Those of us living in St Louis have a more nuanced view of tornadoes than those who only know them from the opening scenes of the Wizard of Oz. When St Louisans hear that one’s coming, we don’t immediately scramble to get home to Auntie Em, hop through a cellar door, then wait in the dark with … Read more
Outside
These days I’m getting a lot of questions about cicadas. Like, what harm can they do to your home and how to keep them out. Ya know, this only comes up every few years, so at first I didn’t know. Honestly, this old handyman can’t remember which part of a broken toilet he replaced this … Read more
Your humble correspondent has noticed a disturbing trend, and I wonder if it’s just me. Like just this week, I read that Prince Harry and Meghan are creating a Netflix series on polo and cooking. So I’m thinking, what makes THEM such experts on those, to justify Netflix paying them millions of dollars? Yeah, it’s … Read more
The lyrics to the Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun” never feel quite right to me. Their less-than-enthusiastic review of the coming of the Sun as being just “ALRIGHT” doesn’t seem to do the Sun justice. “Awesome” is more like it, as our fellow St Louisans seem to understand in the run-up to the upcoming … Read more
Ever wonder how our historical understanding of Thanksgiving would be different if textbooks were written by handymen instead of PhD’s? OK, so maybe I’m the only one. The PhD’s tell us that about HALF the passengers and crew died within a few months after the Mayflower arrived. But would it kill them to mention what … Read more
Look, as your handyman I’m just your humble correspondent, so I may not have this right. But is it just me, or does it seem like we keep electing people to the U.S. HOUSE who couldn’t even take care of their OWN HOUSES? Our home-owning customers are competent, and face a series of deadlines they … Read more
As you may know, there’s now a song at the top of the charts called “Rich Men North of Richmond,” in which a songwriter from Farmville, Virginia bemoans the existence of a wealthy and powerful elite in Washington DC that makes life harder for the rest of us. So I’m thinking, doesn’t pretty much EVERYWHERE … Read more
As your dedicated but humble correspondent, I always look for ways to elevate you as a scholar in the discipline of home repairs. So for YOUR benefit, not mine, I have just returned from a 2-week “sabbatical,” going thousands of miles away and thousands of years back, in GREECE. I hope you benefit from these … Read more
When I was just a wee little handy-boy, there was this popular song you may have heard of, “Blowin’ in the Wind.” It posed a series of questions that sounded real deep, but didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Then it breezily dismissed them by telling us the answer was “blowin’ in the wind.” … Read more
Sometimes when I listen to the news, I want to bury my head into the next toilet I need to fix, and never look up again. Like, right now. As I write this, things are not looking so good down at the border. And it seems like all we can do is hope and pray … Read more