> Those old bricks came from several sources, but most of them are obviously hand made. About half came from an old dorm that was being torn down at UT, and rumor has it that they were made by slave labor prior to the War Between the States. And they might not be the oldest in the stack.

Weird. I was just thinking about bricks. Somewhere, there was a story about a man who was one of the last brick-makers in America: the last, that is, who made bricks by hand. He was a very old man, and I think he was taken to Africa by some NGO to teach people there how to make their own bricks and build with them. Apparently, it's a dying art, and one that is something that cannot be learned from a book.

The story stuck with me as we've been talking about the dying arts: breadmaking, quilting, etc., many of which are having a resurgence. Does anyone know of whom I'm speaking? I'd love to hear the end of the story.

te "butcher, baker, candle-stick maker" ach