Thursday, December 18, 2014

crinkle-crankle

This item is included because as you can tell by the name of the place you can expect things that are both amusing and edifying.

So don't give me any shit about not posting serious things of substance.

A straight diet of that is a drag all the time. It damages one's psychology.

And on account of I'm the sensitive type. *examines nails*

This impressed me. Wikipedia entry:
A crinkle crankle wall, also known as a crinkum crankum, serpentine, ribbon or wavy wall, is an unusual type of garden wall.  
The crinkle crankle wall economizes on bricks, despite its sinuous configuration, because it can be made just one brick thin. If a wall this thin were to be made in a straight line, without buttresses, it would easily topple over. The alternate convex and concave curves in the wall provide stability and help it to resist lateral forces.

You don't say. I did not know that. Is this awesome or what? 


Oh, bummer!


I found the word in a book. A book! A book about gardening that is full, and I mean FULL of new words. Mostly having to do with plants. They used the word to describe hedges of hornbeam that imitate the snaking walls at Chatsworth in Derbyshire.


7 comments:

AllenS said...

There are some very talented people in this world.

I am not a robot.

ricpic said...

I doubt the property owner who ordered this wall built did it to economize on bricks. The impulse was one of pure play, or even joy. Although I'm sure he consulted with the bricklayer before ordering it built:

"I say, Clyde, can you build a wall like a snake?"

"Thet I ken, Guvner, an' built it on'y one brick thick on 'count a' forces an' coun'erforces I wouldn' want ta botha your Lordship 'bout."

"Smashing! Then build it I say, build it!"

virgil xenophon said...

I know that wall well. I was stationed in the UK in Suffolk just outside Ipswitch and Woodbridge @RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge. Used to go drinking at a Pub in Wickham Mkt named The White Heart Inn. (iirc) circa '69-71

Mumpsimus said...

UVa in Charlottesville has a nice serpentine wall.

Trooper York said...

I for one love your off the wall posts Chip. You are a very talented dude and your cooking posts are top notch.

Keep up the good work and don't listen to the haters.

chickelit said...

Molecular crinkle-crankle

Methadras said...

A sine wave is robust horizontally and vertically. That's what we have here. Thank you.