In the Family

Today needs a picture of a puppy. Here’s Vita, being rudely awakened from her beauty sleep yesterday:

I had a coworker that I had affectionately nicknamed "my little puppy", because she reminded me a little of Vita: small in stature, with short tousled hair, a sly and subtle sense of humor, and always first among us to greet and comfort others.

Sharon passed away earlier this week, suddenly and unexpectedly. We’re all taking it very, very hard at work. She was loved by everyone who knew her: I can think of no better epitaph for anyone.

(BTW, Vita has been a most effective grief counselor this week. When she's bad, she's Bad, but when she's good she's Wonderful.)

On a lighter note and slightly more cheerful note, here’s what I was going to write about this week - the Breyer Bolo Tie.

This is an example of one of the original releases that I found (of course) at the local flea market. One of the horn tips on the skull is broken, but since you don’t see them " in the wild" very often, I was happy just to rescue it.

The Bolo Tie was Breyer’s first retail "wearable" item, being released in 1972 and lingering in the line through 1976. Although it wasn’t hugely popular, it is also not a real difficult item to find in hobbyist circles: I think a lot of hobbyists bought them just for their sheer oddness, thus keeping most of them "in the family".

It was released with either black or brown woven plastic strings under the same number, #501. It was sculpted by Bob Scriver, who over a decade later gave us the Traditional Buckshot mold.

The Bolo Tie was reissued at Breyerfest as a "surprise" Special Run, in the arena sales area before it earned its "NPOD" sobriquet. First in 1998 in a similar colorway - charcoal gray with either brown or black woven leather strings - and then in 2000 in metallic gold and silver.

The SRs sell for about the same price the originals do, when they come up for sale: most of the people who bought them in the store have also kept them. Although rare, in a technical sense, they’re one of those specialty items that appeals mostly to nerdier among us.