MM Links October 2010 [Week 5]

Strix | 07:45 Sat 30th Oct 2010 | Quizzes & Puzzles

47 Answers

"What will happen next week is anyone’s guess." crofter wrote in last weeks results.

Well, my friends, we are into the last week of this month and as some of you are (stop whinging) all too aware this will be my 14th week of setting the Links in 2 years!. So let us in this last week of Strix, Jack-of-all-trades-Master-of…., cover yet another part of my varied career.

Sat tel scrabble

dt cryptic

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Strix

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I tend to get chosen/enlisted/conscripted/employed because of my slightly maverick (or so it has been described) character and sometimes unemployed for almost exactly the same reason!

So it was in the early 1990's, after yet another collapse in the property/no architecture field, that I was employed as the director of a Gallery in London's Mayfair selling works of art in all types of medium.

Now, I am possibly/probably just like you with regard to modern art i.e. most of it could be done by a four year old (do a quick images search in Google on Dubuffet) and all of it is unbelievably expensive. BUT people do, despite what you and I might think of the "art", buy it. I know as I have sold one or two of that particular artist's works.

But who am I to voice any personal aesthetic judgement? I was also involved in the selling of works by Modigliani, Matisse, Rothko and Henry Moore et al (and Jack Yeats, slaney) all priced in eye-watering rollover-lottery-win amounts. But they were the acme of those artists efforts, the veritable bees-knees, the absolute……

An aside, in selling art I was seldom if ever asked (praise the Lord) my critical opinion of any of the works I sold and, as we never did anything so vulgar as putting prices alongside the pictures, the only question I was asked was the price. N.B. to any of you prospective purchasers of art - there is a BIG difference between the asking price and the selling price - so don't be shy, HAGGLE, even in your local art gallery!

Strix

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Quite apart from working in London we also travelled to art fairs in Europe and the U.S. And here is an anecdote from those days.

At a Miami Art Fair we had a man very keen on buying a twice life-size, very realistic, painting of a standing woman. His problem was that the artist's viewpoint of the model was from ground level looking up and the model was naked and her stance did nothing to preserve her modesty! His concern was he wanted to hang this on a large wall at the top of an impressive flight of steps and that his wife, who was away for a week or two, might object. He revisited us a few times over the next couple of days, dithering, eventually bought it and had it hung there but, thank Heavens, we were safely back in the UK before his wife returned!

Strix

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Well, my journey is run and it is time for me to say goodbye and to return to the role of onlooker and competitor. We have visited briefly, in the last month, the naughty days of the late 60's, we have trotted briskly through some equestrian times, we have wined and dined in Soho and elsewhere, then jetted off to the other side of the San Andreas fault line. we have touched on sailing, on working in the theatre and on building sites and even mentioned recording studios and superstars. There is more to tell but I think I have tried your patience enough!

So it is now time for me to put away the word processor, don the wellies, get outside into the paddocks and the garden, to get the fork, spade and hoe out and start digging, weeding and preparing the ground for the veg patch of next year. Thus it is back to earth for Strix. But sailing, and travel, I hope, will continue as an aside to the life equestrian here - D.V.

But before I go I must give my best wishes to whomsoever is selected as the next setter and also to express my thanks in particular, as always, to crofter for his sterling work. I just hope I haven't given him too many panic attacks over the the past month.

Also I must thank Gen2 for his help with the scoring in Weeks 1&2 and to seekeerz in Oz who has been on standby in case I had a repeat of the problems I experienced in Week 1.

Strix

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As always, for the every day running of MM, I will follow the same rule as introduced by crofter on word length. Each of my chosen link words contains at least FOUR letters and at most EIGHT. Stray outside this range and you will be wasting one of your attempts!
BUT please REMEMBER, the names of people or of places will NOT be used.
Each of my selected words may go in front of or after my challenge words. The competition will officially close at 7.00pm on Sunday evening when crofter will declare my selected words and the same rules for awarding points will be applied as have been applied during all MM Link Games in the past.
My fifth and final set of four words to have their links predicted will appear below at 9.00am.
So, let's descend from the artist's garret, and look intellectual as we ride forth.

Strix

Question Author

I, STRIX THE DILETTANTE, challenge you to find my preferred links to these 4 words which are:

OIL (I am allowed a three letter word but you are not)
PAINT
FARE
WELL