Phrases from Childhood: "pest project", "approximate"

[azurelunatic]

FatherSir and Mama had something of an ongoing rivalry about building things. Mama would get a project idea, then measure and cut boards, and bang it together in a rather short time. (At least, this is what I remember.) She'd cut boards with a hand saw, of course. The projects were sturdy, and if not exact, then certainly good enough.

With FatherSir, everything was carefully planned out, and he was fiddlingly precise, and he cut things with the tablesaw or the radial arm saw. (I grew up thinking that the radial arm saw ought to be called table saw, because we used it as a table when it was stored in the house.) His projects took a longer time to make, weren't as directly useful to the kids, and always lined up.

FatherSir called Mama's methods "approximate", making it clear that this was not a good thing (even if in a teasing way), and he called her pet projects "pest projects".

I don't think Mama had much to say about that.