The “Last” of the Habsburgs

This is certainly not the kind of news that you’re going to see being covered to any great extent by the media in the west,  although there are a couple stories that were repeated in a few on line newspapers. It did come up after a search in google, 
I put last in quotation marks,  since I know there are many more descendants of the Habsburg family here and there,  so it’s not like the “Last of the Mohicans”,  or anything,  but this chap, Archduke Otto von Habsburg, was the last to be in direct line to the Austrian throne.

Even though the entire royal family was punted out of Austria in 1919,  he was none the less an ardent opponent of Hilter,  and later was a vocal proponent of the ultimate unification of Europe throughout his long political career. 
Anyway,  thought I’d mention it in passing.  For the history buffs,  there’s more reading here,  and here.

And for those not inclined to move your eyes back and forth (it’s called reading)  I’ll throw in a picture.

Of course,  I managed to cut off the right side of the scan,  so I did another…

Just a warning though,  if you start reading too much about the Habsburgs,  your head is going to hurt big time.  I’m not even sure about the following,  since I can’t quite figure it out without starting to paste copious amounts of post-it notes on the wall,  but I believe it would have been his first cousin, Archduke Ferdinand who was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28th,  1914,  which as we all know started the first world war.
Trying to keep it all straight can turn into a bit of a slippery slope,  and there’s an exceedingly good chance that I’m dead wrong. I’ll certainly never know.

There’s not a whole heck of a lot else going on today.  Travelling Companion was on the road early this morning,  as she and one of her associates had to head up to another office to do some sniffing around in the books.  She was just pleased that she didn’t have to do the driving. 

For my part,  I’ve been wishing I had packed along one of the several whet stones I have in my possession,  since the edges on a couple of our bigger knives are starting to look a little ragged.  Sad to say, but that’s mostly due to the way they are stored in the drawer,  since we have a rod for sharpening,  and I’m reasonably proficient at using it,  but I’m not getting the edge I’d like.  

I’ve been looking “on the line”, but thought I’d hoof it down Mariahilfer and take a gander in a small hardware store that my sister-in-law discovered last year some time.   To be honest I rarely walk that far,  and it’s one of these “hole in the wall” type places.   Well,  he had a stone,  (note…I said,  “a stone”)  and it was a nice looking Arkansas whet stone,  worth about 15 bucks, give or take.   He had a price on it of something like €33.  

Wasn’t much bigger than this example either.



Depending on the current rate of exchange,  that’s something like 50 bucks.


Right.

I’ve seen cheaper and better on-line.  So that one will stay in storage for a while.
I realise there are those who think the Arkansas whet stone is the best thing going for sharpening and I certainly have no qualms with their use.  I have a couple of my own,  but I’ve also had very good results with Japanese water stones for the last 25 years or so,  so I’ll stick with what I know.  The knives will have to wait a couple days I guess,  since it’ll probably take that long to get delivery.

This example comes in at around €16, and is a combination stone of 1000/3000 grit.




Just thought you’d want to know.



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