BRAD MARVIN'S 80th BIRTHDAY PARTY & A VERY LITTLE BIT OF GOP POLITICS - October 26, 2008

                                                                

 Howdy from Bob Duff,   

                                    

The above is a rare smiling look at Bradford Marvin - 1928 - present - on the occasion of his 80th birthday celebration.  Most of this blog deals with that party.

I  published this Sunday night with some documents included toward the end.  I checked it today (Monday) and found that blog software had dumped them into cyberspace.  Here I am again reconstructing yesterday's masterpiece.  Hold your applause - please!

This first document ,"NORMAL POSITION - THE FINISH LINE",  will brief you on the racing rule or  the total absence of a current rule, and will outline my position versus my good friend and RC colleague Brad Marvin.  There is another RC member who persisted with him for some time.  They have both gone silent of late.  Click on this and any other image for an expanded view of a rather insignificant old argument.  RC members could see this at the celebration.

This  printed card with the "IC"was on the back of Brad Marvin's birthday portrait shown above.

Another (missing) piece of  "NORMAL POSITION" printing was on the back of  the beautiful glossy photo below of four International One Design yachts flying chutes on a downwind leg during the 2008 Marblehead NOOD Regatta.  It is the same Leighton O'Connor photograph shown above on the first document near Brad's portrait.  Their spinnaker poles are in "Normal Position"which is the whole point of this little exercise. 

 My friend Brad and another colleague objected to a winning IODs performance  because his/her SPINNAKER TACK WAS NOT IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE FITTING ON THE END OF THE IOD POLE.  I immediately contested their stand.  They persisted in this argument for several weeks every time an IOD finished.  Fortunately, no "official protest action" was taken because they were both dead wrong.   These  documents present facts for this  esoteric dispute.  

As we approach election day it seems appropriate to note a little of that stuff endured here in Marblehead.  A good example happened just after Brad Marvin's part last night.  I had discussed some of those party plans with you last week.

You might understand  that we seldom talk politics at the Eastern Yacht Club. There would be no reason for such talk among yacht race friends! Along with several things for this celebration,  I printed 25  cards for each of the 25 dinner guests.  I planned on our playing  the little Japanese "business card"  game taught to us\by Alex Dearborn.  However, a very crowded table and much flowing wine made the game inappropriate for this lively bunch.

 I cautioned all party guests to hang onto their cards since I refuse to print more for Brad's 90th celebration.   Last night the rare smiling picture had been printed of this MIDDLE  CLASS (1950-ha! ha!) HARVARD COLLEGE GRADUATE  with "1928 - 2008" for the eighty years.  Brad pointed out immediately that this format is for a "tombstone" and not for a "living" eighty year old's portrait.  The proper syntax is "1928 to Present".  If  known,  I could have printed yesterday's portrait correctly and then used it again for Brad's ninetieth.  Anyway, the party was a great success for 25 dinner guests topped off by a big sparkler on a vanilla birthday cake. Wish you could all have been there!  

After it all,  I discovered this delightful bumper sticker on the trunk lid of my new golden VW convertible.  I would not have blemished that brand new finish myself, but I agree with its message.  I knew immediately that the lovely Mary Patricia "Pat" Ayer had done the deed. She had done the same for husband  Jim Ayer.  Readers know Jim's many photographs in my blogs and will recognize him as the maker of those remarkable wooden jigsaw puzzles mentioned here from time to time.

Pat sent a compatible political cartoon which defied my attempt to copy it to the blog.  Sorry about that.  Maybe I can figure out the process before election day when I may have some more TANGO memorabilia to share. 

The next piece of party art  was this lovely photo of 

my old International One Design TANGO #16 shown racing under red and white spinnaker with three others of her own kind.  I love this shot by Leighton O'Connor.  His web site is at the very top of my "FAVORITE YACHTING LINKS" above under Jim Ayer's photo of our race signal boat.  Take a look at Leighton's creative yachting photographs in that hyperlink, "AN EXCITING LOOK AT NOOD 2008.....". You cannot help but be amazed by the beauty which he captures.

