Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619

Since we know of only a very tiny percentage of ancient events, even as to Rome, not too surprising. Maybe they went to guard the Lost Tribes of Israel.

One I saw recently: LBGT: Luckystrike Be Good Tobacco.

Elk are moose anyway. Ask any Scandinavian. They hunt a lot more of them than we do. "Alces" being the genus name for moose. Hard 'c'. So settlers here called the big stag elk and the elk moose after the Indian name. Just like they called cypresses 'cedars' when they got here....even though the Cedars (like the Cedar of Lebanon) are needle trees in the pine family. So a member of the Elks oughta be able to go to the Moose clubhouse and vice versa.

Wasn't the village of Cong the one where they put out Fay Wray on a platform for a sacrifice?

Madison it is, if it's anything, that is.

I had a bit of recent odd serendipity, not significant in the greater scheme of things; but I was struck by it. I've watched the Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the recent Coen brothers Netflix flic with many odd and interesting segments. It's been pretty widely discussed here. I really liked the Tom Waits gold prospector segment--Mr. Pocket. Every year for 12 years a son-in-law and I do a big tent Winter campout with an outfitters' tent and stove, setting up in the remote snow; kids and grandkids, XC skiing out the front door, etc. I often bring along an ancient collection of Jack London stories, and read the grandkids To Build a Fire, and The Law of Life; great Klondike stories. This year after the campout I just decided to read all of the collection. I came upon All Gold Canyon, written in 1905, and it is the Coen bros. Mr. Pocket story. No doubt they credited London, but I hadn't realized it. It was one of those strange coincidences that seem to have meaning-- but probably don't.... One point I took away... when the Coens do a film from a story, they do a great job-- they do that one thing that so many in Hollywood don't do-- they are entirely faithful to the written story. True Grit is the greatest example-- totally true to the book. So also with All Gold Canyon-- from the pristine valley, the diggings, and even to the miscreant rolling a cigarette before going down into the hole. Boy, I hope they keep doing Westerns!

Not an Orthodox priest, then.....

I have tended to buy Ruger revolvers more than Smiths. (I have some of both.) Smith & Wessons are cooler and a bit smoother in some ways, but Rugers are just as good quality-wise and are cheaper.

Always helps to wait until the facts are in. This seems almost a forgotten thing nowadays.

I give to my church, a couple of real good vetted charities, and to beggars.

He was good but I never myself have liked that sentimental ballad stuff. As for Linda Ronstadt, give me her version of Tumbling Dice. Better even than the Stones, and that is saying a lot.

It's not murder most places.

I'm still into camping heavily at 70. Just got back yesterday evening from our annual Big Tent winter campout: a son-in-law and I twelve years ago bought a Cabelas Alaknak 12' x 20' outfitter's tent. The wood stove it came with wasn't big enough so we bought a Four Dog steel stove from the eponymous maker in Montana. We go every year at least once for several days at a couple of sites where we can set up and XC ski in the immediate area, sometimes right out of the "front door". We take a passel of kids/ grandkids. We sleep in cots, including bunk cots, in toasty warmth after a day of skiing. Nothing like a crackling fire in a tent stove! We do a couple of car-camp outings every summer with the extended family, and one daughter and I, in particular, back pack several times per summer. We have a great system where the gear is always ready to go, so we can go at the drop of a hat. We do one-night overnighters, occasionally two-nighters. We always hike in the National Forests, rather than the National Parks; the big reason is that you can have campfires in the backcountry here in the Cascades. But not in the Nat'l Parks... Nothing like a campfire!

He had a long-ago Prairie Home piece called, as I remember, Norwegian Bachelor Farmer. About lonely old Minnesota scandahoovian farmers who toiled and tilled, but never married or had families. I had a senior partner in law practice who has been dead going on 30 years now. He was from North Dakota and knew a lot of old men like that. Keillor's piece would bring tears to his eyes. I hope the low cowards who took him off the air pay a price somehow, sometime, somewhere.

Here's a sort of irrelevant gripe about Browning. Browning calls its semi-auto hunting rifle, made now for 50 years, a "BAR". But of course it's not a BAR, it's a fine semi-auto non-military rifle that theY call the BAR for marketing only. I only bring it up because I just bought one; very nice. But the confusion when you talk about them is obvious. Marketing spin just never ends. Now that I own a 'BAR', am I supposed to feel like I own a BAR?