He's a lumberjack and he's OK...

The physics meeting last week included a "night out" event, that was held at Nicollet Island Park just over the Mississippi. They had food and a beer tent, a roving Dixieland band, a dance band in a highly air-conditioned building, and something called a "Lumberjack Show". I had never seen one, but speculated that it involved men, plaid shirts, axes, and saws. Turns out that was a pretty good guess.


The show was loads of fun. They divided the crowd into two camps, one for each competing lumberjack. We were encouraged to cheer for our guy and jeer the other one. The host, or whatever you call him in lumberjack terms, explained each event and its significance in old fashioned logging. There was an axe throw, speed carving, power sawing, speed climbing, springboard chopping, log rolling, and more. All three guys made lots of corny jokes and puns, and generally made things fun for everyone. Although the show itself was very entertaining, it was almost as entertaining to watch all the physicists in the crowd so far out of their element. Especially the nerdier ones.


I'll come clean and admit that part of what I enjoyed about the show was the scenery. And I'm not talking about the river. Before the log roll, the females in the audience convinced one of the lumberjacks to remove his shirt. These guys had some very well-developed upper bodies. My pictures definitely do not do these men justice. They had the natural kind of athletic build that comes from physical activity, not steroidally-out-of-proportion weight-lifter type musculature. It was quite nice to look at. Ahem. So the ladies in particular seemed to enjoy the show.