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Swedish filker Wolf von Witting chronicled his return to fandom after six years in Emerald City #24, with a trip report from the German national sf convention, for which he had clearly overprepared:
"... My other program-item was filksong. On my way to Ratzeburg I had written 10 new filksongs, just to make sure that I wouldn.t run short of them. This was fortunate. I was allowed to sing for a full hour. Being good in the kitchen or in the bathtub is something else, but I.m never allowed to sing this much at home. This gave me new confidence. Now I produce songs based on any subject that is unfortunate enough to cross my mind.
"Our host Eckhard D. Marwitz had a nice idea for the opening ceremony, charades. We should try to guess which fans names were illustrated. Wherever I went my video-camera was with me. These charades were perfect for a convideo-documentary. And during this convention I collected some incriminating evidence. Mike Cheater had a narrow escape, but his secret is safe with me. I will not make a filksong of it. Besides, he promised he would come to Stockholm and assassinate me if I did. ..."
On July 3rd, 1907, certain people associated with the keeping of the "Irish Crown Jewels" (actually regalia of the Order of St. Patrick) started noticing odd things like the saferoom door being ajar. On July 6th, someone finally thought to check the safe itself and discovered that the items had been stolen sometime in the past month or so, their last known sighting being June 11th. Hemming and hawing and finger-pointing ensued until a Viceregal Commission of Enquiry was appointed in January 1908 and failed to get to the bottom of the matter. There things have pretty much rested since then, except for the conspiracy theorizing.
1007 was also an exciting time in the life of what was then known as the Colum-Cille. From the Annals of Ulster of that year:
"Muiredach, son of Crichan, resigned the successorship of Colum-Cille for God. Renewal of the Fair of Tailltiu by Maelsechnaill. Ferdomnach was installed in the successorship of Colum-Cille, by the counsel of the men of Ireland, in that Fair. The great Gospel of Colum-Cille was wickedly stolen in the night out of the western sacristy of the great stone-church of Cenannas-- the chief relic of the western world, on account of its ornamental cover. The same Gospel was found after twenty nights and two months, its gold having been taken off it, and a sod over it."
(The Gospel of Colum-Cille is what we now know as the Book of Kells.)
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