Comments on: Italian Food and Woodworking

By: thewoodwhisperer

thewoodwhisperer — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:58:27 +0000

Its interesting how we can all take inspiration from different sources. Sounds like the Olive Garden holds a special place in your heart. Nicole and I have a local breakfast place that we go to about once a week. We brainstorm and usually come up with your best ideas during those breakfasts. The place is somewhat of a dump but the coffee is good and so is the company. :)

Thanks for sharing your story!

By: Peter Smith

Peter Smith — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:10:47 +0000

So I understand your point, but hate to say I love the Olive Garden. It may not be because of the food however. My wife and I were going trough kind of a rough patch and we wound up at the Olive Garden and there stuck away in the back corner we sat and talked as we ate. The wine flowed and soon we were laughing and planning and appreciating each other once again. And that is how I feel about woodworking.
I’ve been away from woodworking for a long time and have recently rediscovered it. That rounded edge you described was much more of a concern for me that Olive Garden’s food. My woodworking budget is extremely limited so I’ll pick up a sheet of veneered plywood from a box store rather than glue up solid wood for a panel or purchase that coveted premium plywood. But that doesn’t matter! It’s how I feel when I’m passing that low grade plywood through my Dad’s saw. The feeling I get when a vision in my head becomes a reality in my shop. There maybe a gap in one of my joints but it’s still a joint and I’m having a ball making it.
I’m sure I’ll never approach the level of craftsmanship my father did but in a small way I’m carrying on his legacy of fine woodworking, well in my case not so fine woodworking. My uncle once told me a story regarding my father’s woodworking. He was a teenager and his dog had just passed away. He had made a small box to bury him in. As my uncle described it it was near perfect, less one flaw, a tear stain in the finish my father couldn’t get out.
So my woodworking, much like the Olive Garden, is measured by my experience with it. Sometimes the value of a piece is enhanced by it’s flaws because that means I’ve done more than just think about how much fun it would be to build something. It means that I did build something.

By: Frank Kovach

Frank Kovach — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:54:32 +0000

Marc, I must confess. My wife, son, and I went to the Olive Garden tonight and I tried something that said “new!” on their menu……………………and I liked it, BUT I felt conflicted about it. I also decided to check out their trim and yes, it was cheap. I told my wife that was what I wanted to do at our house, except with good wood, and she was skeptical, because, as she said, “It looks cheap.” Inside, I was pleasantly surprised, because she knew it was cheap, and I said “Yes, it is, and cheaply done, but the basic premise is good. I would just do it better, and with higher quality materials.” You’re right, do everything to the best of your abilities. Even if you have to make compromises for business reason as you mentioned above, you’re doing your best, right? You don’t give the customer a poor quality piece of furniture, ever, right? I mean, not every piece can be the “end-all, be-all, the best piece of furniture that has ever been made, or ever will be made,” right? Because then it wouldn’t be worth it to build anything ever again, because you could never make it that good again. So, every piece should be built as good as you can, given whatever parameters you’re working in. And every once in a while you can build something with one thing in mind: perfection, where every other concern comes second. But only every once in a while, because then it wouldn’t be special. Besides, if you ever really made the “perfect project,” Johnny Depp might come along and shoot you. :) (Think “Once Upon A Time In Mexico.”)

By: Frank Kovach

Frank Kovach — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:40:53 +0000

I can relate. I’m new at this game, and so far wouldn’t dream of having somebody pay me for my work, but I’d love to do it for a living. In the military, and in life in general, I have learned that for me I need to do two things: stop procrastinating and not to kill myself over trying to achieve perfection when I do stop procrastinating. I haven’t been very successful yet, but I have been successful “enough.” A saying that I heard a military guy say once: “Sometimes good enough is exactly that, and perfect isn’t worth the effort.” That is kind of wide open to individual interpretation, so I guess that’s my philosophy. It’s also very relative. What might seem like “good enough” to you, in the woodworking realm would probably seem like the Sistine Chapel to me. It’s a philosophy and standard that you develop through experience, personality, and environment (mentors, teachers, peers, etc.) and something that probably never stops developing. That’s my take.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:27:11 +0000

Got it. I understand you don’t like the offensive mediocre display at the OG, but don’t the galoots just say, build something. I mean, seriously, just deliver. I like OG, its not what my Italian mom can make, but it ain’t Mc@#$#@!s either. Remember that delivering is a quality too. They deliver Italian food every time I order it. Most of the time, its edible and I like it. You ever hear that perfect is the enemy of good. I guess I’ve been reading too much arts and mysteries on popularwoodworking. If you try to be perfect every time, you may never deliver anything. As a new woodworker my furniture is, well, not even OG quality. But, if I give up, I’ll never get to the burg. Oh Well, I’ll keep at it, cause I don’t know any better.

By: jHop

jHop — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:51:29 +0000

I used to work at a nightclub with a kitchen. Their marinara came out of a can. I assume OG has the same tendency. Being half Italian, I *KNOW* real marinara takes fourteen moms and aunts cooking in the kitchen for most of a day.

But there comes a point when, as with movies, I shut the brain off and appreciate what’s in front of me. Does it mean I think it’s the greatest thing (food, trim work, needlepoint, whatever) since sliced bread? Hardly. But consider the whole, and the atmosphere.

I have good memories about OG. (Like being able to eat one Tour of Italy and single handedly asking the waitstaff to bring more breadsticks and salad, in a time when they did not like to do that.) But the memories are for the company I was keeping more than the food. While the analytical side of the brain can categorize all the faults of the work in front of you, remember sometimes you just need to accept and move on.

Just know where your *personal* standards are, and act accordingly. Time, money, quality? works for me.

By: Lorri (Landolt) Camilleri

Lorri (Landolt) Camilleri — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:16:06 +0000

Hi.. just came across this site. Are you the Gene Spadaccini from Trenton (Hamilton HS West 1970)? Just wanted to say hi to an old friend.

By: steven

steven — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:27:19 +0000

So true so true.

By: Mark C

Mark C — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:12 +0000

And look where Chi-Chi’s ended up.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:55:02 +0000

Olive Garden is always packed here…3pm in the afternoon. Not the greatest food, but if they franchise, i’m buying one.

I also second Scotti’s in Cincy…