Category: Uncategorized

Haven’t Done THAT in a While

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So, back when I posted about my semi-retirement from blogging, one of the reasons I gave was “I’ve got a stack of books that need reading.”

I just blew through fifteen volumes of The Dresden Files in fifteen days.  I guess I need to get the book of short stories next.

Good stuff.  If you’re into “urban fantasy,” Jim Butcher does it very, very well.  And I like his main character, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.  Reminds me a lot of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser.  Who wouldn’t like a wisecracking wizard Private Investigator with a gun?

Quote of the Day – Wish I’d Said That Edition

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MiddleAgedKen left this zinger of an Education QotD as a comment to the P.J. O’Rourke QotD from a few days back:

To be minimally fair, a good high-school education is still essential, and college is (if you’re lucky) where you go to get one.

I’ve said it before somewhere, if not in here, that a high-school diploma used to mean you were ready for the workforce. Now it’s a BA. A high-school diploma just means you were bodily present long enough that they had to give you a piece of paper to make you go away.

THIS is a DEAL

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Midway is selling refurbished Daisy Powerline 880 air rifles for $19.99.  That’s a steal.  I got one of these for Christmas when I was about 13, I think, and I wore that thing out.  It took a while.  I shot pellets out of it almost exclusively.  The squirrels in the back yard hated me.

Read the reviews – apparently Daisy’s QC has slipped, but since these are refurb’d, hopefully they’re all in good working order.

Still, for $20, (plus freight) seems like a decent risk.  YMMV

Well, Dammit – One Fewer Arizona Gunbloggers Named Kevin

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Exurban Kevin of the blog Misfires and Light Strikes has been based out of the Phoenix area for quite a while now, blogging away there and at Exurban League.  Today he announced that he will stop blogging…

…for himself, and take it up as a profession!  And this will also require him to pack up the family and move to Missouri.

Fair winds and following seas, Kevin.  We’ll miss you at the next Central Arizona Blogshoot.

The Freedom To Fail

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Bill Whittle’s latest, My Friend Failure:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlLbFZxrzrc?rel=0]
Which reminded me of a previous Quote of the Day from Craig Ferguson’s autobiographical American on Purpose:

One of the greatest moments in American sports history was provided by Bobby Thomson, the “Staten Island Scot.” Born in my hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1923, he hit the shot heard round the world that won the Giants the National League pennant in 1951. Had Bobby stayed in Glasgow he would never have played baseball, he would never have faced the fearsome Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca in that championship game, and he would never have learned that if you can hit the ball three times out of ten you’ll make it to the Hall of Fame.

Today I watch my son at Little League games, his freckled Scottish face squinting in the California sunshine, the bat held high on his shoulder, waiting for the moment, and I rejoice that he loves this most American game. He will know from an early age that failure is not disgrace. It’s just a pitch that you missed, and you’d better get ready for the next one. The next one might be the shot heard round the world. My son and I are Americans, we prepare for glory by failing until we don’t.

Damned straight.