Trailrider #896

Benjamin Franklin was asked, as he came out of the meeting of Congress, "What sort of government do we have, Dr. Franklin?" Replied Franklin, "A republic, Madam, if you can keep it!"

"We have met the enemy and he is us!" Walt Kelly's Pogo Possum.

Yes, but had problems in the ETO at high altitude due to not having heat in the cockpit! Also, when you got into a dive from higher altitudes, some pilots experience "compressibility" problems that rendered the controls immovable! Sometimes the pilots couldn't pull out. P-38 did much better in the Pacific, where temps were warmer. Long range (once Lindberg showed them how to lean out the mixtures) enabled the -38's to get Yamamoto!

Back in the summer of '64, at AFROTC summer camp, we were given a mini-survival school in the woods off the end of the runway at Richards-Gebauer AFB. They didn't want us to mess with live rattlers, so they gave us cans of rattler. Tasted like chicken...once you scraped off the cream sauce they put in with the meat!

According to state law, my wife's middle name has to be her given middle name on her driver's license! So we have to use that when getting airline tickets. OTOH, she always signs checks with her maiden name as her middle name! Our income tax forms has her maiden name's initials, not her given middle name's initial. IRS and the state accept those just fine! Go figure!

I will absolutely agree that the money spent by the "crew" and Blue Origin pays the engineers, production people, and ground crews, which, in turn sends money into our economy. That is just what happens with the space programs both governmental and commercial. The money spent on Apollo created between 9 and 13 dollars in the U.S. economy. When Shuttle was grounded, 2500 people lost their jobs at the Cape. But it directly affected 10,000 jobs in Brevard County, Florida. SpaceX, in addition to engineers and technicians, employs welders, riggers and heavy equipment operators at Boca Checca, Texas. So the space programs are not bundling thousand-dollar bills and sending them into space. Having said all that I do NOT see what the big deal is over the "crew" of the Blue Shepard flight being all women. There have been quite a number of professional women astronauts, cosmonauts (Russian), and a few taikonauts (Chinese), who have flown into Earth orbit, and done significant experiments. No disrespect to the four Blue Shepard women. Flying on any high performance rockets is an achievement. But, I will reserve my kudos to the likes of Peggy Whitson and Suni Williams, et al. Ad Astra!

One comment about U.S. military small arms, especially rifles from WWII: The military didn't give a tinker's damn about original/matching parts! They wanted functioning arms. So, if there was some part that needed replacing, the armorer just swapped out the part, checked the headspace and function fired it. As a result, an M-1 Rifle or M-1 Carbine with all matching numbers is suspect to me! It is true that "collectors" want all matching parts and configuration. Depending on when the piece went through a depot-level recondition, it is doubtful that the parts would all match. So, if rifle #1 has a decent bore and functions, I would choose it. Just sayin....

Years ago, there was an expression when you answered the phone, "Shoot, it's your nickel!" And I can remember, when I was a little kid, you could actually make a call with a nickel. My grandparents, who lived in a residence hotel in Chicago, had their "own" phone that did not go through the hotel switchboard (which they did use, also), actually had a payphone that required a nickel to make an outside call. My uncle lived with them, and had won some trophy cups from tennis. They would keep nickels in one of the cups! Later, that phone was replaced with one they rented from Ma Bell that would bill them monthly. Even on the Southside of Chicago, before about 1949, to make a call, you picked up the phone, and the operator would ask, "Number Paleeze!" The number was set up with some word prefix and five digits, as in "Midway-three-three-five-three-nine". Later that would convert to 643-3539. That was in the days before area codes. For long distance and collect calls you had to ask the operator to connect you with the number. Some of us older codgers still tell people to "dial" the number, even though we push buttons. When Don Ameche played the part of Alexander Graham Bell in the movie, we would sometimes refer to the telephone as "The Ameche".

I made the five-shot block, which was just about right for balance! I guess John Moses learned a bit from his dad! Not only would Winchester have been out of business from 1885 to about 1935, but our armed forces would still be in world of hurt without the Ma-Deuce!

Really screwed 'em up, huh?

Nice white fluffy doggies! Aww... If they cross these semi-dire-wolves with regular grays, and turn them loose in NW Colorado, that ought to really make the local ranchers crazy!

I made one...or at least the barreled receiver and a magazine block. The receiver was steel, not brass. I never completed it as I didn't have the wood. Sold it to a gentleman, who did complete it, and shot it! You will note the recessed front of the block's chambers. The idea was to seal the chamber against the breech end of the barrel. Jonothan Browning was father to John Moses! Prety neat idea and execution for the 1850's!

One of the problems with ordering grips from any of the OEM gripmakers for Ruger single actions is there has always been considerable variation between gripframes, regardless of whether they were XR3 or XR3-RED3's. In some cases where I had grips made for a pair of Ruger Blackhawks or New Blackhawks, I couldn't swap grips from one to the other. About the only way to guaranty fit was to send the gun to the gripmaker, which nowadays is a royal POA!

She was, IIRC, a cargo sub, with additional capabilities, rather than a Fleet-type sub. Did she also participate in the Makin Island raid by the 2nd Raider Btn?

Could "professional" bison be allowed to participate? The University of Colorado mascot might be assumed to be a paid (with food and vet care) pro. As to using moose, would they use Shirras moose or the bigger Alaskan/Canadian moose?