Let's see what you have. (For anyone who's not sure how to post a rug, just send it as a .jpg attachment to an e-mail to Steve Price who will be delighted to post it - after he's quit shuddering/laughing/projectile vomiting.)

And never forget what my wise grandpappy told me: "Beauty is only skin deep; but ugly goes clean to the bone."

B.T.

I've owned some butt-ugly rugs, but no longer have them and now, for the first time, regret not having kept photos of those things.

That's my excuse. I suspect that some of our readers still have a few of their early mistakes, but in the absence of a digital camera it takes time (and a little cash) to make a photo, scan it and send it to me. Remember, they would be doing all that for the privilege of public self-humiliation.

Then, too, the message filter on my e-mail is set to refuse to download anything that registers above 95% on the Hideous scale (one of the little known features of Norton Antivirus).

Regards,

Steve Price

This one will probably strain your Hideous Meter. I got it on E-bay in a "negotiated" sale after the auction (This only means that I was unable to publicly humiliate the vendor with negative feedback. The only picture shown was the front. It looked like a reasonably old saltbag.

I specifically inquired about the colors on the back and was told it was in a frame and the seller did not know what the back looked like. Now I know why:

It looks like Medusa! Yes, the colors are so bright I need sunglasses to look at it. I was going to save it for a scary Halloween Salon, but Jerry challenged us to bring up the "dead".

I have a few other scary rugs, but I have hidden them so well I could not find them anymore! So I dusted off this old chestnut:

It is, I think, from the Camardi or Maden region of Turkey. It was probably made when the Never-Fade Pink and Yellow Dye Company finally found a distributor in Turkey.

It is not in too good condition, having lost 97% of the selvage and ends. From tweny yards away it still retains a bit of rustic splendor, and for the price of only $35 it still remains in my posession. I would definitely think twice about buying it today, having been exposed to such an abundance of fine pieces such as have been shown already on this April Fool Salon.

Patrick Weiler

I think that while Steve's rationalizing of why we're not having more honest confession here is imaginative, it is just dead wrong.

The truth is that not only do many of us still have some of the ugly rugs we have bought, there are many of us who also have excellent photos of them. Why? Because at the time we purchased them we were proudly documenting them for posterity.

And I also don't buy the argument about how expensive and time-consuming it is to take photos today, and to get them developed and up here. I often can put things up from a Saturday morning rug program by late Saturday afternoon. Where there's a will, there's a way.

So I don't buy Steve's excuses at all. I think that Jerry's exactly right: there are a lot more ugly rugs to be seen if folks will just be more forthcoming. What do you have to lose? Only your international reputation as a collector of impeccable taste.

C'mon, show us some of the "peccable" that you bought early. Or even last week.

Regards,

R. John Howe