| Master craftsman reproduces Early American furniture
With power equipment and antique hand tools, woodworker James King toils daily to preserve the techniques and furniture styles of the master craftsmen of early America.
In his home in rural Hudson, Ill., King, 51, builds reproductions of fine furniture produced by artisans in this country from 1700 to 1850.
Period-inspired furniture and historical reproductions are the focus of King's business, Post and Beam, which he has operated full time for eight years.
He receives orders from museums, businesses and homeowners from across the United States - the majority from the northeast part of the country. His work can range in price from $800 for a small table to $15,000 for a copy of an 18th century highboy.
He recently was commissioned to build a reproduction of a 1775 Chippendale-style looking glass for George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, Va.
Decoding the debate over blackness
NEW YORK: Those of us who were born black in the years just after World War II had front-row seats for the collapse of American apartheid. We started out confined to all-black communities and schools at a time when skin color was still destiny. But as segregation gave way, many of us were vaulted out of this sequestered world and into colleges, jobs and walks of life that had been closed to us pretty much since America's founding. The rush of upward mobility produced the inevitable identity crisis, which led in turn to endless discussions about the meaning of blackness in a world where skin color was beginning to matter less. At their best, these discussions were probing, serious and heartfelt. At their worst, they turned into lectures by the race police — '60s- era ideologues who characterized blackness not as a matter of individual interpretation or choice, but as a narrow set of attitudes that were said to make up the authentic black identity.
Jungles, beaches, cities: Malaysia is gaining ground with world travelers
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- This multiracial nation's tourism tagline is "Malaysia Truly Asia," and true to its slogan, it is home to a unique potpourri of Asian cultures -- Malay, Chinese, Indian -- along with many indigenous groups on Borneo island. Malaysia is one of the most pleasant, hassle-free countries to visit in Southeast Asia. Aside from its gleaming 21st century glass towers, it boasts some of the most superb beaches, mountains and national parks in the region. Malaysia is also launching its biggest-ever tourism campaign in an effort to lure 20 million visitors here this year. More than 16 million tourists visited in 2005, the last year for which complete statistics were available. While the majority of them were from Asia (mostly neighboring Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, China, Japan and India), a growing number of Western travelers are also making their way to this Southeast Asian tropical paradise.
Mark Rutledge: What does 'Antiques Roadshow' know about step ...
These people who bring their furniture to TV's "Antiques Roadshow" never seem interested in actually selling. Someone tells me my rug is worth $57,000, I believe I would quickly part company with said rug. I look around my house and see only one inanimate object I would not sell at any price. It's the well-worn step stool I built in Mr. Geisler's seventh-grade shop class in Johnson City, Tenn. My classmates and I mass-produced enough for each of us to have two stools. The four-piece construction, using 2-by-10 pine planks with routed edges and decorative cuts, was Mr. Geisler's design. He assigned the project after a chance meeting with a former student whose class had made the same stool 10 years earlier. "He came over to me," Mr.
John H. Kelbel Sr. 70
John H. Kelbel Sr., a retired mechanical engineer and former Reisterstown resident, died of pulmonary fibrosis Jan. 24 at a hospital in Palm Coast, Fla. He was 70. Mr. Kelbel was born in Baltimore and raised in Hebbville. He was a 1954 graduate of Milford Mill High School and earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1960. He worked for Bendix Radio Corp. in Towson for a decade before taking an engineering position in 1970 at Nurad Technologies Inc., a radar engineering firm in Baltimore. "He helped build radar systems used in fighter planes and for other military areas," said his wife of 44 years, the former E. Ruth Weidemeyer. After retiring in 2000, Mr. Kelbel moved to St. Augustine, Fla., and then to Palm Coast.
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