marius

Comment 1139 was directed to Sheftali52 of course - Baldur being off air and giving the wounded leg a rest. Besides, do we know if Baldur was ever in the military, the CIA, traveled abroad or lived abroad????

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Marius, I would love to listen in on an interview with sheftali52. Her profile tells us quite a lot but it's just a taster ... she's one of several people I would like to hear more of (but more of that later). Will she ... won't she?

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By the way, Baldur has been to Scotland at least ....

Baldur

Budlar has nveer been to any prat of the Untied Knidgom.

Baldur

Baldur has been to Canada many times, the total time spent there would equal months, I love the Canadians.
Actually Baldur hopes to retire to Fredericton, New Brunswick. There is no more pleasant city to be found.

Baldur has been to Mexico, Germany and Austria.
I also briefly Switzerland but I'm trying to forget that experience if at all possible.
It's a pretty country, the scenery was breathtaking, the towns and cities quite attractive. If there were any pleasant people living there they did an admirable job of hiding from Baldur.
My traveling companions were of the same mind. On our second day there we sat down and rewrote our itinerary. We added the days to the Bavarian part of our stay.
All that was left between us and the pleasant remainder of out trip was a second bad border crossing that involved our rental car and luggage being dissected and then we were back among happy people.

Baldur

-t +r =out

Baldur

+visited
+evil +nasty +horrid

I could go on and on about that onr.

Baldur

-r +e =one.
Baldur is beginning to suspect that MySpace is not in sync with my keyboard. This many corrections seems a bit out of line.

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I beg your pardon, Baldur. I must have you mixed up with someone else's comments. SOMEONE on TD has been there ... and I'll seek the lass or laddie out ... dinna fash your sen.

Baldur

my sen is completely unfashed

Baldur

marius, Baldur has held none of those positions, nor has he ever lived abroad. My life has actually been rather uneventful.

marius

Baldur's life uneventful????

Guess that depends on how one defines "events." Sounds like eating a tomato sandwich is an event for you! Do you know how fortunate that makes you, that you can make an event out of making and eating a sandwich?

I'm thinking you have had NUMEROUS events that are quite interesting to many. Look at all the listeners you have on Baldur radio! Gee whiz - (we say that too in Missouri) - that is not only an event, it's an event of exponential proportions. [+5 for exponential, +5 more if spelled correctly.]

Maybe your life seems uneventful to you, but I bet you are not often bored. You seem to find joy and amusement with an uncommon zest!
Yes - to any of this????

marius

And what is the great Brewster chair hoax?

marius

Alas, there is no pill for withdrawl from addition to Baldur radio. (Some get addicted quite quickly.)

Remedy - catch up from day 1 of Baldur radio.

marius

Was delighted beyond words to find one of my MOST favorite quotes from Curly of the three stooges. And here I thought, believed, I was the only one walking around telling people, "If at first you don't suc-ceed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed!"

No one ever seems to think it's as funny as I do. Perhaps it's my delivery.

marius

And the princess story was sublime!

sheftali52

Sheftali shares marius' doubt that Baldur's life is rather uneventful. I find Baldur's life very cool in that he finds joy in things big and small, and describes those things so well. Off the top of my head, I can think of Baldur's stories about his baby bok choy, how to plant small seeds, cleaning the gunk from the sides of his stove, making a planter from a silver bowl, and so on. And, of course, Baldur's wit was intertwined (+ 1 or 2) throughout his tales. As I said, I'm a devoted listener of Baldur Radio.

I am flattered that marius and Login would be interested in sheftali52's humble life. Believe me, my tales and variants thereof could be relayed by just about anyone who's served in the military a long time. When sheftali was in college in Hawaii, a recruiter tried to entice her into the Army. Sheftali blew that off as the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard of. Then, a few years later, sheftali joined the Air Force and began a journey that took her to places she never dreamed she'd see. Military life is not for everyone, certainly, but it turned out to be an excellent fit for me for 28 years.

I trust Login has really forgiven sheftali for even thinking she was the One Vote Bandit ages ago. And marius, I find your past naturalist occupation quite interesting. Your swing set turned into lush arbor sounds very appealing.

Baldur, you are the cement in all of this--many thanks for indulging us with the details of your daily life--you have many fans.

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'Nothing to forgive, sheftali52. Matthew has confessed to laying a false trail, when playing his 'One Vote Bandit' game (or whatever the tiltle was). I have to admit that he did a very good job of it, too. He sent the trail in several directions, one of those directions sounding very English. Hardly surprising I was in the 'identification parade.'

Baldur

Baldur will apologize upfront for any factual discrepencies in this story.
I had read an elaborate article on this in our local Rhode Island paper's Sunday magazine section more than 30 years ago. The internet has coughed up later sources that tell bits of the tale but I was unable to find the original document. Each subsequent bit of information is rather incomplete.
Indeed it is remotely possible that the yellowing papers exist somewhere here at Chateau Baldur and some descendant of mine will find it centuries from now.

The story of the hoax revolves around a Mr Armand LaMontagne.
My sincere apologies for resurrecting this story Mr. M but it remains part of Baldur's formative years and is now due for a good airing.

Mr LaMontagne is a brilliant artist and woodworker. He has studied both modern and ancient aspects of his craft. One can Google him and find a stunning early American stone-end farmhouse that appears to be a 17th century treasure which was in fact built by Mr M within the last 40 years.
You can also find lifesize carved wooden statuary of sports legends, you will find a rather old looking, warped, knobby black chair.
Herein lies the tale.
Mr M is a genius at crafting objects that have all the qualities of long used antiques, but reproductions have never carried with them the respect that is given to pieces that have survived the centuries.
At one point some told Mr M (definitely paraphrased here):

'Yes it's good Armand but it would never fool an expert.'

Baldur finds this comment to be quite audacious, and was offended myself by this presumption. Apparently Mr M now had to prove to himself that this flippant statement wasn't at all true.
Mr M decided to build an 'antique' chair.
He selected a very rare type that only a couple examples have been known to survive. These chairs were built in the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony( that is the 1620s ) for the Brewster family and are basically for all intent and purposes 'thrones'.

Baldur

The chairs were a sign of prestige and power.
Mr M formulated his plan
He drew up plans for another 'Brewster chair' that varied only slightly from the existing ones. The logic here was that an exact copy would be suspicious.
In the museum examples the turned decorative work is arranged in multiples of 4, his version was comprised of groups of 5.
He made the chair from green saplings that warped as they dried, forming fissures and and inconstancies that suggested great age.
He used only what was available in the 1620s.
He blew antique dust into the bores drilled to accept the spindles.
He aged the wood with salt, the chair spent a great deal of time in a smoke house. One can assume he sank it into a swamp as well, Baldur likes that possibility.
He created a history in his mind that encompassed 300+ years of this chair's supposed existence.
He hacked out a couple of the spindles in the front of the chair below the seat where one might rest his feet. Mr M (I should be using Mr LM, shouldn't I?). He sawed a chunk off each of the hind legs at an angle so that the chair might tilt rakishly and be comfortable as a piece of porch furniture.
Then he gave the chair away.
Then he layered on the master stroke.
He gave the chair away.