A Quilly Story -at last

Today's Link
MJ Keith

Saying for the Day
We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs. ~Gloria Steinem

Picture of the Day
Service of Clowns

Today we offer you a story built around Quilly's three words for the day which are * fracas, * numismatics, and * perspicacious

Andrew had been into numismatics for as long as he could remember. At first he had collected pennies. When he tired of that he moved on to silver dollars. He had in his collection some of the very best silver dollars that still existed. Those alone were woth close to a million dollars. Of course, money had never been a problem. He was the last surviving heir of one of the few billionaires the planet had produced. He could spend whatever he wanted on his collection.
What he wanted now was to complete his collection of Silver Sixpences of English Monarchs. All he was missing was the Silver Sixpence of Edward VI that was minted in the period 1551-1553. He had a badly worn copy but he wanted one like new. Since Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary) wanted all reminders of Edward VI removed the coins had been collected and melted down leaving only a few that had been hidden away.
The judgment of most collectors was that there were only three or four left. One of those four was in the Royal Museum . It had been found in perfect shape at the Tudor Castle tucked in a little nook. In the museum it was kept under a glass container in which moisture and heat were controlled and was surrounded by burglar alarms of one kind or another. It had to be it was valued at over a million dollars.
Andrew had offered the museum two million for it and they turned him down. It was a precious part of English history they said. Having failed at the attempt to buy it outright Andrew offered the museum one hundred thousand dollars for the right to photograph it for a numismatics magazine. This they accepted . The coin was removed from the glass enclosure by an attendant wearing sterile gloves and placed on a sterile cloth. Andrew then took multiple pictures of each side and the edges . Two armed guards stood by during the entire procedure so the coin was well protected. When he finished it was returned to the glass enclosure and the alarms were turned back on.
There was no way that they could have known that the cameras were special cameras each costing more than the coin was worth. With the film placed in a special machine a 3-D reproduction of the original could be made. This reproduction was then used to create the mold in which a new coin could be cast. Andrew melted down his worn copy and a badly worn copy from a few years later minting. He used this to recast the coin. When he finished he had a coin that in every way looked and felt like the one in the museum. Not even the most perspicacious numismatist could tell the difference.
But Andrew could. He knew it wasn’t the original. Even if it fooled everybody else, yet he knew!
So he put the last part of his plan into action .
He paid two men to get into a fracas next to the glass container with the coins.
One pushed the other into the container.
It fell over and the coin fell on the floor.
The alarm went off.
The men continued fighting.
There was chaos.
During this time Andrew switched the coins.
It went perfectly.
His two employees were arrested for disturbing the peace.
The coin was placed under the unbroken glass container.
The alarm was turned back on.
Everything had gone perfectly except:
As he was leaving a young boy ran into him and almost knocked him down.
When he got to the car he reached into his pocket to look at his new treasure and it was gone.
GONE!
His pocket had been picked.
The young boy was long gone as well.
He discovered a hard truth :
No matter how rich or how smart you are you can’t always get everything you want.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
There was a bit of a fracas over at the museum this morning. Some guy who didn’t know you had to buy your ticket in advance came a long way to hear the ghost piano player. When told the soonest he could get a ticket was next Monday he threw a punch at Brian Walsworth the volunteer on duty. That was a mistake. Brian is a retired Marine and the man soon found himself sitting in a snow bank.
He went from there ,spouting opprobrious epithets ,over to Nancy’s and ordered a cup of coffee. Then he decided to have a saffron bun as well. But after the first bite he made a face and spit the bun back on the table. “ That’s the most horrible thing I have ever tasted” he said. Suddenly he found himself flying through the air, out the door, and into another snow bank. Nancy’s poltergeist doesn’t take kindly to spitting and insults. All the poor guy wanted to do was to hear one more time the music of the quondam piano player. Well at least the guy has some kind of ghostly experience to talk about when he gets home.
The Tommy Club is following up on a rumor that the Man in Black was seen behind the town hall during the recent fight with the demon. They talked to Mrs. Trumble but she said she was busy trying to fight the demon and didn’t notice much of anything else. There were footprints in the snow behind the building but they were from many different boots. It looks like people hid there while the battle was going on.
The dragons are flying their regular pattern again with no long term damage from the battle.
Rumor has it that Petrovich is busy translating another driblet that pertains to Pigeon Falls. But it is only a rumor and you know how they come and go in a small town. Some of them are woven with such casuistry as would make a Jesuit proud.

Wrap UP

The snow is not going away and we are supposed to have more coming. I spent a good part of the day continuing my effort to organize this computer. In the afternoon Betty went to Bible Study. I visited every blog that commented on mine yesterday and the " today's link". I also went looking for a good movie editing program. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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