Esoxhntr, I first found out about the t - shirt at a Blue Circle owner's group meeting. It's one of those secret society kinds of things.
First, they feel you out. The initial step is that you must prove ownership of a Blue Circle product. I got past that checkpoint via my BC-3 preamp. So far, so good.
Next, you are invited to the "monthly get - togethers". They consist of people congregating at a senior member's home. There is always a lot of cheese. My biggest problem there was which variety of Swiss I preferred; Ementhaler or Gruyere. I can never decide, as I love them both. Believe it or not, this is a very critical stage in the initiation period. It is one of the determining factors in their decision. While I did score a lot of points via my obsession about cheese, I had been labeled indecisive by some due to waffling on the Ementhaler - Gruyere issue.
By the way, if you are ever in that situation, the answer is Ementhaler, the one everyone refers to as Swiss cheese(it has the holes).
I made up for this by virtue of my stainless steel infatuation. My kitchen countertop, backsplash, sink, and refrigerator. The drawer pulls on my bedroom furniture, and the bedroom mirror frame. I also have some electrical outlet covers. One member asked what I was going to do with the extra stainless steel in my garage. I told him it was scrap, leftover from the kitchen project. I think he kind of hinted that if I was ever going to just throw it out...
As there is always at least one hateful person in a group, a member who clearly distrusted me finally spoke up for the first time when he questioned why my kitchen cabinets were oak, as opposed to cherry. With spit coming from his mouth, he told me that a true Blue Circler opts for cherry over oak. It just matches better with the stainless.
I began to sweat, my mouth was open. I was about to tell him that I agree, but the cabinets were the original ones in my house. Built by Rutt, in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, 1.5 hours from my home. Real American craftmanship. Solid oak, natural finish, contemporary in design, like my tastes. And, like Blue Circle. That I could never replace them with something even half as good on my budget. But fortunately, I was saved by another, he just told the guy that my BC3 does have the cherry knobs, and questioned why he didn't remember. That took the heat off me. Whew!
I was finally accepted by perfectly cooking a Black Angus beef rib steak on a charcoal grill for one of the founders during the May meeting. His comments included that I could not possibly be a Communist.
At that point, the secret handshake was demonstrated to me. These people seemed weirder to me by the moment.
Later in the week, I received a call from two of the guys, who asked me to meet them at a Radio Shack to pick up a special part. They deflected my questioning of why they would didn't want to buy the resistor from Mouser by saying that he needed it today. I also mentioned there were 3 Radio Shacks closer to this one. I met them at the King of Prussia Mall, during our walk, we turned into one of those stores that sells stuff to Goth and punk kids. The owner was a member of the Blue Circle club!
They pointed to the shirt hanging on the wall, and told me about the shirt was required attire. And, while the price at the store was $14.99 for the public, he sold to members at his cost, $6.55 in lots of 100+.
I froze, I didn't want one. I mentioned that I couldn't really wear the shirt in public. People would mistake me as one who is cruel to animals(they definitely didn't like that comment). I ended up buying it just to appease them.
The rumblings started. There was talk.
At the NYC Stereophile HiFi Show I did not praise Gilbert Yeung for his handbag preamp and high heel amplifiers. When pressed, I mentioned that they were certainly unique, but that I thought the blue contained too much yellow. I explained that I sometimes used to formulate colors as a coatings chemist. More violet would make the shade more masculine and more "Blue Circle". One guy stormed away telling everyone, "I told you about him!"
The Audiogon thread discussing these ridiculous items only deepened their anger.
It was the final straw, the impetus for me being the one of the few people ever booted from the Group. I wasn't disappointed, I was relieved. I received a lot of calls over the next week or two. Some threats, mostly just silence on the other end of the line. One guy accused me of secretly using a CAT preamp in my main system. They are sworn to hatred to Convergent Audio Technology, they feel the company's acronym is meant to antogonize them.
But, I did receive one call from a member I didn't recognize, and wouldn't give me his name. He said that bad things were going on in the group, and he was worried. The cross - dressing, which was not revealed to me(the anti - cat shirt comes first) had gotten out of hand. He feared people at his place of employment would find out. He told me that I was lucky to not be in the group, to have been booted(especially, so early), and that he was trying to figure a way out for himself. We discussed him buying a Red Rose component as a means to the end. I told him the interconnect was really nice, pure silver, and only about $350, so it wouldn't cost him much to achieve his goal.
Other than another day or two of prank calls, that was the last of my dealings with these people. I have moved on with my life.
