Here's the deal. The matter is settled. It was settled a while ago, by another forumite, who didn't want to be noted or named. It was settled against my wishes. It remained un-noted in the forums so that these threads could sink off without further mention.
My best hope was that the person who incurred the debt would feel personally indebted to the point that they would own up to their obligation. If that had happened, I might have felt that, in the future, I could count on BFC members to feel compelled to own up to their mistakes. But that isn't what happened.
It's great that the community is tight enough to take care of their own, but it's not great enough to let me trust the community again. This wasn't about money, it was about trust.
Me, I'm finally back to work. But during my time off, I didn't enter into any obligations I couldn't meet, and I honored all obligations I entered into in the past, regardless of how my circumstance had changed. I didn't duck any phone calls or e-mails. Yes, I was embarassed when I got calls asking "Are we still going ahead with that Searles' Bowie", and I had to answer that I couldn't. But I answered honestly, and didn't make anyone else count on me when I couldn't live up to it. Yes, I had to sometimes dip into my very precious savings to meet an obligation that couldn't be postponed. When a maker called me and told me that my order was ready, I did without whatever I had to in order to meet my obligation.
I hope you all know from my previous posts that had I been approached like a man, "face to face" so to speak, I would have waited as long as things took. I didn't want the money nearly as badly as I wanted to be treated with respect. It wasn't the responsibility of anyone other than Dave to answer for himself. I'm more sorry than anyone here can know that this failed to occur.
Please stop responding to this thread so that it can drop out of our collective attentions. Thanks.
