[BITList] Not really about the oil spill

[HUGH]

Though my book collection runs well into 4 figures, I can always find room for another good one.  This morning I read a review of one such, called The Case For Working With Your Hands, by Matthew Crawford.  The author has a PhD in political philosophy, was a post doctoral fellow on the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, was on a Washington think tank, and is currently a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Virginia.  Just the chap to be sent out to have a look at the oil spill, one might think - and why not?

He runs a motor bike repair shop and feels the cash he gets for that is more honestly earned than what he gets from his other "high-status" jobs.  His book asks questions about modern attitudes to working with the hands, craft skills, etc, eg, what is better about sitting in a cubicle processing data than in becoming a carpenter?  I once had my ear bent by an idiot. On hearing I had served an apprenticeship as a fitter, and without hearing anything else, a prat told me I wasn't a "real engineer".  Unlike the arsehole addressing me, I hadn't taken the precaution of joining an institute.  Actually, I had, but I left it one year when I couldn't afford the fees.

Hugh.
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