I stopped by for a look...

McCann Industries makes a Puffin Magnum, that fine looking knife in the picture, and I saw that they were just down the road from me and I went looking for them. Look, McCann Guns is right beside the church I frequent. This is cool, and tells me that for fourteen years I just don't pay attention.

I go inside and get to handle and examine at three fine knives, and prove I am neither an expert, impressive nor more than the old man with a tie that I see in the mirror. Words that stuck with me were "That is cutlery not a pry bar.""I cut down the traffic by only working on NRA members." "Made in America costs, but the quality." "If you are worried about slippery handles put skateboarding tape on it." The last made me laugh, my son and his grip tape from his skateboarding would love to know that it is recommended for improving knife retention in wet sticky situations.

Well, I left promising to visit another day, I have a fighting carry knife I would like made - don't need one but gosh the economy is going to crash if I don't buy something American that is really worthy. I liked the above knife for general purpose camp and kitchen - but I do lust after the Fighter. The truth about me is that I can lust after long legged redheads but never do more than wish I were braver and would talk to them - I know I am over my limit on fighting knives now. But if I were a younger person that needed a fighting knife this is the place I would check into first. I was amazed that he doesn't get more work from Fort Lewis, but if I didn't know he was there for fourteen years who else would either. And contrary to some thoughts, I don't use knives as pry bars, ever.

In my personal artist library, an artist leaves...

Today I find that Gus Arriola has passed on, I grew up on his comic strips and always thought that Political Correctness destroyed him since Mexicans couldn't be the way he drew them. But I might have been wrong. I own and recommend, if you can find it, Accidental Ambassador GORDO: the Comic Strip Art of Gus Arriola, by Robert C. Harvey and Gus Arriola. And if you can't find it I give you this link, the best ones keep getting away, but they do make a difference. My life was so much better, Gracias, Gus.

Everthing I needed to know about War I learned in...

kindergarten, to borrow someone else's thought. Not that I ever went to kindergarten which is why I am so misunderstood. But back to all anyone needs to know about war - a question asked of soldiers by those that have never been, my answer has always been "Read the Iliad, by Homer" translated by Pope or Fagles, then you will know everything about war. Then the "Nay" sayers will add that was then and this is now - but the weapons don't have anything to do with WAR, they are for killing and War is the experiences of men in combat, for whatever reason they got to that level. The Trojan War lasted ten years depending on the telling of it. I have been reading the tales from that war for the longest time, the Iliad says everything I need about war, then I go to read for the story. Colleen McCullough's Song of Troy, Lindsay Clarke's The War at Troy, and David Gemmell's triology about Troy, finished by his wife since he died while writing the third book. I understand that Homer is dead, too. The stories live on in the beyond. Enjoy, for War can't be enjoyed, only the stories. Start with Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy, the whole story with great pictures by Alan Lee (hardback version?).

What to read, my advisory for those in Limbo...

The segregation unit houses those inmates that have to be apart from the rest, and for twenty-three hours a day they are alone with their cell and two paperback books. So the library provides two thick paperbacks a week for them to read. My recommendations are: Border Triology, Killer Angels, Gates of Fire, A Soldier of the Great War, King Hereafter, Eisenhorn, Wheel of Time, Dune, Song of Ice and Fire, Lord of the Rings, Lonesome Dove, Honor Harrington, Wars of Light and Shadow. Those that are part of a series are only a problem if the author dies with the series unfinished, if they don't write faster and publish more it could happen. Still there are patrons from Seg that only want magazines with lots of pictures, I provide those also. When you have nothing to do, reading is a great way to escape from your solitude. I have read those titles so I must share the way out.