Ruth,
    I first heard that story when I was a kid.  It was told as a joke and
the point was that it made fun of the guy who kept saying "they don't make
anything like they used to".  Just like the fabled "good olde times".  We
have all read old and ancient accounts of people complaining about the
manners of children and the difficulty of finding good help.
    Now as for authenticity of the axe.  There is something special about
the connectedness of the item and the original hand that used it.  We can
assume at no time was the handle and the head replaced at the same time.  It
remained in constant use.  It has integrity as an old friend, but it is not
authentic in as much as its parts are not original.  Now if the same forger
made the head and the owner fashioned the ash handle from a local forrest...
the process is authentic:  the axe is authentically made.
    But why all the semantics?  Isn't it easy just to say:  "Hezzy has had
that axe for sixty five years.  He loves that thing cause it looks just like
the original one.  Course, nobody has the heart to tell him the Japanese
bought that company in Spiller's Falls."
Ruth, you country fellers ax alot of questions.  How much snow ya got up
there?
Best,
Leland

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ruth Barton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 7:15 PM
Subject: Re: Authenticity vs. integrity


> OK you alls from the big cities, I got a ? for ya.  You alls have heard
the
> story about the old fella that was real attached to his "old ax."  He said
> the handle had been replaced 5 times and the blade twice but it was so
good
> to have an old fashioned tool that lasted so well.  Now for the ?, does
his
> ax have either integrity or authenticity?  Ruth
>
>
>
>
>
>
> At 7:28 AM -0600 3/22/01, Score, Robert wrote:
> >If integrity can be reproduced, does that mean that a reconstructed copy
of
> >a building has the same integrity as the original. If that is the case
then
> >Disney World  would have 5/8th the integrity of the countries in euroupe
> >which it so smartly copies at 5/8th scale or colonial williamsburg has
the
> >same integrity as it would if it were original. Unfortunatly, it seems to
me
> >that once integrity or authenticity is carelessly destroyed it is at best
> >greatly reduced from its original, no matter how good the recreation.
That
> >is the premisis of preserving structures inlieu of letting them go to pot
> >and then recreating them when it is convient.
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Robert Cagnetta [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 5:59 AM
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Authenticity vs. integrity
> >
> >
> >Integrity can be reproduced, authenticity cannot.
>
> --
> Ruth Barton
> [log in to unmask]
> Westminster, VT
> Remember in November
>