Miss Diora Baird

Fun Fact: She can hold her breath for 45 minutes!

We could always, y’know, just stop MINTING the damn things…

Really, why the hell do we still have pennies? All they do is end up filling millions of Mason jars and empty water jugs across the country, because getting rid of them is too much of a hassle.

Rather than doing something useful and rational, like axing the penny, the US Mint is instead rolling out new dollar coins. Guys, take a hint. The Susan B. Anthony flopped. The Sacagawea flopped. The new coins are GOING to flop. WE DO NOT WANT DOLLAR COINS.

…

‘Cuz you can’t stuff ‘em into a G-string.

It’s a muzzle BRAKE (as in, “it puts the brakes on recoil”), not a muzzle BREAK.

Newest additions: Kit and The Bitch Girls.

Go read ‘em.

Between Ford and Pfizer, Michigan continues the downward spiral.

Words of wisdom from pdb: “Pack what shit you can fit in the car, set the rest on fire, empty your bank account, foster out your dog and hit the fuckin’ road.”

I’ve drooled over this particular piece for years, ever since I first saw it in Lud Olson’s book, Mauser Bolt Rifles. It’s an original John Rigby & Co. Mauser sporter, made by the REAL Rigby company (not the guys making gaudy, blinged-out parodies in California). It is also the sleekest, sexiest, most beautiful bolt-action rifle I’ve ever seen. You just don’t see lines like that on anything being made today.

Part of that sleekness comes, oddly enough, from the chambering. It fires the .350 Rigby Magnum No. 2 cartridge, which is more or less a rimmed, British .35 Whelen. Being a rimmed cartridge, it needs a special, slanted magazine box to ensure proper feeding and avoid rim lock. That unusual magazine (similar to the one used on Siamese Mausers) also means the floorplate is at a steeper angle relative to the axis of the barrel and action. The stock follows the contour of the floorplate, resulting in a very short forearm and a long, lean look. I absolutely love it.

Jessica Biel points out that she also happens to own a mighty fine turdcutter:

pdb wants me to post “Five off the wall, strange, unusual or just little-known facts about yourself.”

Hmmm.

1. Aside from being a major insomniac who suffers frequent bouts of sleep paralysis, I’m also incapable of sleeping restfully in a bed. I usually sack out in the La-Z-Boy or on the couch.

2. The distal joints of my thumbs can bend backwards nearly 90°, like this:

3. I absolutely HATE telephones. Can’t stand the damn things. My cell phone is broken right now, and I couldn’t be happier.

4. I have a transsexual aunt/uncle.

5. I once met Alice Cooper in Detroit Metro Airport. He’s a helluva nice guy.

For fans of the Browning Hi-Power, a curious thing happened last year. FNH USA decided to discontinue imports of FN-branded Hi-Powers and sell their existing inventory to CDNN. CDNN turned around and held a blowout sale, offering real, made-in-Belgium Hi-Powers for $399.

Well.

On rare occasions, I make wise moves. And snapping up one of those Hi-Powers was definitely a wise move. Actually, if I’d been REALLY wise, I would’ve bought 3 or 4 of them. I believe CDNN has sold out, but a few of the guns are still listed on Gunbroker, albiet at slightly elevated prices.

The guns are fantastic, but they have the usual Hi-Power triggers: gritty, creepy, inconsistent pulls and long resets. Between the magazine disconnect and the Rube Goldberg trigger linkage, lousy triggers are to be expected. Mine’s going to get a trigger job with a new hammer and sear set from either EGW or Cylinder & Slide. I’m leaning toward the C&S Type II hammer, but the more traditional Commander-style hammer looks good too.

The sights also need attention. For some reason, the factory sights have full-height white bars painted on them. To my lousy eyes, the bars are distracting and interfere with vertical sight alignment. Both Trijicon and Meprolight offer night sights to fit in the existing dovetails. Not sure which company to go with…

Finally, I’d like to replace that polymer/epoxy/whatever finish with something more durable. In my experience, all of these super-coatings work great at first, but they invariably start to chip or flake away, leaving bare steel exposed. My first impulse was to go for a nice matte hard chrome finish. In fact, I had my mind made up until Colt CCO posted pictures of his Melonite QPQ-treated Springfield 1911. I really dig that blacker-than-black look, and the extra hardness and corrosion resistance don’t hurt a bit, either.

Oh, I also need to do something about those awful hard-plastic grips. They’re ill-shaped, interfering with easy safety manipulation, and the left panel has what appears to be a lanyard ring cut-out, though the gun doesn’t have a lanyard ring. A Hi-Power deserves better. Again, though, I’m undecided. Craig Spegel carves some fantastic panels out of cocobolo and other exotic woods. These thin black Micarta grips from Navidrex are my other option.

If I had to make up my mind today, I’d go with the C&S Type II hammer and matching sear, Trijicon night sights, Melonite finish, and the black Micarta grips. Ask me tomorrow, though, and I’ll probably have a different answer…

Yes, I’m supposed to be in Tennessee right now. No, I am not, in point of fact, there. And at this point the whole goddamn thing has just become absurd…

I was going to leave last Tuesday, but had to push things back due to a family issue. Then I was going to leave on Sunday…

Well, on Saturday night I slipped on some ice and busted my ass so hard I felt my tailbone hit my back teeth. I’m fairly certain it’s broken, but there isn’t much one can do for a broken tailbone. In any case, I wasn’t about to subject my busted ass to an eight-hour drive the next day. I figured I’d treat Sunday as a day of rest and leave Monday…

Which, coincidentally, was the day chosen by The Unforgiving Puppy as Ear Infection Day. The very same puppy also threw such an unholy shit-fit at the vet’s office that the bill somehow came out to $350.

So here I sit, pondering whether to even TRY leaving tomorrow morning…