Middling - In the Middle with Adam Bond

Today has been a day. The boys were an unrighteou $Today has been a day. The boys were an unrighteous mess of combativeness getting to school this morning. My primary printer met an oh-so inglorious end as two mechanical failures compounded with what I can only guess was an overloaded circuit which blew the printhead carriage motor and ultimately brought the whole thing to a sizzling, lifeless halt. Then I tried to make coffee in a moka pot on a hot burner without water, which I’ve come to understand is a critical element. And then I heard a mouse in the wall again, after having expelled them for the umpteenth time nearly a year ago. But my spirits were lifted by Friends Who Get Me™, in this instance, the inestimable Kara Slade , who sent me a vintage mechanical pencil from the Firth-Sterling Steel Co. of McKeesport, Pennsylvania for Christmas! Precisely the kind of practical artifact I enjoy, representing the rich industrial history of my homeland, in which I so often revel, and providing some utility to me as a designer who is forever forced to convert his natural mental fractions for decimalized digital software. Firth-Sterling was founded in 1896 by Lewis John Firth — originally of Sheffield, England, notable for its steel foundries and where his uncle’s company Thomas Firth & Sons Ltd. remained. Experimenting on both sides of the Atlantic with exotic alloys, Elwood Haynes with the US Firths and Harry Brearley with the UK Firths developed and patented (1912 and 1913, respectively) the first “rustless” steel by alloying it with 12% chromium. The companies shuttered in the 1960s, but the transatlantic patents were purchased by the American Stainless Steel Company which continued to operate the Firth-Sterling Stainless Steel Corporation, now ATI Firth-Sterling, albeit only in name.$

It’s go time. First of three public performances

Awoke to a beautiful blanket of snow, visited my b

Also had a chance to return to and snoop around Pa

Without a doubt, my favorite place in the Lehigh V

I used the boys’ stage rehearsal as an excellent

Got here at 4 o’clock and they only just finishe

It’s Nutcracker time, again ! Charles and Oliver

After a rather long Lord’s Day, Holy Communion i

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the ste

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