> > > 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.
> 
> I was rooting for the TV to be off when I went to a 
> tavern. Hard to find when Strasberg, being a San Diego 
> boy, made the Nationals the de facto home team.
> 
The alternative was the Padres, so....

> > > I have a mild preference that someone had compensated
> > > me for it, though.
> > Yeahwell.  
> 
> My life has not been money-centered, but it's getting to the 
> point where a bit of pennypinching is in order, and regrets
> about some things like that begin to grate.

All those Mercedes car payments? :-)  
 
> > > 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.  
> 
> As I recall the one with a couple grams doesn't have a 
> silversmith mark, though the wood is maker-stamped at 
> the frog.

Darned tootin'.  She says, being lucky to find an ocarina at rummage 
sales around here, never mind good instruments.
 
> > > > 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.
> 
> As fiedels and rebecs were not so highly strung, perhaps
> not quite so cracked, though.

Unless like lutes, they were forever in need of tuning.
(actually, old and cracked and out of tune ... sounds about right!) 
 
> > > > 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. 
> 
> I had only the violin, but I think it went to Goodwill.

Not a bad place for them. 
 
> > > > 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.  
> 
> I looked at the Avengers and the Addams Family, because I
> thought Carolyn Jones and Diana Rigg were hot. Gunsmoke, 

 I'm surprised you didn't go for Yvonne DeCarlo too.  I always loved 
the way Gomez and Morticia were all lovey-dovey.

> on accoumt of Miss Kitty, though I didn't care for loud 
> nouses, of which there were many. Not much else. Huntley
> and Brinkley or Cronkite once in a while, when the Russians
> or Americans were getting weird.

I've seen David Brinkley a few times on PBS.  Not on my hot scale for 
sure, but a good news guy.