Greetings to the list . . . and thanks, Ken, for subscribing me.  I've had a
great time over the last day or two browsing the archive and acquainting myself
with the grand mission of Gabriel and Etidorpha re: SOS.  I must confess to a
certain feeling of kinship based on a fairly long history of acquaintanceship
with this singularly maligned and neglected class of cultural resources.  In
fact I just recently finished restoring the three-holer (TOS) attached to my
1850s barn in a shed addition.  For the finishing touch we're papering the walls
with saved New Yorker magazine covers.  Although I do, at this point in my life,
have access to interior amenities of the flushable variety, it takes me back to
a time about 20 years ago when I was living on a 3000 acre cattle ranch north of
Boulder, CO in a 1950s travel trailer.  I shared  a two holer with a family of
itinerant loggers, and will never forget the time the chinook winds nearly
toppled it, sending two of them flying out the door in a flailing mass of
dropped trousers.  These folks were living proof of the old adage that the
family that s***s together sticks together.

A friend faxed me an article from the Washington Post concerning the fact that
Universal Builders Supply Inc., the company that erected the New York
scaffolding has also been selected to scaffold the Washington Monument.  The
bidder that finished second for the monument scaffolding has filed a suit in
federal court (prior to the NYC accident) challenging the way the contract was
awarded and alleging that the plans as concieved are unsafe.

The structural engineer for the monument project is James Madison Cutts of
Washington.  They have changed Universal's design and sent a welding expert to
New Jersey where the frames are being manufactured.

And finally as an aside, anybody that appreciates the Perfect Country & Western
Song should check out Terry Allen's album "Lubbock on Everything" featuring such
classics as "The Day the Great Joe Bob Went Bad" and "Truckload of Art".  It's
available at Amazon.com, and I think you can even preview several of the songs
with Real Audio.

Lisa Sasser
Senior Preservation Specialist
National Park Service
Northeast Cultural Resources Center/Building Conservation Branch
Lowell, MA