No mas Mahi Mahi, no peace for a dead grandmother

Alas, it's been "lost or broken". Sob, sniff... yeah right!

So my seemingly never-ending hunt for this elusive mug continues. I look to the heavens and offer respect, loyalty, and love,(on top of a renewed vow of dedictaion to the search), to my late parents that I will come through eventually. I shall find a Mahi Mahi mug for Grandma's ashes!

Some back story:

My family, although seemingly from an illutstrious line of pre-Revolutionary War Yankee colonists is actually deeply rooted in the South. Nay, my home calls to me, the fertile hills of Tennessee. We're Nashvillians through and through. Well, at least the good side of the family, the rest of them were horse thieves from Bohemia. Those folks give Gypsies a bad name, but Lordy I still love 'em, we're kin. Any who, I digress, back to the South. Dixie.

Grandmother midnite (Nananite) was a firecracker of a woman, versed in the Asian Arts of seduction (long story) and the inner workings of small-block Chevrolets. Nananite could drink like a sailor and swim like a bag of rocks, hence my aversion to snow skiing. She ate like she put it away in a hollow leg, we, actually she did have a prosthetic limb down there. I have the scars to prove it. Side note: never get between a drunk nana and her fried seafood platter, it only pisses 'em off something fierce. When the Phillip Morris dividend checks would come in, there's nothing Nananite liked more than to head down to that great Nashville Polynesian restaurant, Mahi Mahi.

Nana spent many a night closing the Mahi Mahi, running up huge tabs and hitting on several of the Korean dishwashers. One in particular, Ho Kim, had such "soft hands", according to Nana. As I grow to be a strong little midnite, I would push Nana down to the Mahi Mahi so she could imbibe in a few Scorpions and cruise the new dishwasher hires. There was nothing wrong with her phsyically, she just like to be pushed around by others. On the way back home, usually around 3 am, Nana would sing dirty limericks to me, always calling me her "little Mahi Mahi". Oh, the memories I have from those years, me pushing Nana home...and sometimes Ho Kim, too. One would be surprised at how much a little Korean weighs, but it built up my quads pushing those two home. Nana always had one for the road, drink, not dishwasher, and drank it out of a very Mahi Mahi Tiki mug.

Like so much in life, this tale has a bittersweet ending. Nana left us several years ago. She didn't die, not then, she just ran off to Seoul with yet another immigrant dishwasher. Death came a few years later at the hands of a smaller, but possessing suprisingly fine aim with a sidearm, jealous Korean woman. Shot dead in cold blood they said. Not me, I always thought it was hot-blooded love that done Nana in. Love gone bad.

So, Nana's ashes have been waiting for their final resting spot... a nice little Oceanic Arts Mahi Mahi mug. The same little mug from the Nashville Tiki spot that gave her so many fond memories and several dishwashing Koreans. I guess it, in a tangential sense, also gave her a .38 slug in the back. One could not underestimate my joy upon finding that eBay acution, and now my overwhelming sorrow the rare mug has been "lost or stolen". Damn luck, that.

Sometimes I feel cursed, cursed by some stronger power. A force with which one cannot reckon, cannot defeat. Blasted cursed powers that be! Damn them to hell, damn you all!!!

Ok, I feel a little better now. The search goes on, Nananite will rest in peace someday..... someday.

Grandma's dead! Forget it, Jake, it's Koreatown

Yeah, right...broken...more like "I want more for it"- Oh wait, now I get it, he GOT more...from SOMEONE.

Indeed a rare mug, one of only two (I think, the other being a Cobra's Fang) ever made by Oceanic Arts. Only seen it in their own cabinet.
The Mahi Mahi was that place that was entirely designed and built by Eli Hedley, wasn't it?
Maybe Leroy can shed some light on that history.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2005-08-05 18:32 ]

"Indeed a rare mug, one of only two (I think, the other being a Cobra's Fang) ever made by Oceanic Arts"

Yep, BB, that's where I first saw one, OA's case.

Bob told me all about the mug's origin when I found my own copy a couple of years ago. Hey, I said Nana's ashes need one, not me. What? I'm gonna use my one Mahi Mahi mug to store her remains? No way.

It was another mug from Spurlin's Ceramics (Stella Bodey). She sold the molds to Desert Ceramics, they produced the mug for OA's customer (Mahi Mahi). According to Bob, the mugs sold for, gulp, $7.80/dozen. Bob has never failed to have info on a mug when I've inquired at OA.

