Janice, my sister, had been pestering her husband, a carpenter, for more than a decade to build a screen door for the kitchen.
One day, to her delight, he built and installed one in less than two hours. It was both practical and pretty. She glanced towards the front door and wistfully remarked that one would look good there, as well.
"Are you kidding?" he gasped. "You can't just whip these things up, you know. It takes ten years to build a door like this."
John Shaw BillingsDied 11 Mar 1913 at age 74 (born 12 Apr 1838). American surgeon and librarian whose organization of U.S. medical institutions played a central role in the modernization of hospital care and the maintenance of public health. During the Civil War, in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, he performed many operations and was the first surgeon in the war to attempt, with success, excision of the ankle joint. He was profoundly interested in advancing knowledge by creating libraries, including the New York Public Library, to improve access to books. Billings also had ideas about hospital architectural design. He planned the new Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore with ventilation systems that reflected the best contemporary understanding of industrial hygiene. |
