Welcome to the exciting future world of 2024! Which looks a lot like 2023. Except a university is missing a president. Hey, you know who would make a good president for Harvard?
After the jump, this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack)…
Crazy horse woman took a plea.
As part of the plea, she’s taken a stipulated sentence of three years and eight months, but it isn’t clear to me if she has a chance at parole or some other form of early release.
It was a busy weekend, so I’m playing obit catch-up here. Administratively, I plan to get TMQ Watch up at some point during the day.
Tom Wilkinson. THR. IMDB.
This has been pretty well covered, but I did want to make an observation. When I was at St. Ed’s, for my “Film and Literature” class, we had to watch “In the Bedroom” and read Andre Dubus’s “Killings”. I thought “Bedroom” was a pretty terrific movie: both Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek give career peak performances. If you have not seen it, I commend it to your attention.
(The Dubus story is good, too.)
Shecky Greene, comedian. THR. IMDB.
…
Although never known as the most decorous of comedians, Mr. Greene made news in the comedy world in 2014 when he stormed out of a Friars Club event in Manhattan and announced that he was resigning from the club after his fellow comedian Gilbert Gottfried did material that Mr. Greene, who had been scheduled to speak, found offensive.
“He got dirtier and dirtier,” Mr. Greene told a radio interviewer, without providing details, “so I got up and I said, ‘That’s it.’”
Cale Yarborough, one of the NASCAR greats.
I think everyone knows that I am not a basketball fan.
However, I am compelled to note that the Detroit Pistons are setting records.
They lost their 28th consecutive game last night. This ties the record for longest NBA losing streak, and sets the record for longest losing streak in a single season.
(Philadelphia lost 28 consecutive games, but that was across the 2014 and 2015 seasons.)
Their next game is on Saturday against Toronto: ESPN currently has Toronto as a 70-30 favorite.
Detroit is currently 2-29, for a .065 winning percentage.
Gaston Glock has passed away at 94. TFB. NYT (gift link, should work for others). Glock website.
Tom Smothers, of the Smothers Brothers. THR.
Lee Sun-kyun, Korean actor (“Parasite”).
All of my readers this year have been good. So I’m not going to post any of the accordion versions of “I Saw Three Ships” I found on YouTube.
A short one from AvE:
May 2024 be better for everyone than 2023.
“Thank’ee,” said Scrooge. “I am much obliged to you. I thank you fifty times. Bless you!”
A short one for you. My book buddy in the Association sent me scans from a 1928 Smith and Wesson catalog, along with a scan of a letter from the great Walter Roper. This was a very nice Christmas present, and one I can’t thank him enough for.
You will find each of our arms fully described in the catalog we are enclosing but we want you to ask any questions you may wish about either guns or ammunition, as it will be a real pleasure to help you select a revolver.
The past was another country.
I don’t want to reproduce the whole thing, as I’m not sure about the copyright status and I don’t want to make my book buddy mad. However, I thought people might find this one page interesting, and I think it qualifies as fair use. Keep in mind, this is 1928 data.
I would not have expected to find a swell Christmas story on the Revolver Guy blog.
How do you feel about gunstocks?
Not gun stocks, but gunstocks. The kind made out of wood, back in the day before synthetics became common.
After the jump, some more Samworths for those of you who still like wood.
For the historical record: NYT obit for Bob Pardo (archived). Previously.
No disrespect to Dr. Solow, but: he did not win a Nobel in economic sciences. The prize he won is The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It is not one of the five prizes established by Alfred Nobel: it was established in 1968 and first awarded in 1969. It is not a Nobel prize, and again with all due respect to Dr. Solow and his accomplishments, it should not be referred to as a Nobel prize.
I’m sorry, but this is one of my many pet peeves. You would not believe how much it costs to keep my pet peeves in Purina Peeve Chow.
Over the weekend, we got into a discussion: why are bullpup rifles called “bullpups”?
This is going to be a shorter than usual gun crankery post, since it touches on a lot of things I’ve written about before.
For example, I’ve written a lot about .45 ACP revolvers with moon clips. As I noted in that post, the first one I shot was a S&W 625 JM at the late Smith and Wesson Shooting Sports Center.
I’ve also written a lot about Jerry Miculek. You remember Jerry Miculek, don’t you?
He used a 625 to set the 12 shots with a reload in 2.99 seconds record. I don’t think it was a 625-8 JM, as I believe that was introduced after he set the record. (The Standard Catalog says the 625-8 was introduced in 2001, as an engineering change that added the lock. It also says the 625 JM was introduced at SHOT in 2005.) But it was a 625, it was almost certainly modified by the Performance Center to his specifications, and he almost certainly had input into the design of the 625-8 JM.
Even though it is a stainless steel revolver, the sort-of dull (I think “bead blasted”) finish isn’t obnoxious to me. So when one of these showed up used at my official arms dealer…
Rockin’ the signed JM hat there.
Unfortunately, it does have the internal lock (or as some call it, “the Hillary hole”).
I didn’t get keys for the lock. (I did get moon clips, and a moon clip tool.) It came unlocked, and I’m not sure I’m ever going to use the lock. But here’s a fun fact for you. Do you know where you can get keys for the internal lock on a S&W revolver? Amazon, that’s where.
I think that “gold bead” (which is probably not an actual “gold bead”, but I can’t think of a better description) sight is very nice. I’d love to take this out and shoot a bowling pin match or something similar with this one. This also wouldn’t be a bad barbecue gun, with a nice holster and maybe some tasteful engraving.
Here is another interesting fact: Smith and Wesson claims to offer Performance Center gunsmithing services. The “Outdoor Package Large Frame – N” looks particularly interesting. I’ve measured the trigger pull on this one, and it comes in right at 11 pounds. That’s probably not out of line, but I wouldn’t mind shaving some off of that. As long as it goes “bang” when I pull the trigger.
Sometime after Christmas, I plan to give them a call and see what the backlog for those services is. I know I’m not the only person wondering, and I also get the feeling that S&W (like everyone else) is being pinched by the gunsmith shortage.
Review of the 625 JM from The Firearm Blog.
Coming up: two more followup teaser posts, plus another post about a gun I’ve written about previously. I’m hoping to get at least one of those up before Christmas.