READER INPUT

Love of lashing, kids who solder, hope, and Scout skills.

Let me come straight to the point. While my 10-year-old daughter and I love every issue of your fine periodical, Volume 20 (“Try This At Home!”) is spectacular. The theme is spot on, and the article on lashing by Gever Tulley is, without question, one of the most incredibly useful, approachable, and entertaining that I have come across.

The kid and I are always fascinated by at least a couple of things that your tome presents, and while we look forward to each issue, we are not highly technical people. We bought the Blinkybugs and had marvelous success. We bought the pocket theremin and had far less (read: no) success. Some of the articles and projects are simply above our current level of Geekwareness. The article on lashing simply made our week. I believe we have a fully lashed fort on the agenda for the weekend.

Regards to your team, and many thanks for the continued high-quality publication. We look forward to many years more.

—Rustin Sparks, Norman, Okla.

Ahem. While the general population may have forgotten about lashing, it is a required skill for Boy Scouts to achieve the rank of First Class. And they are required to demonstrate its use. The most common one of which is the tripod shown in your article.

—Roland B. Roberts, Ph.D., Brooklyn, N.Y.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Good point, Roland. Here’s hoping it becomes a requirement in lots of other clubs and schools as well.

My son Isaac (aka Kidrocket) and I are delighted to be runners-up in the Teach Your Family to Solder challenge [Make: Online, “Summer MAKEcations”]. I’m particularly grateful to MAKE for prompting me to trust Isaac with a soldering iron. It was a great experience for both of us.

Thanks again, so much! Isaac and I are big MAKE fans. Watching MAKE podcasts on my iPhone is one of the ways we chill out together. Y’all are doing a Great Thing with that magazine.

—Thomas Beckett, Hendersonville, N.C.

I address this to all of those behind your marvelous magazine. There is hope. Hope for an inventive culture, for a sense that solutions are more important than problems. For statements of excellence (Adam Savage mentions this in his Welcome to Volume 20). The truly valuable human capability to create something new from what others have discarded.

I was blessed to grow up in just such a home. Today, my father’s collection of items from projects over the past 50 years is in the basement of his home. Ironically, he is unable to enjoy the pleasures described in this issue, of discovery and meditative creation. It has been hard. But the joy lives on in my shop, at my computer, and in my son’s skills both inherited and learned.

MAKE magazine represents the core of what makes us human. The willingness, enthusiasm, and pure joy of discovery, pursuit, and execution of whatever is next. Best of luck!

—Peter Blacksberg, Wayne, N.J.

P.S. Oh yes, I built a panoramic camera head in 1972 — just a bit ahead of the current pano craze. You can see some of my panoramic photography at flickr.com/photos/peteblac/sets.