Oh yes, I have almost forgotten Jim McCully's recommendation that I mark my writing with the warning CAVEAT LECTOR.   I have an old Texas friend now retired to Montana, Donald Lee Clark, who knows a bit about writing.  He tells me he feels the same  as Jim.

See you next week.

  

PREPARATION FOR BRAD MARVIN's 80th BIRTHDAY PARTY as of OCTOBER 20, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff,   

 The picture below is a very fast "land yacht" which belongs to ALEX DEARBORN of Maine.  He calls it a '69 DESERTER GT  with  '69 VW IRS Pan & Front Beam, KG disc brakes, Porsche  912 engine, 914 seats , 356b Instruments,  911 wheels and so on....I have some other pics of this beauty.  Write and I will send them to you.     rduff19@comcast.net

ALEX was my secret idol back in the 60/70's when he was making "dune buggies" and,  as he once said, "earning a Master's Degree in Bankruptcy Chapter 911".  I was sneaking around Marblehead trying to steal his technology for the 1929 Model "A" (VW) roadster with rumble seat I prototyped for another business idea.  It could have earned me another master's degree. Fortunately, I stumbled back into the computer game where I was never bored.  ALEX went on to establish a most successful enterprise restoring Mercedes Benz among other things. 

                                                        

He and "the car" are in this blog today because of a luncheon meeting we had recently where ALEX told us about a little Japanese game he knows.  It is wonderful! I plan to introduce you to that game now as I tell you about plans for BRAD MARVIN's  80th  birthday party coming up this Saturday.

We expect twenty people for dinner.  Many are Brad's relatives that Yacht Race Committee Comrades meet once a year at best.  Suffice it to say that names are sometimes a problem for some of us----that is where I often find myself.   ALEX and his Japanese friends have come to the rescue. This game requires just a little cooperation from most of BRAD's guests. Hopefully, enough will read this blog to get us started Saturday.

It seems that the Japanese ALWAYS present you with a business card at an introduction.  They expected you to return one of your own.  In meetings, when seated, they often place each new card in a circular array positioning  each in the direction of its owner.  This facilitates polite little glimpses  when needed to help "learn" names.  Pretty clever! Everyone wins!   

 

For BRAD's 80th party, I have prepared 20 special "business" cards for each of the 20 guest.  I have arranged seating so that a "place card/business card" packet defines the table.  Here below is a montage of these cards for your review.  You can actually click on the picture for a closer look at some of the identities.

NOTE--until published with this unfriendly software I did not realize how I chopped off the names of BRAD's two children.   If I try to fix it now the whole thing may explode!  AMANDA Elliot M. Terenzio is BRAD's only daughter married to PETER B.   Then, "TACK" Bradford Marvin Jr is BRAD's only son married to MARY PAT.

         

                       
Also included at each place is this lovely glossy 4 x 6" LEIGHTON O'CONNOR photograph showing my old IOD #16 TANGO with three other magnificent yachts FLYING THEIR SPINNAKERS WITH POLES IN THEIR NORMAL POSITION FOR RACING.  The reverse side of the photo has print explaining yet again for BRAD and SUSIE just what "NORMAL" position is on these racing yachts. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAD

AN IOD BEAUTY after TAKING A MOMENT WITH THE MOUNTAINS-October 14, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff,

I am a bit late this week and here is a picture suggesting just why. This is a place called THE CATHEDRAL LEDGE near North Conway, New Hampshire.  I visited my son ROB III at his home there this past week with my youngest STEPHEN II.  We had a blast including my first time thrill of seeing THE  CATHEDRAL LEDGE.   I only skied  when coming here years ago and missed all this beauty which was under the snow.

Notice the girl sitting at the far top left.  Then,  look for the two climbers hanging near the picture bottom. They are near the little trees which also cling to life.  They pulled themselves to these incredible heights from the valley floor.  My friend JOEL KINNEY  claims to climb here.  I seriously doubt that he or the others joining him have good sense.  JOEL once described me as "an elderly gentleman" while seeking sympathy in a legal dispute.  I will not put into print the thoughts I have about JOEL's actions in regard to THE CATHEDRAL LEDGDE.  Click on any picture to enlarge your view and solidify my opinion.

