Further to the apology made by Kenneth Rower in Scantlings number 121 (April 2006) regarding a photograph published in Timber Framing No 79 (March 2006) which has given rise to offence I thought that I should check this out and see for myself which photograph it was that could possibly have had such an effect.

Eventually the penny dropped as I came across a row of bare bottoms on page 17 where eleven project partici-“pants” had dropped their shorts presumably to let the air circulate around their nether regions. There is nothing worse than wet shorts chaffing at your important little places and I congratulate the carpenters for their inventiveness in developing a new clothes drying technique which can be used to great effect in this very wet and humid jungle environment.

Then I spotted it – the reason for the great offence. Each of the bottoms had two symbols scribed – one on each cheek (English scribe rule ? though some of those bottoms definitely look a bit more American square rule) and with a bit of rapid joined up reading a message emerged from the hieroglyphs which I think was supposed to spell out BLESSINGS! FROM SURINAME. Unfortunately what it did in fact spell out was BLESSINGS! FROM RVSAANAM.

It seems that the fourth bottom from the right has got a definite touch of dyslexia with the R and the V on the wrong cheeks. (did modesty require that this symbology was applied with the benefit of a mirror ?) or was this supposed to be a very traditional message where the olde English practice of using V’s where today we employ U’s was used in a continuous lettering fashion i.e. as is the standard practice employed on bell casting dedication marks.

I agree whole heartedly with Ken that the carpenters involved should hang their heads in shame for this public display of dreadful spelling and if I were an English teacher then the fourth from the right would definitely get marked down as “bottom of the class”.

Trust the carpenters not to know their arris from their elbow.

Is it me ?

Regards

Ken Hume

I think perhaps it was an offshoot of the guilds long tradition of cutting one piece "ass backwards".
You would think such accomplished crafts people would not make such an error on a simple butt joint.
Tail end of the job and all that.
It's all so simple in hindsight.

OK, sorry, no more cracks

However, I do think Ken, that you should be praised for taking the time to study the issue in detail.