enthalpy

Thursday, December 01, 2005


"Plus it's a drinkathon." I could have guessed that much. I guess that's why I'm so disappointed that I haven't been.
It is not just that men like shooting things. Many of them also like fiddling with big gadgets. And the Punkin Chunkin shows what can be achieved when hundreds of mechanically adept minds focus on one utterly pointless objective. The hydraulics on those air cannons must be just so, as must the springs on the catapults. The machines' names must be either macho (eg, "Second Amendment") or crude (eg, "Chunkin Up"). Distances must be measured with a hand-held GPS system that gives readings to the nearest hundredth of a foot.
Guns, GPS, thermodynamics, binge drinking, utterly pointless objectives. . . If there's a reason I'm not involved with this, I can't think of it.



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