A Harvard Prof recently lecturing at the Humphrey Insta-Toot asserted that Tea-Partiers had more schooling than most and therefor didn’t qualify as ignorant. Well, tho having had moor schooling than most, but when it comes to two-cycle engines, i is definitely in the ignoramus class, and old Budd Luetgers, proud, principled and cantankerous proprietor of Bud’s Repair, of Nevis, MN, could sense it. I could just fancy him waving a defunct spark-plug in the face of this book-smart but not very handy college graduate as if to say, “Had you replaced this, your mower would have been running for two bucks, ...but I’m glad to take your twenty!”
My brother-in-law, Lee, introduced me to Budd
Luetgers in the late ‘80’s at the latter’s home in the
northern Minnesota town of Nevis. Budd, proud, principled
and cantankerous proprietor of Bud’s Repair, had
just repaired Lee’s Lawnboy and was puttering about his
shop and yard. He allowed me to take a dozen or so
shots of himself. Naturally, the one out-of-focus shot
was the one revealing a bit of his impish humor, and later
lead to the fantasy of him waving a defunct spark-plug in
the face of a book-smart but not very handy college graduate as if to say, “Had you replaced
this, your mower would have been running for two bucks, ...but I’m glad to get your twenty!”
It took more than a few years to get “a round-to-it,” and the project was well advanced
before dissatisfactions with the eyes and mouth as rendered caused it to be set aside.
They weren’t off by much, but thousandths of an inch make all the difference, and i wasn’t
confident that the glasses, which could not be moved back, would look okay after they eyes
had necessarily been recessed further during the alterations.
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