Referencing the back cover of the July Fine Homebuilding magazine. If it was Michael’s (I’ll refer to this rad character as the “Flipster” heretofore) goal to perpetuate the notion that construction guys are stupid, good job Flipster! I jump off cliffs while skiing chutes, mountain bike, and dive in my spare time. Big deal, right? I also run a business. I don’t confuse work with play and my clients appreciate that. I’ve had a hand in running four businesses in 22 years, so I minimally know the fundamentals. I also know that when guys like the Flipster break their leg, they’ll expect their insurance company to cover them while they are laid up. Coincidentally, I pay for that too Flipster.
I also know that leadership starts at the top and what’s good for the boss, well… you figure out the rest.
And as far as Fine Homebuilding, what were you thinking? I’m still drawing a blank…. the back cover is surreal. In any business, especially ours [statistically the most dangerous] safety is paramount… and that’s no joke. The Flipster is a joke.
Jack Whealan
Owner – TechBuilders
Replies
Ditto! That rates right up there with nail gun fights or other stupid grab-ass and if he worked for me, he would be history.
Yeah, no brain no pain. Now I know why my insurance rates are so high.
At least he left his tool belt on the roof, I'd hate to see him land on a nail or something that fell out of the thing.cc
I liked the picture, took it for what it's worth, I wish they had a vidio so I could see him stick the landing.
Lighten up guys!
John
John Svenson, Builder, Remodeler, NE Ohio (Formerly posted as JRS)
Ditto on the lighten up.
What took the safety police so long?
I knew as soon as I saw it.......
btw...I'm pretty sure I read the guy is the owner. Can't fire himself.
Better run off and write your letters to the editor....I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find a staged pic where they forgot to put on the safety glasses too! Maybe check the flip pic....was he wearing them in it? If not.....fantastic...double violation!
Jeff "That's like hypnotizing chickens........."
Great Jeff! Your byline says it all. BTW the hypnotize chickens are why we have broken white lines on our roads and highways. Seems as if someone in the early fifties made chickens stare at a solid white line for a few minutes and it hypmotized them. Stare at the "The Flipster", and it works!
Huh....and I always thought they were just trying to save paint.
John
John Svenson, Builder, Remodeler, NE Ohio (Formerly posted as JRS)
Hello, it's me again. A message to those who say lighten up, or call us, sardonically, the safety police: Take a look at this picture guys. It's a job site. This is what is know as "my point". Do you follow me so far? Got that much? OK. Now move onto the notion of professionalism. Some modicum of behavior that precludes the Flipster's antics.... minimally. So... doing flips off of roofs in daylight for all of the help, the customers, the potential customers, and maybe even the aspiring future carpenters to see. If I were in the office at JPMorgan Chase, would I be doing flips? What about Walmart? Not likely. Got that? You follow me? OK. Now, take a profession that is starving for bright people. Remember your guidance counselor in high school? Pretty much though you were a looser unless you went to college, right? Hence, morons like the Flipster show up when I recruit and say "Can I have a job, Dude? What do you mean I have to know fractions? What's a fraction? Want to see a flip instead?" OK, now do you follow me there? Got it? You sure? OK. Now look at the statistical rank of our job relative to danger and the pain we endure when we write that Workers' Comp check. Thanks Flipster.... you Dunce.
You guys that say lighten up, we write your pay checks every week. I've probably fired dozens of you. I only wish that I hadn't had to. I've also seen guys do tumbles off roofs when we were certain we did everything to avoid it. As a business owner since the 1980s it blows my mind at several levels why I'm seeing the Flipster glorified. OK, I'll lighten up... all I have to do is look at my W-2. I must be doing something right.
And as far as the Flipster being the owner, put me in a sales contest with characters like this and see who gets the job. Stupidity is pervasive. In good times, like now, even morons can run the show.
You follow me? Got it? Probably not.
There.... that ought to start another thread. Go..
Is the pic you're referring to posted anywhere, for those of us who don't get the magazine?
I looked in your eyes and saw something I liked. Then I realized it was my reflection.
Or is the pic posted somewhere for those of us who always get FH weeks after most people.
Timh in alaska
I couldn't care one way or another about what Flippy Boy does on his own job site...What bothers me is that FHB could have put alot more of an interesting picture on the back cover. I get the idea they were shooting pics for that curved wall layout (same photographer I think?) when this guy yells "Hey magazine dude, watch this!" Voila, back cover was done.
