Maltese Falcon / Crusader Kings - similarity + questions

[M.J. Prior]

In March 2005, I made a assumption that sadly went 
unnoticed. Yet I feel it was a good assumption which 
deserves another chance at its moment in the sun.

Don Rosa's story "The Crown of the Crusader Kings" starts
with a scene in $crooge's Trophy Room. At the bottom of 
the
first page Donald dusts off a golden statuette of a 
falcon,
encrusted with jewels. Several readers may have been
wondering from which Barks-story this falcon might be.
Several other readers may have recognized this falcon as
the Maltese Falcon from the 1941 movie of the same title.

I saw this movie just yesterday and I realized that the
Falcon's presence in the Trophy Room is not just a random
funny reference, but something slightly more meaningful.
"The Maltese Falcon" starts with a text screen which
explains the Falcon's history:

"In 1539, the Knight Templars [sic] of Malta paid tribute
to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon
encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels -- --- but
pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token
and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to
this day ---"

The similarities between the Falcon and the Crown are
obvious: both are treasures of the Knights Templar, both
are made of gold and encrusted with rarest jewels, both
are sent away on a ship as a tribute to please a foreign
monarch. It looks like Don has taken this text from "The
Maltese Falcon" as a starting point for his story about
the Crusader Kings. The Falcon's presence is not just a
reference, but homage where homage is due.

# Question to Don Rosa: Don, did you really add the Falcon 
because of connection to the Knights Templar? And did you 
create these similarities on purpose or are they just 
coincidence? (Which they very well could be - maybe 
they're strong, but they're not *that* strong.)

# Totally unrelated other question to Don Rosa: Will you 
someday add the Sampo's handle to the treasures shown in 
$crooge's Trophy Room? I've been waiting for that one to 
turn up one day, but it didn't.

# Yet another question, while I'm still at it: While 
working on your Duck Family Tree, you decided to ignore 
the dismal fate of Gladstone's parents and his subsequent 
adoption by Matilda McDuck, as it would only unnecessarily 
mess up the tree and also, or maybe in the first place, 
because you considered the story of Gladstone's parents 
dying from overeating too gruesome. You made this decision 
together with Carl Barks.

Did mr. Barks also disapprove of his earlier anecdote 
about the free lunch picknick? Or did he just agree to go 
without the adoption?

I've been wondering about this, because I seem to be one 
of the few people who actually think the picknick-story 
was funny, while currently every mention of it is 
accompanied by the statement that it's now considered 
false. I'm also puzzled by the fact that Sir Roast's death 
from overeating *did* made it into canon and apparently 
wasn't considered too gruesome. (But then he's nobody's 
parent.)

I hope you will find time to answer my questions, on some 
of which I've been brooding for quite some time now.

Greetings from Michiel Prior.