atom

I would never. Even though I like spotted owls. :-)

They still use axes to chop wood, of course. As for logging, I would assume there is still a minor role for the axe.

However, since *most* of the trees have been cut down, there is less need for logging equipment of any sort. It is a touchy subject in these parts. And don't say "spotted owl" to a logger unless you are prepared for unpleasantness!

Thanks for the warning, slumry. Next time I go west, I'll remember that. Never cross a person wielding an axe....

Wait--I don't suppose they still use those, do they?

Scary thought--those pronky WMDs. Let's hope they are phantoms.;-)

Yes, I have always liked the word lumberjack, but they are a breed apart from loggers. You have to trust me on this one. ;-)

I think that might be the problem!
WMDs pronk.

Oh, but lumberjack sounds so pronky.

Indeed, you would not want to get crosswise with the man with the axe. And out west, that would mean calling him a logger rather than a lumberjack. It is a regional thing. They get testy about that.

Well, it would seem that even a dull axe would at some point have a "leading" atom that would make it atom v. atom. Didn't Zeno of Elea say something about lumberjacks? Can't remember...

That would have to be one incredibly sharp axe, with an edge you wouldn't even be able to see. Funny, I always thought about that too.

And you'd really, really want to be nice to the lumberjack.

Incidentally, I who know very little about this stuff have always wondered if that could be theoretically possible -- if your axe was sharp enough and if you could hit the atom precisely. I don't suppose it is, but just IMAGINE what could happen if an innocent lumberjack inadvertently wielded the power of nuclear holocaust. ;-)

By the time I was 5 years old, my oldest brother had a degree in physics. My mother liked to make the joke that "I was taught in school that you could not split an atom; now my son does it." Hence, I always envisioned atoms to be something you could put on a chopping block and split with an axe.