Initially  I was planning to include a couple of shots of STEVE performing surgery on a giant Elm tree at ROB's  house.  Alas, this blog of mine defeats me again.   None of those good shots will make it tonight.  STEVE was graduated in Landscape Architecture from URI and has special training and skills for tree work and climbing.  He fantasizes about every tall tree or steeple in New England.   When the steeplejacks rigged the tower on Marblehead's Old North Church  for painting, I feared it might take knotted ropes to keep STEVE from heading out back and doing some moonlight repelling.   

But at this point we were dealing with a great big tree.   This giant Elm next to ROB's house was inviting varmints such as squirrels, etc. into the attic causing a mess.  The Elm's great big limb also threatened winter damage to the house.  Solution?  Call in MACDUFF!  STEVE, that is! 

We were completely amazed at STEVE's performance.  He dressed with an array of equipment and ropes to make an astronaut blush.  Spurs adorned his feet like a fighting rooster.  He moved with grace and quiet confidence.  He whipped straight up the tree to a high fork for the leverage needed to control many small limbs and the big one which was about six inches in diameter.   It all came drifting (or banging) down for stacking  like firewood.  

I labeled him "ARBORIST", but STEVE says he must pass a rigorous examination before even his father is allowed to call him "ARBORIST".  Until he takes this examination making it appropriate to call STEPHEN BOVELLE DUFF II an "ARBORIST", please call STEVE anyway  at 1-781-631-0033 if you need tree work.  E-mail rduff19@comcast.net.  I will not tell anyone that he is not yet a licensed "ARBORIST"unless they ask!   Meanwhile, I may bring up this subject again in the future.   Also, trained Landscape Architects make rather nice plans if you find yourself interested in something other than an "ARBORIST". 

Saturday night we joined a raucous bunch of frustrated skiers at WILDCAT MOUNTAIN buying lift tickets for the winter and watching some outrageous "Hot Dog" ski movies.  ROB III claims he skis that way all the time.  I must tell you that he (and today's ski equipment) has come a long way since our first run together on ZOOMER CHAIR at CANNON MOUNTAIN when he was just two.  Here he is teaching skiing this winter at WILDCAT.  He must have had a pretty good instructor himself. 

Now that we have dealt with New Hampshire mountains,  here we have LEIGHTON  O'CONNOR's beautiful photograph of TERI & HERB MOTLEY's IOD #49 KUNGSORMEN.  With one of her crew concentrating on the spinnaker laundry,  HERB, TERI and the rest have her heading up wind.  There are blue and white chutes ranging down on her bow during this 2008 Marblehead NOOD Regatta race.  I trust that the red, white & blue chutes of  other International One Designs are far behind like they often were when I crewed #49 with "BIG DON" MACINTOSH in the good old days. 

  

# 49 showed a 6,7 & 8th in the NOOD scores I scanned.  A side issue for  MOTLEYS is the spelling of the yacht name.  MRA has it as "KUNGSORMEN" with an "M" where the NOOD  shows "KUNGSORNEN" with the "N".  LEIGHTON  O'CONNOR has picked up the "M" and it is shown that way in the IOD web site which erroneously shows TANGO as wood.  Is it "M" or "N",  TERI & HERB?  

Check out some of LEIGHTON's sites to keep your sailing juices flowing as we plunge into winter:

http://leightonoconnor.blogspot.com/

 http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/

I will be visiting LEIGHTON a great deal between now and Spring!  See you again next week!

Week-Long Job Trying to Join "IWEB" with BLOGGER Stuff - October 6, 2008

Howdy from Bob Duff,

 

If you have followed earlier DUFFSTUFF, you may recall my problems with this software, particularly about inserting and placing photographs within text.   In my regular APPLE schooling I am learning "IWEB"  for "real" web sites similar to what the "big boys" do. 

I attempted this week to bring together that IWEB software and the stuff I have used to date in BLOGSPOT.  I began with one yacht photo followed by three nice pictures of Marblehead's Old North Church Steeple taken by Ulrike Welsch.

