Feb 14, 2015

Vocabulary Lesson

Optimism: That trait leading a loophole-bound citizen to stuff his wallet with all the  Federal Reserve Cartoons his modest circumstances permit AND root around for the small, light, nylon bag AND reflect that the sack would comfortably hold an Artillery Luger,  an unissued USN-marked 1918 Model 1911 AND a shootable 4" Colt Python. Also, maybe, a signed first edition of No Second Place Winner.

Reality: That mindset based on personal history of coming home  too often from even the best of the big loopholes  with the wallet untouched except for one's share of the post-show beer tab at Adrian, Minnesota where (Edit: formerly) the girl behind the bar is (was) both cute and tolerant of old farts trying to be flirty.

Sioux Falls this weekend, and it's one of the loopies we all recommend, particularly for you guys who like cowboy guns.

I suppose I wrote all this because it suddenly occurred to me that life is pretty good.

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Update:  Reality, mostly.

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Technical addendum. Blogger's spell check hates "loopies" and offers "loo pies" as a suggested alternative. How gross.


Official Love Day Porn

Having failed again in my annual quest for the perfect Valentine greeting, I bundle up for a sure-love trip, the huge Sioux Falls loophole.

Why can't a country that can send  a man to the moon devise a Valentine  which combines (a) effectiveness and (b) non-commitment?

Oh well.


Feb 13, 2015

We do the news

From my friend John, via email:

From comments at The Bleat:

"When I was (briefly) at The AP in N'Awlins, the New York desk came back and came back and came back at the sportswriter prior to the Super Bowl. over and over. "what is the temperature and winds on the field?" finally got the copy accepted with "68 degrees, half-mile winds, variable." this is, of course, about the Superdome."

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I am of the opinion that that selfsame New York editor is also assigned to supervise all reports dealing with firearms.

Feb 11, 2015

Hey Amigo. Let's see whose gun is loudest.

De Voto on the Battle of Palo Alto where Taylor's young artillery officers mowed down Mexican  troops by the the score, perhaps unnecessarily:

"That the Mexican troops faced such fire and stayed on the field is ample evidence they were good troops. (but) Few of them, here or later,  could shoot straight. Government policy, taking account of revolutions, had forbidden the citizenry to bear arms."

(Ahem, Mr. Obama.)

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As I've opined before, you have to love De Voto for a lot of reasons. Another one, referring to future CinC  Taylor on the same battlefield near Matamoros in 1846:

"...he had no nerves and nothing recognizable as intelligence, he was afraid of nothing, and he was too unimaginative to know when he was being licked, which was fortunate since he did not know how to maneuver troops. Add to this a dislike of military forms and procedures and a taste for old clothes and you have a predestinate candidate for the Presidency."

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Bernard De Voto, The Year of Decision 1846, Little-Brown 1942 pp. 189-190