How about something one of us built (like my hidden CD doors in my entertainment center, or my laundry chute that turns a 45 degree corner) OK OK enough of my own horn blowing...
Just give us something more than some dude jumping off a roof. How about one of those "new helper and her tool belt" pics that was circulating around the old site. Ha, they'd never print one of those...Now THATS back cover material!!!
Mike
The back cover of FHB has had many unusaual pictures on it. Does anyone remember the Gothic ice palace? What has that got to do with fine hme building, other than a bunch of kids raising money for Habitat For Humanity?
The editors of FHB have done a fine job over the years of filling that space with interesting photos. They very boldy advise not to try this anywhere. Can't anyone tell when they are being spoofed?
We have had threads here about job site antics , that if caught on film, would most likely make that look like a cake walk.
lighten up, pleeeeeease!
>Can't anyone tell when they are being spoofed?
Not only that, but if the guy had gotten hurt doing this, his ins claim would likely have been denied. After all, there was proof on film of what crazy stuff he'd been doing! <G>
I like the diversity of stuff they show, be/c I get to see stuff that would never otherwise show up in my esoteric corner of the construction world. Besides, that back layout showed damn good form!
Edited 5/27/2002 5:57:26 PM ET by Cloud Hidden
The back cover is a good picture. No, it's 3 good pictures. I'm impressed that Tom O'Brien has such a fast motor drive on his camera. I actually took it for granted that he sent Michael Stefaun up there to do it again so he would be sure he got the shot.
I want to point out that I'm the one that's always criticizing macho men for taking risks, but frankly, flipping off that wimpy little short wall is just something I'm not prepared to complain about. That's just a stunt. The flipping part actually reduces the force of the impact making easier on the joints than just plain jumping off.
While we're talking about that job site, though, I can't believe you guys aren't all over the man on page 69 standing on the wall driving nails through a steel strap with a framing nailer. THAT I call macho laziness. I'm not nearly so anxious to see a ladder as I am a palm nailer in that picture.
Be sure to wear your ear grubs!
B
I have done better stunts by accident....:) Lighten up its only a guy showing off for a photogragher. If he gets hurt well thats his problem. Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
It's got all of the disclaimers. And he'll feel it in another 10 or 15 yrs. What's the matter, one of you getting the urge to try it.
Now I really liked the jokes in this issue. Especially the one in the letters section. Where John Spiers replies "....In a professionally built house,the stud layouts are highly precise and predictable, and unprotected wiring is nowhere within range of errant baseboard nails."
Where in the galaxy does this guy live?
It's not the habitat, it's the inhabitants.
Won't you be my neighbor
BReese - both senco and hitachi make nailers with a shortened nose piece that allows one to push the tip of the nail itself into the framing connector or strap - they engineered the guns to enable framers to install metal connectors safely with a pnuematic nailer - and the guns look just like a regular senco or hitachi framer - look at that picture again.
Neat! I didn't know they made guns that would shoot nails into metal straps. Good to know. I suppose I'll have to stick with my palm nailer, though, because I'm always using those 1 1/2" joist hanger nails to nail onto a single piece of 2x lumber. If they come out with those short, fat, hot dipped galvanized nails in collated form that fit a gun, I'd like to know. That palm nailer is really loud. I think despite my ear plugs I'm losing hearing. I can only detect my carpenter father-in-law's hearing aid feedback in my left ear now. It seems like he's always sneaking up on me, even when I can see he's right in front of me.
B
>> ... despite my ear plugs I'm losing hearing.
Have you tried plugs and earmuffs together? I use both when I'm shooting and it makes a difference.
That's a good idea. I'll have to try that. Covering up that bone behind the ear is probably really helpful for such a concussive noise.
Thanks,
B
Do you do alot of hardware installation? those guns are about $500 and yessirree they sell ticos by the 50lb box with plastic collating. fat 1 1/4" all the way to fat 12d nails. I'd say one job where you had 200 connectors or so and maybe 200 lf of that cs16 strap to nail would pay for it. Access for the gun is the same as a framing nailer though. but the time you save ....it's like hand nailing trim or using your finish nailer...which one is more efficient?
How 'bout sending us some pictures of those cool things you've done? If you don't send proposals, we can't consider publishing them.
