LIFE GOES ON

So here we are in the fall, Pleasanton over, Karen's gone gone gone, off in Moron land, getting ready to marry a Moron (WOW - the ink on her divorce petition isn't even dry yet AND SHE'S ALREADY HOOKED HUBBY NUMBER TWO! - boy do those Morons move fast!); my brother's back in the hospital for the sixth time; and the WTC disaster has put us in the brink of a war against an enemy we can't even find. If I sound bitter it must be the cilantro I just ate with a lemon chaser; I guess what they say is true - there's no fool like an old fool... Ain't life grand?

In the wake of these tragedies great and small, a few interesting facts in Piping World have come to light. I wonder why Bill Merrimen hasn't gone after the executive of the WUSPBA with a meat cleaver - it seems that the RSPBA hasn't received any dues from WUSPBA for the last three years. No wonder Prince Charles is still in Grade II. Even so, the lack of communication between Glasgow and Corte Madera was inexcusable. Just WHO dropped the ball???

I'd like to thank my scratch crew at Pleasanton - Nick and Rich Keihner (...you want me to lift what???...), Sabrina Brown, Black Part himself, and Tim Miller (backbone of setup - couldn't have done it without you), and, of course, Bridget. Some people were missed, but we got through it without bloodshed. we hope to expand games operations next year, so keep your eyes peeled on this site!

Black Part threw his eye patch into the ring to run for WUSPBA president - and then withdrew after realising he had about as much chance of winning as Osama bin Laden surviving a Hadassah meeting. Let's face it, the system is too well entrenched for one person to change - so let's ALL pitch in and change things. Speaking of WUSPBA, how will recent events effect the next AGM? Will people want to travel to Lost Wages (purportedly another prime target for the nasties) for the next WUSPBA confab? Doesn't this reinforce the NEED for absentee ballots??? Time - and the economy - will tell!

Oh, one more thing - to the imbecile or imbeciles who put insulting posts on our site's guestbook under the guise of Ken Bain of Fresno - all you did was impugn a good man's name in public by seeking to libel us. Both Partanen and I have thicker skins than you can imagine, and the only tangible result of your mischief has been the removal of the guestbook from the site, so your filth can no longer be spread on our webpages. Mr. Bain, whose identity was stolen to implement this libel, is understandably irate, so I wouldn't go about bragging if I were you; but then again, I'm not a delta-minus semimoron (or was that semiMormon?)...You lose....

Too late for Pleasanton, our first set of pipes from Ian Murray came in on the 21st of last month. His pipes are notable for their attention to detail - bold, deep comb and beading, perfectly spaced; matched grain in the sections; mirror-like bores; and beautiful tone. The overall look of these pipes is of a beautifully restored set from the 1890s; deep, lovely wood, elegant profile, and fine fitting. The silver slides on the full imitation set shown on the IAN MURRAY page have exquisite hand engraving, done locally in Scotland, not made in England like so many of the pipe mounts we see. Murray bagpipes are very fine pipes indeed, with a full, sweet drone sound very like old MacDougalls or Glens. The chanter needs either a Warnock or Frater Long reed to balance properly. We've played this set with Glassfibre Duatones and got a rich, full tone from the drones; set up with either the Murray chanter or a Kintail 2K chanter we got excellent tone and balance from this pipe. We heartily endorse Ian Murray's pipe for any level player

IN ADDITION - I just acquired one of John MacDonald of Inverness' gold medals - no, not THE Gold Medal, which is in the College of Piping, but one from the Dornoch Gathering in 1931, awarded by'Mrs. Roswell Miller of Skibo Castle' (!) - probably cost five pounds when it was new, but it is a real piece of piping history. I'll show it to you if you stop by some time, along with the 1890s photo of John, William Ross, John Center, and other piping notables of the late 1800s.

We've finally awarded our first Skull and Crossed Drone patches to deserving members of the piping community. August's award went to Gary Speed of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Pipe Band for his unending pestering of the WUSPBA executive regarding a fraud perpetrated in the community.

September's award goes to Mr. Arvey MacFarland of Utah for his forthright letter to The Piping Times regarding professional behavior in professional events. We look forward to seeing his comments in print next month. Step up and collect your patch, Mr. MacFarland!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST - a new tune, written at the same time as 'The Eleventh of September,' called 'THE PARTING.'