  Click this hyperlink for information about Uli's book:

         http://www.amazon.com/Marblehead-Ulrike-Welsch/dp/1889833169

The IWEB software marriage did not work!  To recover,  I have loaded the three steeple pictures by Uli in the old "unfriendly" way.  I then included my own steeple shot plus the yacht photo.  It sequenced  last when I wanted it first.  I just cannot go back tonight to figure a revised approach.

Above is the tower in the dead of Winter.   Next left below is Fall with the beautiful golden leaves. Next is a Summer shot of the steeple from Gerry Island in Little Harbor.  It shows a bit of  Ted Hood's former boat yard.  The expensive homes in the background sit on land where Ted built fancy racing yachts.  He allowed us "charity cases" to store our racing yachts there in the winter.   He named us that because we do-it-yourself boaters generated very little revenue for the yard.

I took the last tower shot for early Autumn from an attic window about four stories above our back yard.  Clearly, we live adjacent to gardens in the back area of the church and steeple.  If you look closely at that photo, you will see the steeplejack preparing everything for the frigid blasts of winter coming soon.  Click on the picture for an enlarged view.

My son Stephen Duff trained in college as a Landscape Architect, but he loves to climb things like big trees, towers and steeples.  He worked happily for a time as a steeplejack climbing many  old steeples all around New England.  He says that this man painting on Old North would be insulted if I called him a "painter" even though that is what he does while repelling himself on the steeple.  Per Steve, that would be like calling a "rag shaker" (sailor) a "stink potter" (motor boater).  It is just not done

  

The steeple built in 1824/5  by members of the Goodwin family, rings its big bell each Sunday morning to summon 'Headers to Congregational Church services.  It also tolls loud and long on July 4th and on George Washington's "real" birthday February 22nd.  That makes "sleeping-in" a little troublesome for folks here in the area called "down town"!  We "foreigners" (not born in Marblehead for several generations) are prone to call it simply "old town".

George Washington spent time in Marblehead in those early days of the U.S.  Saint Michael's Episcopal Church nearby claims that George worshiped there in what is now my church built 1714.

One wag suggests that if he worshipped at St. Michael's, it is possible that George Washington slept there during the sermon!

By some miracle I can begin typing here next to the steeple pictures.

It is time for talk of yachts and the very exciting one-design J105s.

We had seventeen of these beauties racing with us in the July 2008 Marblehead Race Week and NOOD Regatta.  Leighton O'Connor got this great NOOD picture of my very own orthopedic surgeon Dr. Steven Hollis and crew on his J-105 SIROCCO.  I hope my DOC will be pleased that Leighton did not show them NUDE in the NOOD!  Ugggh!
Knowing that I am  on the race committee Signal Boat, Dr. Hollis always cautions me with "SIROCCO IS NOT OVER  EARLY AT THE START! " We did not catch him a single time in the few J-105  starts we ran for them.

To see many many more of Leighton's pictures click:

http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/gallery/

56900614_WMR98/16/351115864_DM3RX#351115864

_DM3RX

Try copy/paste to your browser if you have the same problem as I have today. Call if you need coaching at 781/631-0033.  I'll try!  Also let me know about any problems.   I can send this or other links to you via e-mail.  

The following is a special link just for SIROCCO interests:

http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/search/

index.mg?searchWords=SIROCCO&searchType=InUser&Nick

Name=leightonoc&x=7&y=6

Looking closely there, you will see Ward Blogget, Peter Frisch and their crew sneaking into the J-105 limelight by virtue of their matching SIROCCO yacht name.  Protest anyone?

Or you can go to the link below and do a search by any boat name....

http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/

Consider coming back to DUFFSTUFF again soon.  Sometime in the future,  I will publish a great IOD spinnaker picture from Leighton.  It shows my beloved IOD TANGO #16 with POMPANO #45 and ELECTRA #2.  It could settle an old argument  about a racing rules which keeps cropping up on the ETO.  Brad Marvin is my somewhat stubborn adversary.  He could abandon his position based upon evidence in that photograph.