The back cover of most magazines is prime advertising. We use ours for the amusement of our readers. The point of the back cover is whimsy, oddities, the interesting things that construction people do. It's about fun. Stefaun's leap was just too amazing not to share. If he'd done the manouver in a half-pipe, we'd all have been awed. I don't think it was any riskier on that jobsite than it would be at 30 mph on a skateboard. Andy Engel, Forum moderator
I hope you aren't seriously considering changing the back-cover photo policy ? Even if you left the back cover entirely blank, someone from the same club would come along and complain about the shade of white of the unprinted paper. .
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Phill, the back cover is engrained here, and I didn't mean to suggest that it would ever become an ad. I just wanted to point out that most magazines sell it. We don't, we have fun with it.
Sometimes, I get more defensive about criticisms of the magazine than I should. The staff takes it very seriously -- it's not just a job, it's a culture that we buy into, that started for most of us when we were subscribers. I know that much of the criticism we get springs from that sense of ownership many of you feel. "Hey, what 'ell are they doing to my magazine?"
I've drifted, but the point should be that I'm thankful you guys care enough about Fine Homebuilding to criticize us. If my hackles were up in this thread, my apologies to anyone I may have offended.Andy Engel, Forum moderator
The cavernous fireplace with the two guys sitting on the mantlepiece-- that was the best back cover I've seen yet!
The giant fireplace back cover was good and so was that old Conestoga (sp?) style wagon with the copper clad roof with the mountains in the background from a few years back.
Mike
Uh-oh, looks like the lighten up police have shown up too. Can't a person say somthing looks dumb ,when it actually is dumb, without people getting all up tight? Hopefully if this guy was riding a board in a half pipe he would at least wear a helmut just to hold his brains in. cc
I've always liked the back covers, this one is no exception IMHO...
These kids do it all for the adrenaline high I guess.
We used to have sports and games. Now we have extreme sports (aka stunts), professional sports (aka entertainment and fake civic pride), games (aka golf and checkers) and some of the traditional sports that people still participate in.
Anyway, some of us are so old fashioned, we get our high from a job well done and a cold beer.
I knew when I saw the backcover that FHB was going to get letters out the yin yang. While I think the guy is an idiot for doing that, it seems alot crazier to me to be sitting in a cubicle for fifty hours a week staring at a computer screen. It is a perfect example of what separates us from the lemmings and the desk jockeys.
They saved all the high falutin' stuff for between the covers, like the meter base cover.
Now I know Blodgett is a competent carpenter and the meter base cover sure is pretty, but is it fine homebuilding? Maybe hick homebuilding. Looks like he used some cheesy nails on it the way there staining the wood.
I like to use Fine Homebuilding as a reference for my customers which I think it has been over the year. Although I enjoyed the pictures of the guy doing a flip, I think it has a bit of a sideshow feel to it.Tom
Now, you just had to go there on the meter cover.... I was thinking that but I wasn't going to say anything. I accept that some people think certain objects are ugly. Maybe I think they look more discrete just hanging there doing their job than drawing attention to themselves with embellishments. I'm all for a wood front on a Sub-Zero, because otherwise you're just bragging that you have an expensive refrigerator. But I'm going to say no to a kitty cat toilet paper cozy and a toilet brush dressed up to look like a prom queen. And probably the meter cover, too. Just not for me. I sort of dig those instruments on the wall. Maybe it's because my husband worked for the company that made our cable interface. I did minimize the clutter by removing the extra phone company NID off my house, though, when I got phone and cable modem from the cable company. Now the phone company's twisted pair is dangling from the pole on the street into a tangle in the woods. That's pretty tacky in itself.
General Posting should never have been promoted from being Private Posting. His cousin Lt Posting is pushing the boudaries of the Peter Principle as it is.
Excellence is its own reward!
Another great idea....a freaking helmet!
That'll save the world..........helmets............I give up.....Jeff "That's like hypnotizing chickens........."
Timh: So it's not just me, huh?
Jack
You really like to see yourself in print dont you, It was a pic about someone doing a foolish stunt, not much more.
I dont know what your w-2's have to do with any of it though, Im happy that you think that you make more money than the rest of us peeons, more happy that I dont work for you though.
Like all the other lighten-uppers, LIGHTEN-UP
Doug