Splendid Isolation – Page 1043

Travel Plans

January 20, 2019 Kim du Toit Mocking Furriners, Travels

As my own offspring have proved to be utterly shit in the Grandchild Production Process, I have had to resort to marrying someone whose kids (or one of them, anyway), has a clue.

Yes, Angie’s Elder Son has just given us a grandchild.

Sadly, however, he is not local to these climes; in fact, he married an Oz-chick* a while ago, and… moved to Oz!

[pause to let gasps of horror die away]

You know what this means, right? Yes… I have to go to Australia in April to wet the baby’s head. And as any fule kno, this means being exposed to the various (and toxic) forms of Oz wildlife, such as the Brown Snake (and its buddies):

…the Funnel-Web Spider (and its buddies):

We all know about the Sand Tiger Sharks (and their buddies):

…and let’s not even talk about the other species of dangerous Australian fauna:

Thankfully, the last two species (sharks ‘n sluts) pose little danger to me as a.) I never swim in the sea, and b.) I’m taking my own woman with me.

So off I go, to wander ‘midst furriners again… [sigh]

Gah.

*Some people may wonder why I got involved with a family which is happy to consort with Australians, but hey: my own Son&Heir has a Canucki-Girlfriend, so we try to be inclusive. It’s all about Diversity!, isn’t it?

Not Really

January 19, 2019 Kim du Toit The Gun Thing

Some guy over at National Interest (never heard of them) opines on the 5 best pistols (and I assume all generations thereafter) ever to shoot the 9mm Europellet. His list is as follows (and I don’t know if the order is important):

Glock 19
SIG P226
H&K VP9
S&W M&P
Springfield XD

…and by the omissions is his ignorance revealed. Here’s my top 5 list, in order of preference:

SIG P210 — The forerunner of the P226. While the 226 is good, the 210 is astonishing. Ask any precision 9mm shooter which is the most accurate pistol of them all, and the only reason he won’t say the P210 is if he’s an employee of, or spokesman for one of the other gun companies.
Browning P35 High Power — John Moses Browning and Dieudonné Saive designs. Remember that the Brit Paras and SAS have used them until only recently, basically because they wore them out after decades and FN/Browning announced they wouldn’t support them anymore.
CZ 75 — Granted, it’s a derivation of the Walther P38 (see below), and we could argue for days about their relative merits. But the “75” refined the P38’s design and improved the German gun’s already-good reliability. Proof of the gun’s esteem is that the 75 is the most-copied design of any pistol ever made.
HS2000 — The Croatian forerunner of the Springfield XD; both are outstanding pistols, and like the P38/CZ 75 argument, I’d settle for either without any qualms whatsoever, if I wanted a striker-fired DA pistol.
(tie) Beretta 92F — I’ve always liked this pistol, and the only reason I was against the U.S. Dotmil’s adoption of the thing was because of its chambering, and that only because of the FMJ bullet restriction. With a proper hollowpoint, I’d happily carry one anywhere.
(tie) Glock 19 — Enough water has passed under the bridge for me to (grudgingly) acknowledge this foul thing’s worth. Rugged, reliable, accurate and almost universally popular (except on these pages), it probably has to be considered one of the best Europellet-poppers. And by including another plastic striker-fired pistol on the list, I can exclude the H&K VP9 because I don’t like the Heckler & Koch company.
Honorable mention: the Walther P38 (as above). I don’t know anyone who’s fired one of these not to want one for himself afterwards.

Feel free to argue with me in Comments.

Fungus?

January 18, 2019 Kim du Toit Food & Drink

From Britishland, (a.k.a. Vegan Nation):

Fish and chips are set to go vegan as Quorn launches an alternative made with protein derived from fungus – to help create a similar flaky texture.
The meat-free brand is set to release breaded and battered fishless fillets in March, both of which took five years to produce.
It comes just two weeks after Greggs launched a vegan sausage roll, and days after Harvester announced a new plant-based menu.

Thanks but no thanks… I’ll be sticking with cod.

And don’t get me started about vegan sausage rolls.

Ass, Corporate Head Up

January 18, 2019 Kim du Toit The Gun Thing

Colt is re-releasing the King Cobra, a .357 Mag version of its Cobra revolver.

I remember trying one of their earlier Cobra .38 Specials, and being rather underwhelmed by the feel of the thing. It puzzled me, because the Cobra was (still is?) based on the venerable Trooper, which I’ve always had a soft spot for. Here’s a MkV, with a 4″ barrel.

As I recall, Colt Troopers and Pythons alike shared the 4″ barrel as the most popular version of either brand. Here’s a Python, similarly equipped:

(I myself always preferred the 6″ barrel, but that’s just me.)

So here’s my question for Colt: why are you bringing out a .357 Magnum revolver with only a 3″ barrel?

I know, I know: under the heading of “Bullshit-Stupid Marketing” in the dictionary, you’ll find the Colt logo. But seriously: how difficult would it be to have released the King Cobra with (okay) a 3″ barrel, but also with, say, 4″ and 6″ options? They might even have offered the longer barrels at a [gasp!] premium price… or is that kind of thinking too dangerous to contemplate?

When Smith & Wesson re-released their excellent Model 19 Combat Magnum, they released it with two variants: the “Classic”, featuring a blued 4″ barrel (strengthened so that you can shoot lots of .357 Mag ammo through the gun without the medium-sized frame buckling):