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Entries published on September 3, 2006

1 entry published on this date. See also: all entries published in September 2006, full archive.

Tool Wars

A long time ago, in a land far away, there lived people who were called “carpenters”, and their jobs consisted, in part, of the following tasks:

Now, the last one was particularly problematic, because it usually involved pounding a small metal connector — called a “nail” — through one of the pieces of wood and into another. Many carpenters working in small shops had to resort to the terribly painful method of just banging the nails with the palms of their hands. The carpenters who worked at these shops typically had to retire early due to “repetitive slapping disorder”, the medical term for the injuries they sustained from slapping their hands against the nails over and over.

Larger, wealthier carpentry shops realized that the pension and health plans …

Entry published September 3, 2006. Read full entry.