George,

There is a small detail of the chalkboard's design that confuses me. The description of the chalkboard on the TJ Center's web page says, "The writing surface of the monument has the familiar quality of an old school chalkboard. .... The slate is cleft finish, the natural state of the material after quarrying." I have some Buckingham slate tile that has a cleft finish. It is rough, not smooth like a ground and polished "old school chalkboard" Isn't a cleft finish a poor choice for a writing surface? It can still be written on but I just wonder why a rough surface is being used for a writing surface. I'd also like to know where the chalk will be stored. I suspect that the chalk may end up being used to create expressions in places other than the chalkboard.

I predict that after an initial spurt of use the chalkboard will languish and remain bare without much of anything on it. After a while neither graffitti nor essays will disrupt the monotony of an ugly monument to good intentions and poor design.

Cordially,

Kevin Cox (electronic mail, May 24, 2005)