I read the headline as "Crazy Greek Chair" ...

Posted August 26, 2008 2:55 AM by John Stanning

I read it as "Crazy Geek Chair", and was expecting something with more geekosity quotient when I clicked on the link.

Posted August 26, 2008 3:05 AM by Opher Lubzens

You have found one of my favorite inventions! I've had my Crazy Creek Chair since Y2K: at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (falconridgefolk.com) in 1999, I saw that everyone had one; in 2000, I learned why. It's the perfect music festival chair. Just enough support so that your lower back doesn't curve the wrong way after a weekend spent hugging your knees, light enough to go with you (even serve as an improvised tote bag!) even if you are walking up and down a hill in upstate New York in late July in estimated 500% humidity, low enough that you don't piss off the people seated behind you or get made to move to high-backed-chair seating.

I suppose it'd also work dandily for actual camping, and the splints thing sounds like a great bonus. Thanks, Jim!

Posted August 26, 2008 3:07 AM by Nicole TWN

And I as crazy geek chair. What is this going to be, I thought, random number generator seed pulled from temperature sensors in the chair? Reclining swivel chair modelled after the Matrix plug-in stations? USB-powered hover-chair?

Posted August 26, 2008 3:07 AM by Daniel Klein

What's all this about a Crazy Greek Choir?

Posted August 26, 2008 6:56 AM by Connie H.

Seems worth trying, though I'm fond of the primitive camp-chair (don't know what it's called) formed of two boards that interlock in a kind of distorted X shape -- simple & ingenious enough to appeal to geeks, I'd think, and with a much smaller carbon footprint, though a bit less easy to tote around.

Posted August 26, 2008 10:13 AM by Don Fitch

There's also the CBW (Combat Butt Warmer) which is a magazine wrapped in plastic wrap that you sit on.

(The Girl Scouts call the same thing a "Sit-upon.")

Posted August 26, 2008 10:51 AM by James D. Macdonald

Connie 5: What's all this about a Crazy Greek Choir?

"We'll sing now of the anger of Achilles,
'Cause everyone who saw it got the willies.
He dragged Hector's body 'round,
And killed Thersites the clown,
And buried his friend Patroklos under lillies.*

[many verses (write your own!) telling the whole story of the Iliad, then a final repeated chorus:]

"Wine...dark...sea... (rosy-fingered dawn!)
Wine...dark...sea... (rosy-fingered dawn!)
Wine...dark...sea... (rosy-fingered dawn!)..."

*OK, I made that bit up. But it's better than "Busted the Trojan Horses and their fillies," which is the only other rhyme line I could think of.

Posted August 26, 2008 11:16 AM by Xopher

(Of course there's swaying and hand claps in that last bit. And the "rosy fingered dawn!" is sung fast, by a different group of campers singers than the long, drawn out "wine dark sea" bit.)

Posted August 26, 2008 11:24 AM by Xopher

I now scurry down to the basement to dig out the Younger Daughter's Crazy Creek to examine it for splintability. Wouldn't have occurred to me, of course.

Posted August 26, 2008 11:34 AM by Madeleine Robins

I now scurry down to the basement to dig out the Younger Daughter's Crazy Creek to examine it for splintability. Wouldn't have occurred to me, of course.

Posted August 26, 2008 11:34 AM by Madeleine Robins

Xopher @8, I couldn't resist:

We'll sing now of the anger of Achilles,
Who in winter suffered badly from chillies.
He had the wrong chair
No clothes did he wear
'Stead of Troy should've sailed to th'Antilles.

Posted August 26, 2008 11:40 AM by Debbie

Don, #6: In SCA circles, that's known as a Viking chair. About as simple as you can get, and has the major advantage (for those of us who are Getting Older) of not putting your butt right down on the ground. However, as you note, it's better suited for a stationary campsite than for lugging around with you.

Posted August 26, 2008 11:53 AM by Lee

I've been wanting a thermarest trekker chair. It is basically sling to roughly turn a thermarest pad into something like a crazy creek. Very efficient for camping.

Posted August 26, 2008 12:26 PM by affreca

Debbie 12: I LOL'd (well, actually I SQTM'd) at your limerick...my verse isn't one, of course, but there is a superficial resemblance. I'm thinking of a Spike Jones kind of tune for it. ("Achilles said, 've'll kick some Trojan butt,' so we fired! (pppt!) Fired! (pppt!) Right in Achilles' foot!")

