In Tennessee you can buy them in groups. The FBI named a recent sting, which has fingered five or six current and former state legislatures, "Tennessee Waltz". When Mark Twain and Will Rogers, among others, refer to "the best government money can buy" they were not joking! One of the more notable examples occurred when building the USA Transcontinental Railroad (which was not the first American transcontinental, BTW); another classic was the Teapot Dome scandel, involving sale of Navel Reserve oil to certain business interests. Check out any USA newspaper for the latest ones. You might find owning a US Senator or two worth the investment, Tony. Lots of foreign nationals have. Speaking of stringing things out, does anyone still twist their own model ropes for sailing ship models from string? I've a brief how-to writeup of building a miniature rope walk for the purpose, but don't know whether anyone actually does that anymore. Charles >I know that it is a little off topic Jesse, but can you get discount rates > for bulk purchases ..... ??? > > Tony. >> Tony, I will have you know that some of our senators can be bought more >> cheaply than that. You just have to wait till election year when they >> are >> running special sales! >> >> Jesse in Tennessee >> MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. >> MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.