From Longtime Reader Fred Z:
“Much, possibly most, of modern life should be ignored.”
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Killing Off Your Favorites
This story got me thinking:
Ed Sheeran has got his neighbours choking on their chorizos – with plans to turn a much-loved Spanish restaurant into a music bar.
The star bought the Galicia tapas bar in London’s swish Portobello Road for £1.5million last year.
The 28-year-old, who lives nearby, reportedly wants to transform it into a live music venue with a ‘members’ club vibe’. But residents who described Galicia as ‘one of the last authentic Spanish restaurants in London’ spoke of their dismay yesterday at finding out its new owner is one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
There are all sorts of issues to be addressed here.
I think we’ve all asked the question, “What happened to that cool place where we used to go..?” (the typical answer being, of course, that if you’d gone there more often, the place wouldn’t have disappeared). I have no idea whether the Galicia fell into this category, but I suspect it might have. After all, Spanish food is pretty much an exotic cuisine in London, and people will not go there all that often (much as, say, Murkins don’t often visit Greek restaurants Over Here unless they’re of Greek origin or if they, like myself, love Greek food). Clearly, the owners of the Galicia either wanted to sell the place for personal reasons or had to sell it because they weren’t making money off the place.
The second issue is that of course, if you buy a piece of property, you’re quite within your rights to change it (subject to the usual restraints, of course), and pop star Sheeran wants to create a private drinking club for himself and, probably, his buddies — which makes nonsense of this wail from a local:
‘If it turns into a members’ club where they charge £3,000-4,000 a month to join, nobody from around here will go.’
Hate to break it to you, you idiot, but you’re probably not welcome there anyway. Sheeran doesn’t need the money from the subs: it’s a means to keep the local riff-raff out, much as the restaurant in L.A. that used to sell $100 burgers and was frequented mostly by celebrities who welcomed the privacy those prices afforded them.
No, I can’t say I have too much sympathy for the complainers here. If Galicia was indeed “one of the last authentic Spanish restaurants in London”, it doesn’t say much for the popularity of Spanish food there, does it? (You only have to go to southern Spain, where Brits go to avoid the crappy London weather, to see the truth of this. Almost all the restaurants and bars offer “Full English Breakfast!”, “Fish & Chips!” and “English Bitter Ale!” — Spanish food clearly doesn’t satisfy the visitors.)
The only thing that mystifies me about all this is how the reedy-voiced Sheeran managed to amass an £80-million fortune.
Madness Time
[10,000-word rant about the stupidity of switching between Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time deleted]
Excellent Ammo Test – 2
Following on from my last post on the topic, let me turn to 9mm ammo, because I have little or no experience with the Europellet to speak of.
If I’m going to use lesser (than .45 ACP) ammo in my primary carry piece, I’m going to ask quite a lot of the ammo. Specifically, I want substantial bullet expansion (to bring it up to .45 dimensions), and added velocity to punch the bullet home — therefore, using Lucky Gunner’s metrics, I want penetration greater than 16″, expansion greater than .5″, and velocity higher than 1,100 fps.
Casting my eye at LG’s 9x19mm test results, then, I see that two cartridges seem to be able to deliver said criteria:
1)
Man, this Federal stuff looks like just what I’m looking for: deep penetration, consistent expansion, and excellent velocity.
2)
The XTP lags just behind the Federal HST in terms of velocity, but it’s not bad at all, and almost as consistent in terms of expansion (albeit less than .5″).
For the record, here are the results for the load I’m currently carrying in the Browning High Power:
Not bad at all, although the greater expansion of the bullet on the extreme right is the one which dragged the penetration average down. I like the ammo, though: it’s wonderfully accurate in my elderly hands and still-more elderly gun.
However, there does seem to be a ringer in the 9mm ammo tested, and it’s this one:
Okay, the Speer looks outstanding — I’ve always been a fan of the Gold Dot, in other calibers — and the lighter boolet (115gr vs the others’ 124gr) likely means less recoil. The only negative to the lighter bullet weight is the penetration — barely breaking the 16″ criterion — but I’m adding it to the list nevertheless because as with the SIG load, one bullet over-expanded to bring the average penetration down.
Feel free to peruse the test results for your own conclusions. Note, by the way, that several loads achieve much higher penetration than any of the above, but I think one can have too much of that — think “innocent bystanders” and you’ll get my drift.
Have at it. Are we having fun yet?
Big Surprise
So one rancid Commie (Jewish) bitch femsplains how another rancid Commie (Muslim) bitch just hasn’t had a chance to “find out about American values” — despite the latter bitch having been in the country for TWENTY FUCKING YEARS. (Your Humble Narrator — also an immigrant — had been in the country for about twenty minutes before he got the picture. The only thing that puzzled him, and still does, is how any rancid Commies get elected to public office at all, but we can talk about that some other time.)
For the record, I will have been in the United States for thirty-two years come Memorial Day weekend. Other than the accent (which I have been unable to master), I’m about as American as any, and more so than a large number (e.g. the entire Democrat Congressional membership).
Folks, this isn’t difficult. When you move to another country, your duty is to adopt the ethos of the country in which you live. You don’t try to make your new country conform to your precepts. Once again, had I done that, I’d have been preaching apartheid as a valid political system for the U.S. (don’t go there).
The only parts of “American values” which I have been quite unable to understand, let alone conform to, are things like Velveeta, “lite” beer, “fast” foods and why it’s against the law to hang Socialists from lamp posts. That the disgusting Ilhan Omar can get elected despite all her manifest failings is part and parcel of the American tradition of political toleration, I suppose; but my calling her a rancid Commie bitch is likewise part and parcel of the American tradition of free speech. So there.
Excellent Ammo Test – 1
The guys at Lucky Gunner don’t just sell ammo at decent prices; their ammo tests are superb. Here’s the .38 Spec / .357 Mag test, using both 2″ and 4″ barrels(!), and the ability to rank by various factors such as speed and penetration makes the test just gold for guys like me, who want the very best combination of effectiveness, but lack the space or facilities to do the testing for ourselves.
Just looking at this chart for my 2″-barreled S&W 637, and given that I’d like penetration greater than 14″, expansion greater than .38″ and velocity higher than 800 fps, it would appear that these two loads would be my best choices for .38 Spec ammo:
Incidentally, my current carry load is the Hornady FTX, which seems to have better expansion and speed than the Federal. But the Federal ammo seems to have the more consistent penetration (note the tight grouping) — and as a former statistician, I prefer results that are consistent with not too many “fliers”, such as Federal’s heavier load, which is all over the place:
Now, when I finally (eventually?) get my hands on a 4″-barreled S&W Model 65 in .357 Mag, I’ll be looking for penetration > 16″, expansion > .50″ and velocity > 1,300 fps — which means that these two cartridges will be getting my attention, you betcha:
There’s just this caveat, however. As LG themselves note:
“Keep in mind that the loads with the best numbers might not necessarily be the best choice for your defensive revolver once the effects of recoil are taken into account.”
…so any of those options might not be my final decision, of course. That would require… field testing!
I love this stuff. And well done, Lucky Gunner. When I test the ammo, I’ll be getting it from you guys: it seems the right thing to do.