Sjöröveren

Sent you an email this morning with more details.

Here's some oderless mud in yer oderless eye, mate! Happy Birthday!

The engraving is a problem because it's from some conference in 1982, with a huge corporate logo. I get so fumed when I see this kind of thing. Why take a fine piece of pewter, worth $75-$100 new, and ruin it with some ugly engraving to commemorate a conference that the honoree probably didn't want to go to in the first place? If this was a cherished memento, then why did it end up in a thrift store? Geez, just buy one of the much cheaper and crappier cast aluminum tankards from "Things Remembered" like everyone else! Leave the good stuff alone! (end of rant) Thanks for the advice, folks. I wouldn't trust myself with my dremel. I usually remove too much material on wood projects, so I would probably ruin pewter in less than a minute. I have a sanding block made of foam rubber, with 250/600 grit on it. I'll give that a try, then track down some polishing compounds. I'm guessing using a bench grinder with a buffing wheel would be OK for the polishing stage. The rest I'll do by hand - don't want to grind a hole thru the damn thing.

I got a beautiful Williamsburg pewter tankard at a thrift store today. It is engraved on both sides. Has anyone ever tried to remove engraving before? When I look close, it looks like a bit of the metal has been pushed up and out at the edges of the engraved letters, so I'm wondering if it may be possible to somehow chase some of that metal back into the grooves. Barring that, is it possible to simply buff out the engraving? How about filling it in with silver solder or the like? I only paid $1.69 for it, far far below it's retail price, so I'd like to try to salvage it if at all possible.

When I worked at a historic site here in Minnesota a few years back, I was told that the glass panes for the 1840s building that I was stationed at were shipped up the Mississippi in barrels filled with molasses. They provided no documentation, but it seems feasible. Anyone ever heard of something along these lines?

Wow, I'd heard that Honda's were great cars, but space travel?

I'm about 2/3 thru this book, and have found it to be a great read, and an excellent starting point for further research.

Thank goodness you weren't severely hurt! But call a personal injury attorney TOMORROW! I know it's a bit distasteful in a way, but both your insurance company and that of the woman who hit you are in this for themselves, despite their fiduciary responsibilities. You need someone to make sure that your interests are taken into consideration. A good PI attorney isn't like the stereotypes. They know what's reasonable to expect in compensation, and won't try to make up pie in sky stories just to line their pockets.

He's a fine lad, M.A.d'Dogge! I love that look he's giving you in the first photo - "Dad has no idea what I'm about to do to him!" And a word of advice, from the father of 2 sons. Never change a diaper without a towel handy. Sooner or later, that little pee fountains gonna go off in your face!

If they were on the gun deck, then they would almost have to be 'caulkers' wouldn't they? No top work being done on the gun deck, I think. Isn't the gun deck the first deck below the main deck?

Red Bess and I were at a MN Twins game the day after. 20,000 people in a moment of silence, something I'm certain was repeated in every MLB park over the next few days. A loss in the baseball family that was felt by all.

I always thought that rendered and concentrated pine sap like this was "resin", essentially the same as the "rosin" that is used on fiddle bows. I don't really know - I'm not a boat-builder, and barely a fiddler. (I'll have to ask my sign-painting, fiddle-playing brother.) Here's a description from www.tarsmell.com of their product: Genuine Stockholm Tar, "The Real Stuff." Using a process that is centuries old, pine stumps and roots are burned very slowly in special kilns. A resin-rich liquor flows out of the bottom of the kiln and is caught and barreled. This is authentic Stockholm tar. Stockholm tar has been valued for hundreds of years as a preservative for word and natural fiber rope. It is the smell of the square-rigged ship. It is used today in ships, small and large, that sail for a living. Traditional sailors describe this rare grade of tar in words usually reserved for fine wines and tobaccos.

Thunderbird is one of America's finer wines of the eau du Merde variety. And those in the know insist on drinking it directly from the bottle, which itself in enclosed in a paper bag. You should insist on it being served in this manner at any restaurant that you may visit here in the future.

Here's an unexpected update to my unemployment story. It made the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune today. It's not everyday that a quiet job in an obscure industry makes the news. And as you might guess, there's more to the story than what's in the paper, most of which I'm not at liberty to discuss. But I do want to repeat that my former employer always dealt with me squarely, and that I would happily go back to work there this second if they would have me. But there's some folks here in Minnesota getting pretty steamed about it.

