Silver Up

Silver is back over $12.50, oof.

Blasted Weather

Blasted weather in Houston may have snarled up my internet connection. All is much better now.

Saturday Poetry

Gus Kahn

1886 - 1941

The Carioca

Say, have you seen a Carioca?
It's not a foxtrot or a polka
It has a little bit of new rhythm, a blue rhythm that sighs

It has a meter that is tricky
A bit of wicked wacky-wicky
But when you dance it with a new love, there's a true love in her eye

You dream of a new Carioca
Its theme is a kiss and a sigh
You dream of a new Carioca
When music and lights are gone we say goodbye

Two heads together, they say are better than one
Two heads together, that's how the dance is begun
Two arms around you and lips, that's why I'm yours and you are mine
And you are mine

Now that you've done the Carioca
You'll never care to do the Polka
And then you'll realize the blue hula and bamboola are through

Tomorrow morning you'll discover
You're just a Carioca lover
And when you dance it with each new love, there'll be true love just for you

Now you'll dream of a new Carioca
Its theme is a kiss and a sigh
You'll dream of a new Carioca
When music and lights are gone and we're saying goodbye
Goodbye

Who Am I?

Curtis Lowe has an amusing post up re political experience, and who has it or has had it.

Enjoy.

September 11, 2001

I haven't blogged about 9/11 before. I was home that day with Samantha, who was not yet 8 months old. Everything on the television was the news about the first plane flying into the World Trade Center towers.

Then the second plane hit. And the Pentagon was hit by a plane. And a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

In the days and weeks and months and years that followed, I was angry that my country had been attacked, and that we were not able to strike back, directly, cleanly, at those who had initiated the attack.

I was a Democrat that day, until I saw the damage and said to myself "Thank God the grownups are in charge."

Politicians and news commentators and people with political influence muddied the waters, trying to convince us that we must have deserved, did deserve, the attack. Those of us who wanted revenge joked grimly about turning the Middle East into a sea of glass.

But the grownups were in charge and pursued a more rational response, trying diplomacy and firing warning shots. The US invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq, fighting the terrorists and those who lead them on their ground, taking the fight to them.

If there may have been further attempts of terrorism on the US, they have been foiled.

In my time, I have hated and it is a self-destructive choice. I do not hate the people and the countries who have chosen terrorism as their path to power, but I do not question their failures or their deaths. I don't care. Die already.

Silver Way Down

Just checked goldismoney.com, silver is down to 10.65 per ounce. Whoa!

Melt Prices

Silver's down to $12.05!

Gold's back up to just over $800.

Thoughts About A Next Gun

I thought some over the weekend about what gun I'd like to get next. But remember, this is thinking, not buying.

I'd probably shop for a used bolt-action in .308. Scoped, with studs for sling swivels. I'd be shooting paper and steel, at distances from 100 yards to 400 - 600 yards.

Wooden stock preferred, just because I like wood more than I like a synthetic stock, but that's not a deal breaker.

Heavy barrel? Varmint contour? Sporter? Depends on what I find out on the web. If necessary, I can put together something to counter any barrel whip that might exist.

Aargh

John Farnam's Quips is now officially on my "once a week peek" list. This is just too frustrating. The man's a damn tease!

Saturday Poetry

George Gershwin, 1898 - 1937

They All Laughed

The odds were a hundred to one against me
The world thought the heights were too high to climb
But people from Missouri never incensed me
Oh, I wasn’t a bit concerned
For from hist’ry I had learned
How many, many times the worm had turned

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly

They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony
It’s the same old cry
They laughed at me wanting you
Said I was reaching for the moon
But oh, you came through
Now they’ll have to change their tune

They all said we never could be happy
They laughed at us and how!
But ho, ho, ho!
Who’s got the last laugh now?

