Cuban geopolitics is a little outside of my area of specialization (though I did stick a toe in those waters when I was taking “Modern Revolutions” with Dr. Sanchez back in the St. Edwards days). If I see any smart takes while I’m out and about I’ll try to link them here.
While I’m thinking about it, can I put in a plug for Stephen Hunter’s Havana? Not that it’s completely historical or anything, but I did think it was a fun book. (And Castro is a pivotal character in it.)
I can think of one person whose wheelhouse this would sort of be in: he’d probably buy two copies and resell one, except this is a little outside of his specialty…
At the weird intersection of gun crankery and entertainment history:
There are two things I enjoy doing when Mike the Musicologist and I go to Tulsa (well, three, but the shopping is really the whole point of the trip, so it doesn’t count):
Visiting with folks from the Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association.
Visiting the NRA Museum table. Especially if Jim Supica is there.
I didn’t see Mr. Supica this time, but we hung around the table for a bit and I picked up a few postcards, one of which contained the following odd bit of history.
I kind of knew Sammy Davis Jr. was a gun owner and collector (probably from reading his Wikipedia entry). What I didn’t know was that Mr. Davis was a serious fast draw practitioner. Serious.
Photo by way of Gabby Franco’s blog, also linked.
That’s one of Mr. Davis’ Colt Single Action Army revolvers. The rig was custom made for him by the great Arvo Ojala, holster maker and consultant to the stars. Mr. Davis was fast enough that he did his own gun work for many of the TV shows he guested on.
Mr. Davis and Mr. Martin apparently were not the only fast draw artists in the Rat Pack: according to the back of the postcard (which, sadly, I’ve dropped in the mail and don’t have in front of me), Mr. Davis and Frank Sinatra had a fast draw competition with a new car as the stakes. And Mr. Davis won.
“I was beaten by my friend Mel Torme, who also collects Colts.” !!!!
(And Dr. Brackett too? The earth was full of giants in those days: or, more likely, a lot of these folks learned fast draw as a way to get roles in the endless parade of TV westerns.)
I’ll leave you with a short NRA “Curator’s Corner” video about the Davis gun.
The drumbeat is getting louder: Charlie Strong is probably out at UT. The only question now is: do they let him finish out the TCU game and any bowl game UT might wind up in, or do they cut ties now? Waiting until after the TCU game gives them more time to line up the ducks…
According to family members, Kliff Kingsbury is also possibly in trouble at Texas Tech, but I’ve seen very little coverage of this.
Unfortunately, since my last loser update, Philadelphia has managed to win three games: there are no longer any NBA teams that have a shot of going 0-82.
Lawrence sent along this interesting piece from Battle Red Blog that goes into detail about Cleveland’s losing streak. Short version: the author thinks they’ve got a shot at going 0-16, and that this is a good thing. They’ve got high draft choices and are making all the right moves to rebuild.
I’d like for him to be right, but: who have the Browns used their high draft choices on in the past? And how did that work out for them?
I had a copy of How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years when I was a boy. The young me thought Ruff made a lot of sense, but I really wasn’t in a position as a lad to take any action on his recommendations. In retrospect, it doesn’t seem like much of what he predicted ever came true, so maybe that was for the better.
I would like to see an objective analysis of how his recommendations performed against the market, but I don’t have the time or data to do that. Maybe someone else will.
I have reservations, given that this is so far just “a source” said and there’s been no official announcement. Also, if he is taking the Houston job, I may want to continue the Art watch: it isn’t like he’s going to be on the other side of the world…
If this does become official, I’ll throw an update in.
Yeah. I had a theory (which was poo-pooed by others) that if Clinton won, he’d be moving to some sort of government position in homeland security. I guess I wasn’t too far off after all.
My print copy is on the way, but not here yet. The one person who had copies in Tulsa had already sold out of them when we got to his table. And I do plan to order the digital edition, but not right away: I’m not complaining, but the price of the new digital edition is about double what I paid for the digital version of the 3rd Edition, and just slightly under what the 528 page print edition goes for.
(Why both? Because the digital edition is a lot easier to carry around than the phone book sized print version. But sometimes, I just want print.)
2-8 this season, 9-38 overall. The AJC article is worth reading, if you’re curious: apparently Georgia State has only had a football program since 2010, and maybe they really shouldn’t have one at all.
