Cap'n Pete Straw

I have commented on this in other threads. I purchased the dice game as part of a Three-For-One game at Target (the set is boxed and sold exclusively at that chain). So for $35, I got the dice set, the chess set, and the checkers set (the pieces are actual metal cursed Aztec gold coins!). For $35, this was an excellent deal... I am thinking about picking up another and stashing it away. I am a cheapskate, so the $20 price tag is borderline for me. Of course, you can just go purchase a bunch of dice, acquire some cups (tankards? empty cans of peas? coconut halves?) and make your own version for much less than $20. Still, the game is a lot of fun. I would not suggest pushing you away from it.

I think the movie specifies at some point that the island cannot be found except by those who already know where it is. Or is that Isla de los Cruces? Yes, I know this is no help... I recommend you wing it, create something from scratch, and claim that it is authentic. When someone tries to prove you wrong, they will have to produce the "real" map, and then you will have it!

Abraham Lincoln

I, too, will be interested in a pair.

According to their website: 20th year Anniversary: July 7 - Sept. 3, 2007

You know what? I want to see some pictures. No... not of the pencil test. Oh... wait. Maybe...

I feel this photo belongs in this thread. A photo taken at Bristol Renaissance Faire of The Archangel crewe: CrazyCholeBlack: Were you at Port Washington? Did you introduce yourself to the crewe of the Fool's Gold? Did I meet you? That is... did ye run into a Dead-Sexy pirate sporting a hook for a hand? (also: Be Careful! There's an angry-looking owl right behind you!)

Thought I would post additional information... The journals I have purchased and cited are all in the $5.99 to $7.99 range. Just today I stopped in an artists supply store (shopping for nibs), and found a nice black (A4 size?) sketchbook with stark white pages priced at $18.99, on sale for $8.99. The hardcover has the appearance of leather (probably vinyl), not cloth. I have finished sixteen pages (I honestly thought my material would fill more pages...) and am up to my 2006 events. I have to go back and ink in three "skipped" illustrations. Anecdote: I was very unhappy with the first two pages, so here's what I did. I had left a previous page blank, so I copied my entries over onto this earlier page. Then I wrote some tantalizing words along the inside margin of the undesired page ("treasure," "gold doubloons," "thirty chests", etc.), then carefully ripped out the unwanted page while leaving some critical words behind. Now it looks like a crucial page has been removed ... but some of the vital information remains! Where is the missing information? Will someone come back for these bits? Oohh! Intriguing!

Rats, I thought I would refresh this thread... As we discussed ever-so-briefly, I have been collecting antique medical instruments (and creating replicas) for several years. Of course, my collection centers around the 1860s. However, a few things predate the Civil War, and I have been recently rummaging though my collection to see what needs to go in a new (older) medical box... Regarding bleeding: I have a nice original bone-handled fleam. I have also been picking up a few bleeding cups ... and you can always get some leeches at the local bait store. I will endeavor to stage a decent photo showcasing my collection and try to post a picture here for all to see.

For the record, Cheeky Actress was able to slip her wrists out of the smallest shackles I had. I think we need to consider thumbscrews.

Fine. Be that way. I am bringing a box of sand to RF2 so I can stand in it barefoot while drinking at the bar. So there.

