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Would You Like A Woodworking Gift, At All?
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",at all…" Where I live a noticeable number of everyday people add this to the end of sentences for no discernable reason, at all. Is it an affectation? No, not really, since an affectation is a speech behavior intended to impress, like using big words or French phrases (of which I'm occasionally guilty). A crutch word? Like using "like" twelve times in a sentence. No, not really, because appending "at all" to the end of a sentence is not filling in for a missing thought or filling "dead air" (I, like, do that, too… sometimes). So what is it when the clerk in the grocery store asks, "Would you like a bag, at all?" Or when the guy at Home Depot asks, "Do you need help loading that plywood, at all?"
In his book, "Common Errors In English Usage," Paul Brians postulates that it is a way to "…sound less polite than you intend" and ranks it right alongside saying "no problem" when you really mean "you're welcome." I don't think he is right, at all. Instead, I think adding "at all" to the end of a sentence is like sprinkling "you know" throughout a spoken paragraph, or saying "Okay…" at the beginning of a sentence (Okay, I'm guilty of that one, too). I think these are all actually "speech tics." Like an involuntary muscle twitch, it is a subconscious speech tic. It is habit, and largely meaningless, but important to woodworkers. Why?
My Starrett tape measure
provides a good example of a "tic." Several times a day I reach with my right hand to my right pocket where my tape measure normally hangs. I do it all the time, as if reassuring myself that it is still there. I do it in the grocery store, at the theater, when out taking a walk. And when I am not "wearing" my tape measure, and my hand comes up empty, there is a micro-second of panic, "Where is my tape measure?" This is a subconscious "tic."
I'll bet there are things in your shop that you could lay your hands on immediately if it was pitch dark or you were blindfolded. Stuff that you keep in the exact same place, always there, and always put back when done using it. Reaching out and grabbing those things is rote, habit, muscle memory, and subconscious. No time wasted, no extra energy expended. Right where it should be, all the time. Reaching for the pocket where you keep your pencil and doing it even when you don't need your pencil is a "tic." Not a bad thing, at all.
Now think of all the things in your shop that you have had to look for over the past few weeks. Where is that screwdriver? Where is that blasted router wrench? Where in the world did I leave my safety glasses? Time wasted, extra energy spent. When people ask me how I keep my shop so neat and tidy, the answer is a little difficult. But if people ask me why I keep my shop so organized and clean, the answer is easy… I don't have time to mess around looking for stuff. Putting things back in their place is habit. A very good habit.
The Highland Woodworking Blog
has a lot of fun, funny, and thought-provoking Christmas Wish List posts, but if you really want to give yourself a gift that will keep on giving for the rest of your life, give yourself a habit… a "tic" per se… the habit of putting things back where they belong after each use. Soon you will be able to reach and grab any tool you need without looking, without breaking your concentration, without wasting any time. And couldn't you use some extra shop time? I can't, you know, like, think of a better gift for a woodworker, like, at all.
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Steven Johnson is retired from an almost 30-year career selling medical equipment and supplies, and now enjoys improving his shop, his skills, and his designs on a full time basis (although he says home improvement projects and furniture building have been hobbies for most of his adult life). Steven can be reached directly via email at
sjohnson@downtoearthwoodworking.com
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