Cactus Jack Calder

I use my wife’s grandfather’s 110 year old Savage Model 99 in 38-55, with a buck horn rear sight. It is marked “High Pressure Steel” and shoots smokeless powder. With a 255 grain bullet it is a good brush gun. Not one of those sniper type cartridges. It has a 5” - 6” arc if sighted in at 100 yards. Interesting story: When Pappy past the rifle on to me I took it out on a woodchuck hunt to sight it in. My hunting buddy saw an old granddaddy of a chuck the farmer had been trying to get rid of, in a cut over corn field, at about 200 yards. My buddy says, ‘Why don’t I try the shot with the .38.’ ‘He’ll back me up with his .243 with a 12 power scope’. ‘If I miss he’ll pop him’. Who knows what the drop is at that distance. So I lined up the shot and then picked a spot about 2’ higher up the hill to aim at. Blam, that chuck went down and never twitched. We are both flabbergasted, and when we went out to retrieve him we saw that I had hit about 1’ in front of the chuck. There was a flat rock with a blaze of lead across it. The ricochet did the job. I like the idea of the fiber optic front sight, wish I had thought of that.

Magnolia? I’ve never seen one that young but the leaf shape is similar. We have one next door on the property line. When the old leaves fall they are like dried leather and don’t decompose. Also, a b’’’ch to rake up and you know who gets to do that. You do better with one of those pointy stick things and the shoulder bag they give to Parks and Rec people to pick up trash. Try stabbing 40,000 leaves each year. It's fun! Believe me! I wouldn’t lie to you! I promise!

I was once told by my Math Professor in college, that Zero was invented by Arab Mathematicians. Prior to that there was no mathematical concept for ‘nothing or the lack of anything’.

Another utility man here. During my time (33+yrs) the Co always installed a shutoff valve at the street mainline tap point for each service. It was in the ROW for the street, usually not in the paved area. As to what was done in the far distant past? IDK! Fire Departments always called the utility for a structure fire. Most times a Trouble-man was in the area and would respond ASAP. Also many of the Fire Departments knew where street shut offs were located and could operate the valves.

Millennial's Ancestors

Joe, Thank you for finding and posting this. My Father was a Test Engineer at the Paterson, NJ plant during WWII. I grew up in Fair Lawn, NJ. I looked for him in the film (no go there), but my brother and I are still proud of his contribution to the war effort. Dad had a 27 year career as a Design Engineer at Wright Aeronautical. Since the the advent of jet engines Dad used to tell me about many of the specially designed parts of aircraft engines, how they were designed and worked. I am an Electrical Engineer, though I do understand much of the Mechanical Engineering principles he knew intimately. I always enjoyed the discussions and explications of his “arcane art”. I once asked Dad why he persisted in telling me all these things as I was not likely to build aircraft engines. His response was, “Because I am afraid it will be lost”. In later years Dad had a second career with Teledyne(sp?) designing and building small aircraft engines. I think he got to pass on some of his specialized knowledge there. Sorry for the rambling post, I miss him. CJ Calder

Hardpan, just a word of caution. E6000 will eat some plastics. Styrene is one that it will eat. If your plaques are plastic test the glue first. Good Luck! CJ

Marshal, I was hit by another driver who crossed the center line. To get the car repaired in a reasonable time frame I had to use my insurance, however, my Insurance Co sued for recover as the other driver was at fault. I finally got back my deductible minus legal fees for the Insurance Co Lawyer, (0.50/1.00). I believe the dealership should be sued by your Insurance Co. They have deep enough pockets to prevail over the dealership's corporate lawyers. If you sued personally you might spend more than you could recover. Of course you could claim emotional distress, etc. at the damage done to your "baby", where the Ins Co has no emotion only $$. CJ

Alpo, "Never apologize, it shows weakness" Marion M. Morrison AKA John Wayne

Alpo you need to remember that Tarzan was raised by apes. Therefore he didn’t know about fire or how to speak English. Then he was rescued or rescued a Belgian (?) explorer who taught him how to speak English and other social skills to relate to humans. The Belgian must have needed fire to cook and stay dry in the equatorial jungle. Ipso-facto Tarzan knows how to make fire. In addition Great Apes are vegetarians, so why is Tarzan eating meat at all, raw or otherwise? Ain’t it fun to hypothesize? Oops Yellowhouse beat me to the vegan statement.