They all laughed at Rockefeller center
Now they’re fighting to get in
They all laughed at Whitney and his cotton gin
They all laughed at Fulton and his steamboat
Hershey and his chocolate bar

Ford and his misery
Kept the laughers busy
That’s how people are
They laughed at me wanting you
Said it would be, "hello, goodbye."
But oh, you came through
Now they’re eating humble pie

They all said we’d never get together
Darling, let’s take a bow
For ho, ho, ho!
Who’s got the last laugh?
He, hee, hee!
Let’s at the past laugh
Ha, ha, ha!
Who’s got the last laugh now?

from http://www.allthelyrics.com/song/1105660/

Silver Down

Melt is approaching $12--cheap silver is coming again!

The Problem of 05Aug08

John Farnam's last update to his "Farnam's Quips" was 05Aug08. I know that Mr. Farnam is a busy man, but for the love of God, update your dang site!

Thank you.

A Melange

First day of school! First day of school!

Ah...Samantha went back to school this morning. She's a second-grader this year, in a different classroom with a different teacher. She had the same teacher for K/1, and that was very good for her. New room, new teacher--I'll just have to wait and see how it goes for her. May have to spring into action, hmm.

Inasmuch as she's the Republican VP nominee, I should say something about Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and mother of five. I was excited by the announcement of McCain's choice; now, I'm not so excited. McCain chose her because she would energize the base, but not overshadow him as President.

Plus, like it or not (and I don't), she is a politician. Which means when she's not kissing babies, she's stealing their lollipops. I'm thrilled that she's a life-member of the NRA; how much that'll mean to me, to others, to anyone, nobody knows.

Finally hit the range today! Came home from taking Samantha to school, cleaned the Marlin downstairs (ran a Boresnake through it, then a wet patch, couple of dry patches, finally an oily patch) and it was off to Angeles Shooting Range with a box of Federal (40 rounds?!? Cheapskate bastards...) and thirty rounds from a box of CCI Mini-Mags.

The rifle stovepiped (jammed) a couple of times with the Federal, and I had to wiggle the stuck cases out with a punch I happened to have in my range bag. Ran just fine with the Mini-Mags and I had fun banging away at the steel silhouettes. Maybe I should've done more, but I shot as much as I wanted to, packed up, came home...and cleaned the gun again. A very mellow experience.

And silver's under $13! And gold's under $800! And gas in our neighborhood is holding steady at $3.859!

But when is this heat ever going to break?!? I'm so tired of it being hot hot hot every single day!

A Reprieve, Huzzah!

Well, the great migration is sucessfully underway, and it seems that Bridget didn't want me moved as much as she wanted me out of Samantha's bedroom.

No luck on the great desk hunt; the ones we find for Samantha that we like ("Oooh...") are a bit...expensive ("Gack!"), and the ones that are affordable ("Oooh...") are somewhat lacking...in something ("Hmmm...").

More of the Ted Mack Amateur Hour of Moving and Physical Therapy tomorrow.

Life Downstairs

The townhouse we live in has a small bonus room, with laundry hookups, off the garage downstairs. When we moved in, 12-13 years ago, Bridget offered me the choice of that space for my "office". Sad to say, I probably laughed in her face and raced upstairs to claim the second bedroom with attached bathroom. She wound up with the downstairs bonus room as her sewing room.

Well, along came Samantha and I got booted out of my "office" because that was now her room. Eventually, this began to bother Bridget and she decided that she would take down her sewing room, move it into storage except for a few necessities, and put those necessities into the nook outside of Samantha's room at the top of the stairs.

It's taken her 3 years to achieve her goal, and tonight she made it. Everything in the bonus room, except for what I'm keeping, is in her storage unit or awaiting transport to same. Huzzah!

So. Tomorrow, I start moving all of my stuff, my junk, my toys, my crap downstairs. Oy...

My wife. Doer of great deeds. I salute you!

Saturday Poetry

Cole Porter, 1891 - 1964

I Get A Kick Out of You

My story is much too sad to be told,
but practically everything
leaves me totally cold.
The only exception I know is the case,
when I'm out on a quiet spree,
fighting vainly the old ennui
and I suddenly turn and see,
your fabulous face.

