[meteorite-list] Further precision re "Bessey Specks"

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Oct 17 23:01:48 2006
Message-ID: <C15AE720.2FBF5%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Dear Steve & all,
        Well, now I am convinced you have experienced some sort of
liberation from your travails! You were SO anti Bessey Specks I
thought it was going to give you a stroke way back then. To be
feed up to enjoy them is a real blessing.
        To fill in the history, it was a long, long time ago boys and girls
long before Dean Bessey ever dreamed of going to North West Africa.
In fact, he was a Stock Broker in Canada who became interested in
collecting meteorites. This was about the time I came out with the
set of "all 6 SNCs" (aside from those out of Antarctica and, therefore,
entirely and forever unavailable to the collecting community. I was
offering very small frags in gelatin capsules ala Blaine Reed (from
whom I had learned the practice). Dean got a couple of the rarer ones;
Governadore Valadares and Lafayette and though the frags I had sold
him were like 2 to 4mg in size he started selling tiny specks of them
on eBay. I thought he had mastered the mirical of the loaves and fishes!
I kid you not! He sold DOZENS AND DOZENS of eensy weensy specks
from those oh so small frags I had sold him. Dean was also the first to
have and use a digital camera with an extremely adept lens that took
ultra super close up shots that made these puppies look like small boulders.
These things sold for $49, $65, $89 dollars! Over and over and over
the apostles passed the loaves and the fishes and the stinking baskets
never became empty! That dude BUILT HIS BUSINESS on those things!
    Maybe I am hallucinating, but I could swear he only bought one small
frag each of those things, but the purse was never empty, he always had
more specks to sell. He made so much that by the time NWA started opening
up he was off and running - and the rest is history.....
        Best wishes, Michael

on 10/17/06 7:27 PM, Steve Schoner at schoner_at_mybluelight.com wrote:

> All of this brings to my mind the entire "Bessey Speck" issue. Back
> then, nine or so years ago I took extreme objection to such.
>
> Well in 2003 in the month of January, I came down with ADEM... I nearly
> died.
>
> But I recovered.
>
> And I received from many of you messages wishing me well, from all over
> the world.
>
> Well... Back to "Bessey Specks"...
>
> Dean sent me a package and letter of condolence which the nurse opened
> read to me, and inside the package was a round cylinder very tightly
> taped together, and there was a card with it with the words "SAYH AL
> UHAYMIR 90"
>
> At the time, I was speechless, (literally) and the nurse was perplexed.
> She thought that there was something inside the plastic capsule but
> could not open it due to the fact that it was so tightly taped. After
> a while, she gave up and left it on my bedside desk. At that time I
> could not use my right arm, which was paralyzed along with my leg and
> everything else on my right side. Others came in and noticed it at my
> beside, read the letter to me again, and a few tried to open it to show
> what Dean had sent.
>
> In my weird state of mind and being I was curious, too. I had no idea
> what the "gift" was. The name meant nothing to me in my then weird
> state of mind, or lack thereof.
>
> At the time many spoken words and written words were as
> incomprehensible as hearing or reading Russian backwards-- or forwards.
> But I picked up the plastic capsule with my left hand and looked at it
> intensely, wondering what it was.
>
> Then after nearly a month of recovery, I was able to look at it more
> closely, and with some degree of comprehension.
>
> Then, and only then, with a degree of comprehension back, did I realize
> that the little container had... you guessed it "Bessey Specks" Two,
> nearly microscopic specks of SAY AL HYMIE 90. The specks had migrated
> to the edge of the container to the point that they would easily be missed.
>
> Had it been opened by me or anyone else, they would have become nothing
> more than dust on the hospital floor (as if there is much dust there
> anyway in intensive care).
>
> Well...
>
> I still have those two tiny Bessey Specks and the card that he sent me
> on my meteorite shelf, along with dozens of really large in comparison
> meteorites.
>
> But those two specks have a treasured spot in my heart and on my
> display shelf. They are a memento of the time when I could have been
> numbered among the departed. And oddly they are part of the process
> that came about to bring my comprehension back.
>
> I hate the idea of reducing meteorites to "Bessey Specks"... but these
> two tiny ones... I like.
>
> So... One needs not muli-billion dollar equipment to appreciate them...
>
> Just a weird state of mind caused by a disease that shuts down the
> brain. And as it reboots, then the appreciation begins.
>
> Steve Schoner
> IMCA #4470
>
>
>
> Re: [meteorite-list] Further precision re "Bessey Specks"
>
> dean bessey
> Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:51:05 -0700
>
>> In other words, you need a Superconducting Super
>> Collider Particle
>> Accelerator in order to study one of these
>> specimens!
>>
> Yes, Bessey specks are of such extreme importance that
> governments spend billions of dollars building special
> equipment for the sole purpose of studying them
> Cheers
> DEAN
> http://www.meteoriteshop.com
>
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Received on Tue 17 Oct 2006 11:01:36 PM PDT