Posted August 26, 2008 12:32 PM by Xopher

Grazing Geek Wire?

Posted August 26, 2008 5:46 PM by Michael Roberts

Lee/Don --

I can also testify that those "viking chairs" are sturdy enough to support a man in full plate armor.

They are also great because they provide wonderful back support

I got mine by bartering a 20-inch tall teddy bear,in my merchant days. The merchant with the chairs also had a 4 year-old daughter who was in love with one of the bears. I asked him what he thought it was worth to her and he immediately offered the chair.

I immediately accepted.

Posted August 26, 2008 6:58 PM by Craig R.

I have one of these in green in the van. I can't walk on uneven surfaces so it's not going into the woods, but I got it in case I need to stay somewhere for a long time. I don't stand up very well for a long time, either.

Posted August 26, 2008 8:28 PM by Marilee

Just Monday I took an Ikea three-legged folding stool to the Goodwill... It had lived in my car until the day I decided to empty the car to get it detailled, and found the trash bag full of stuff I was hauling away was almost too heavy for the plastic.

I was tempted by this Crazy Creek Chair... I thought, "Ah, I've been considering getting a load-distributor for many years, for jacking the car up on a muddy shoulder, and being a big somewhat-stiff square, this might work for that in addition to being a seat..." Then I regretfully realized that I have never once in 10 years been in a situation where I really needed a seat with a back while outside.

Posted August 26, 2008 10:39 PM by Madeline F

Oh, I've seen those! Some of the more stationary camera guys used to use them, back when I used to work at basketball games.

Posted August 26, 2008 11:33 PM by Liza

A chair for time spent in the woods? But I thought that was what bear canisters were for! (And they do make decent seats if you're short, but often the ground is more comfortable, at least to a young'un like me.)

It's extra weight, so I wouldn't carry one unless I was going on a fairly short trip, but those Crazy Creek chairs do look nice. I just got back from a couple-week hiking trip (JMT, Yosemite -> Lake Florence) and discovered that my hiking pants were very nearly ruined from sitting on oddly-shaped bits of granite all the time. (Well, I can sew and patch them up enough that they'll be decent hiking pants in the future, but I'll never be able to wear them to work again. More's the pity, really, because the convertible nylon pants are really nice for overly-air conditioned offices in the summer, and they're khaki and decently-fit so they look close to business casual. But REI can probably provide me with another couple pairs once it becomes relevant again.) Carrying something to easily interpose between me and the nearest hunk of granite would probably reduce the wear on my pants a lot.

Posted August 26, 2008 11:48 PM by Kevin Riggle

Xopher, isn't there a p0rn movie called Rosie Fingered Dawn?

Posted August 27, 2008 12:15 AM by Tykewriter

Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson put this into one of the Hoka stories:

I sing of the wrath of Achilles
That gave the Achaeans the willies.
Help me tell, O my muse,
Of how Troy got the goose
And of quarrels that really were dillies.

Posted August 27, 2008 1:27 AM by David Goldfarb

Ay yi yi yi,
Your mother swims after Odysseus...

Posted August 27, 2008 10:26 AM by Joel Polowin

As I think I recall (the relevant book is packed away just now) when the Iliad-in-limericks chap in Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers tried dealing with Achilles, he punted to Achillaeus. Somebody else with a copy of _Tales of the Black Widowwers_ please check me on this?

Posted August 27, 2008 12:32 PM by joann

David 23: Well darn them for stealing my idea! Damn time-travellers, can't trust 'em for anything.

Posted August 27, 2008 12:43 PM by Xopher

I've used the crazy creek chairs, and I'm not all that much a fan. Then again, I usually try to have portability into my SCA kit. I am actually a fan of my light wooden chairs from the 70s. They fold, have vinyl seats and woven cane backs, and are german-made. When I'm not camping, they serve as my extra emergency dinning room chairs, as they take up less room, are nicer, and weigh a ton less than those metal things. They are starting to show wear, though, so I'm debating these in medium brown as my replacements.

Posted August 27, 2008 4:57 PM by sisuile

sisuile #27:

I had some chairs like your projected replacements, bought about 20 years ago at Pier 1, and they had an interesting failure mode where the slats on the seat sort of separated/came out of their slots over time. I haven't had them for the last 13 years or so. Be warned.

Posted August 27, 2008 6:15 PM by joann

Xopher #23: Take consolation in the fact that sometimes Great Minds do Think Alike.

Posted August 28, 2008 6:59 AM by Connie H.