August 01 2009 There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges + Jury Rigs

My Finger Doesn't Bend That Way


Image Credit: Photographer's rig, Auto, with flash
Rube Goldbergian Solutions

car, baling twine, handle, broken


For original blog There, I Fixed It.
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Today's blog does not do text, so I get to write about the blog as opposed to write like it.

I have been following There, I Fixed It for about a month. I've enjoyed the random nature of some of the subjects in the photos, and the ingenuity of the people who created the "fix." I remember thinking, "I never see anything like this in real life," but today with no particular goal in mind, I saw my target and knew instantly what today's photo and blog would be.

I spent some time contemplating the phrase "Jury Rig" because I was so sure that it was "jerry rigged" and I had to look it up. My research learns me this:

Jury Rig is a nautical term for the mast erected temporarily when a permanent mast breaks, and is intended to be replaced with a repaired mast when weather and time allowed. This "jury" mast may be made of whatever is lying around. Thus, "Jury Rigged" has come to mean a hodge-podge makeshift fix.

Many sources say that Jury Rigged has commonly been confused with Jerry Built, thus, "Jerry Rigged".

Jerry Built is a term referring to a quality of construction usually sub-par, or shoddy.

However, I did find a tid-bit about the term "Jerry Rigged" that is not a mispronunciation. During WWII, German warcraft like tanks were commonly seen repaired with doors off of buildings and other various hodge-podge. These repairs were generally permanent, just enough to keep the machine in working order to continue the fight. Such repaired vehicles were called "Jerry Rigged" from the term "Jerry" used to refer to German soldiers.

I did all this linguistic origin research way before I decided this month's project, and definitely before I decided to share all my information with you. If I knew the sources that I accumulated this knowledge from, I'd share it with you. If you find information to the contrary, leave it in the comments. You can comment anonymously on my blog, so don't let "signing in" deter you from hacking my perceptions to pieces.