Archive for April 11th, 2019

Firings watch.

Thursday, April 11th, 2019

Dave Joerger out as head coach of the Sacramento Kings.

Three seasons, 98-148, and the team went 39-43 this season, which was their best record since 2005. Also out: assistant GM Brandon Williams and PR director Chris Clark.

Memphis fired head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and “reassigned” GM Chris Wallace. Apologies for linking ESPN, but I can’t get the Commercial-Appeal website to load on my phone.

(Edited to add 4/12: coverage from the Commercial-Appeal.

Not exactly a firing, but Larry Drew is not coming back as head coach in Cleveland. Drew took over after head coach Tyronn Lue was fired early this past season.

BAG Day is coming!

Thursday, April 11th, 2019

Again. Monday, April 15th. Of course, a lot of the good smaller gun shops are closed on Monday, so (as always) I don’t have a problem if you want to start early, or extend your BAG shopping into next week.

What am I getting this year? There’s nothing that I’m really excited about or that turns my crank. I’m tempted to pick up one of the Palmetto State Armory M&P Shields (which are still on sale) but I don’t really feel like I need one.

Earlier today, I got an email from CDNN, who are selling the “Steyr Scout RFR”. I assume “RFR” means “RimFire Rifle”, as these are available in .22 Magnum, .22 LR, and .17 HMR. I didn’t even know these existed before now.

The idea of a rimfire “scout rifle” (Cooper would call it a “pseduo-Scout”) is kind of appealing, and I’ve been thinking about something in .17 HMR. The price isn’t bad, but I haven’t quite finished getting my Savage Scout set up the way I want it yet. (I’ve got the scope, I’ve got the rings, I just need to find a gunsmith I can trust to mount and boresight it.) So I’m not sure I want to put more money into another scout that will need a scope. Plus, for .17 HMR, I’m actually thinking more along the lines of the Ruger Precision Rifle than a scout.

And I’ve actually checked off all the items I had on last year’s list. Well, mostly: I have the sling and the scope, and the Dragon Leatherworks holster is on order (expected delivery at the end of May.)

If I have time over the weekend, I might run down to Cabela’s to see if there are any targets of opportunity, but I’m not counting on it. Unless I see something that really excites me, I’m probably going to be putting BAG Day money into getting more of my collection set up the way I want it.

But don’t let me stop you, and feel free to share photos of your BAG Day finds here if you want to.

Obit watch: April 11, 2019.

Thursday, April 11th, 2019

Ed Westcott passed away at the end of March. He was 97.

Mr. Westcott was the photographer at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project era. Note I said “the photographer”: Mr. Westcott was the only person authorized to take photos at Oak Ridge. (There were also photographers at Los Alamos and Hanford.)

Thousands of his negatives were stored at Oak Ridge, and then at the National Archives in Washington, before they were declassified years later.
He also developed aerial reconnaissance photos of the devastation wrought by the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as armed guards waited outside his darkroom.

Kind of related: I got curious about the Cemestos houses, did some DuckDuckGoing, and found this piece from McSweeney’s. I know, but I actually thought this was pretty good: Anne Wheeler’s a charming writer, and I’d love to hit some nuclear tourism spots with her.