[Rockhounds] MR Texas Supplement

[Sandra B. Gee]

Alan,

Thank you for your critique and kind comments.

My learning curve in this hobby is probably 25 years behind lots of folks here on the forum as my college and graduate level studies have been in the life sciences (biochemistry and medicine).  As such, I see that in this hobby, my ignorance is my expertise.  So, I become expert at knowing  what to ask and what to do in order to dispel my ignorance.

Collecting minerals have certainly been a jump off point for me to read and learn different things.  I especially remember seeing the Zn+ rich malachite on an auction site and being so amazed at this form of malachite that I went on a Google search and ended up pulling up and reading the old article from Rocks & Minerals magazine from Sept 1998.

For the gypsum ball, I had a chance to read up on the large flood that swamped Winnipeg in 1950 which resulted in the evacuation of 100,000 people and how it was the reason for the building of the Red River Floodway.  This was a springboard to looking up articles about the occurence of these gypsum balls.  

A big concept in medicine is that students had to do hundreds of physical exams on patients without any physical abnormalities with the idea that when you get accustomed to what's normal, then the out of the ordinary (like the enlarged liver or the hard border of a gastric cancer) sticks out like a sore thumb.   Carrying this idea into mineral collecting, it was only seeing many pictures and actual specimens of malachite and gypsum for me to learn what was usual for malachite and gypsum so that I could learn to spot and recognize the unusual.  And yeah, "rock porn" (love the term!) did play a part in helping me learn these "usual" things.

Overall, this is an enjoyable list to be a part of.

Sandra Gee.
 


--- On Wed, 2/4/09, Alan Goldstein <deepskyspy at insightbb.com> wrote:

> From: Alan Goldstein <deepskyspy at insightbb.com>
> Subject: [Rockhounds] MR Texas Supplement
> To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 8:42 PM
> The Mineralogical Record is a good magazine, though there
> are issues that 
> are occasionally boring. The same could be said for any
> magazine. Sometimes 
> they publish things that stray from the mission of
> educating their audience. 
> That was the point of my discussion. (Insulting
> participants was not.)
> 
> Sandra, you have some very nice specimens - in fact they
> are among the most 
> interesting of any of those selected for the supplement! I
> particularly like 
> the cavernous galena, Zn-rich malachite and the ex-Ferguson
> collection 
> fluorite. I have an ex-Ferguson specimen in my collection
> as well (calcite).
> 
> I think a letter to the editor is in order because readers
> deserve more from 
> the magazine management than random specimen photo albums -
> even free ones!
> 
> Alan
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Darryl Powell"
> <dpowell13 at rochester.rr.com>
> To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock
> and gem collectors" 
> <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 4:01 PM
> Subject: [Rockhounds] Re: MR Texas Supplement
> 
> 
> > Dear List,
> >    Obviously there are a lot of different observations
> and opinions about 
> > the Texas Collector issue.  I guess there will always
> be differences of 
> > opinion as to the best role of MR as a publication. 
> On the whole, I have 
> > benefited from the range of information the magazine
> provides, even if it 
> > doesn't always "hit" my interests or
> collecting philosophy and I continue 
> > to look forward to receiving the new issues.
> >    How's this for yet another perspective: 
> considering how many 
> > collection issues have been published by MR, is it
> possible that an 
> > unstated direction of the magazine is to publish a
> number of collection 
> > catalogs, as an historical record of what's out
> there in the mineral 
> > collecting world right now and where it is?  For
> example, the pink 
> > Peruvian fluorite octahedra in the Spann collection at
> one time belonged 
> > to Marty Zinn.  Personally I always found it
> interesting to trace the 
> > heritage of old specimens that at one time belonged to
> this count then 
> > that mineralogist then that museum then that private
> collector, and so on. 
> > I suppose there's some value, even if minimal, to
> have such records 
> > available for future generations.
> >    Lastly I must confess that I do like mineralogical
> eye candy and enjoy 
> > the pretty pictures.  Not much brain energy needed
> which is fine at the 
> > end of a long and busy day.
> >
> > Just some random thoughts.  Best wishes to you all.
> > Darryl Powell
> > Manchester, NY
> > -- 
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