Not sure on Mr Eli and the Mahi decor. I have a matchbook from the place to go with my mug. That's it.

midnite

ps I am told this Mahi Mahi mug was actually broken. If...IF...that's the case, it's even more distressing. It's just I've sold probably 200+ mugs on eBay, and I have never broken one before the auction concluded.

pps Then again, PolyPop is not allowed in my home. Great fellow, but just murder on Tiki mugs.

Can't you just say..."hey that's okay, just send me the shards"?

Man..I am sick of people putting up things for auctoin on ebay and then accepting private offers. It happened to me this week on ebay, as well on some Buddah mugs (not even as elusive as Mahi Mahi mug).

It just seems that people really are violating the spirit of ebay when the cancel the auction with that lame lost or stolen line.

I hope you get that mug someday for Granny's ashes.

[ Edited by: Swanky 2005-09-02 21:06 ]

On 2005-08-06 07:06, Swanky wrote:
BK has a very beautiful postcard from the Mahi Mahi. It's one of the two extinct tiki bars of Nashville, the other being the Blue Hawaii. I have a matchbook from there and the address and am planning a trip to see what the Chinese place there now might have in store. The descriptions I have of that place are amazing.

I'm happy to report that there was also the Surf Rider at the Dinkler-Andrew Jackson Hotel in Nashville. It may be worth researching. No address, other than "Across the square from the State Capitol":

Also in Tennessee were the Dobbs House Luau in Memphis, at 3135 Poplar Ave. and the Islander's Restaurant in Chattanooga at 5th Floor, Uptain Building, East Gate Center. I've got a postcard from the Dobbs House and a rather plain matchbook from the Islander's which says they served Chinese and Polynesian cuisine.

Sabu

*Alas, it's been "lost or broken". Sob, sniff... yeah right! *

Wahh, suh-prize SUH-PRIZE, Gomer!!! The gawsh dang mug done up 'nd glooed itself back too-geth-erh. Ring up Uncle Bobby Don Lester and Aunt Lucy Formica Sue, tell 'em to gather down by the Piggly Wiggly, c'us it'sah Tiki miracle!

It's Summer, Eve

Ok, it's a Tiki miracle or a simple vinegar & water solution. Also, according to Wiki, the apparatus can also mean someone who is unintelligently lying or scamming. Damnit, Bridget! If the bulb syringe fits, let 'er fly!

I shalln't be touching this auction with a bid or an eleven-foot pole. I firmly believe in Karma, and if Karma is busy, very large, and hyperglycemic, Somoans.

Midnite... is all about the love, always about the love. Good thing for some folk.

On 2005-08-07 00:20, midnite_tiki wrote:
it'sah Tiki miracle!

Ahhh! The restorative powers of money are strong.

JTD

p.s. Kono seems to think some of your tale may not be true. I say, who HASN'T suffer a beating from nana's wooden leg?

On 2005-08-07 00:20, midnite_tiki wrote:
I shalln't be touching this auction with a bid or an eleven-foot pole. I firmly believe in Karma, and if Karma is busy, very large, and hyperglycemic, Somoans.

I'm sure you're not alone in this sentiment. We'll never know, but I'd bet he's going to get less for it this time than if he'd just let it ride last time around.

Anyone catch what the bidding was up to before it got pulled?

Kono seems to think some of your tale may not be true. I say, who HASN'T suffer a beating from nana's wooden leg?

Well, I had just consumed a two-pound bag of M&M's before typing that story, so I may have embellished it a bit. Pretty much everything after Yankee colonists, I'd say. Still, the principle is what matters, the principle...and comfortable shoes. That's what is important in life.

*We'll never know, but I'd bet he's going to get less for it this time than if he'd just let it ride last time around. *

She'll get what's coming to her, I know that.

Hey, so someone tried to cop a rare mug for a lowball price, I've see it done many times. Whatever, everyone has their own set of ethics. Now, Ms. Massengill evidently found out what the thing could fetch, which I am certain is considerably more than she was offerred, and now she wants her pie. Cool beans, more power to ya, Eve. Capitalism is bitchin' in my book. No problemo.

What irks me is the lame-assed lies intended to cover for the gratuitous solicitiation of info in order to further one's greed. Low character weasels just piss me off.

