A pair of reviews of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” just showed up in my inbox that made me laugh.
The first one is from the gift guide by Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer newspaper. You can read the whole story here. But here’s the pertinent part of the review, which is right before they start talking about what a great tool the Dremel is:
“And for advanced, hand-tool aficionados, consider Christopher Schwartz’s 2011 book, ‘The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.’ The author’s sometimes-hokey style doesn’t take away his passion — or knowledge — for tools.”
What funny here is that every single time I have been mentioned or quoted in a newspaper, they have misspelled my last name. So much for professional courtesy.
In journalism school it was policy that if you misspelled a proper noun in a piece of writing, you failed the piece. Period. no exceptions. On the first day of the second-year Newswriting class you have to interview the instructor, who is role-playing as a police officer named John Smith, who has information on a drug bust.
The whole class failed because we didn’t ask how to spell his name, which is Jon Smythe.
The second review is from Furniture & Cabinet Making magazine in Great Britain. Vanessa Austin Locke wrote a half-page piece on the book that begins with this lament: “Men and their tools. What’s a girl to say?”
Ha! The review has a happy ending – in my book, at least.
“While I tend to focus mainly on the design-based parts of the trade, this book has really inspired me to get more hands-on and I think that’s because it comes from an aesthetic angle, which is after all the point of fine craftsmanship. This book is a lovely object, would make a wonderful present and is actually a very good read.”
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris,
I sympathize with you about the name-spelling. My last name is perhaps the most common Irish surname in the world, with the most common spelling, but it seems to be very difficult for humans to spell, and for computers to punctuate. Computerfolk have had 75+ years to solve the “apostrophe problem”, and haven’t got it right yet. Congratulations on the good reviews.
Maybe they were misled by St. Roy’s pronunciation?
In any case, I feel your pain – people ALWAYS add an “h” to my last name. The “h” was removed long ago so we could enjoy guilt-free the wide variety of wonderful porcine concoctions that the South has seen sufficient with which to bless humanity.
I actually don’t mind the misspellings or mispronunciations one bit. When I was teaching in Germany they told me they don’t have “Schwartz” in Germany as a last name (don’t know if it’s true).
But “Schwarz” is pronounced there with a hard syllable at the end. So it actually sounds like “Schwartz.” And “Schwartz” is a heck of a lot easier to say than “Schwarz,” which makes it feel like your lips are going to pop off when you get to the “-warz.”
At least you guys have weird *last* names. Whiners….
Hah. I suppose it’s easier than the actor Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, though. That’s some serious old testament stuff.
Y’all have no idea what you’re talking about.
Oh grow up. Isn’t your name the “John Smith” of the Subcontinent?
No one in this country can ever pronounce my name right. It’s not that hard: Na-ghee-na-na-jar. Nagheenanajar.
I approach interactions with the civilian “news media” with trepidation. The more “prestigious” the organ, the more likely their vassal is a clueless dolt. Several years ago after a long interview with an employee of one of the nation’s most prominent newspapers, during which I repeated the most critical information several times over an hour conversation, I volunteered to review the article for factual accuracy. Huffily the response was “I am a professional reporter!” When the article appeared there were four fundamental factual inaccuracies in the opening paragraph.
At this point I simply assume that members of the dinosaur media are ignorant and ill informed advocates, and thus far I have not seen much to dissuade me of that.
“Whats in a name?”
Perhaps you should change your name by Depoll to Roubo. There won’t be any confusion then!
Does the punctuation in the first line of the write-up suggest that “advanced” and “hand-tool aficionados” are synonymous? Appositive phrase? Is this the perception in the greater woodworking community?
Even if this was not the intended implication, I would still disagree with it. I think the beginner would glean the most from ATC.
I can’t tell you how many times in a week I have this conversation…
Me: “No, it’s spelled S-I-N-like-Nickel-C-O-X.”
Customer Service: “I’m sorry, sir, but I still can’t find any records by that name in our system.”
Me: “SIN-cox. With an ‘N’. ‘N’ like Nancy, Nitwit, Nincompoop, Ninny. ‘N’, not ‘M’.”
Customer Service: “Oh, here it is…”
At least five, if not more.
When I was growing up, I used to have similar problems with my first name.
“No, it’s Ethan, not Nathan.”
Now, every other boy and their best friend is named “Ethan”. I suppose, aside from not having to correct my first name anymore, the other good thing about my name being so popular is I was able to find it on a license plate for my bicycle last spring… That would have never happened 30 years ago.
Not to get all “one up’ies on you, but Ethan vs. Nathan is understandable. When I tell people my name is Rick (’cause that my name…) and they reply, “Greg?”. I really have to wonder if I have some kind of speech impediment or something.
Hi my name is Rick, but my friends call me Greg.
Weird
Yes… Rick, I wonder whether this is because you look like a Greg, or because people sustain some inexplicable connection between the two names.
Whenever I introduce myself as Colin, people will proceed to call me Chris, almost without exception. I’m pretty sure I pronounce these names quite differently.
On the other hand, whenever anyone writes my name, or injects it into a computer, it will be spelled with two ‘L’s, although I’ve never actually met a Colin spelt with two ‘L’s, or a Chris for that matter. Chris, do you get that one too?
As long as they don’t call me “Chrissy,” I don’t care how they spell or say my first name.
“license plate for my bicycle”
That’s fine as long as you aren’t a kilted bicycle rider, too.
This is the kind of spontaneous publicity – Your name in print(even misspelled) – that makes people. Your in print! Things happen to you now. Now people are going to take shots at you. Just remember that “He hates these cans. Stay away from the cans.”
—Lord loves a workin’ man, don’t trust whitey, see a doctor and get rid of it.
Between Chris and Navin Johnson I have learned a great deal to get my through life and stock preparation.
To say something is ‘actually a good read’ seems like a pretty backhanded compliment. Because they were surprised by having enjoyed it? Weird. By the way, my girlfriend ended up reading it because she was so amused by my enjoyment of the book. She quite enjoyed it despite the fact that she does not ever put chisel to wood. That’s a better version of ‘actually a good read’ to me.
Using capitals is also a trick..
” Period. no exceptions. ” 🙂
That’s the great part of being special.
It looks like the spelling in the Plain Dealer article has been corrected (last Friday, if the “updated on” date is correct).Kind of a weird article regardless…
-Steve