I get no kick from Champagne
Mere alchohol doesn't thrill me at all
so tell me why should it be true
that I get a kick
out of you

Some get a kick from cocaine
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
that would bore me terrifficly too
yet I get a kick out of you

I get a kick every time I see you standing there before me
I get a kick though it's clear to me you obviously don't
adore me

I get no kick in a plane
Flying too high
with some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do

Yet I get a kick
Out of you

Lyrics from http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/c/coleporter5950/igetakickoutofyou235307.html

Picture from http://www.sacos.co.uk/Anything%20Goes/Anything%20Goes%20Page.htm

Saturday Poetry

Conrad Aiken
1889-1973

All Lovely Things

All lovely things will have an ending,
All lovely things will fade and die,
And youth, that's now so bravely spending,
Will beg a penny by and by.

Fine ladies soon are all forgotten,
And goldenrod is dust when dead,
The sweetest flesh and flowers are rotten
And cobwebs tent the brightest head.

Come back, true love! Sweet youth, return!—
But time goes on, and will, unheeding,
Though hands will reach, and eyes will yearn,
And the wild days set true hearts bleeding.

Come back, true love! Sweet youth, remain!—
But goldenrod and daisies wither,
And over them blows autumn rain,
They pass, they pass, and know not whither.

Poem found at "American Poems"

Picture found at "Poetry Pearls", a Russian-language site

I'm in the money...

So. One of my household chores is the recycling. Mostly this entails packing up the cardboard of various sizes, the plastics (sorted by type) and miscellaneous (magazines, old phone books, tin cans, what not).

But then there's the cash recyclables, the ones that California requires retailers to charge on such items as bottles of water and soft drink cans. When I bag those up and finally get around to running them through a self-serve machine, that's a couple of bucks at a time for my fun fund.

It was my SKS fund, then it was my gun fund, now it's my fun fund. I'm finally starting to get it through my head that owning and shooting guns is an expensive hobby, and I can't afford to do that based on what I can find in my jeans pocket at any given moment.

Dang.

Plus, Appleseed shoots cost money--$70 per weekend, I think. If I don't save up for these purchases and activities, I'll never get beyond what I have, where I am.

So, after responsibly saving the recycling money for, um, a month, I think, I've got $21. Yay me. It's a start.

Dinner Conversations

Another evening, another delightful meal. My wife Bridget does a wonderful job of balancing nutritional requirements against Samantha's medical limitations (i.e., no tomatoes, no dairy, never any foods too high in galactose).

Prompted by who-knows-what, I remembered a book I had seen, possibly during my book store employment phase, about pre-Columbian cooking. No, not what the Mesoamericans ate, but what the Europeans ate before Columbus sailed to the New World and opened a new frontier of cooking and eating and taste.

I'm a garbage gourmand on a non-stop "see food" diet. Samantha, thank God, can't eat sweet breads, so fun things like kidneys and brains will never cross our plates, but beef and potatoes and typical American vegetables (carrots, peas, onions) do. Yum!

So what did the Europeans eat before Columbus? Remember, this was a dinner conversation, so it drifted, rather than flowed. We came up with:

--domesticated meat: beef, pork, chicken, fish (yeah, yeah, what're you gonna do, it's gotta go somewhere)

--game of all kinds: venison, boar, birds, rabbit

--fruit: apples, pears, grapes, berries. Bananas? (Nope.) And no tomatoes!

--vegetables: carrots, turnips, onions--but no potatoes! That and corn are New World foods! No sweet potatoes? No strawberries?

--grains: wheat, oats, barley. Rice?

From the "Home and Garden section of the New York Times, October 9 1991":

WHEN it comes to Columbus, Luisa di Giovanni, a biologist and historian, is less than sanguine. Ms. di Giovanni, a native of Genoa, will acknowledge that the foods brought back from the New World enriched the diets of various countries, but Italy benefited less than others.

