Breaking the Seal

[M6Classic]

I recently turned 72, a significant birthday among Jews, as 72 represents quadruple Chai. Chai, the number 18, is the symbol for life.

Anyway, I took this milestone to signal that it is time to use all of those shaving goods I have been saving for decades. I should enjoy them now while I still can. On my birthday, I opened one of my last two pucks of old formula Trumper's Sandalwood. The aroma was still surprisingly strong and the lather just as I remember it, thick, rich, and durable, from maybe forty ears ago. I whipped it up using my ivory handled Chubby 3 (mandarin) that I had mothballed ten years ago. It was a marvelous shave. Next up, my last puck of vintage 1980 No. 89.

Really, I can't remember why I have been saving all of his stuff, but I can say that I plan to enjoy wonderful shaves as I slide to oblivion.

Buzz

[drmoss_ca]

That's the spirit, Buzz! Enjoy it while you can, as those who come after us are unlikely to appreciate it (and if they do, how cruel to give them a taste of what they cannot have!)

Congratulations on the birthday.

Chris

[Sam]

L'Chaim.

Back in the days when I first met, online of course, Chris Moss and Gordon, there was a guy named Donnie C. who was a retired NYC policeman living in Florida. He called me one time and, well, since I am an attorney, it was kinda easy to get my number off the Internet, even before Google. He told me how he would order stuff from Trumper's itself and would meet the plane when it landed and get the baggage guys to just hand it to him. He loved their Coconut and Gordon always loved Almond. I loved the violet until they messed with the scent.

Gordon would tell us of having to navigate stores that he recalled just from his readings and talking to people, calling Trumpers and of course, when he was in NYC, he had Pasteurs and some other store, Cambridge if I recall. So he had a little bit of a head start on English creams and shave brushes, well before the artisans started taking hold. I remember Joris shave soap and other stuff

Anyway, yes, my wife tells me to toss out clothes if I do not wear them in a year. Lots of shirts being saved for suits for "special occasions"
that do not seem to come often enough. So glad you are getting around to using up your stash, and maybe you have sons or grandsons that you might enjoy seeing or knowing they are using it?

[M6Classic]

My son will get my two Plisson HMWs set in plexi, one of which is enormous and just south of display size. I got the smaller to replace my first HMW when I learned there was no more of that exceptional...perhaps finest ever...badger. I have no earthly idea why I bought the larger one except the Cathy at Colonial Drug thought it suited me and I guess it is the ultimate in shave porn. Dearest son can also have my ivory Chubby when I am gone. He has had a beard since starting graduate school but is about to receive his PhD, so who knows? If any of my stash survives me, my son can have it.

[brothers]

. . . those who come after us are unlikely to appreciate it . . .
Chris

Sad but true. My son has a full flowing black beard and a bald head. He was losing his hair at an alarming rate, so he just started shaving his head instead of his beard. Before that, he was (still is?) one of "us", holding onto his scores of treasured soaps, etc. He still has it but doesn't use the good stuff on his scalp. My heirs - male and female - will go through all of my stuff in a few years and I'm hoping they'll know what to do with it. Most recently I broke the seal on a puck of the old English Fern and used it all up. I've still got another one just like it and a matching Blenheim Bouquet in cellophane, but simply cannot bear to stop using all of my other really good stuff in favor of flushing the "holy grail" down the drain for every shave just to see the same old whiskers coming back the very next morning for perpetuity. I've decided to simply dash it all when - if - I eventually turn 80 and use nothing but electrics after that.

[CMur12]

Buzz, congratulations on your Quadruple Chai Birthday!
(Is Chai a Hebrew letter with a numeric value of 18?)

I turned 70 last November, which can hardly compare with the significance of a quadruple Chai, but I had watched it closing in on me for years. Now it's past and here I am.

I have well over a lifetime of blades and soaps, not to mention a range of brushes and razors (both new and vintage). Unfortunately, I have no heirs or anyone else interested in any of this or any of my other treasures (old film cameras, fountain pens, Hamilton railroad watches, etc). I've had my eye out for a shaving heir for some time, but have yet to find one. It's time to start thinning things out, though.

- Murray

[EL Alamein]

Happy Birthday, Buzz! Enjoy all that good stuff to the fullest as well as rest of what life has to offer. I have to say I tried Peet's coffee on your suggestion and I do enjoy it most when I drink coffee, so thanks for that.

I wish you many more birthday's and good fellowship.

Chris

[brothers]

Happy birthday Buzz, and best wishes for many more.

[ToryRutter]

Happy Birthday, Buzz! I hope you have a wonderful day filled with joy, laughter, and all your favorite things. Best wishes for a fantastic year ahead!

[drmoss_ca]

Happy Birthday, Buzz! I hope you have a wonderful day filled with joy, laughter, and all your favorite things. Best wishes for a fantastic year ahead!

Note this poster, gentlemen. This new user, for his first post, makes a a happy birthday wish, eight months late. This is a ploy designed to pass the admin-approval-for-first-post barrier. I have set this user back to the newly-registered status so that he cannot post again without requiring approval. No doubt he'll be too busy posting on hundreds of forums under hundreds of names. Three of his fellow countrymen have been sent packing in the last few days for this. I've left him as an example.

[Sam]

Thank you Chris. I went in to see his registration information and it looks like he’s from Pakistan so I’ll be a little bit more diligent on posters from Pakistan, India, Russia.

[henrycavill1223]

Chris, many thanks. I checked his registration information and it appears that he is from Pakistan, so I'll be a little more watchful of posters from that country as well as those from India and Russia.

[drmoss_ca]

Well, "henry", you might be a little more careful than to copy the post right before yours! Especially when you yourself are a spammer from Pakistan!

Banned.

[brothers]

Ha! Hilarious!

[brothers]

Ha! Hilarious!

Notice! The quote above was NOT posted by me just 4 days ago to the best of my knowledge. It should have been posted about 2 YEARS ago.
P.S. Just between you and me, the only way I could have overlooked the date of the original post may have involved alcoholic beverages. Now I'm wondering whether I may have entered into any internet purchases that I don't know about.

[drmoss_ca]

I don't think it possible that the forum software caused a two year delay between submission and appearance, so perhaps your diagnosis is correct.

But thank you for drawing my attention back to this thread. I have a forum for CLL patients and it has been plagued of late by posters who write very nearly authentic first posts with plenty of medical detail. But then they include a link to a Polish crypto site hidden in the final period. Evidently quite well written by AI. The post above by "henrycavill1223" is plainly an AI re-write of Sam's post, as I now can tell, but did not recognise then. And inspired by my recent experience, I checked henry's final period for a link. Just hover your cursor over it and see it change to a pointing hand, showing it is a link. DO NOT click on it, it purports to be an Emirates tech site for iPhone problems, but goodness knows what the real business is.

C.

[Gene]

I see that link in "henry" ... and I wondered about the other spammer in the thread 3 replies up - sure enough there is a link there - another emirtes destination.

These things are so hidden I wonder at their purpose -- surely very few see those things?

[CMur12]

I've never seen a link hidden in the final period, before, so this is news to me. Glad to be informed.

- Murray

[drmoss_ca]

Well spotted, Gene! I checked the final period but not the one after the first sentence. It's probably done not so that we click on it, but that web-crawling search engines will harvest it. If they plant the link in enough places it will increase their ranking in search results. This is the filth that is Search Engine Optimisation, SEO.

C.