Someone please share the skinny about Phil Harvey. I’m a new member, I have never heard of the poor man, but I’ve seen him ‘dogged’ on several posts the last day or two. I even followed a link, and still don’t get it. 
Okay…
Phil makes Kerry whistles.
Colin Goldie makes Overton whistles.
They used to make Overton’s together but there ended up being a really unfortunate dispute and they parted ways.
Some of us, including myself, became really involved in the mess as it manifest itself on the board and things got ugly. Things have generally died down, but there are still some strong tensions.
I made an agreement with Phil that I’d leave him alone, and I’ve done a pretty good job of it for a while now.
I slipped up today and I was out of line. I apologize to MiniWhistler, Phil and the rest of you for subjecting you to this kind of stuff.
Best,
Chris
Phil Hardy.
Half of the ribbing is a self-perpetuating joke at this point. Bernard Overton developed the original low D whistle, according to folklore, to replace a cane low A whistle that Finbar Furey used to play. At some point, Bernard Overton took on two apprentices, Colin Goldie and Phil Hardy. The very bare facts after that are these: Bernard at some point revoked Phil’s license. Colin Goldie still has the license and still makes Overton whistles. Phil makes “Kerry” and “Chieftains” and formerly also “Kerry Pro” whistles. There has been some confusion in peoples’ minds and in store advertisings as to what was an “Overton” whistle and what wasn’t, and both Colin Goldie and Bernard Overton (who still makes Overtons) for the past years have included certificates of authenticity with their whistles.
At some point Phil Hardy used to post on Chiff & Fipple and he has been involved in some of the less pleasant exchanges here. But then again, so have I and many other regulars or former regulars.
Last year, Phil Hardy produced a CD called “Whistleworks” and started selling them in the US. There already was a CD called Whistleworks, by Bob Pegritz (who used to hang out here as well). Shortly after this issue surfaced Phil started giving away his CD for free to those who signed up to his email newsletter.
That’s about it, as fairly as I can manage.
Ah. Chris was quicker, as usual. 
I was sitting around ducking this one since it’s been going on since long before I joined the board. I was going to give a summary and invite those who’ve been around longer to fill in details or correct me. Chris has given a very succinct summary so I don’t need to.
I’ll just add another point. Phil does seem to return from time to time but always seems to get into disputes with other board members and leaves. I don’t know if these are new disputes or date back to the original big dispute. I can’t comment, concerning these disputes, on who, if anyone is ‘right.’ If you want to check back and see exactly who said what and to whom and when then it’s all here including, if I remember rightly, a recent brief return. As I recall, at that time quite a few people defended Phil.
I suppose we’ve all formed our own opinions or have simply ignored the issue. My opinion, much less than adequately informed, isn’t worth repeating here.
Thank you, mystery solved. I see these kind of ‘disputes’ all the time in a a Registered Nurse forum I belong to. No one is meaner than a healthcare professional! 
Except maybe a nurse with a whistle.
I think that all newbies really want, well, all I wanted when I was a newbie, is a quick summary like the one Chris gave. For those who want more, I guess it’s all there in the archives. I think it’s a good exercise to give summaries like that. If someone just goes to the archives, they won’t know how to process what’s there, so ‘do a search’ is really unhelpful advice. But once you have a good summary, and so a sense of context, it’s better to do a search than just get opinions.
I’ve found that when I’ve been told to do a search when what I’ve wanted is a quick summary first like that of Chris or Bloomfield, and people haven’t given me the summary, that’s because it was all so complicated they couldn’t summarise it. So I don’t know what good doing a search would have done me.
Excuse me while I go put my Kerry Low D away to write this response. 
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 4:34 pm Post subject:
lyndamic wrote:
Thank you, mystery solved. I see these kind of ‘disputes’ all the time in a a Registered Nurse forum I belong to. No one is meaner than a healthcare professional!
Except maybe a nurse with a whistle.
I should offer to ‘play’ the whistle for my patients. They would surely improve rapidly due to a strong desire to leave the building.
I agree with you, Wombat. That summary was very helpful.
It’s important to keep in mind what Bloomfield said at the beginning of his post - that half of the ribbing is a self-perpetuating joke here. Some of the “dogging” of Phil has become an inside running joke here at C&F. Certainly me making fun of his hair is just that. It now occurs to me that some of the newer people here don’t understand that.
I wonder if Phil understands that?
Does it matter? There is lots of stuff I don’t understand. It never seems to stop people.
I don’t much like being dogged, myself.
It bugs me–get it?
Here are two grammatical English sentences:
Dogs dogs dog dog dogs.
Bugs bugs bug bug bugs.
Best
Woof!
Hmmm…we have a ferret named 'Bug…sounds like you know him? 
Although we’ve found we call him “you little snert” much more frequently than his actual name.
So if we get another ferret we could name him “Dog” and then your poem, above, will make perfect sense to ferret owners all over the world. 
Now we need to get a dog and name him “Best,” and after that maybe a cat named “Dammit”…
–James
Chris and Bloomfield,
Based on your highly “Sanitized” summaries, I expect you are both headed for careers in politics?
Loren
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere,
diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” - Groucho
Marx
This kind of thing takes years of training, unless you’re born with it like some people…
It is true that I have long had the best interests of this our wonderful chiffboard at heart. In fact, it was me who invented the word wide web to serve our board better. Since then we have taken many strides forward. As for my possible future career in politics, I would like to assure you and all the wonderful people out there that I will of course defer to the will and best interest of the people, but that I will not shirk my duty and responsibility to this great board when the call comes. Thank you.
God bless the chiffboard.
Loren