No one has bashed Gibson lately.  While some of the low end mandos are being hyped a little there doesn't seem to be anything like MK/Eastman from past years.  Scotti hasn't bought a new mandolin this year.  In fact, there doesn't seem to be a hot new custom builder right now.  What is happening?  

The only thing I noticed of late is it seems to be a lot of higher end individual builder and company produced mandos in the obits.  

Since I got kicked off the Cafe, things have been bland (OK blander and yes, the mando-world does revolve around me. Me Me...Me and nobody else).

However, being kicked off may have been a good thing for me. Now I can't reply to the usual dribble and end up saying the same thing differently. I also find I am practicing more.