Bridget says: "REally?!? I purchased it at a rummage sale for 25 cents.... thought I would list it and see if I could get a few bucks for it. Anyway, it was
knocked off my ebay shelf anf is no longer a mug, so sad. What do you think it was worth or would have brought? Just out of curiosity. Thanks!!"

Bridge, hun, you're an unintelligent liar.

Anyone catch what the bidding was up to before it got pulled?

Marty, that dastardly dude from El Paso had outbid me to $13.13.

On 2005-08-07 15:05, midnite_tiki wrote:
Bridget says: "REally?!? I purchased it at a rummage sale for 25 cents.... thought I would list it and see if I could get a few bucks for it. Anyway, it was
knocked off my ebay shelf anf is no longer a mug, so sad. What do you think it was worth or would have brought? Just out of curiosity. Thanks!!"

Interesting. I inquired as to what had happened since the mug was "lost" or "broken" and she said it had fallen off the shelf and "received a teeny tiny color nick chip on the under side of his nose..." Despite this dammage, it seems it is once again "a mug." A VERY DURABLE mug.

There are 2 different threads on the same mug and the same seller and now the mug is re-listed . My head hurts...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6199358074

The Phoenix arises from the ashes!! How funny would it be if she reconsidered her "sell it to some scheming asshole price" and the thing sells for $15.00? I have the feeling this one will also take the fictional fall off a shelf like the last one did!

[ Edited by: Swanky 2005-09-02 21:05 ]

What the hell is Koalacharms gonna do with a hotel in Nashville? Oh well, Elvis needs boats.

Man, I was hoping to bid on that place too.

Captain Elvis, the nautical Elvis,
Mojo midnite

It's like a magic show, without the ample-bosomed assistant and the monkey that shoots quarters out of his....uh, well I've been to some weird magic shows. You see the mug... NOW, you don't!

Round up the usual suspects:

"They have tsetse flies down there the size of eagles"

I have an eBay "watch it disappear" list ,
midnite

Did you want that old mug, midnite?

Too bad you missed out on this one.

You could've had it for $125 with Buy It Now.

You have to be vigilant in looking for those Buy It Nows. I've seen some great rare items sold in such a manner. Unfortunately, I only see them after the auction is over! Why am I so unlucky?

Weird thing is, a cursory search of that seller's past and present auctions reveals no other Buy It Nows! How strange is that?

Presto Change-o, and the mug...reappears!!... albeit with a huge increase in its opening bid and a rather optimistic, but what's so funny about shooting for the moon, "buy now". If you can make a mug disappear, you can dodge a ball. I suppose, not unlike eBay customer service, the rules for auction listings are rather...errr, pointless?

Nice mug, a classic, but I won't be bidding on it or anything else from this seller. I can get goofball unscrupulous Tiki sellers at home, why go out for it? Have at it, only a bit under 5 bills. When paying cash, the monkey at the bar will get your change. Wet wipes are on the counter.

Uh, these quarters smell like monkey butt!

For my next trick,
midnite

[ Edited by: Swanky 2005-09-10 12:38 ]

Oh what fun eBay can be.

My recent tribulations with another mouthbreather: Have a seller send you the wrong items, have seller send your items to another buyer, items are almost identical, but not. Have seller pack a glass "inside" a mug, yes, put a glass insert inside the ceramic holder, wrap in a sheet of butcher paper, place in too small box.

When informed of mistake in sending the wrong items, seller's response is for me to file an insurance claim. Uh, you sent me the wrong stuff..."Hello, McFly!?!"

My last gawdawful eBay transcation involved a sale of 3 of the most scarce tiki items we know. This one as well, two unbelieveably uncommon items, and another undeniably unprofessional transaction. The odds?

At least with this one I can repair and keep it, sell my other nicer version already in my collection. Unfortunately, the earlier seller destroyed some fine Tiki history (Steve's Rum Barrel, Don Beachcomber Rum Barrel). Just needed to vent, as eBay is useless, the seller a joke, few options.

Must stay away from clock towers,
midnite

This thread started out life on the subject of Tennessee tiki places. HERE is a post I did on some new insights for the Dobb's House Luau and the Dinkler Andrew Jackson Surf Rider, plus a new scan of the Mahi Mahi postcard.

The Beachcomber Bar at the Mahi Mahi in Nashville, designed by Oceanic Arts.

Swank Blather- Talkin' atcha

[ Edited by: Swanky 2006-11-21 11:51 ]

sorry, posted wrong.

[ Edited by: MisterMagoo 2006-12-27 13:15 ]