a first, but no fist

I just assembled my first Japanese puzzle box and found that by exactly duplicating the mechanism hidden away in the one I cut apart, I've been able to make puzzle boxes that work with almost the same level of precision as the original.

Of course, these deserve refinement in both quality and method, but my chapter on these boxes may serve as a starting point for those who've had an interest in them.

For me, making these has fulfilled a curiosity that was launched when we had an exchange student from Japan who wanted to learn to make them. My understanding at the time was insufficient to help.

In the meantime, Governor Chris Christie, running for President of the United States said the following in an interview broadcast Sunday,  said that teachers' unions "are the single most destructive force in public education in America," and deserve "a punch in the face."

The following is my response which I have sent to Governor Christie,

I am a teacher, my mother was a teacher, my sister and niece are teachers, and my daughter is a teacher. I don't know where you went to school, but its obvious there are lessons you failed to learn in school.

Schools have a socialization function in which children are taught to get along with each other, without the threat of violence.

Perhaps your teachers failed to teach you the niceties of human behavior. Perhaps they failed in directing you towards more a more effective means of communication. That you are such a bully and were able to skate through your education without learning manners more likely indicates some deeper failures in your socialization.

In any case, you owe an apology to our nation's teachers and to their union.

Make, fix and create...