Catspaw:

When a suspicious-looking folkie comes across the border, he's experienced enough to carry as little evidence of his nefarious intentions as he can. Hence, the lad come in with his brand-new old Martin 0-18 and his ingeniously modified autoharp (which you've got to see to believe!). We had obtained an 0-18 Harptone case for him from Mandolin Brothers. He nestled the little beauty in the case and felt she was safe forever. However, it turns out she didn't much like the trip down from Toronto in the trunk (boot?) of his car. Small crack on the face had grown a bit worse. He decided to leave her here with us, borrow my backup Larrivee and the Apollonio 12-string for his current tour, and then get the 0-18 to his favorite repair person before risking her stability on the road again.

Too bad we're unable to co-conspire with some old packing crate of a bridge-cable-strung Stella, or something! That'd be great! But, hey! All those Washington Mudcateers are rich (they work for the gummint, y'know), maybe they can pull something off with their usual outrageous sense of total disrespect. Attention Baum, LaMarca, Bill D, SongBob, et al! Time to be inventive!! Make Roger from Baltimore wish he hadn't made previous plans.

Now I wish we could be there even more than before!

Sandy