> > 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'm happy enough about that; just a tiny gratification
> in what we hope will be a long chain.
> 
Unfortunately for some friends, so is Houston now.  I think the 
Nationals are still up partying.  I was mainly rooting for seven 
games.

> > Possibly just as well someone else is using it then.  
> 
> I have a mild preference that someone had compensated
> me for it, though.

Yeahwell.  
  
> > 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. 
> 
> How much silver goes into your average bow? None. I
> have one with a couple grams maybe, but that's all.
> Oh, yeah, sometimes the windings near the frog that 
> help keep a grip on the stick were silver wire, but
> that would be hard to mark.

Those two or three grams in a band or a cap are enough if you're a 
Brit.  

> > 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.  
> 
> Speak for yourself! 

You're an older fiddle yet - positively Renaissance-era.  I'm more 
recent but shop-worn.
 
> > I like sparkly stuff, but not those cutesy figurines. 
> 
> I hope you draw the line somewhere short of Swarovski.

I have one, but it's a cat.  I have no problem selling them to 
someone who actually likes them, but I'm only keeping the cat. 
  
> > read an article featuring a woman named Michael, no 
> > relation to me or the below.
> > Michael Learned was the mother on The Waltons. 
> 
> That's a show I probably never saw any episodes of.

I watched it all the time as a little kid.