Had a stall at the National Folk Festival last weekend. Met a nice woman there who had a couple of whistles that her uncle had made up for her, should have been tunable but were stuck, could I have a look? Easily fixed with a bit of muscle and grease. Turned out that the uncle is a retired gentleman now, but used to manage a workshop at an observatory. Nice whistles.
What is the “fame” part, Eric?
I know of one maker that worked in the shop at an “observatory”.
Might they have been brass whistles? Like this maybe?
Kind of far away from Oz though.
Feadoggie
My thoughts exactly.
It was the first time his muscles were mentioned in print.
They were indeed brass whistles Feadoggie, just like those, but with white delrin in the mouthpiece. Very early ones I think.
Come on Guru, I don’t get many ‘claims to fame’, and it doesn’t help when you get my name wrong.
I’m sure he was just teasin’ ya Floyd 
Oh, sorry, Erle. I was illustrating just how fleeting fame can be. Yeah, that’s it. 
OK, so what was the observatory? Is this a famous Sindt story I’m supposed to know? Between screwing up your name and not remembering the story, is it time for me to check myself into the geriatric ward? 
At this point, I should tell you my claim to fame. My wife’s mother used to play Mahjong with a lady that was at school with Andy Murray’s mother. It’s a small world.
I once stood next to Tony Benn in a public urinal.
So does that make you, like Tony Benn, a one-time peer of the realm? 
Is it true that he leans to the left?
Oh yeah? Well, my grandmother used to play Mahjong with Henry Winkler’s (aka The Fonz) mother! 
My wife thinks Sting is a member of this forum.
where can I get one of these?.. JS isn’t taking orders anymore
Mom shared a hot tub with Rod Stewart once.
that should kill the thread 
Well, more than once I should have thought …
Yes. And apparently he’s forever leaning further to the left. He attributes it to getting older.
Yeah, apparently he looked like hell.
And now back to our regularly scheduled program …
I don’t know if it is a famous story. It may be in the C&F interview John did. But I had heard from other sources that John worked at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory which is an earth sciences research center that is part of Columbia Univ.
That que is already forming up. You’re still well behind me . Don’t try to cut in! 
Pictures? Every picture tells a story, don’t it? Your Mom isn’t named Maggie by any chance?
Feadoggie