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The Editors Mailbox

Fine Woodworking's 15 Minutes of Fame

Ed Pirnik, Senior Web Producer

7 users recommend

Watch an episode of NBC's Parks and Recreation in which FWW editor Asa Christiana and contributing editor Chris Becksvoort make cameo appearances.

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Woodworking doesn't exactly have a spotlight shone on it very often. Let's face it, most of us dabblers in sawdust would rather be planing pine or milling maple than, oh...say, appearing on national television. Last night however, two of our very own enjoyed a few moments on the NBC Thursday night comedy, Parks and Recreation.

As some of you may know from a previous blog post, FWW editor Asa Christiana and contributing editor Chris Becksvoort flew out to Los Angeles back in October to appear in a scene in which Ron Swanson, played by actor and real-life woodworker Nick Offerman, receives an award at the fictional Indiana Fine Woodworking Association. You can catch the entire episode in the video player below. To skip to the woodworking-related scenes, you can fast forward to minute 03:21 for a comical homage to Christian Becksvoort, who Swanson refers to as the "modern master of the Shaker style." You can also catch Asa Christiana get disgusted and storm out of the show after Swanson beats him for the association's "Chair Award" at minute 12:33.

I've also taken the liberty of posting a quick clip of Chris' final edited scene as well as an outtake from the episode in which Ron Swanson meets his idol, Chris.

OK, so it wasn't a full fifteen minutes of fame-but even 30 seconds is a hoot for us. Hat tip to FWW contributing author and Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman for shepherding this entire idea to fruition. Enjoy the show!

Parks and Recreation: Ron and Diane

Christian Becksvoort's Big Break

Ron Swanson Meets his Idol

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Comments (4)

MplsMike writes: Great fun. I wonder if Nick helped facilitate the Bosch and Lee Valley ads with the show's marketing folks?
Posted: 9:05 am on December 8th

beem writes: Ron Ulysses Swanson - "I made my first chair when I was five, but the quality of the wood was wanting, so when I turned nine I used my factory wages to purchase some beautiful local walnut."

Yep, that's where I went wrong. I squandered my factory wages at that age on knotty pine....embarrassing.
Posted: 5:08 pm on December 7th

patchjob writes: My wife was watching this show last night. I heard a voice exclaim, "Christian Becksvoort, the modern master of shaker" and about pood. So I abandoned my plans of heading to the basement to put shellac on a table, and watched some TV instead.
Posted: 1:26 pm on December 7th

JLYoung writes: We can't see the NBC streaming video from outside the US. is there a way to capture just the woodworking related segments as isolated files we can all see?
Posted: 12:30 pm on December 7th

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