Member Articles

The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of a man-cave and highlight the benefits of having one. I will throw out some ideas on how to get one started and also talk about my own experience. A man-cave, by definition, is an area that is set apart for the man of the house. Whether the man-cave is inside or outside of a house, it is nevertheless an exclusive space, separate from all other areas at home. Said exclusivity is what distinguishes the man-cave from other specialty rooms, such as a den, study or library. The latter are still considered an integral part of the home which anyone in the home is entitled to occupy. A man-cave is also considered a place of privacy; thereby making it a special retreat or sanctuary...

Submitted by @DrEntropy It has always confounded me: the manner in which a major portion of the US public perceive our cars. For the most part it has been my experience that they think of the cars as “toys” or “cute” and “flimsy”. “Unreliable” comes in there too. A personal case in point: In another life I worked as a photographer for a studio in western Pennsylvania. The owner (I'll call him Sam) and I had known each other for years before this. I had just been discharged from the US Air Force, where I had been an “Aerial Combat Documentation Photographer.” It was a natural fit that I seek employment with a photo business, as the government would 'subsidize' my wages for some period if I stayed in a related field. It was a win-win...

In Personal Pursuit of Happiness by DrEntropy As a young person, my interest in all things mechanical was only overshadowed by a fascination with the photographic image. The ability to “steal a moment in time” with a camera. It started with my paternal grandfather’s photos of his various trips around the continent, taken with a 35mm Baldina camera and Kodachrome. The man had an “eye,” likely due to having been a National Geographic life member from the time of his youth. As a pre-teen, the images of Cypress Gardens water skiing exhibitions, Anasazi cliff dwellings, Canadian flower gardens, the Grand Canyon, all projected onto a large screen in his living room post-trip held me spellbound. I had to learn to do that! The parents were...