[ Editor's Note:
 [
 [ In digest 96.11.09, Bob Conant referred to his Foster Marque Ampico:
 [
 [ > Subject: Transposing Tracker Bars
 [ >
 [ > I have a piano which is probably an odd duck among odd ducks. It is
 [ > a Marque Ampico in a Foster upright piano. It has a transposing
 [ > tracker bar...
 [
 [ John Phillips wrote in the next night about another odd duck,
 [ and gave the subject heading "Odd Duckmate".  I changed the subject
 [ to something that would be meaningful when searching the archive
 [ and unfortunately spoiled John's fun.  As far as I know, there's
 [ no double entendre (sp?) or idiom.  Sorry John!
 [
 [ Jody

A sobering thought has just struck me.  Does "Duckmate" mean something
rude to the citizens of the U.S. whereas it's a pretty neutral,
probably meaningless, word to Australians?  I'm asking because my
comment on Bob Conant's odd duck of a Foster Marque Ampico originally
had the subject heading  "Foster Marque Ampico".  I decided that this
was pretty boring and changed the heading to the tremendously witty and
sophisticated "Duckmate".  But our editor (Jody or Robbie?) changed it
back to "Foster Marque Ampico".  I'm asking partly because I can't
resist having a stir but also because I have an undying memory from
about thirty years ago of just stopping myself, as the words were
escaping from my mouth, from asking the young lady at the cash register
of the PX store at the army base at Fort Wainwright in Alaska if she
had any rubbers.  What I wanted, and got, luckily, was a pencil
eraser.

Let me hasten to add that I am extrememly grateful to Jody and his
assistant editor(s) for all the time they spend on the Digest.  I waste
much happy time on it daily.  John Phillips.