> Speaking of Yanquis, ding dong.
> 
> I wonder if the big fans of the dominant teams
> (Yankees, Patriots, Manchester United, etc.) are
> making up for some other inadequacy, such as living 
> in excessively dirty and crime-ridden cities,
> having wives who left them, and so on.
> 
Right now the Yankees are making up for lost sleep.  (heh) 

> > > I suspected someone, but there was no proof, and the kid
> > > probably needed the money more than I needed the bow.
> > I suspect a bow would be fairly easy to sell; they're not as 
> > traceable. 
> 
> The one I'm thinking of was a Hill, but I've no proof, 
> as I said, and it would in fact just be sitting in a
> storage unit now anyway.

Possibly just as well someone else is using it then.  
 
> > Silver hallmarks however are a good sign it's a good bow. If 
there 
> > are British maker's marks they'll only pertain to the silver and 
not 
> > the rest of the bow.  A lot of good jewelry isn't marked either; 
you 
> > have to know what you're looking at.
> 
> Huh, we must be talking about different things. A violin
> bow shouldn't have enough silver to bother to stamp; the 
> stick, though, is most often branded with the maker's mark.

You'd be surprised. The silver guys in Britain stamp their work early 
and often. 
 
> > I've heard of that being done by guys trying to get into the 
Armed 
> > Forces in earlier wars.  Said kids were underage, generally.  
It's an 
> > old fiddle, as the saying goes. 
> 
> Yeah, but a label inside will last longer than the bearer
> of the birth certificate. That reminds me of a card sent to
> me by a student of mine, back when I had students, which
> said The older the fiddle, the sweeter the music. Which 
> I've discovered isn't necessarily true in any of the 
> possible senses.

Especially when it's an old, cracked fiddle like most of US.  
 
> > Not much! (LOL)  You can still sell Hummels, but they're going 
for 
> > what the Japanese copies used to sell for.  Now you can't give 
the 
> > copies away. 
> 
> The funny thing about the latter (I have no evidence 
> on the former, as I'm slightly more into shiny things
> than cutesy-poo things) is that I never noticed until
> my friend Andreas took me and some friends to the
> Ur-Swarovski, a museum and store on the grounds of
> the factory someplace in Austria, I think. In order to
> get out of the museum (which actually cost money to
> enter) you had to traverse a maze of crystal merchandise
> and fawning salespeople. Lilli and I couldn't get out
> of there quick enough - and she likes shiny stuff.

I like sparkly stuff, but not those cutesy figurines. 
 
> > > Danican Philidor, were utter mediocrities. It turned out that 
> > > that particular Anne was a guy anyway, some names being more 
> > > unisex back in those days.
> > There were guys named Marion (the guy form of Mary) and Shelby 
and 
> > Leslie back in the day.  They should have gone for Elizabeth 
> > Armstrong, Louie's first wife; she was a heckuva jazz composer 
and 
> > arranger. 
> 
> I knew two women named Marion spelled that way. It may
> be worthy of note that John Wayne's original name was 
> Marion Michael Morrison. Once in Newsweek or Time I 
> read an article featuring a woman named Michael, no 
> relation to me or the below.

Michael Learned was the mother on The Waltons.