| Subject | : | It was a dark and stormy night... |
| Author | : | Steve Price mailto:%20sprice@hsc.vcu.edu |
| Date | : | 12-03-2000 on 07:44 p.m. |
| It was a dark and stormy night. March in Chicago. ACOR in town, and
snow up to the knees.
We got lucky. Our plane made it to the airport, and we made it to the hotel. Snow and all. Straight to the dealer fair. There, in John _____'s room, we saw the perfect Yomud bokche. Great colors, great condition, pompoms and all. And tagged at $3300; not bad. Still, custom dictates dickering, so we asked John _____ if he could do any better. And as we were doing that, David Grabbit walked into the room, picked up the bag, walked over to John ______ and said "I'll take it". John looked apologetic. "It's in his hands," he said, "if you can get it away from him, I'm happy to sell it to you." I wasn't up for the fistfight, so I gave in. Damn shame. Nice bokche. Two years later, next ACOR. David Grabbit said hello, shook my hand, asked if I remembered the bokche. "Sure do". Would I like to buy it? "How much?", I asked. $4500 he said. I passed. He must die. Steve Price |
| Subject | : | Re:It was a dark and stormy night... |
| Author | : | Jerry Silverman mailto:%20rug_books@silvrmn.com |
| Date | : | 12-03-2000 on 09:25 p.m. |
| Dear Steve,
Your standard for the death penalty is lower than mine. While this sort of behavior might be contributory to the serial killer's mindset, I'm not sure it's enough in itself. This guy's been beaten out for the good stuff many times. His problem is that he'd never have recognized the bochke's qualities that made it worth $3500 in the first place. Of course, having it thrown back in his face two years later at $4500 would be sure to piss him off. The thing is, he'd probably buy it and be laughed at for over-paying by the quicker-handed guy. Then he'd want him dead. -Jerry- |
| Subject | : | Re:It was a dark and stormy night... |
| Author | : | Patrick Weiler mailto:%20jpweil00@gte.net |
| Date | : | 12-07-2000 on 10:03 a.m. |
| Steve, The dark and stormy night part works quite well, but how about our hero going to the auction on that dark night, paying a world record price for a tribal weaving then finding later it was a forgery from a Romanian workshop in league with a formerly respected international dealer. He sends the weaving back to the dirty dealer with an asp enclosed. The asp bites the dealer on the neck, looking like a vampire bite, and slithers away. The only problem I see with many of these despicable deaths is that your hero seems to enjoy being there and watching the fear and pain of the one who "done him wrong". This would argue for a scenario such as: The poor hero wanted a position on his local rug club, but was outmanuvered by a foe. The whole club finds themselves at a rug exhibition in a scary, old castle on a dark and stormy night........ The now famous and gloating rug club chairman is lured to a turreted room for a peak at a truly magnificent treasure and subsequently is tossed out a window. Gosh, Jerry, this intrigue and suspense stuff can get as addictive as rugs! PatrickWeiler |
| Subject | : | Re:It was a dark and stormy night... |
| Author | : | Sam Gorden mailto:%20gordsa@earthlink.net |
| Date | : | 12-08-2000 on 01:19 p.m. |
| Although Jerry's opus "A Novel Idea" may a be literary masterpiece its
creation is not a NOVELTY. He should recognize that rug-lovers, like
myself, have been deluged by tomes on the subject which always were
paraded, not as novels, but as works of profound scholarship. These often
were written by individuals who had neither collected nor dealt in these
artifacts. An example is a an expert(?) who graduated with a Doctorate in
Oriental Art from Harvard. However, he is only one of a legion who crawled
out of the woodwork to infest our field when such endeavors became
profitable. Remember the law of academia "Publish Or Perish" Sorry Jerry,
but I had to remind you of your competition!
Sam |
| Subject | : | Re:It was a dark and stormy night... |
| Author | : | R. John Howe mailto:%20rjhowe@erols.com |
| Date | : | 12-08-2000 on 04:15 p.m. |
| But Sam, certainly this is fodder for what Jerry proposes.
Out of this crowd of dishonest, avaracious scholars you need only to pick the very worst. He will certainly deserve to die, perhaps as a result of discovering how to read Tekke weavings (the short answer will be "upside down" as someone suggested to Yon and I once) so that it becomes apparent that their knots are actually asymmetric open left and therefore that these Tekkes comprise a new class of Salor (most likely woven in the Middle Amu Dyra area). Perhaps you could have this despicable scholar become of the focus of some considerable bad feeling about his thesis (since only those who pay him have access to his method of providing the essential interpretive evidence). Looking for further data to shore up his position and technique, he sneaks into a private rug library that is the current equivalent of that of Charlie Ellis, spots the very book he needs on a top shelf, 12 feet above him, climbs up on the conveniently placed library ladder and is reaching for the book when the serial killer (who was one of those to whom he denied help in the lucrative Tekke-Salor conversion) pulls an attached rope. The ladder falls and so does the scholar. The fall would likely do the job, but is made certain when the scholar's chest is pierced by a Tekke tent pole propped inconveniently upright by the killer in the precise path of the scholar's descent. One less scholar to give out bogus information in support of a nefarious plan to make money on rugs. One more chapter for Jerry and a hell of a lot cleaner killing than those resorting to all those poisons. The nasty fellow hardly felt a thing with is in a way regretable. The problem with this chapter is that we've made the serial killer seem almost virtuous which can't be. Well, that's for the revision cycle, which I leave in your capable hands. Regards, John Howe |
| Subject | : | Re:It was a dark and stormy night... |
| Author | : | Jerry Silverman mailto:%20rug_books@silvrmn.com |
| Date | : | 12-09-2000 on 01:22 a.m. |
| Dear Steve and John,
I think you're on to something here. What we have is a scoundrel of a rug "expert" who writes a book propounding his bogus theory which causes untold chaos for honest, serious, right-thinking rug collectors (one of whom is our serial killer). Then the bad guy meets his end crushed under a pile of books. This is exactly the ironic, "let the punishment fit the crime" situation I'm looking for. Not that anything like this would actually happen in Real Life. Right? -Jerry- |