As far as she's concerned (the tomato notwithstanding), Columbus's impact has been greatly exaggerated in his native land.

"It could be argued that in the exchange of foods, the newly discovered lands gained more than they gave," said Ms. di Giovanni. "Europe had a much richer variety of food than the Americas. We already had plenty of grains like wheat, rice, millet, rye and barley, so corn did not have that much impact, except to the poor. We also had domesticated animals, which we introduced to the Americas, plus plenty of fruits and vegetables."

To prove her point, and to put a somewhat different spin on the hoopla for the upcoming quincentennial of Columbus's voyage, she has devised an eight-course menu of dishes typical of 14th- and 15th-century Italy. The $45 meal is being served this week at Caffe Bondi, 7 West 20th Street in Manhattan...

Work on this week's pre-Columbian menu began about a year ago. (That's what happens when academics become interested in food.) Sure, there will be pasta, but no tomatoes. Potatoes, beans, sweet and hot peppers, turkey and chocolate are also noticeably absent from the meal.

"Potatoes have never been as important in our diet as in that of other European countries," said Ms. di Giovanni, "and the role of the tomato is exaggerated, especially by Americans whose idea of Italian food is mainly Neapolitan. The fact is that neither of these vegetables gained any acceptance in Europe much before the 18th century."

The meal will begin with fresh fruit -- grapes and figs -- because Ms. di Giovanni said doctors of Columbus's time thought raw fruit could only be eaten before a meal. And it ends not with coffee, which did not become popular in Europe until the 17th century, but with herbs and honey.

She said the difference between today's table and the historical example she developed for Caffe Bondi has more to do with how foods were prepared, combined and presented than with the ingredients. For example, a rich chicken soup is seasoned with pungent spices and thickened with ground almonds and Parmesan cheese. The bread is fragrant with rosemary and studded with raisins. A pudding-like concoction of sweetened and spiced rice with chicken and almond milk called bramagere is served as the third course.

Fried ravioli with a pork-and-cheese filling comes with a dusting of sugar; quail wrapped in pancetta and stuffed with pomegranate seeds has quince jam on the side; fritters of eel with dried fruits and herbs are accompanied by a mellow carrot confit. Wines like Chianti, which Ms. di Giovanni said was first documented around 1400, are served with the dinner but not watered, spiced or sweetened as they probably were in the old days.

The dessert, a kind of fried custard with sweet preserved green squash jam (squash-like edible gourds were common in pre-Columbian Europe), was not much sweeter than the other dishes.

MAS 1936

Went out and about this past Monday, wound up at Martin B. Rettig's in Culver City, prowling the rifles on the floor, looking for something <$250 OTD.

Found a MAS 1936--which meant nothing to me. After a day or so on the web, searching a ton of military surplus forums, I know quite a bit more.

It's a French bolt action in 7.5x54mm. Ammo suitable to shoot at Angeles Range (lead or copper-plated lead (FMJ))is not easy or cheap to find ("load your own!" seems to be the common retort), the stock is a little short (a rubber boot from the 36/51 grenade launcher update is available), and only the rear sight adjusts via an almost impossible-to-find set of replacement leaves.

It's $189.99, about $234 OTD.

But, it can be rechambered to 7.62x51, which is to say, .308 Winchester.

Hmm...

UPDATE: After I found the MAS at Rettig's, I ran up to Santa Fe Gun Galeria in Palmdale to see what they had. I had a vague memory that maybe they might have 7.5 MAS ammo...

And they're closed, Sunday and Monday. Well...spit.

So I ran back up there today, they were open, and sure enough they had 7.5 MAS. Two kinds! One was in small, anonymous packages with Arabic writing--probably Syrian mil-surplus steel-jacketed, but the other was blue box FNM, non-magnetic! $17 for 20 rounds, 4 boxes available with no certainity of getting anymore in stock. Ever.

So there you have it. A French mil-surp weapon at one store, commercial ammo at another. And only 60 miles apart.