…everywhere you go. At least, here on this blog.
Last Friday was my last day at work until January 8th. Some of this is me burning PTO before year-end, some of this is corporate holidays, and some of it is mandatory corporate shutdowns.
I’m planning to do more gun book posts and random gun crankery during my vacation, including a few things you’ve seen teasers for. So strap in, my people. It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks.
Why don’t we start out with a slice of history? After the jump…
TMQ: It’s money time in the NFL
What does that even mean? And why does TMQ feel compelled to start off with horse racing metaphors?
After the jump, this week’s TMQ (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)…
D.J. Smith fired as coach of the Ottawa Senators. Also out: assistant coach Davis Payne.
Five seasons as coach. I don’t have a full record, but the team hasn’t made the playoffs at all under Smith “…with their strongest finish coming last season when they went 39-35-8 but finished six points behind the Florida Panthers for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.”
The other problem is that the team is completely screwed up. “restricted free agent forward” Shane Pinto is sitting out a 41-game suspension for gambling on sports.
Lieutenant Colonel John Robert Pardo (USAF – ret.) passed away on December 5th, at the age of 89.
Captain (at the time) Pardo was a principal in of the most unusual flying stories to come out of the Vietnam war. On March 10, 1967, he was flying a bombing mission over Vietnam in an F4-C Phantom. Also flying with Cpn. Pardo and his weapons officer (1st Lt. Steve Wayne) was another Phantom flown by Capt. Earl Aman and 1st Lt. Robert Houghton. They were bombing a heavily defended North Vietnamese steel mill.
Both planes were hit by ground fire during the bombing run. Capt. Aman’s plane was the most seriously hit of the two. It lost a lot of fuel. So much fuel that there was no way Capt. Aman’s plane could make it out of enemy territory.
In a selfless act to save his fellow airmen, Pardo pushed Aman’s jet using the nose of his aircraft against Aman’s tailhook — a retractable hook on the underside of the plane used to assist with landing.
Pardo helped Aman’s Phantom decrease altitude by 1,500 feet per minute and guided the plane back into friendly territory.
Both aircrews then safely ejected over the Laotian border and were rescued by friendly forces.
This maneuver became famous as the “Pardo Push”.
Though it would seem his command would be greatly pleased with his selfishness, Lt. Gen. William Wallace ‘Spike’ Momyer, commander of the 7th Air Force in Vietnam, would reprimand him for sacrificing his multimillion-dollar jet in a rescue.
Facing a court-martial, Pardo was saved from punitive actions by his wing commander, Col. Robin Olds, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Ltc. Pardo was awarded the Silver Star for his actions, but it was awarded twenty years later. Why, I do not know.
And he was a good Texas boy. Born in Herne, died in College Station.
Here are two videos from the ‘Tube. One short:
One a bit longer:
San Antonio Express News (archived), which provides a few interesting details:
…
But Pardo unknowingly had put himself on a collision course with an Air Force general who had earlier gained notoriety for criticizing the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of pioneering Black aviators who served with distinction during World War II.
Reports circulated that Lt. Gen. William Wallace “Spike” Momyer, commander of the 7th Air Force in Vietnam, wanted Pardo court-martialed for the risky maneuver.
Pardo was not court-martialed, but Momyer told Col. Robin Olds, Pardo’s wing commander, not to decorate him. That didn’t bother Pardo.
“I didn’t do it to get a medal,” he said.
And I got an early Christmas present. Really, more like two early Christmas stocking stuffers, but it is the thought that counts.
The worthless LA Chargers got stomped by the Las Vegas Raiders last night, 63-21.
And I guess pretty much as a direct result of that (though everyone was saying it was coming, I think the timeline was accelerated), Brandon Staley is out as head coach. Tom Telesco is out as general manager, too.
ESPN. Since I prefer to link to local coverage when I can, here’s an archived version of the story from the LAT, but I know some folks may not be able to read that. (It hasn’t made it in the Wayback Machine yet.)
Staley’s teams finished 24-24 in the regular season and made one playoff appearance. In his first year in 2021, the Chargers were eliminated from postseason contention on the final snap of the regular season.
The defeat at Las Vegas was a record-setter, the Chargers surrendering an all-time high in points for a game. Also, no Chargers team ever had trailed by 42 points at halftime.
You know what I say: shut the franchise down, throw all the players out of the NFL, reduce all of their facilities to rubble, plow the rubble into the earth, and sow the ground with salt so nothing ever grows there again.
Andre Braugher. NYT (archived). Tributes. IMDB.
Damn. Even my mother commented that he was a really good actor.
I remember that being a swell series as well. It only lasted one season.
NYT obit (archived) for Michael Bishop.
Shirley Anne Field, actress. IMDB.
Craig Berube out as coach of the St. Louis Blues. ESPN link for those who are having problems with archive services.
He was 206-132-44 over about six seasons, and his team won the Stanley Cup in 2019. The team is 13-14-1 so far this season.
A brief musical interlude:
With that out of the way, this week’s TMQ (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) after the jump…
We wanted to get these two links up ahead of this week’s TMQ Watch, as they reference things that were discussed in last week’s TMQ (and the associated TMQ Watch):
1. “NFL officiating crew under scrutiny after missed calls”
2. “Mahomes, Reid criticize offside call that negated Kelce lateral TD”
It isn’t like we’re Switfies, or generally biased in favor of KC, though we are biased against Buffalo (which, we guess, is pretty much the same thing). Nor did we see the game. But, yes, this seems kind of like ticky-tacky officiating.
[David Mamet] was once “phone pals” with legendary director Stanley Kubrick for the briefest of times, for instance. “He called me from his home in England. We spoke for two afternoons, mostly about guns,” he recalls.
“He was a competitive pistol shot; I was too. I of course wanted to steer the conversation to film gossip, but firearms, like aviation and sexual dish among their aficionados, trump all.”
(I knew that Mamet was a shooter, and I’d love to sit down and talk guns with him sometime. I had no idea that Kubrick was also a shooter. And frankly, I have all sorts of questions about that, mostly about how you can be a competitive pistol shot in England. I suspect money helps a lot.)
I’ve said this before, but: “Barry Lyndon”, even though it is long, is a hugely entertaining movie, and one I recommend watching on home video.