Elderly Instruments is a musical instrument retailer in Lansing, Michigan, with a national reputation as a seller, repair shop, and locus for folk music. It specializes in fretted instruments, including acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitars, banjos, mandolins, and ukuleles, and maintains a selection of odd or rare instruments of many types. Elderly is best known as a premier repair shop for fretted instruments, as one of the larger vintage instrument dealers in the United States, and as a large dealer of Martin guitars in particular. Industry publications, particularly music retail trade and bluegrass music journals, frequently feature articles about the Elderly repair staff. The company also provides consignment services for rare and vintage instruments. Elderly has undergone two major expansions: into mail order in 1975 and then into Internet sales in the 1990s. Today it is recognized internationally for its services and products; its mail order and Internet business account for 65–70 percent of its total revenue. Elderly grossed $12 million in 1999. In addition to retail and repair services, Elderly Instruments is frequently noted as a center of local music culture, particularly for bluegrass and "twang" music. Elderly Instruments operates a wholesale record distribution business, Sidestreet Distributing, in the lower level of its complex, servicing more than 300 small retail businesses.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elderly_Instruments

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1758: French and Indian War: Ten-year-old Mary Campbell was taken captive from her Pennsylvania home by members of the Native American group Lenape, presumably becoming the first white child to travel to the Connecticut Western Reserve. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Campbell)

1894: The Manchester Ship Canal, linking Greater Manchester in North West England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the largest navigation canal in the world at the time. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal)

1904: The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the international sport governing body of association football, was founded in Paris. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA)

1927: Aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, American aviator Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, flying from Roosevelt Field near New York City to Le Bourget Airport near Paris. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh)

1998: Indonesian President Suharto resigned following the collapse of support for his three-decade long reign. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

riptide: A strong flow of water away from the shore of the ocean. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/riptide)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

The flying Rumours gather'd as they roll'd,Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told;And all who told it, added something new,And all who heard it, made Enlargements too,In ev'ry Ear it spread, on ev'ry Tongue it grew. -- [[Alexander Pope]] (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope)