C6DVD - yes!!!
So - since apparently there are other fandoms who do not have the most wonderful isiscolo in their midst to organise a Valentine's Day card exchange - the Canadian Six Degrees Valentine's Day card exchange, let me tell you it:
It's like a Secret Santa, except instead of writing a story for your recipient from her various requested pairings, you write a Valentine's Day card as if you were one of the people in the pairing, sending the card to the other.
And so I got me my card yesterday, and wow :) :) The ingenuity, the care, the attention to character and materials - so wonderful it is!! I didn't have time to write it up then, but here it is for you today.
First, Ben Cutter gets two telegrams from Sean (and I refuse to give him a last name here, since it's Rafferty in the film and Lafferty on the film website, so obviously The Montana Kid was trying to obscure his identity along the way somewhere). These are on omg actual telegraph forms correct to the period!! and on heavy pulpy paper - I am so impressed! The first telegram is dated 8 February 1882 (so, before the film) and is sent to the Tuscon Telegraph Company (and received by Horace Grant), to Ben Cutter from a mysterious "Sean":ARRIVING IN COLORADO SPRINGS ON TUESDAY FEBRUARY 12 STOP HEARD PRICE ON MY HEAD LOWERED TO ONLY 25 DOLLARS STOP HAVE 50 DOLLARS FOR YOU AND A HOTEL ROOM AT THE USUAL PLACE STOP HOPE YOU DONT PLAN TO SHOOT ME WHEN YOU GET THERE END
and apparently Sean's plans go a little amiss, because on the 12th of February he sends another telegram, this time to the Colorado Springs office (received by Douglas Penn):RUMORS OF MY INVOLVEMENT IN STAGECOACH ROBBERY IN WYOMING ARE FALSE STOP THINKING ABOUT ARRIVING IN COLORADO SPRINGS ON THURSDAY 14TH NOW STOP STILL HAVE THE FIFTY DOLLARS STOP STILL HOPE YOU DONT PLAN TO SHOOT ME END
Then there's a heavy brown paper envelope (like the kind of paper people used to wrap parcels in) addressed in neat printing:TO: MR SEAN LAFFERTY
C/O: MR BEN CUTTER
REC'D 14 FB 1882
JOSEPH COTLAND,MGR
CRYSTAL PALACE HOTEL
Inside there's a card in the same paper, with just one word on the front: "Sean", written in a somewhat less neat hand than the manager's :)
The inside of the card says: Guess you got here OK No I dont plan to shoot you Take a bath Before you come to the room
Clerk says its Valintines Day. Guess that explains the Honeymoon sweet. I dont plan on wearing no dress though so dont get no ideas
Missed you in Denver Been about that long since I had company Ill think about retiring Hurry up
Ben
The erratic punctuation and spelling are all Ben's :) :)
And yay for Ben's decidedly unromantic self, and the way the pair of them have to be all cautious around each other - and yay for bathwater :) :) Ben's intentions must be naughty!
Thank you thank you thank you oh mystery Valentine giver!! This is just wonderful :) :) I love the care in it, and the heft to the papers, and the entire flavour of the thing, which is hard to get across just with scans and is much better when you have the original in your hands :) :)
It's like a Secret Santa, except instead of writing a story for your recipient from her various requested pairings, you write a Valentine's Day card as if you were one of the people in the pairing, sending the card to the other.
And so I got me my card yesterday, and wow :) :) The ingenuity, the care, the attention to character and materials - so wonderful it is!! I didn't have time to write it up then, but here it is for you today.
First, Ben Cutter gets two telegrams from Sean (and I refuse to give him a last name here, since it's Rafferty in the film and Lafferty on the film website, so obviously The Montana Kid was trying to obscure his identity along the way somewhere). These are on omg actual telegraph forms correct to the period!! and on heavy pulpy paper - I am so impressed! The first telegram is dated 8 February 1882 (so, before the film) and is sent to the Tuscon Telegraph Company (and received by Horace Grant), to Ben Cutter from a mysterious "Sean":ARRIVING IN COLORADO SPRINGS ON TUESDAY FEBRUARY 12 STOP HEARD PRICE ON MY HEAD LOWERED TO ONLY 25 DOLLARS STOP HAVE 50 DOLLARS FOR YOU AND A HOTEL ROOM AT THE USUAL PLACE STOP HOPE YOU DONT PLAN TO SHOOT ME WHEN YOU GET THERE END
and apparently Sean's plans go a little amiss, because on the 12th of February he sends another telegram, this time to the Colorado Springs office (received by Douglas Penn):RUMORS OF MY INVOLVEMENT IN STAGECOACH ROBBERY IN WYOMING ARE FALSE STOP THINKING ABOUT ARRIVING IN COLORADO SPRINGS ON THURSDAY 14TH NOW STOP STILL HAVE THE FIFTY DOLLARS STOP STILL HOPE YOU DONT PLAN TO SHOOT ME END
Then there's a heavy brown paper envelope (like the kind of paper people used to wrap parcels in) addressed in neat printing:TO: MR SEAN LAFFERTY
C/O: MR BEN CUTTER
REC'D 14 FB 1882
JOSEPH COTLAND,MGR
CRYSTAL PALACE HOTEL
Inside there's a card in the same paper, with just one word on the front: "Sean", written in a somewhat less neat hand than the manager's :)
The inside of the card says: Guess you got here OK No I dont plan to shoot you Take a bath Before you come to the room
Clerk says its Valintines Day. Guess that explains the Honeymoon sweet. I dont plan on wearing no dress though so dont get no ideas
Missed you in Denver Been about that long since I had company Ill think about retiring Hurry up
Ben
The erratic punctuation and spelling are all Ben's :) :)
And yay for Ben's decidedly unromantic self, and the way the pair of them have to be all cautious around each other - and yay for bathwater :) :) Ben's intentions must be naughty!
Thank you thank you thank you oh mystery Valentine giver!! This is just wonderful :) :) I love the care in it, and the heft to the papers, and the entire flavour of the thing, which is hard to get across just with scans and is much better when you have the original in your hands :) :)