That’s the sort of thing that makes both one’s inner child and inner adult grin ear-to-ear … ! A delight for the eyes and the ears and the mind — a mighty fine pick-me-up at the end of a frenetic day. Thanks!
Jennifer
I enjoyed it very much too. I found myself contemplating the resources invested in this vs. those invested in the Chris Bliss act.
rakkity
I wonder what’s in these white boxes in Mike’s blog.
The dots Michael is connecting with his oblique reference to “Dan’s Cranbrook Days” with this incredible musical-ball creation is this:
As a Junior at this priveleged (though not all white or all cluelesss) prep school (btw, the same one that graduated our clueless Governor Romney), I was party to creating a sophisticated “marble maze”, that started at the ceiling light, and wrapped all around one of our 12×12 dorm rooms.
It was painstakingly manufactured by cutting and folding the “shirt cardboards” that out shirts came back from the laundry in, and taping them together in U shapped channels. At the bottom, it had an automated elevator, so that when the marble reached the lowest point — after minutes of circulating down from the celing, a rubber-band-and-paper-clip gizmo released the ‘elevator’, which would transport the marble back to the top — and begin the cycle all over again.
My closest exposure to a perpetual motion machine — which, as Michael commented on the phone to me — taken to the nth degree might have produced this musical marvel.
[Where do you find these things, Michael, and how many hours a day do you spend entertaining your readers?]
Jennifer
Thank you for connecting dots; that sounds wonderful. The Children’s Discovery Museum in Acton used to have a “marble room” with one of those things, although the parts were not limited to shirt cardboards.
michael
Well put, Jennifer. Were those simpler more idyllic times or what? Do you suppose young Dan worried about sea changes caused by plundered forests and excess carbon dioxide? And I wonder what recently private schooled Pesky thinks of that shirt cardboard, paper clip and used bubble gum contraption.
And the answer to your question, smiling? Way too many. Now I’d have the time to cut my grass if stories about Peru or abandoned pomeranians or money given to needy women on airplane flights or even book recommendations appeared in my email inbox.
adam
That’s the sort of thing that makes both one’s inner child and inner adult grin ear-to-ear … ! A delight for the eyes and the ears and the mind — a mighty fine pick-me-up at the end of a frenetic day. Thanks!
Jennifer
I enjoyed it very much too. I found myself contemplating the resources invested in this vs. those invested in the Chris Bliss act.
rakkity
I wonder what’s in these white boxes in Mike’s blog.
pesky godson
Cranbrook?
michael
Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, MIchigan.
smiling Dan
The dots Michael is connecting with his oblique reference to “Dan’s Cranbrook Days” with this incredible musical-ball creation is this:
As a Junior at this priveleged (though not all white or all cluelesss) prep school (btw, the same one that graduated our clueless Governor Romney), I was party to creating a sophisticated “marble maze”, that started at the ceiling light, and wrapped all around one of our 12×12 dorm rooms.
It was painstakingly manufactured by cutting and folding the “shirt cardboards” that out shirts came back from the laundry in, and taping them together in U shapped channels. At the bottom, it had an automated elevator, so that when the marble reached the lowest point — after minutes of circulating down from the celing, a rubber-band-and-paper-clip gizmo released the ‘elevator’, which would transport the marble back to the top — and begin the cycle all over again.
My closest exposure to a perpetual motion machine — which, as Michael commented on the phone to me — taken to the nth degree might have produced this musical marvel.
[Where do you find these things, Michael, and how many hours a day do you spend entertaining your readers?]
Jennifer
Thank you for connecting dots; that sounds wonderful. The Children’s Discovery Museum in Acton used to have a “marble room” with one of those things, although the parts were not limited to shirt cardboards.
michael
Well put, Jennifer. Were those simpler more idyllic times or what? Do you suppose young Dan worried about sea changes caused by plundered forests and excess carbon dioxide? And I wonder what recently private schooled Pesky thinks of that shirt cardboard, paper clip and used bubble gum contraption.
And the answer to your question, smiling? Way too many. Now I’d have the time to cut my grass if stories about Peru or abandoned pomeranians or money given to needy women on airplane flights or even book recommendations appeared in my email inbox.