Overheard in the Office:

RX: (reading Phlegmmy's blog) "Wow! Neat shoes!"

Me: "I need new shoes, too..." *click* *click* "Hey, these are cool! And they have Blood-Borne Pathogen Resistance™!"

RX: "I like the ones at Phlegmmy's better."

Me: "Yeah, but are they resistant to blood-borne pathogens?"

RX: "I don't really spend all that much time wading through the blood of my enemies. At least, not any deeper than the soles of my shoes."

Me: "Okay, but come the Zombocalypse, if you get some kind of zombie foot funk, don't say I didn't warn you."

As it turns out...

...I wasn't stymied by the weather but by an even more potent force.

Cold and rainy scares me not. Since you can't guarantee that your "for real" moment, should it come, will come in the middle of a grassy lawn on a sunny, 78-degree day, it behooves you to get out and shoot when Mother Nature isn't cooperating. If the wind is trying to blow your hat off or the cold rain is dribbling down your collar or your fingers are so cold you can hardly feel them, you know it's good training weather.

So it wasn't the weather that kept me from the range yesterday, it was an even more irresistible force: the unstoppable force of bureaucracy. The local Five-Oh had the place closed off for their own purposes.

Plot? Hello?

I have actually seen folks complain about Quantum of Solace not having a "plot".

Uh, hello? This is a James Bond movie, not Terms of Endearment.

For those of you who may not have ever seen one, here's a spoiler:

“Chase, Fight, Chase, Sex, Shootout, Sex, Villain Confrontation, Escape, Chase, Shootout, Dead Villain, Sex,”

There you go; the plot of every single James Bond movie ever. Going to a Bond flick and complaining about the lack of a plot is like going to an Episcopalian church service and complaining about the lack of strippers.

Next thing you know, folks will gripe about lack of character development. "I just don't feel like Pussy Galore was a fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional character..."

Today In History: Lützen.

On this date in 1632, Gustavus Adolphus, the king of Sweden, was killed in the climactic battle of Lützen, guaranteeing future employment for novelist Eric Flint.

The short list:

I need something handier for schlepping long guns on road trips, so the 30mpg Zed Drei is slated to be traded here in the next few weeks while car sellers are still desperate and while 30mpg is still a big selling point.

Vehicles around which I am currently sniffing on used car lots:

1) A full-size domestic truck of some sort.
2) A recent RWD domestic sedan (Chrysler 300/Caddy CTS/Lincoln Zephyr).
3) One of Mopar's "Shooting Brake" crossovers (Dodge Magnum/Chrysler Pacifica).
4) An '01-'03 low-end FWD Eurosedan (Audi A4/Saab 9-3).

Comments? Owner experiences? Suggestions? (Unless someone out there in readerland has a sub-100,000mi Lexus SC400, SC300, or Infiniti Q45 with which they're dying to part.)


EDIT: While I appreciate all kinds of suggestions, this is going to need to be a used car in the $6k-$10k price range, so a new Mini Clubman or Bimmer X3/X5 is right out.

I've got nothin'...

Blech. It's icky and cold and rainy out, the high temperature for today was recorded at, like, 7AM, and after a couple days of it, the steady drizzle gets to be like Chinese water torture.

Supposed to take the Gun Blog 9 to the range this morning; I'll let you know how it goes.

Maybe I'll get a burst of writer-type inspiration as the day goes on. In the meantime, feel free to chat amongst yourselves.

Bond. James Bond.

Holy crap was Quantum of Solace the bomb diggity shizznit! It you liked what they've done to Batman, you'll love what they've done to 007.

He was using that licence to kill like it was earning him frequent flier miles.

Eleanor Ringel, pinko film critic for the Atlanta Urinal Constipation, once reviewed a James Bond movie (View To A Kill, a particularly cheesy example of the breed) by stating that "Going to a James Bond movie is like going to the zoo; either you're happy to see the giraffes again, or you're not."

Well let me tell you that the zoo now has carnivorous killer robot ninja giraffes, and they rock.

EDIT: As noted in comments, if you thought that Roger Moore phoning it in through lame plots like Octopussy and View To A Kill was the height of Bondness, you're going to loathe this movie. If, on the other hand, you're more into You Only Live Twice or From Russia With Love, you'll dig it.

I am typing this one-handed...

...because the Gun Blog 9 is finally in my other hand.

I are stoked.

Shooty goodness happens tomorrow morning, and I don't care how cold or rainy it's supposed to be.

Yikes!

So, the box on the kitchen counter said "Roasted GORGONZOLA Flavored Oven Crisp Crackers."

Except that when I caught it out of the corner of my eye, I saw "GORGONPALOOZA"...

...and, Shiva help me, my first thought was "Wow! Amy Winehouse is touring with Courtney Love?"

John's Addiction.

Are you ready for some heresy? Okay, here goes: Sure, 1911's are nice to shoot and all, but there's something especially crack-like in John Moses Browning's earlier designs. I had never really paid them much mind until I got my first Pocket Hammerless, and then I wanted another. And another...

While guns like the earliest Model 1902's, 1905's, and the exposed hammer 1903's have been solid collector guns for many years, the littlest Colt pocket autos have remained ridiculously affordable, partially because these solid little designs remained in production into the '40s, long after the 1911 had eclipsed their bigger brothers, and there are consequently a bajillion of them out there.

That, however, is starting to change. As prices get ever more stratospheric on other antique Colts, collectors are starting to turn their eye towards the little 1903 Pocket Hammerless .32ACP. and the 1908 Vest Pocket .25ACP.

