some old notes instead of a regular essay - hope you enjoy these thoughts.

IT MAY SOUND STRANGE to some but I honestly can't think of many times, if any, that I wasn't interested in about anything that I saw or came my way. My wife says I can always think of some questions to ask, regardless of what's going on. I just don't see life any other way and I try not to ask questions until I come up with enough base information that enables me to ask some questions. (I admit this last part of my inquiring mind has had a few rough spots in it. Asking some people WHY seems to intimidate them for some reason.)

I have visited factories where glass was being produced, gobs of molten glass dropped into a chute and being thus dropped into a mold, flames all over the place -- there was always enough going on that piqued my interest. I specifically recall seeing one glass manufacturing machine that delivered a piece of stemware (glass or tumbler with a stem on it) and when it reached a certain spot its direction of movement was changed and it went off in another direction -- simple, there was a wheel underneath that made this possible by rubbing against the bottom of the platform the glass was on and its direction was changed. I have watched other stemware being produced and obviously there was some kind of issue being worked on -- the glass looked perfect but as it reached a certain spot in the line, it simply shattered to pieces. Something was wrong, obviously, and who knows how many pieces were ruined before they solved that problem.

Print shops have always amazed me. Sign painters or show card lettering and silk screen studios have been places where I could stand and watch what was going on "until they closed the shop."SEEING how things were done -- how a sign painter would give his brush an almost unnoticeable twist and thus forming the fine serifs at the ends of specific letters. Printers tweaking a lever here or turning a wheel there and then standing back to see if the adjustment was going to do the job.

I worked in the field of commercial art and I was always able to do something to improve a specific problem based on what I probably saw or read days, weeks, months or years before. Such observation can be the "inspiration" needed for some particular job. Given the job of dividing a page or space into a specific number of smaller spaces can be done with a straightedge (or a ruler) without knowing the exact space of each column or row is a snap. I believe the phrase "out of the box" would be the expression you would use today to solve such problems. How you "did it" was not really in the lessons you studied in a class -- an experienced person showed you how and the solution thus was being passed on to yet another generation of artists.

LIFE IS A LOT LIKE THIS, OR THAT. Imagine being some place without a watch or a radio or TV near by. What time is it? If you have spent enough time, or would have spent enough time, LOOKING and PAYING ATTENTION instead of glancing at your watch every few minutes you might have noticed the shadows changing, indicating the Sun was coming from a different direction. I am sure our Indian forebears were better at "telling time" and never saw a watch or clock -- they were observant of what was going on around them.

The very invention of the CLOCK was perhaps a curse instead of a blessing. If the resource I read was correct, the clock was actually invented by "the church" or monks, priests who wanted to figure out a way to TELL them when it was time to pray, and when to stop praying. Civilization today has become slaves to the clock and if a worker is asked to work later it is called OVER time. Could that mean, over the limits of the clock -- the worker's clock that told them WHEN he was finished? Or beyond the limit of his responsibility or obligation to work? A "clock-watcher" is not a compliment in most places of employment because it suggests the worker can't wait until the clock TELLS him his work is finished.

A few years ago my wife "suggested" I look at her unique grandfather clock (her Dad had built it years ago) because it had stopped working. Fixing things has been among my many interests so I got the bright red tool box where my father-in-law kept his "clock tools" and after a few precise applications of whale oil here and there, the family heirloom was operating again. #####

WELL, perhaps this will give you some insight into the workings of thoughts as they cascade around in my mind - and then again, I may have given you more information that you wanted. So, until the next time I share some vignettes, THANKS FOR READING. Bill Venrick, THE WORDWRIGHT.