A good question . . .

While Beloved Bride was out of town last week, I did a little grocery shopping. I ran into a guy I used to work with, and we passed a couple of minutes talking about the upcoming deer season.

While we were so engaged, another former coworker we knew casually happened by. Once she unnderstood our topic, she blurted out, "Oh, HOW can you kill such a beautiful, gentle creature?"

I couldn't help but answer truthfully: "Mostly with a .30'06 or a .257. Haven't used a pistol in several years." She left without another word.

Trafalgar: Significant Battle and Death of a Hero

Two hundred two years ago, on 21OCT1805, British Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson led 27 ships of the line into collision with 33 French and Spanish ships of the line off SW Spain near Cape Trafalgar. While bringing the fleet into battle formation, Nelson sent the famous signal, England expects that every man will do his duty.

When the smoke cleared, the Franco-Spanish fleet had lost 22 ships, some 5,700 killed and wounded, and 7,000 taken prisoner. The British sustained 1,685 casualties and lost no ships.

It was the pivotal naval conflict of the Napoleanic Wars, and indeed of the XIX century. The massive losses of ships and skilled sailors was devastating to the French and Spanish coalition, and confirmed Napolean's recently taken decision not to invade England.

Admiral Nelson was felled by a musket ball late in the battle, after victory was already attained. He died a few hours later, climaxing his long and glorious career. He had played crucial roles in the battles of Cape St. Vincent, The Nile, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and Copenhagen, and was a national hero long before Trafalgar.

Honored with statues and other memorials in several locations, the most famous is Nelson's Column at Trafalgar Square in London.

The 18 foot statue of Nelson stands atop a 151 foot granite column. The statue and bronze decorations below the upper platform were cast from British and French cannon used in the battle.

JPG, BA, M(TV)D

NameThatDisease.com - http://www.namethatdisease.com">Test your disease knowledge

I guess I should be ashamed, using these quizzes for two-in-a-row blog entry topics. (I'm not, particularly.)

Since I devote little time to watching television, I'm okay with getting the second-highest rating. From looking at the bar graph, it seems that if I'd answered one of those questions with one less clue, I'd have attained the exalted rank of Doogie Howser. Imagine: attaining status of cyber-diagnostician, just by sitting in front of the tube.

"It's not my minkey."

NameThatSerialKiller.com - Test your serial killer knowledge

I really SHOULD have done better, considering my bent for history as well as cops-and-badguys stuff. What makes it worse, though, is that my Beloved Bride did much better on this quiz than I. I took the quiz and she got interested and rushed me along so she could take it. Five minutes after she finished, she already had it posted on her blog. See Holly's Hystrionics on my right sidebar.

Oh well . . . .

Happy Birthday, Bobby

As a career Peace Officer (ret.) with a historical bent, I am interested in the background of a lot of cop stuff.


The London Metropolitan Police was established on September 29, 1829, by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel. His names provided early nicknames, "Peelers" or "Bobbies," for members of the force. It was the third official non-paramilitary city police force in the world. The predecessors were the City of Glasgow Police (1789) and the Paris Police (1667 –1789 under the monarchy, and reformed under Napolean I in 1800.)

Most police historical references of which I'm aware tend to stress the London “Met” as being “the origin of modern municipal police.” This takes a bit of creative interpretation, but it is accepted useage. There were earlier efforts to provide a police presense in London, but they were not organized on a citywide basis.

London Bobby on traffic duty, 1950s

Different States, Different Attitudes

I received a nice personal e-mail from Seth from Massachusetts. He made a passing mention that he would have more pistols if he didn't live where he does, and he's looking forward to aligning his situation so he can relocate to a free(er) state. I could only commiserate with him, living in a commonwealth keeps re-electing Teddy Kennedy and his like-minded minions.

I was reminded of some remarks by the late, great Allen Wayne Damron. He was a tremendous all around entertainer and a fast, loyal friend: Singer, songwriter, storyteller, historian, teacher, hunting guide, Second Amendment activist, CHL Instructor.

Upon return from a tour, A. Wayne mused about on a certain difference in attitudes toward personal freedoms, as reflected by by highway signs at state borders. He cited several examples:

"Welcome to Texas, Drive Friendly, The Texas Way,"
"Oklahoma is OK!,"
“Welcome to Colorful Colorado,"
"New Mexico, Land of Enchantment."
“Welcome to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia."
And: "Entering Massachusetts. WARNING--State Law provides mandatory ten years imprisonment for unlicensed possession of a handgun."

Good luck to Seth and his right-thinking neighbors.

The Great Motion Picture Chase Scenes

I menitoned early on that I really love movies. Wyatt, at his 19SEP installment of his Support Your Local Gunfighter blog listed his pick for the
Top Five Film Chases Of All Time.

I suggest you drop by and read what he has to say. There's no question, his were some really good choices, but I'd ether substitute in some others, or opine that the list should be increased to the TOP TEN. Now, in the Comments section, Wyatt granted that there were a couple he left out, which indicates he is indeed a wise man, and ready to discuss differing opinions.

There are at least two I'd add - -

Ronin (1998)
This film at times seems to be one long car chase across Europe, with occasional intermissions to get more cars and ammunition. So central to this movie is the automotive pursuit, that Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

included these factoids in their Trivia section for the film:

--80 automobiles were destroyed during filming.

--During one of the car chase sequences where Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård) is dictating directions to Sam (Robert De Niro) from a computer terminal, Avid film editing software - the software used to edit the film - is visible on the screen.

--One of the stunt drivers was former Formula 1 driver Jean-Pierre Jarier.

--To make it look like Robert De Niro and Natascha McElhone were actually driving during the car chase, right hand drive cars were used, with the passenger side made up to mirror the real controls. The actors then mimicked the stunt drivers movements.

--Skipp Sudduth requested to do his own stunt driving during the car chases and John Frankenheimer agreed. Frankenheimer told Sudduth "I don't wanna see any brake lights."

Pretty good plot, beautiful photography, and a couple of GREAT lines of dialogue, which might make a decent blog topic, later on.

Also:
Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963, 1970 re-release)
This one is another in which practically the entire feature is an extended chase scene. As the participants are racing to attain a goal, and are NOT fighting one another, there is no gun play, and little violence at all. Still, a wonderful, FUN motion picture. There are some quite decent instances of special effects, given how old this really is.

Check out a bunch of details at IMDb. Unfortunately, they don't tell us how many cars were wrecked in the filming. They nearly sacrificed a Beechcraft 18 twin-engined aircraft to the movie, though.

Again, my choices are just an additional opinion. I really wouldn't want to start an argument with Wyatt. Students of history will note, gunfighters avoided going head-to-head when possible. ;-)