Archive for January 19th, 2024

Assassins (random gun crankery).

Friday, January 19th, 2024

Some time back, I wrote about the guns of the presidential assassins.

GunsAmerica has an article up by Will Dabbs (who also writes for American Handgunner and is rapidly becoming the gun writer who amuses me the most): “The Assassination of William McKinley: Of Hopeless Causes and One Seriously Pathetic Pistol“.

Given the gun’s advanced age and questionable personality, I lack the fortitude to fire it. However, I am reasonably certain that the gun would be soft-shooting and easily pointed. So long as you mind the spurred hammer it should run well from concealment.

…

Czolgasz chose a truly horrible handgun for his mission. A coat button actually successfully deflected one round, while the other took eight days to end the life of his victim. McKinley’s wounds would have presented a technical challenge to a proper trauma surgeon today but should have been reliably survivable. McKinley’s obese habitus and a previously undiagnosed cardiomyopathy found on autopsy undoubtedly contributed to his death.

Dr. Dabbs’s article includes photos of the musuem display (which is not the actual gun, but an identical one) and the actual gun (which is kept in storage, along with the handkerchief Czolgasz used to conceal the gun, and which is “available for viewing by appointment only” in the Buffalo museum).

Hattip on this to Active Response Training and their “Weekend Knowledge Dump- January 19, 2024“. You really should be reading Greg Ellifritz, or at least these Friday Weekend Knowledge Dumps.

From KRTraining’s blog: “Annual Maintenance Tasks“. Or gun related things you should be checking at the start of the year.

Replace batteries in optics, flashlights, smoke detectors, and anything else that uses batteries.

As a personal thing, I remind my teams at work to check and replace the batteries in their smoke, carbon monoxide, and other detectors twice a year, at the time change. I think I picked this tip up from one of the fire prevention associations by way of “Dear Abby” (or “Ann Landers”, I disremember which one).

Posted in Guns, History | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: January 19, 2024.

Friday, January 19th, 2024

“Sports Illustrated”. They are supposedly laying off all of their staff, and (according to other stories I’ve seen) Authentic Brands Group (ABG) who owns SI, has terminated the license of Arena Group to actually run SI.

“Pitchfork”, at least in current form. Conde Nast says they are folding it into “GQ”.

Some follow up housekeeping:

Michael Swanwick’s obit for Howard Waldrop.

The other day, Mike the Musicologist texted me:

Have I told you I performed in a Schickele world premiere?

This is a story I had not heard before. Below, and with his permission, is his version of the story.

One of my professors at CUNY, Leo Treitler, was a close friend of Schickele’s, and for Leo’s retirement party, Schickele wrote a short, 3-4 minute, choral piece for him.

I think there were twelve of us students of Leo’s (three per part) who briefly rehearsed and performed it for him at the party.

Although he has published scholarship on every historical period, Leo is mostly known as an early music scholar, and Schickele wrote him a mensuration canon. It’s a very difficult and restrictive form composers usually use demonstrate their skill. Mostly associated with Renaissance music, composers still use it up to this day; Arvo Pärt’s “Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten” is probably the most well-known, contemporary one. Schickele was not at the party, so, being an occasional piece, I doubt he ever heard “Leo, Don’t Slow Down” or that it was ever performed again.

MtM says this is a good version of the Britten Cantus, done by an Estonian orchestra and conducted by a friend of Pärt.

Posted in Media, Obits | 2 Comments »