Middle Fork of the Salmon

"jeff" wrote in message
news:VenBg.2334$W01.903@dukeread08...
rw wrote:


The Madam X is a versatile generic terrestrial pattern. It's also an
easy tie. I used to think that the "X" came from the way the rubber
legs
were tied in, but now I have another theory.

I think Doug Swisher, the inventor, might have had, in the back of his
mind, the famous John Singer Sargeant painting, Madame X:

http://www.jssgallery.org/Paintings/Madame_X.htm

The painting was shocking at the time -- evocatively, alluringly
erotic.
Sargeant was effectively banned from the Paris Salon because of the
controversy.

Sargeant was a masterful painter of oil portraits -- he commanded small
fortunes from high society types. I think he was a great and
underappreciated painter who was frustrated in his artistic career,
largely because of the reaction to Madame X. He did a few watercolor
paintings of moving water that are the best I've ever seen, and they
were only a small diversion for him.


i don't know squat about swisher, or the back of his mind, but if a jss
painting inspired his naming of the fly, i'm impressed. any theory on
how the "humpy" got its name? g



I knew Doug Swisher superficially (business), and used to supply him with
his Madam X pattern commercially, and although he never told me the thinking
behind the name (other than the rubber legs forming an "X" when viewed from
above), my guess is that the 1966 Lana Turner movie - Madam X, would be more
in keeping with his tastes and personality.

IMHO, YMMV...

http://imdb.com/title/tt0060645/


Skwala

BTW, I'm sure he still is counted amoung the living, somewhere, and even has
a web site, why don't you google him and ask him