Official Luthiers Forum!

Where's it folks.

Kim do you or Tim have it yet?

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

It's not here yet Rod but fear not, standard shipping from east coast to west coast can take up to 10 days and sometimes even more. Given that, coupled with the fact that most of us Aussies have had our lineage tainted somewhere along the path with the blood of wrongfully convicted Irish peasants, I would not go get my hopes up for a fast turn around, we always like to take hostages just to be on the safe side.

P.S. I'm sure as soon as Paul works out how to change font type for each word in the sentence, he will tune in with a ransom note...Oh, I meant update .

Cheers

Kim

(on the floor) Kim, that's too funny....

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

bump

bump

bump

_________________

------------------------------------------------------
Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

ouch

Sounds like we are related Kim.

_________________
Aoibeann

[QUOTE=Aoibeann] Sounds like we are related Kim.[/QUOTE]

Don't know too many round here who would fes up to that one

Cheers

Kim

bump

From my understanding of the family, not everyone left Ireland to come to America because they wanted to, but because they had to. I guess they thought it was better than Botany Bay.

_________________
Aoibeann

[QUOTE=Aoibeann] From my understanding of the family, not everyone left Ireland to come to America because they wanted to, but because they had to. I guess they thought it was better than Botany Bay.[/QUOTE]

Hey Lillian,

You make an interesting point.

From what I understand, the English had been using the USA as a dumping ground for their undesirables (not many Irish where considered desirable by the English back then) for quite some time. This was in effort to address the problem of over crowded gaols and rising crime.

This became necessary because public hangings for petty crime were not proving to be a deterrent to the rabble, and this was evident in the fact that more pockets would be picked at the public hanging of a pick pocket than the accused could have managed to pick himself in 2 of his lifetimes.

So transportation to the USA became a comfortable symbiotic relationship which provided cheap convict labour to the pioneering cotton farmers and other agricultural concerns of southern USA. But then the Yanks went and had themselves a tea party in Boston without inviting the Poms and they had a falling out.

As a result of this little tiff, the Yanks decided to replace their once cheap but encumbered convict labour source with even cheaper, non-encumbered black slaves. This of course meant that the English now had to find a new dumping ground for this festering mob because their gaols started to overflow right out into the hulks anchored in their rivers.

Due to their past experience with the plague and other diseases igniting in overcrowded slums then spilling indiscriminately into the homes of those that matter, the pressure was on to do something quickly.

Well, it just so happens that back in 1770, way before the tea party even thought about putting the kettle on, a bloke by the name of Jimmy Cook mapped the (already discovered?) shores of eastern Australia and, this is the important bit, he also noted a climate suitable for farming flax, which was used in the manufacture of sail canvas, and also the existence upon Norfolk Island of an abundance of tall pines which looked ideal for use in the construction of ships mast.

Now when Jimmy Cook went back to England and told the powers that be of this great discovery, they where totally unimpressed as it was determined by them that Terra Australis (Stay with me, stay with me I'm getting there) offered no commercial or strategic incentive to justify the cost of colonisation.

Ahh, but then later came that tea party we were talking about. Now that tea party changed everything, because now, not only did the England need to find a new dumping ground for those pesky convicts, it also now meant that she who ruled the waves had lost her main resource for flax, which was grown in the southern states of USA and...you guessed it, straight tall pines used in the construction of ships mast which had been harvested from the north.

Couple this with the fact that their nemesis, the French, who had been invited to the above-mentioned tea party and had sided with the Yanks where now sniffing around down-under and threatening to take possession of that untapped resource for themselves, Australia gained new respect in England's eyes as an object of desire.

Grudgingly, the decision was made by the Home Secretary and the Lord of the Admiralty to establish a penal colony and later a garrison on Norfolk Island. As a result, first ships arriving at Port Jackson on the 26th of January 1788.

Ironically it turned out that our soil and rain fall were too poor to support good flax crops, and those Norfolk Island pines? Well, whilst they looking pretty impressive from the boat, they proved to be totally unsuitable for ships mast due to shortness of grain.

So, what the heck does all this have to do with Rod's book I hear you ask? Well noth'in, but I just thought I would buy a little time and bump the thread again so my mate Paul can see it and let us know what is happening.

Cheers

Kim

I'd like to meet you someday, Kim, that was wonderful to read. If you're ever in the middle of Arkansas, look me up. (Not today, though, I'm in Virginia)

Very enlightening and funny posts.

Ron

_________________
OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Good History Lesson, Kim.  Makes me see you in a new light.  I'll wear my shades.    

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Bump

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed my condensed history on the relationship between the Boston Tea Party and the Settlement of Australia. I don't think that many people are aware there was one.

Ron, I certainly will be sure to look you up if I ever get to Arkansas. We have always enjoyed a good laugh together here on the forum so I don't see why it would be anything less than a real hoot to sit around and share a few stories with you mate.

cheers

Kim

Another bump in the name of history.

Cheers

Kim

Kim,

You've probably already heard it but Martin Simpson tells the story of his professional musician friend who was touring in Australia. At immigration control he was asked "Do you have a criminal record?" to which he replied "I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was still obligatory!".

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

[QUOTE=Dave White] Kim,

You've probably already heard it but Martin Simpson tells the story of his professional musician friend who was touring in Australia. At immigration control he was asked "Do you have a criminal record?" to which he replied "I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was still obligatory!". [/QUOTE]

ROFLAO

Thanks Dave, that was beautiful

Cheers

Kim

        

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Anyone know where the book has got to?

_________________

------------------------------------------------------
Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Yes! Paul sent me a PM the other day and at last reports, he still has the book but will be getting it to the PO in the very near future

As you may know, Paul is a rather eminent scientist and he has been very busy doing experiments in the lab that are meant to find a way to make either "Work Choices", or John Howard, attractive or even just a little appealing to voters before the next Federal election.

Understandably, this has proven to be an exercise in complete futility. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and he has now been called upon to either find a way to teleport WMD's into Iraq for discovery by John and George during an impromptu visit just out from the election, or, to get a load of people in a leaky boat to throw their kids in the water off the coast of NT sometime in September.

OK, Ok, apparently Paul will be posting the book shortly but, due to work commitments, has hardly been home to do so for a while.

The book is safe

Cheers

Kim

Kim you are a riot I sure hope a tone (metric tonne is bigger) of your writing gets into that book. Remember, you can add paper to it if you have to.

Poor Paul, I've busted his _____ over the book a little bit latly. But with his work and that crazy storm (he was out surfing really ) the book had to wait.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Can I stop and ask what the OLF hand-me-down book is??

_________________
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

HERE ya go Christian

Cheers

Kim