A premium example of the earliest "Model M" .32 will already fetch well over a grand, and a top-notch Vest Pocket is crowding that total. Shootable examples of either are considerably more reasonable, of course, but they aren't getting any cheaper, either.

And when I say "shootable", I mean "shootable". I have a 1904-production .32 that has been worn to an even gray patina by over a century of coat pockets and sock drawers, but its bore is bright and its rifling is sharp, and despite it rattling like a trash can full of scrap metal it will point naturally and shoot accurately like no other .32 I've ever shot. I've put a few hundred rounds through it over the last several range sessions, without a bobble or a malfunction. Not bad for an autopistol that was built before the Panama Canal.

With prices going steadily upwards, you might want to look into acquiring a good shooter while reasonably pretty ones are still affordable. It's never fun to be standing over a table full of pistols under glass and thinking "Why, I remember when you could get those things for a hunnert'n'fifty, maybe two hunnert bucks..."

Today In History: Wings of Gold, Larval Edition.

On this date in 1910, Eugene Ely rumbled his Curtiss Model D down a wooden deck constructed aboard the cruiser USS Birmingham, and flew right off the ship and into history. It was the first time an airplane had taken flight from a naval vessel.

Within seven years, the Royal Navy had launched HMS Furious, the world's first aircraft carrier.

Well excuuuuuuuse me!

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout?

I don't watch television, so how am I supposed to know which little pop culture catchphrases you kids think are, like, so November 12th?

I pity the fool that gets all worked up about this.


(Via Unc.)

Now that's funny!

"Too big to fail" taken to reductio ad absurdum:

Congressional Democrats announced today that they had agreed to a bailout plan for Republicans after last week's devastating election results. While exact details are unavailable, sources tell us that the Republicans will be given 4 seats in the Senate and 15 in the House. Nancy Pelosi said in a statement today: "We've established pretty clearly over the last several months that failed strategies and management should not necessarily have to result in losses in market share, particularly for well-connected Washington insiders."

RTWT.

(H/T to Dustbury.)

About some things, I am superstitious.

If you own a Smith & Wesson revolver with a titanium cylinder and actually read the destructions, you will note that they go on at length about a magical coating used on the titanium that is supposed to prevent flame erosion and possible concomitant crack propagation in the cylinder. They warn not to do anything even slightly abrasive to the cylinder, lest this voodoo film be damaged in some way. Therefore, I only use soft cotton patches moistened with a little CLP or FP-10 to clean the cylinder on my 296.

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid, but pictures like this give me the creeping willies.

As it is, I've had the 296 for seven years now, and it has shot a bunch of trouble-free rounds. I'd like to keep it that way...


(And yes, I know that in the linked case the problem was not flame erosion, but the aftermath is the same...)

Anticipation...

A little birdie has informed me that there should be a package from ParaUSA waiting for me at my fave little gun shop today.

(Incidentally, you may want to give them a call if you're looking for EBRs. Last time I was in there right before the election, they had a good stock of ARs and stripped lowers, and they're a small shop that is off the beaten path. They also had a nice collection of reasonably priced consignment guns from a collection, including prewar S&W and Colt revolvers, an '03 and a Trapdoor, a very early Winchester '94, etc...)

This is how unplugged I am:

When Dr. Strangegun commented that the only network show he watches is House, I wondered why it took so long to make an enjoyable '80s B-movie into a show.

Learn something new every day...

While wikiwandering this morning, I was made aware of the distinction between actual rotating-drum turrets and the armored gunhouses atop fixed barbettes that we term "turrets" on modern ships. I had previously gleaned the fact that there was a distinction, inferring it from various readings on big boats with guns, but it had never been spelled out for me before.

I doubt this question will be on the final exam, but I am oddly satisfied to have acquired the tidbit of information nonetheless.

Unplugged.

Marko discusses how, having completed a year without TeeWee, he feels a little "pop culture handicapped".

I can commiserate, although I don't feel particularly handicapped, at least not anymore. I was never a large TeeWee consumer; even when I last had one in my domicile, it was mostly used for watching Fox's Sunday night lineup (The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The X-Files.) I didn't even have a television in the house from '02 to '08; I'd go downstairs to watch Braves games on my neighbor's set.

This means that I have never seen an episode of Survivor. Nor an episode of Dancing With The Stars or American Idol or whatever the popular sitcoms or dramas are right now (I don't actually know.)

Further, since I stopped listening to broadcast radio when I got a CD changer in the trunk of my car, I couldn't name a Billboard Top Forty tune (or artist) from the last decade, either.

What's funny is people's reactions when you share this tidbit of information: They often get very, very defensive. Even hostile sometimes. Why is that?

If you look back over what I have written in the paragraphs above, it contains no value judgments. I didn't say "TV sucks and only cretins watch it," or "mainstream radio is a wasteland for drooling imbeciles," and yet if you mention that you don't listen to the radio or watch TeeWee, frequently people react as though you made exactly those statements and accuse you of everything from snobbish elitism to putting flouride in their children's water. It's rather comical, actually; it's almost as though they're feeling guilty about something. They do say that the wicked flee when no man pursueth.

Personalized license plates...

How to get "BITTER CLINGER" into "seven alpha or numeric characters plus one space without punctuation"?

Ready? Go!

Non-attributing heathens.

In the buying frenzy, one Indiana blogger even warned readers to not haphazardly snatch up a rifle and be "stuck with some exotic that takes unimportable mags."

Thanks for the link, guys. You're a shining role model of online journalistic excellence. Only not.

(H/T to Mike W at Another Gun Blog.)

(Also, if I'd been more diligent in reading my comments section I would have noticed that Bitter called this out two days ago. D'oh!)