A note recieved today:

Tom,

I wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I enjoyed reading your "In Search of the Chrinitoid" website. I'm a recent fan of George Rickey's work as well as other kinetic artists like George Sherwood. I have become obsessed with learning how these wonderful sculptures work. In all of your looking around did you by any chance find any books or articles that do a good job of discussing the physics involved? Clearly the "arms" are highly balanced from a weight point of view. But what I'm interested in learning is what keeps these works from "weather vanning" or stabilizing in the wind. I tried making a small piece of my own. It has two arms that are weight balanced. It will move with the wind but then stabilize. Not moving again unless the direction of the wind changes. I've seen videos of George Rickey's works and George Sherwood's as well and they do not do that. They continue to tumble about even if the wind does not change direction. Clearly there more to it than just getting the weight right.

Thank you for the nice article. I completely understand your attraction to this work. Or maybe I should say I share your attraction. I'm not at all sure I understand it.

Jeff Boring

Other than building a virtual model (should be on the website), I have never tried to build a kinetic sculpture. Sounds like a project I should consider.

Thanks for dropping the note.

Tom

Where did the name come from?

I have had two recent requests for an etymology for the name "Chrinitoid". One came from the curator of the art collection that now owns the sculpture, the other from a fan. A couple of years ago, I received an email from a fellow Chrin-lover and apparently, the story goes like this:

Dear Tom,
I read your article on the chrinitoid in the latest alumni magazine with considerable interest. The chrinitoid has a special place in my heart.

I thought you might like to know of the genesis of the name. Way back in high school, a friend of mine used the word to refer to unspecified internal organs (e.g., "uhgg, he got me right in the chrinatoids"). When I went to RPI, the first club I joined was the humor magazine, Unicorn. I came up with an idea for a fake Reader's Digest article, of the sort that were running at that time (this was 1972, mind you). I borrowed my friend's word, drew a small picture and wrote part of an article about it. The first JPG file I've attached shows you the result. (Note: the afterword was added by someone else!)

For some reason, the Unicorn staff took the idea and ran with it, basing practically the whole issue of the magazine on the idea (see second JPG file). Inexplicably, they spelled it wrong -- that is, if it is possible to misspell a neologism that has no real meaning.

And, to coin a phrase, the rest is history. The word caught on around campus, and the Rickey sculpture was never called anything else. I suppose "chrinitoid"
was easier to say than "Two Rectangles, Vertical Gyratory Up, Variation
III."

I'm glad you found the sculpture lurking in Europe. I've wondered where it'd got to.
If you want to use the attached pictures [1] [2] on your website, feel free.

Best wishes,

Sandy Stewart, '76

So there it is. Makes about as much sense as anything else I have heard.

~Tom

Rickey in Kansas City

From Tom Cooper '72:

I graduated from RPI in 1972. I only heard the name Chrinitoid recently from another RPI graduate who was several years behind me. Do you know where this name originated?

I happened to look up Rickey recently because I found one of his sculptures in Kansas City at the Nelson Atkins Museum sculpture garden and then came across your web site. Here's a couple of photos that I took In Kansas City. http://gallery.mac.com/tgcooper#100190/IMG_0039. This one is not quite as impressive as the Chrinitoid because the moving parts are not as large. But it was great fun coming across this piece. I had some interesting times at RPI with friends looking at the Chrinitoid--ordinarily late at night.

No Sale.

My wife is a big opera fan. As members of the New York Met's "Young Associates" (a sort of junior Patrons group), we met a fellow Opera buff (Peter) who happened to be a financial advisor for UBS. Jennifer said "you have to tell him your college sculpture story". I did. The guy was intrigued. I even noted that, based on encouragement from several alumni with significant means, I had tried to broker a purchase of the Rickey sculpture. Peter noted that, times being what they are, perhaps they would be more open to such a proposition now.

Here was the gracious reply:

Dear Mr. Payne,

Dominik Saam has forwarded to me below mails.

Thank you for your interest in our Rickey sculpture. I am very sorry to advise you that we have no intention to sell this sculpture. The sculpture is a perfect match with the UBS building and very much loved be the UBS staff working there and by the people in Zurich in general.
This fantastic sculpture has become an inherent part of Zurich and is featured in many touristic guides in Zurich.

We know that Sotheby's NY plans to sell a George Rickey, Weathervane, 1976....maybe a small comfort?

Should we change our mind, I will certainly inform you immediately.

We hope you understand our decision and remain with

kind regards,

Irene Zortea
UBS Art Collection, Director
UBS AG
Global Wealth Management & Swiss Bank

P.O. Box
CH - 8098 Zurich

www.ubs.com/artcollection

I followed up with a nice thank you note, noting how several Chrinitoid devotees have made pilgrimages to the Zurich site, which evoked this response:

Dear Tom

Whenever you come to Switzerland it would be a pleasure to show you the sculpture. Could you kindly explain us why the sculpture is called Chrinitoid and what it means.

With kind regards
Dominik Saam

Dominik Saam
Executive Director
Cultural Affairs

Obviously, I need an excuse to visit Zurich!

Boss trip

from Arne Johnson, class '83

Hi Tom,
In case you're still looking....
Last year when my boss went to Zurich, I gave her a mission to find the Chrinitoid. She did find it, but didn't take a picture. This year when she went, I didn't have to mention it. She found it and sent on the picture. Not the best image quality (from a Blackberry camera), and the light hits the weld seams a little too much, but it's there. I was hoping for her to convince our CEO to buy it for our company's art collection. The response was that it wouldn't fit in the overhead bin. :)

Complimetns of Arne's boss' Blackberry:

From Chrinitoid

Updated Google Maps Visual

From Luigi Giasi '89

Tom,

Google maps has updated their photo of the location, it is later in the day and the shadow is now to the west. The Chrinitoid is clearly visible as one of the panel is in full sun and the other casts a large shadow!

So here is what Luigi saw:

From Chrinitoid