Re: [foldingboats] "Basteln" vs. "Nopsing"

[FoldingBoats]

[I pass on the following in trust from "Thomas of Theisingen" - Ralph]

Dear Bill,

You suppose, Bill, you suppose. But you are wrong, I think. The culture regards 
nothing, maybe persons or people regard others. These days it is very controversial in 
Germany if one should appreciate such a  phenomenon as a German culture. Ask about 
Leitkultur and the discussion about it. 

Are you really shure, that the person who bought your lute was really shocked? Was he 
not only astonished? Reasonable people in Germany like everywhere in the world do 
appreciate skills and knowledge, if they be acquired by self-teaching or by special 
education. Do you really think, any of the few professional lute-builders in Germany 
would look at you as a presumptious individual?

Did your customer bring any suit against you? Oh, I know well what it is to build 
things like a lute. I tought myself to build little sailing ships by means of hundreds 
and thousands of matches. The reason was that I was not quite satisfied with the 
Revell-kits, I would have the ships in real wood but in the same scale. I was a great 
admirer of captain Hornblower, then. Now I like more C. S. Forester as a writer and 
even poet.       

Maybe you know the German proverb "Schuster bleib bei deinem Leisten" or "shoemaker 
you should not try to perform other professions". But that only means everybody should 
really know his trade. No more and no less. 

So I would suggest to bury words like Germanic influence and if you would agree, there 
would be no more reason for me or other Germaniacs to think you could be the victim of 
 a too long lasting splendid isolation. The result of which could be prejudices. More 
than 55 years after world-war-two. 

Note: Basteln has no negative meaning at all. The meaning is only of a private 
harmless mostly skillful pastime usually not designed to earn some money. Rather to 
spend them.

Of course, I should not write about all that  in English, because I had no occasion to 
learn it in scool to tell the truth, I was too lazy, then. Do not think about 
presumption! I only think good-natured Ralph should not be caused to translate all 
that rubbish. He should sell Pouch-Boats as much as he can. At least about that you 
should agree.

Cheers and "grins" [= "grin'], but also ;-) Thomas

[Thomas's dream is to build a kayak in Mahogany. Due to the fact that Bill has now 
owned up to being able to build lutes, Thomas wonders whether Bill might not be better 
suited to the task! Thomas's own boat project will be on the projects page as soon as 
I can coax the accompanying pictures out of my reluctant PC. Ralph]
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