Steph

peppermint!

Smartass idea: changing the baseglass changes it from a calligraphy to a scribble. Devil's advocate idea: changing the baseglass on a wirepull from clear to solid makes it not a wirepull anymore.

Thank you, Edna!

For Mike Petura, one of his jelly fish. (photo by Brian Bowden)

What a nice tribute. Thank you.

I have some punny friends who could mop the floor with lead-ins like this. I don't have that talent. One round and then I take a seat on the spectator bench.

I used to be addicted to soap. I'm clean now.

I agree with Sami and Ann. I believe that Tornado is a legitimate name. And that Blizzard also could apply.

I like.

Has anyone dug the English colors in Thuringen? Whether at a house with a known name or not?

Things like that make me think it's not too late to try to learn German. Had a similar reaction listening to a Holland's Got Talent video -- it made me think I could learn Dutch if I just tried a little. The scary thing is always the verbs.

Thank you. I feel cheerful just by looking at them. Sunshine really brings them to life.

Tattoo!

Hey, you get no complaints from me! Do we know where the 8-vaners came from? Are they Japanese?

Those are the cat's meow!

Do you see "More Reply Options"?

Ron (Swissmarble) posted these on Facebook and I begged him to let me post them here! So pretty!

I am not familiar with them. My quick glance at their auctions didn't alarm me. Their ID's don't look 100% perfect but I'd guess they'd get a passing grade for them. Welllll .... some of the "wet mint" ones are polished, but the seller says so in the description. So bid accordingly.

Most pontils are associated with handmade marbles. Some with "transitionals", which may be machine-made. One tricky thing is recognizing whether something actually is a pontil. Some machine-made marbles have cold-roll marks or damage which may be mistaken for pontils. The top marble is an Akro Popeye. That's a type of corkscrew from the 1930's. It's a popular marble. Yours is damaged. Of course that affects value. The bottom marble is a contemporary handmade marble. Do you see a signature on it? (Someone's initials?) The middle one is tricky. My first thought based on colors was Peltier, but the structure is wrong for the marble type I was thinking of. I'm starting to think Jabo for it. The kind made in 2008 or later. How much sparkle in the green chunks? They could be aventurine or mica.

Postcard perfect. I know you know how lucky you are! Thanks for sharing your city with us.

Yup, he's a convert and didn't even realize it until he said it out loud.