More Housecleaning

Time for a little housecleaning.

I had to pitch a couple of bodies in the trash yesterday. I hate to throw out anything, but it wasn’t a total loss: I did learn a lot from my experimentations. That’s sort of the whole point of experimenting, right? You’re not going to learn anything if you don’t open yourself up to the possibility of failing.

My "October Surprise" has nothing to do with the Passage to the Pacific thing. Y’all realize I live in Michigan and, by the conventional standards of measure, am poor? And that I just laid out a fair bit of change to get my car repaired?

There’s a photo of the event horse "Like Thunder" on the Breyer web site now, and it’s quite nice. Unlike a lot of the kvetchers, though, I prefer the Rejoice mold to the Clock Saddlebred. It’s still not going to motivate me to buy a ticket at the last minute. I need more horses going out, not coming in.

Speaking of, I managed to avoid the charms of that pretty Bear at Tuesday Morning this week. Whew.

Looks like the Gloss Zenyatta Foals may be sold out; if so, they went a little quicker than I expected, but I also suspect some speculating going on. I already see it on the Mid-States Specials, which I find a little strange. I know Roxy’s popularity’s been on the rise - especially with the new mane she got at BreyerFest - but the Mid-States SRs have typically averaged around 3000 pieces, more than enough to go around.

My Harlequin (whom I have dubbed "Mista J") arrived a couple of days ago, and (being the contrarian, again) I am actually rather unimpressed with him:

His hooves aren’t black, and the spots are, frankly, a little weird and unrandom. The speckling in his gray areas is untypical of vintage gray appaloosas, and dang it, his face isn’t bald enough.

The eyewhites bug me, too, but that's already been discussed.

He’s not going anywhere, though. I am not one of those people who joins clubs just to skim off any "good stuff".  Because it’s all good - chocolate is still chocolate, regardless of whether it’s Hershey or Callebaut.

(Reeves persons who might be reading: my consultation offer still stands.)

As an art historian (I have a degree, really I do!) I’ve been keeping up with the story of the "Flea Market" Renoir, which now appears to have been stolen:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/flea-market-renoir-was-allegedly-stolen-from-baltimore-museum-of-art/2012/09/27/193d6162-08bd-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html

Here’s a quote from the story linked above that piqued my interest:

The Virginia woman, who wants to remain anonymous, bought the landscape in 2010 for $7 in a box with a doll and a plastic cow. She stashed the box for nearly two years before her mother suggested that the painting might be a real Renoir.

Did you see that - and think what I was thinking? Was that a Breyer Cow in that box?

Dang. How come I’ve never found lost Impressionist masters at the bottom of my flea market box lots?

I can just imagine what would have happened, though, if I had bought said box home with me. Mom would have appropriated the painting - both the picture, and the frame being very much to her taste. I would have insisted on taking it to the DIA or DuMouchelles for an appraisal, then the whole "OMG it might have been stolen" part would have come out, and then Mom would be all ticked off at me because I couldn’t let a sleeping dog lie…

Still would have been worth the trouble, though. Seven dollars for a Breyer Cow - even a beat up, body quality Holstein - is a good price.