Back from Blade 2005

[Thomas Linton]

"The Spectre at the feast" ???

 

[Bill Marsh]

Bill Marsh had two of the sweetest little dogs with him. They are trained to proactively detect stress and go to the person.

The little black one either liked me, or thought I was really stressed.

I'd fight a lion for that little dog...

And he would lick a lion to death for you!

Our hairy children are very special! The breed is called Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. You may have seen them in pictures of British monarchs.

King Charles liked them so much that he made a law that they can go anywhere in England, even Parliament, even the Courts. It was a kind of status symbol in olde England to own a dog that was useless for hunting, defense, or anything but loving you.

We take them everywhere. They love everyone. I like to tell people that if I left them home and a burglar broke in, they would show him where the silver is stashed and leave with him.

Nicknamed the "Comforter Spaniel."

My wife, Anne has an Illness called Meniere's syndrome. This manifests as an extreme vertigo. While not a lot is known about this illness, stress and movement seem to bring on attacks for Anne.

We were not able to travel by air, before, becasue the airplane movement and Anne's slight fear of flying would bring an attack. However in the two years we have had these dogs, she has not had one episode!

Chumley and Tucker have an innate sense of a stressed out person. While they like most people anyway, they seek out stressed people and are like a stress sponge.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires admission of animals wearing "Service Dog" identification to be able to accompany their owners anywhere except a surgical operating theater.

They accompany us to retaurants, malls, on airplanes (they sit with us), almost anywhere we go. They spent all day with us at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for instance.

They do love to fly. When the weather is rough, they have been known to seek out other stressed-out passengers and comfort them. Weird how that works.


It was really great to put faces with the names we know so well from the Forum. We had met Dan before, but there were a lot of new friends.

Though we enjoyed the Blade Show, I am more interested in antique pointy things. "New" to me is around two hundred years old, minimum. Just got a "Warring States" period Chinese sword, made about 475BC. Will post some pix later.

The two outstanding knife makers at the show were Dan (his knives have real 'presence') and an Armenian named Mardi.

Mardi made a wonderful titanium steel damascus that had incredible colors. He was also experimenting with a damamcus made from "dry-wall screws." VERY creative and artistic! His knives were much more art than anything else. Great Art!

The only modern made knives I collect are Himalayan Imports. As you Forumites know, they have soul. They have something ..... I need to start a separate post on this.

 

[Bill Marsh]

er...those weren't dogs. Mr. Marsh had little suits made for his marsupials. Didn't you feel the velco strip?

You've been "possum-ized."

Possums are Marsh-supials!

We do have a new batch. Here is Anne with TEN babies!

Also a picture of their mama in a dog suit!

 

[Bamboo]

1,000 thank you's to Spectre for shipping my Bowie to me.

I didn't trust the airline to leave it in my bag so asked him to send it up when he got a chance. It arrived this morning, packed perfectly.

As I told him earlier, next time we're together the first 2 rounds are on me.

Thanks John.