JimH wrote:
You have a broker advertising in you magazine using some unusual wording in
their ads.

Go to pages 154 and 155 of your recent edition of Nor'westing and note the
words "boathouse *kepted*".

Just a heads up that you may want to call this broker (area code 206) to
better edit their ads. ;-)

BTW: I really enjoy reading your magazine including the boating advice
articles, boat reviews and destination reviews.

My guess on the "Flotsam!" article is some sort of scale, perhaps a fish
scale. Do I win a prize?

We get over 150 display ads per month, plus classifieds, and most come
in within about a 5-day time frame. It would be nice to proof read
every one, but we catch what we can and then send a"proof" out to the
advertiser as a final check. If we miss it, and if the advertiser
misses it on the proof- so be it.. Some of the ads come in to us as
pdf, and then of course what you see is what you get as we can't really
alter them.

I'm sure our advertiser would be delighted to know that you're reading
his ad carefully enough to catch misspellings. :-)

The May 10 item was indeed a combination fish knife and scale. The
little notches on the top of the knife blade have corresponding weights
etched below, so you could hang something (like a fish) off the knife
blade. The big knob at the end of the clasp is supposed to act as a
counterbalance.

If you're looking at the large, cylindrical item in the June 7 issue,
that particular flotsam is not a scale. As that column is supposed to
be a puzzle, I will admit to taking the photo in such a manner that the
obvious, give away portion of the part (and the portion you would
ordinarily see without taking something apart on most boats) is *not*
showing at the top of the photo. It's always a challenge to pick
something that isn't so ridiculously obvious that "Flotsam!" isn't any
fun- without using something so obscure that the average reader will
find the puzzle overly challenging and therefore disinteresting. We do
have several correct entries already for the June 7 issue, so that
particular part was a good choice.

Thanks for the kind remarks about our mag. We're constantly trying to
improve it and we have reasons to feel that it is better now than it
was just a few years ago. It's always a pleasure to have somebody
notice the results of a lot of hard work. We have some additional ideas
on the burner, (as well as a publisher who has no backgroung in boating
and therefore refrains from micro-management as long as the revenue is
there). Right now we have a green light to continue developing the
publication as we see fit, and we hope the best is yet to come.