TIDBITS 09/25/05

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The Letter Opener

We live in a mish-mash world of illogic folks. Why are there=20
12 hot dogs in a pack of hot dogs and only ten hot dog rolls
in a pack of hot dog rolls? Better yet ... why does it so often
occur that the bills enclosed with return envelopes from your=20
favorite company never fit in those envelopes properly. And
better yet again ... why would anyone want to make a bejeweled
letter opener with such intricacy as to take one's breath away.

Ah ... mes amis. I can answer one of these of the great mysteries
which tend to pervade our undecipherable universe. It is the answer to
the letter opener rebus. There are two answers if the truth were
to be told. The first answer as to why anyone would make a bejeweled
letter opener with such intricacy as to take one's breath away is:
Why not? This answer--parenthetically--answers both of the other
questions too ... which clearly gives us all insight into the strength
that is exercised when using an obscure response. There is surely a
whole treatise on this in Politics 101 as it refers to the eternal
conundrum which directly addresses the problem of keeping the public
and the news media at bay. Answer number two is ... of course ... it
gives Benjamin yet another thing to show on his pages this week. Oh
huzzah huzzah.

Circa 1863. Michelangelo Caetani, Duke of Sermoneta, designs a=20
letter opener. I can not say if this creation of our Duke nearly
equals in importance the invention of that most famous English knight
Sir Thomas Crapper who invented The Valveless Water Waste Preventer
.... commonly referred to--in his honor--as The Crapper. Still ...
one's attentions should not be diverted and misguided into the world
of the mundane when we have this most munificent letter opener
available for viewing.

It is of an eclectic mixture of Early Christian, and Classical, and
Medieval motifs. Its symmetrical design, identical on both sides of
the blade features rondels and carefully proportioned geometric
elements. It's worth a look-see ... especially for those who received
one of those plastic thingees for Christmas last year and marveled as
to how clever a little doo-dad it was.

=46or those of you who are new to this thing called=20
Tidbits...may I direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where
you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Tidbits Graphics ... and then click on the link that says: Letter
Opener ... in order to view a rather beautiful blade which serves only
the purpose of opening envelopes.=20

And there ya have it.
That's it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark

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