SAFETY WITH SARA

It will come as a bit of a surprise, I'm sure, to many of you to learn that my very first client was fixer-upper extraordinaire Bob Vila. What, you may ask, could I possibly teach this skilled craftsman and home repairman about safety? Surely, all his years of experience have taught him more than I could ever know about the safe handling of tools, no? It may come as an even bigger surprise to you, then, to learn that, in truth, Bob is a bit of a klutz. In fact, he failed high school shop class and nearly ended up behind bars in the process. The final shop project that year required that Bob construct a paper towel holder. Not only was Bob's creation an aesthetic disaster but he was so inept with the tools that he ended up killing one of his classmates with a power sander. An investigation ensued, the death was ruled an accident and young Bob was involuntarily transferred to the debate team, where he was undeniably the weakest member of a team that was expected to capture a state championship. Saddled with Bob (he had trouble remaining on-topic), they crashed and burned in the first round of the regionals. Undaunted, Bob became obsessed with becoming a master carpenter and, knowing he'd need safety guidance, he turned to the yellow pages, where I had, just the week before, placed my first ad. The rest is safety history!

Email Sara at: sara@brettnews.com..


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