OK, I'll try, but it'll take a while. It goes back to '96, when the Bgrass-L mailing list was worth spending time on, before it disintegrated into petty squabbling as I hope Mudcat isn't really trying to do.

When someone got into an argument on that list, with Prof. Bangs Tapscott, of Salt Lake City, and called him "fat, old, and ugly," Mr. Tony Polychronis, also of Salt Lake, announced that as a protest, he was forming the American Association of Fat Old Ugly Farts, or AAFOUF. I immediately asked if charter memberships were available, and was allowed to become Charter Member #4.

One of the rules that was established at the outset was that women were eligible for full membership, but had to be self-nominated, to keep their friends and family members from being beaten up. Suzanne Thomas was one of the first women to insist on joining, and became #18, IIRC.

Sometime later, Suzanne got in an argument with some idiot - either a redneck or a college professor - on the list and put him down quite brilliantly. In recognition of her post, I proposed her for the title of AAFOUF Queen For Life; which Tony, as Founder, immediately made an official designation. To this day, she has been referred to on Bgrass-L simply as The Queen.

Before she left the DBFS, I got to a couple of their gigs where she was playing, with bigchuck, wearing our AAFOUF official hats, and Suzanne would yell from the stage, "Hey, it's my Lodge brothers!"

I swear I am not making this up.

Peter.