Joel Orr Commentary: Thanksgiving

quot;What should I write about?" I asked my wife. "My Machine Design column is due." She suggested, "Why don't you write about what engineers should be thankful for? It's Thanksgiving, after all. And you can make it semi-humorous."So I sat down to do just that. "What should I write about?" I asked my wife. "My Machine Design column is due." She suggested, "Why don't you write about what engineers should be thankful for? It's Thanksgiving, after all. And you can make it semi-humorous." So I sat down to do just that. Finally, it came to me: Engineers, yes; Thanksgiving, yes. But what I want to tell you is why I am thankful to-and for-engineers. Of course, there's the obvious: Not a thing in our built environment, not a vehicle, tool, computer, or machine was made without an engineer. The food that we eat, the water we drink, even the very air we breathe, are wholesome, thanks to engineers. Design. Make. Build. Produce. Solve. Fix. Understand. These verbs belong to engineers. Thank you, dear engineer! Thank you for all you bring into my life! When the first iron ring that was to be used in the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer (which originated and is mostly practiced in Canadian engineering schools) was sent to Rudyard Kipling, who had written the ceremony, along with an apologetic note stating that the ring needed some more refinement, he responded: "But the ring is now an Ancient Landmark, not to be deviated from. It is an allegory in itself. It is rough, as the mind of a young man. It is not smoothed off at the edges any more than the character of the young. It is hand-hammered all around and the young have all their hammerings coming to them. It has neither beginning