I grant you permission retroactively. * * * * Dare I start? I have a lot to say... The mornng of September 11, 2001, my wife had already left for work (these were the days when our respective commute times were reversed). I turned the TV news on, getting ready to jump in the shower. What a breaking story! An unbelievable tragedy -- a plane went horribly off course and crashed into one of the Trade Towers. I was in a hurry and wanted to catch the entire story later, so I threw in a videotape so I could catch up at the end of the day, in case the story was hard to find on the later news broadcasts (little did I know). Then I took my shower. When I got out of the shower, I discovered that the world had changed. The reporters were stating that a second plane had crashed into the second tower. At that instant I knew this had been deliberate. I called my wife on the cell phone with the news, while I rewound the tape to watch the "live" footage of the second crash. I left for work, and went downtown Chicago on the CTA "El" train, where so many people were unaware of what had happened. As the commuters discussed the morning's events and additional breaking news, so many people refused to believe what was being told to them. When I entered my office building, the live nws coverage was being broadcast on the lobby's television monitor... at that moment, before getting on the elevator, I watched the first building collapse live on television. Then I reached my office on the top (14th) floor of one of the tallest buildings in the South Loop of this major metropolitan city -- known worldwide as "Second City" only after New York. Recognizing the significance of my geographical location, the day actually became more surreal, if that were possible. I can only compare the feeling with the scene in LotR when Frodo "sees" the burning Eye of Sauron looming ever closer -- for the first time in my life I felt like I was conspicuus upon the Face of the Earth. We turned on the television in the office and soon learned of additional missing planes, of planes being flown off-course, reports of additional crashes without any details. I cannot now recall the exact timing or details, but there were reports about the White House being targetted by suicide hijackers (or at least its air space being compromised), and reports came in regarding the the Pentagon crash. We received a preparatory alert that we may need to evacuate the building. Then my family started calling me on the phone to get out of the city. I explained to them that the last place on Earth I wanted to be was jammed like a sardine in the subway, because if I were going to try to murder a large group of innocent people, this would be my primary target: create a widespread panic, then attack them with a bomb or poison gas when they are trapped in subway tunnels. Within about a half-hour, the real call came: downtown Chicago was to be completely evacuated: Get Out Now. As building fire marshall, it was my responsibility to get people out rapidly and safely; being on the top floor, I had the added task of sweeping all the floors to be sure that no one had been left behind. All the time, my mother kept calling me, emotionally begging and pleading with me to save myself and get out. I tried to reassure her that I had some responsibility to others ... I finally stopped answering my phone (soon the cell lines were jammed and I was unable to make any calls at all for the next couple hours) and kept moving myself and others out of the building. I don't claim to have done anything heroic that day, and circumstances thankfully resulted that I did not save any lives ... but to this day I feel somehow proud that I was the last person out of the building, aside from the security guards and the guy with the keys who were all anxious to lock it all up and leave. I feel as if I did something, as insignificant as it was. I did something on a day when, in reality, none of us could really do anything at all. Getting a taxi cab was Hell. A co-worker and I flagged down a cab driver (who was as anxious to get out of the city as we were) and with the resultant traffic jam on Lake Shore Drive, it was alreasdy a $30 fare when I got out of the cab at the "closest point" of the route to my apartment. Leaving her in the cab, I ended up walking about two miles home. I could fill a volume of what I went through the remainder of the day. My attempts to reach my boss' son who lived in New York, and trying to reach my boss (who was out of the country) with updates. My unsuccessful attempts to reach my own children who lived almost an entire state away. Standing on the front porch, staring at the sky in utter amazement that there were absolutely no planes whasover (and we lived under a regular heavy flight path to the world's largest airport). All the while watching the continued live news coverage in utter disbelief as America tried to assess what damage it had suffered, and how many Americans had actually been lost, and who could possibly hate us so very, very much. ...And then there is the eerie feeling I still get to this day whenever I look out my office window at the Standard Oil Building, which was built according to the same plans as the World Trade Towers, and looks for all the world like their surviving triplet (which it is). But I have already written more here than I have ever before been able to say about that terrible, terrible day.

Can I also add here.... If I am ever posing again in a photo, can someone please just whisper to me: "Box your feet!" I would like to call your attention to the photo-perfect foot placement of Capt. Sterling and Rateye... while Lt. March and Mr. Straw have the stance of a couple of Civil War reeanactors.

Allow me. From Left to Right (because that's the way these things are typically done)... (1) Pete Straw (application as Ship's Pilot/Navigator pending...) (2) Jacob Reiley (aka "Rateye"), the Ship's surgeon (3) Young Miss Lizzie (who seems to know no fear) (4) "Skittles," the Norwegian bride of Mr. March, who serves onboard as seamstress, laundress, and cook to the ship's officers (5) Andrew March, first lieutenant (6) The famous london actress Lilly McKinney ("Cheeky Actress") (7) Captain J H Sterling. ... I hope I got these right, but I expect the Captain or other crew regulars will correct me if I get something wrong.

Decisions, decisions... "No, Captain... I am pretty sure the trigger guard is supposed to be UP..." "You don't need a bottle opener Bartender -- I can get it from here."

I have no words left...

Ladies and gentlemen... For your viewing pleasure... The Crewe of the Archangel! And isn't this a great picture??

19. The flintlocks all have red plastic safety plugs in their barrels.

15. Carrot Top is in it. 16. So is Paulie Shore. 17. And David Spade. 18. ...and it's directed by William Shatner.

Marie Antoinette

Apparently, over the weekend or late last week, there was a tragic accident in a Air & Water show in Malta. As a Comcast internet user, I was able to watch a video clip (with no news commentary, just edited and enhanced home video footage) of two airplanes colliding over the Grand Harbor (I assume the location from the video footage). One of the planes was cut in half in the dramatic footage. One person died, from what I could gather.

(Wasn't the Cryptkicker Five the band that recorded...) The Monster Mash

I cannot offer an off-site link... Photos carefully chosen; only the backs of heads are seen. Still thinking about it...

Rockets' red glare

Not doing too well today. It's September 11, and I thought very little special about it when I got up this morning. But we have overcast skies (here in Chicago) and non stop rain all day long... it appears as if the heavens themselves are in mourning. But during my morning commute, I was listening, as I do almost every day, to the local country station. Yes: patriotic rednecks. And they started playing clips of 9/11 news reports and 9-1-1 emergency calls from that day, and then some well-mixed montages of audio clips along with "I love you, I miss you, I will always remember you" type songs. ...And I started weeping like a baby. Here it is, five years later, and I think I have finally given myself the space and ability to really feel about the tragedy more than I have since within the first week that everything happened. I have been carrying this mood around with me all day long. Even as I write this, I am overwhelmed with emotion. I guess, deep down, I needed this... It just came upon me without warning, and I was not prepared to handle this sudden melancholy.