Dear folks,
It's become a tradition by now--to have a fund-raiser for Washington Overseas Mission in late spring or early summer at McGurk's. This is to fund the medical mission (not religious) which my wife takes to The Honduras once a year.
Unfortunately, it's not going to happen this year. Admission to the event has always been $25 (pretty steep), which included food, an open bar, and the right to participate in the "silent auction" which I made sure included audio goodies. The first two years, Washington Overseas Mission (WOM) received the entire $25. Then it changed to McGurk's getting $10 of it. Now, the person responsible for these things has moved to Arizona, another person is handling it, and WOM would only get $7 of the $25. Well; that scarcely seems worth all the work, which includes my procuring donations. Still, plans were made to go ahead with the event, but lo--wouldn't you know. The very date WOM had in mind was abruptly taken by someone else. So it's just not going to happen this year because there isn't opportunity to work out a new date.
The fact is, McGurk's isn't being as generous. But another fact is: I don't blame them. The economic world is tough, these businesses get asked by a large number of organizations for a semi-free event such as this, and I can understand their needing to cut their losses.
So while the event won't happen this year, we'll still try to do it next year, perhaps at a different place. Unlike previous years, I got busy collecting audio gear early, and have some very nice merchandise on hand. The most recently received are two pairs of DH Labs "Air Matrix" 1M IC's. I took the liberty of breaking them in and trying them, and they come as close as anything I've heard to matching my Cardas "Golden Reference" cables. In fact, if I weren't accustomed to the GR's, I might prefer the "Air Matrix" ICs. And this is only a small sampling of what I have.
I felt I should let people know. Several have asked, and it was only about a week ago we realized we had to throw in the towel on doing the event this year.
So it will happen that this year I won't get drunk on Irish whiskey. Which is probably a good thing, given that Tim Simpson corrupted my palate to the point that it is virtually monogamous by now, and doesn't want to imbibe any spirit except single-malt Scotch.
So I will hang on to the audio gear, we'll hope for a silent auction next year, and meanwhile Baumli will be drinking whisky instead of whiskey.
All the best,
Francis Baumli
