I am preparing a small exhibition about an artist who lived in our town. When I went through our files about him I found a photocopy of a letter his daughter sent us many years ago, but I cannot read the last word at the end of the fourteenth line (below the word "1st"). I added an enlarged image of the word in question. I thought it might be "labor" but if you look at the word "branches" a couple of lines above it, the first letters appear to be identical, so I assume the word starts with "ba..." Can you help?
A balm to me now, too, now that you all helped. It looks so obvious to me now, but I don't want you to know how long I stared at it today, trying to decipher it.
you should have been looking at troubled...italian,,,columbia.....to see how the ...L ' s were formed.... but hey....that's just me...
Morgen94, do we win a prize if we correctly guess how long you stared at it? I'm thinking you'll say "Yes, there is a prize" so I'll ask just a few questions. Did trying to read it interfere with your eating one, two or more meals? Did you turn the paper to the reverse side and hold it up to a light to try to read it backwards? Did you turn the paper upside-down and hold it to a light to try to read it upside-down? Did you at some point rush out to a sidewalk and ask people passing by if they could read it? Did you become so frantic you called a friend or colleague and asked over the telephone if they could fill-in-the-blank sight unseen? Did you start out looking at it with a flashlight and then progressed to a bright lamp light and then a floodlight as you climbed a ladder to reach the outdoor floodlight? Did you have to put on sunglasses to hide your reddened eyes after trying to decipher it? Now as to that "prize" . . . .
