Copied this post from another thread by me, thought we needed our own thread:
Brett - Top Ten Uses for 2006 Sweets Catalogs?
Just got back into town and sure enuf the two boxes of sweets catalogs were there next to my front door, blocking it, so I guess the first possible addition to the ‘Top 10 Uses for the 2006 Set of Sweets Catalogs’ was for security, any one breaking in would not be able to get out cause the catalogs were blocking the door; and since the door light had burnt out while I was gone, they made an excellent stool to reach up and change that light bulb, damn, these sweets catalogs are sure useful, and they are still in the box…imagine what uses we will find once we get them out of the box..now if I could only lift these boxes…ok folks its all up to you, you remember how we played this game last year, I may have a sick cents of humor, but I need help creating this list, so respond please, add your use, don’t be ashamed, however sick, or perverted, hell I’ll even except an actual professional us…well maybe not, but its still early and this list has plenty of time to grow, so consider the possibilities…no cheating now, don’t go back and use any items from last year’s list, this needs to be new, inventive, timely…for example - how about using them to hold down them there blue tarps on everyone’s roofs, why the tarp will disintergrate way before the sweets catalog does, of course the added weight may be a problem, so we may need an engineer’s thoughts on that one…you know if we donate them to the Army Corps of Engineers maybe they couls be used to reinforce the levees…you get the picture, as the list grows, I’ll update it here and we can all vote on it…well maybe not…
Sweets Catalog? What’s that?
A hefty, but fast diminishing, set of catalogs displaying sweets of all kinds-- candies, cookies, truffles, brittles, barks, and other confections for your use, as you see fit!
Still function well as door stops, compressive weights on laminated work, and shelf supports.
Advice to the wise-- get hold of at least one volume and keep for your grandchildren to take to the Antique Roadshow, for evaluation and auction value [that should be interesting!!!]
We did not order the 2006 set, but they still arrived anyway, addressed to someone who told me that they did NOT order them. They were immediately returned to sender.
I have two volumes from an older set that I have behind my sofa at home to keep the back from hitting the wall.
they’re really great for pressing flowers.
Tracy Van Niel,
During all the previous discussions here on 4specs.com on what to do with our sweets cats, your post was the most useful to me!
Using them to prevent a filthy dirty line on my wall where my couch sits is a great trick.
I have been putting off buying a piece of furniture for at least 8 years to put back behind my couch to prevent this ring but now there are my sweets! WOW! I just tried and the stain magically disappeared! Thanks Sweets!
Forget repainting the house every 2 years now due to Low VOC regulations which changed our paint coatings to watercolors - just use a little sweets and the stain disappears forever.
I always love a great laugh!
Melissa
Melissa…ahh!! some humor at last…keep the responses, email, cards, letters, etc. coming folks - this is what I was talking about…
Ralph,
Antiques Roadshow! The best use yet! You would probably appear on the panel at the end of the show with the ones who are disapointed that their treasure turned out to be a dud!
I haven’t checked our new catalogs yet…but do they still have saunas with pictures of naked (semi) women?
“semi-women”? What the heck is that?
Russell
Aren’t you too young to be a dirty old man??
hmmm, now that I think about it, I definitely will be opening the box tonight, esp. since my wife is out of town visiting my inlaws.
If I did not have such scarce space in my office, they would make great legs for a table or a printer stand; but alass I need all the storage space I can get under those tables, Sweets just won’t do.
Ralph, might you have some history on Sweets that you could share? I take it there is (or was) a Mr. Sweets out there?
The first Sweets was published in 1906 (Sweet’s Indexed Catalogue of Building Construction. New York: Architectural Record Company, 1906), so this year (or last year?) would have been the hundredth anniversary. Did they make a big deal about that? I never use the real Sweets any more, and hardly ever use the online version, so if there was a big birthday party, I missed it.
What I wonder, though, do young architects use the virtual (online) Sweets to hold their virtual (computer generated) models together while the glue dries, like we used real Sweets when we used to build models in the real world?
The new Sweet’s we got last week are not green anymore. They are Gold and are the “Centennial Edition”.
They have MasterFormat 2004 number, but do not have MF95 cross-over, would have been nice. Now I have to keep both sets.
Got mine in time to get the 2005 set over to the Friends of the Library in time [Dec 30th] for a 2005 charitable donation.
Item No. 1 - response posted earlier. hee. hee.
Item No. 2 - I brought my shiny new gold treasures down to my office and my 4 year old uses them as her high chair to type on the computer. [Well, ok you all, (notice a Southerner did not say ya’ll - I am trying)I must admit she fell off twice and hurt herself because she told me they were so slick.]
Item No. 3 - If it ever snows here in Arkansas, I am thinking about getting some Duct Tape and making myself a lightning bolt sled! They are not as heavy as they were in the past and they are so slick and shiny surely they would move pretty fast on snow or ice. hee. hee.
Item No. 4 - Take your Duct Tape again, gold treasures again, some nice pom pom fuzzies, shoe strings and you can fasten yourself a nice pair of snow shoes. Again the weight is light enough to keep you from plowing to the bottom of an 10 foot snow drift and with the tape you will not slip while sliding across snow. Yeah, Yeah, I am wishing for a little snow. It is hard to call it winter here when you have 65-70 degree days.
A housekeeping post:
Lynn, that’s “semi-naked women”, not semi-women [which sounds like very fearful creatures, to me, if they exist!].
Russell, less explicit but still “interesting” were the ads for “frosted glass”.
I can remember Sweets as a 16 volume set of books all over 3" thick, and about 7-8 feet long.They carried a near-biblical status and were THE source! Reliable, full of information, and comprehensive in that no manufacturer worth his or her salt would think of not being in Sweets. It was the sole source of comparative info since you would have to find other info on an individual basis.
Blumcraft used to have an insert every bit of 1-1/2" thick, and paint companies included colors, and extensive infomation. It was easy to move from one manufactuer to another for comparative features etc. And you know, you could ALWAYS find the name, addreess and phone number of the firm, quickly, without “clicking” 14 icons, registering all your personal data and giving a pint of blood!!!
As you progressed in your profession you came to value even cherish Sweets because it was so helfpul, so available and so comprehensive. I remember seeing some held together with rubber bands and tape, with pages torn out to be copied, and all kinds of markers and stickers and “dog-earing”. For a student to “come=by” a set was a minor miracle but ever a desire. I’ve seen 10 year old sets in some schools, still being used PROPERLY.
Really for an old guy, it is a little sad to see the adverse comments in discussions like this, and how Sweets has come to such ill-repute, but certainly it is understandable that we have moved on-- Something I think Sweets must do, some how. For the record I am not a fan of the electronci Sweets-- lack luster, incomplete, and not all that friendly
We were in Nashville last week during the holidays and learned the following definitions from the locals:
Nude means unclothed. Naked means unclothed but with bad intent! So I’m not sure where semi-naked gets us?
Ralph,
Sorry to offend. I do remember when they were the source. I remember where I first worked and there they were on the shelves, an endless line of information for the commercial industry to use on our projects. I was like a kid in a candy store. I use to sit at my desk and go page by page and just be in awe of the wealth of info those books housed. After that I knew I wanted to be a specifications writer.
Nowadays I open the books and almost every page says SEE WEBSITE. I know due to money concerns it is more cost effective for manufacturers to use their own webs. They control content, costs incurred, etc. I do miss the old SWEETS and I do not use their online site.
But to me, if you do not laugh at things you will go insane and become bitter and I do not want to be bitter. I am already insane.