I'm all for either way - sending cash or a pre-paid envelope. The pre-paid envelope seems to me to be the most efficient.

This is just some idle speculation here, but I wonder if the rise of decorative knotwork was borne from longer sea voyages? The late 18th century and all of the 19th were the heydays of the great navies of the world, as well as years-long whaling expeditions. Could the long voyages have resulted in more idle time for the seamen, who spent that time doing knotwork, scrimshaw and the like? The coincidence is tempting.

I can't attest to its efficacy, but I do know that injecting mercury or mercuric compounds directly into the peccant member (that would be Mr. Johnson) via the urethra was a very common treatment. Mercuric compounds were used in a wide variety of medicines, before the profound brain damage it causes was known. They used it because it seemed to improve symptoms. Since germ theory didn't come along until the last half of the 19th century, no one truly understood the true cause of disease. Therefore, any treatment which seemed to make your symptoms improve or disappear was considered to be a cure. Blue ointment (mercury blended into hog's lard) was another common treatment for both gonorrhea and syphilis. It was rubbed onto the patient's gums for a week or so, producing prodigious salivation. The week-long treatment gave rise to the old adage "one night on Venus, one week on Mercury."

Silkie my dear, I must point out that Google Translate can handle neither Irish>English nor Oirish>English, both of which you seem to be fluent in.

I checked this site out today, as I'm looking for Royal Navy stuff. Apparently, Michael the Tailor has passed away. So sad. His work looks to be of a very high quality.

Un accueil chaleureux à vous, monsieur! Si vous n'avez pas encore découvert cette page, je le recommande à vous. Elle se traduira par des sites web entre de nombreuses langues différentes, y compris en français et en anglais. Je l'utilise souvent, comme je n'ai pas de confiance en la capacité de parler le français que j'ai appris il ya trente ans. Vous êtes les bienvenus ici, monsieur!

I'm in for another round! And Pew, your set just cracks me up! I love the "Sailor Brave" one, but I still think I got the best one! (the gritty fellow on the bottom with the red bandana.) Ransom, the one of yours I got has one of my favorite words: salmagundi. Alas, I have never eaten any. But the word is useful when no other will suffice. It can mean anything to the uninformed.

If anyone here is morbidly obese like I was (368 lbs at my heaviest) I can't recommend gastric bypass surgery highly enough. Last summer, at age 51, I had finally had enough of the constant pain and fatigue that went with being so fat for so long. I had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass on August 21, 2008. It was without a doubt the best decision of my life (well, maybe 2nd, after marrying Red Bess in 1983!) I weighed 316 on the day of surgery, and today I am down to about 235. I have lost 16 inches off my waist, I no longer have sleep apnea, I'm off 2 of my 3 hypertension meds, and I feel 20 years younger! If you want to see some before and after photos, they're on my facebook page. It's not for everyone. Indeed, you must have a BMI of at least 40 to even be considered in most circumstances. But if you are truly dying because of obesity, it can save your life. If you're a type 2 diabetic, (I wasn't, yet) it most cases it cures it immediately. And there's other kinds of surgery. Lap band works a bit differently, but more slowly. And there's big lifestyle changes that are for life. I don't tolerate some foods (mostly high sugar/simple carbs) and I have to take several vitamins and supplements every day for the rest of my life. But the weight just falls off! How could it not, when I am absolutely stuffed, and well-nourished, after a half cup of food? Sorry to get on my soapbox, but this worked so well for me. If you're considering it, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

This saw may be out of your price range - $99.75 - but it's one of the best around. If that's too pricey, PM me. I may have something that you need that I could part with. Let me know how big, what time period, how accurate, etc.

Here's mine. I apologize for the sideways ones. Photobucket hung up when I tried to rotate them. How I did it: I very scanned maps from a book called "The Sea Chart" by John Blake. I resized the scans, then very roughly traced them onto water color paper. Most of the coloring was done with water colors, I used colored pencils on a few, but I liked the results from water colors better. I wrote some quick factoids on the reverse of each. That's it! Took me most of a day, but I had a great time.

I would have been here sooner, but I have been busy making Bess a delightful breakfast in bed - quiche, chocolate-dipped strawberries, goat brie and mimosas. She is happy and as peachy-pink as her dozen long-stemmed roses on the dresser. We look forward to a lazy day of quiet celebration.