Chantry

Here in CT and much of the rest of the Northeast, attendance has significantly diminished. People are aging out of the sport or dying and many retirees have moved to other states with lower taxes, warmer weather and more gun friendly laws. SASS is far, far more expensive to get into then when I started in 1997. To start SASS now from scratch will cost somewhere between $3000-$5000 with the guns, leather and the other things needed for the sport. Westerns aren't as predominant on TV or at the movies as they used to be and most younger shooters are far more interested in the various "tactical" shooting sports.

There is an image that will require copious amounts of alcohol to forget

Some were good, some were bad. I was in during versions 8-14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal,_Ready-to-Eat#Contents Meatballs with spicy sauce was decent; corned beef hash and chicken w/rice were edible and the omelet with ham was gross. Being an MP in the National Guard, I was rarely in the field for more then a couple of days at a time, so sometimes I'd bring my own food rather then eat the MRE's.

Michael O'Hare, who was the original commander of B5, was suffering from serious mental health issues during the first season and chose to leave B5 at the end of the first season to seek treatment. This only came out after O'Hare passed away, J. Michael Straczynski was probably the only person part of B5 who actually knew the real reason O'Hare left the show and at O'Hare's request kept the secret until O'Hare died. O'Hare asked Straczynski that after he died to explain to the fans and the rest of the cast the real reason for him leaving the series, feeling that the fans deserved to know the real reason and it might help future sufferers with similar conditions. I give credit to J. Michael Straczynski for swearing to keep the secret to his grave. Sadly it seems rare to see that kind of decency and integrity from someone in Hollywood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O'Hare#Illness_and_death

I have a Kindle as well which I bought mostly because I was running out of room on the bookcases and the increasing cost of paperbacks and hardcovers has continued to increase. For text only books the Kindle is great because you can change the font size to what is comfortable for you at any given time. What the Kindle does not do well is handle books with lots of maps or photos, so for those books I still buy the paper versions.

Kirk: Cares about his people, but it's bad luck to be around him or Spock when it hits the fan Picard: Seems rather casual about losing people Archer: Nice enough guy, but doesn't really strike me as "leader" Either Sisko and Janeway would probably be my choice. Both will do everything they can to bring their people back, will regret any losses, but are both recognize that the mission comes first and sometimes you are going to lose people no matter how well they do their job.

I've found that Star Wars does not age well and of the original 3 movies, the Empire Strikes Back is probably the best, mostly because George Lucas did not direct. Weak scripts and bad directing have turned the rest of the movies of the main time line into average movies at best, saved mostly by the spectacular special effects. Of the two movies outside of the main timeline, Rogue One & Solo, I thought both were well done and while not great movies, they were above average. As for Star Trek, the original series has really good episodes and some that were pretty bad, something to be expected with the ever shrinking budget on the show. Deep Space Nine did not really hit it's stride until it's third season. Some of the better episodes are "The Visitor', 'In the Pale Moonlight' and "Trials and Tribulations". Of all the Star Trek TV shows, DS9 consistently had the best writing and acting. As for the rest, Star Trek: The Next Generation had some good episodes, but after re-watching it, I found most the episodes to be average at best. The same applies to Voyager and Enterprise. Season one of Star Trek: Discovery was interesting, with a strong cast, but some of the writing wasn't as good as it should have been. As for the movies: With the original cast, movies 1-4 and 6 were decent (1, 3-4) to very good (2&6). Of the Next Generation cast only First Contact was good. As for the re-boot, the movies do exactly what they are supposed to do: bring people to the movie theaters to make a big as profit as possible, even if that means the script is weak.

I know the North Atlantic convoys would have a rescue ship assigned and it would be at the back of the convoy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_rescue_ship It seems likely that a destroyer or destroyer escort would serve a similar role in the Pacific.

And here it is. I've watched it at least a dozen times and it's still hysterical

If you've got the cash, you can go fast! Link: https://www.platinumfighters.com/warbirds While the desire for a fighter is there, a nice, docile, easy to fly Swordfish would probably be a better choice for me.

The F-4EJ Kai, as it is called in Japanese service, remains an effective interceptor and strike aircraft. The Japanese upgraded the avionics, computers and software to at least F-16 A/B standards. So while the air frame and engine are still late 1950's technology, the important stuff is 1990's technology.

There is plenty of great music out there, the problem is that it is rarely played on the radio, so you have to go looking for it. Apple's iTunes and Amazon are both good places to start since both allow you to listen to clips of songs. It also means no more buying a complete album just to get the 2 or 3 songs you want, now you can just buy those songs.

Interesting, while I don't see too many people stoking a 97 these days, when I started back in 1996, there were always a couple of shooters who would stoke the 97 on the clock and I don't recall a procedural being called back then.

Bad Chantry, no cookie. I hadn't realized the rules had changed.

The hypothetical semi-auto always has round in the chamber. The vast majority of authors know nothing about firearms and don't make an effort to research them either.