About Peter

About the Site:

The Kinzua Kid is Peter Kraatz, a member of the WNY diaspora living in Southern California with an addiction to silly games like Geocaching.  My real name is my handle on Geocaching.com (peterkraatz).

If you’d like more spam, I can be reached via e-mail.  peterkraatz at cox dot net.  Twitter at @TheKinzuaKid

Profile for peterkraatz

Profile for peterkraatz

My blog was originally called “Telephone Poles on the Moon”.  Telephone Poles on the Moon were some of the favorite stories we grandkids heard told by my grandfather.  They were amazing tales of the triumph of ingenuity, perseverance and imagination over boredom and poverty in the Great Depression.  There were no life lessons, just a great retelling of a man’s childhood fun and some jokes to boot, keeping us at rapt attention for hours.  Also, they were completely false.  I’m still looking for those telephone poles on the moon every evening through the eyepiece of my own telescope.

These were great stories because they demanded an incessant string of questions about how, when, why and by what logic could each story make sense.  Stealthily, they taught us critical thinking and the admission of fiction would not come until all the details were worked out.  Then it became a game.  What new story could the man craft, rich with detail, comedy, and plenty of half-truths to keep you guessing?  What really was true about the stories and what was not?  And for goodness sake how DO you get telephone poles on the moon?

Sometime I’ll tell you how to find those metaphoric telephone poles.  Until then all I’m finding are little mint tins with scraps of paper inside under bushes, nebulae in space and a whole lotta problems to solve in IT.  I’ll find all the geocaches and Messier objects long before I fix anything in IT but the pursuit is worth it.

8 Responses to About Peter

  1. Pingback: practical polymath mission statement | The Practical Polymath

  2. Lotrat says:

    Geez you make it hard to stalk you. I still remember the first time I saw you. I thought you were a prostitute hanging out on the corner. http://goo.gl/maps/bN31m

    • Peter says:

      Right, because my electronic footprint is so small and it is easy to mistake a guy with a GPS fondling the mailbox for a street walker. 😉

      You know what works? Telephones. Call me sometime.

    • Miss Sattelberg says:

      That’s funny. Peter is so busy that he still found time to stalk his second grade teacher on the internet!

      • Peter says:

        It was an exchange of messages on Facebook many years ago, not “stalking”, and you blocked me for pointing out that charlatans, scam artists, and grifters were literally robbing you. I haven’t had any contact with you until just now, when you sought out my blog to comment on my profile.

  3. You are listed with Negative or Poor Rating on the internet; Your current rating on the internet needs immediate attention. Your profile is not trustworthy and people will avoid using your services. Don

    • Peter says:

      Askimet must be failing me but since your spam was so delightful I am compelled to respond:

      Duh! Of course I have a poor rating on the Internet. I’m an asshole. I have a poor rating on just about every social media outlet I’m still allowed to access under the terms of the restraining order.

  4. Joseph Shaff says:

    Hmmm . . . Now how can I measure the deviation error at the top of the Focuser when racked out ? Actually . . . Celestron . . . (yes, again) they would’ve had to select an . . . Industry Standard Established Fit . . . I think I got it. Celestron Astromaster 114 EQ (it’s sort of considered Lab equipment)

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