Bruce

Your story is a great illustration of how rewarding it can be to view our
shells --micro  and non-micro -- under magnification.

David Kirsh

> From: Bruce Livett <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 14:30:27 +1000
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Shell Pranks
>
> Dear all,
> A few years ago, a good friend of mine (Prof. Tony Klein) was on business in
> Japan and picked up a calligraphy set. He also had with him a Conus virgo
> that he had taken with him having picked it up some months earlier while on
> a field trip with me at Lizard Island, North Queensland. To help pass time
> on the long flight from Tokyo to Melbourne he inscribed a wonderful pattern
> on the shell and then when he next saw me, he presented it to me as a new
> purchase, "a possibly new species of Conus ?" -  and asked me to identify it
> for him. Of course I could not, but was fooled into thinking the shell
> pattern was for real. After 10 minutes of suppressed mirth he came clean and
> handed me a magnifying glass for a closer inspection. To my amazement I saw
> that he had inscribed in micro font my family name multiple times to form a
> diagonal pattern on the surface of the shell. With a good deal of
> satisfaction and glee he presented this magnificent, 'one of a kind', new
> species of Conus to me - which he named 'Conus inscriptus livettatus'. It
> takes pride of place in my modest collection  :)
>
> Bruce Livett
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lynn Scheu" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 12:11 AM
> Subject: Re: Shell Pranks
>
>
>> Ross,
>>
>> Maybe a lot of us have not played any shell pranks. But if you had asked
>> us what shelling mistakes we had made, or stupid shelly things we had
>> done that we regretted later, we might be more forthcoming.
>>