Many years ago, on another college station in the supposedly  
civilized northeast, the Abalone Adagio was announced one memorable  
morning.  The lad may have been from the left coast where, I am told,  
they consume such things.

There is a sign of relatively great antiquity (mid '60s maybe - at  
least it was already there and venerated when I first arrived in  
1970) hanging in our shop in honor of a delivery man who, having  
evinced some curiosity at the strange goings-on, was shown around and  
given a precis of the craft.  His reaction, captured on the sign,  
sounds like his own version of, "There but for the grace of God, go  
I".  He had said, simply, "It's hard work making harpischords".   
Indeed it is - I have never yet managed the feat knowingly.

Best,

Hendrik Broekman