It seems to me that Alpo’s ponders are more than half the enjoyment he gets from reading. Why should he restrict himself to just accepting what he reads on the face of it? That’s boring!

You have to watch out for them peanut M&M’s. They can be really tough. Grabbed one from a dish on my secretaries desk one day. It was crunchy as expected, maybe a little more so. I chewed it up and swallowed, sugar coating, chocolate, peanut and half a tooth. Then I had a fun time at the dentist’s office. As I said them peanut M&M’s can be tough! CJ

Cooltouch, Just google 4-in-hand knot. You will get videos on how to tie a four-in-hand knot. It is a quick asymmetrical neck tie knot. The more formal Full Windsor is symmetrical and fills the collar opening better. I think the clip-on tie has made tying a neck tie obsolete. But us old birds had to learn these thinks in 6th grade before we could ask a girl to the dance. cJ

I have thought that I should get a magnet for recovering lost screws and springs. Is that a viable option? Is there a device made for the Uberti cylinder advancing hand, spring and little follower? I dropped the little follower once and was lucky enough to find it. The follower, spring and screw that hold them into the frame are really small. If you remove the hand the follower pops out and disappears into the floor covering. Hence the idea of a magnet. I fly RC Planes. The RC group I fly with has a magnet about 1”x1”x18” wide mounted on a handle so that you can sweep the floor or ground for lost parts. Lots of little screws in those RC Planes.

When looking for (and not seeing) an object close to me. My Mother would often say: “If it was any closer it could have bit you”. My Wife’s Uncle used to exclaim “Geo Krieppers” and “Gosh Ang”. He did want to be accused of using bad language in public. I may have been known to use all of those expressions myself once in a while. Often we are what we learn. Chickens Teeth, I forgot, my Dad used to say, Chickens Teeth to express disbelief in a statement made by others.

JD, Thanks for the information. I will have to try DuckDuckGo and see what I can find. CJ

I have a Mark II also. I got it 2nd hand. It was so dirty I couldn’t see down the barrel. Once I cleaned it and spent considerable time to reassemble, it worked only OK. It would jam every once in a while by having the next round hit the feeding ramp and split the bullet head. I contacted Ruger, they said send it in for a look see. Maybe it would cost me $85.00 service fee. I got it back fixed with a report of 100 rounds shot by them with no jams. NO CHARGE! So now tell my about this ‘aftermarket conversion’. Is there somewhere I can investigate it? Thanks, Cactus Jack

On a mixed train normally passenger cars were placed towards the rear of the train behind freight and baggage cars to avoid the smoke and ash/cinders. Don’t want to kill the passengers before they reach their destination. Often trains would be rated as passenger or freight and general stock cars (ie. cattle shipments) would go in the freight category. If you had a stock car for passengers personal animals (ie. Riding/Carriage horses) I believe that would have been placed last on the train.

I thought of the Wizard of OZ. The projection not the “Man behind the curtain”.

It’s not personal! I have seen a number of statements in posts here in the Saloon decrying the anti gun bias of the media. While I agree that there is that bias in many news reports, I believe that what is being promoted is not so much a moral agenda as TV ratings. What sells is excitement, pathos and moral outrage. This sells advertising time and the corporate managers are interested in money not morality. Quote from The Godfather: “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.”

According to Wikipedia either George Stevenson or James Brooks. The article doesn’t specify which one hit Scarborough. Reportedly he was hit in a leg that was subsequently amputated and he died 4 days later.

Did you ever think he might have a reason to be outside from morning till dark? You never really know what goes on behind closed doors.

Those Romans got around didn’t they?

It is my understanding that the Romans paved roads to facilitate the expansion and control of the Empire as Utah Bob alluded. Some of those road surfaces are said to still exist. There is even a story about why the American Standard Railroad Gauge is 4 foot 8 & 1/2 inches between the rail heads, that maintains the “Romans did it”. It’s long and complicated so I won’t repeat it here. Suffice it to say “Mil Specs live forever”. “Roma Viktor!”

This is Bruce with my Dad. Bruce was about a year old when I was born. He raised me as his pup once I could crawl. We were inseparable until I was 12. Bruce had a stroke and crossed over the bridge. I look forward to seeing him and my Dad again some day.