Titanium Crowbar

$80 Solid Titanium Crowbar From Russia
Cool Tools

I'm not usually big on promotional videos, but this one brings an interesting slant to the topic. Remember that back during the cold war we bought the titanium we used to build the SR-71 from Russia, though I think was through some CIA cutouts. Now we can get it via Ebay.

Good Morning

Отава Ё – Сумецкая (русские частушки под драку) Otava Yo - russian couplets while fighting
Otava Yo

Just a little something to start the day. No, I don't know what they are singing about, probably something about how comrade Stalin is going to save us from those gawd awful American Imperialist running dogs. Or maybe they are singing about donuts. Mmmm, donuts.

Update November 2021 replaced missing video with something similar. This one is from the band's own channel. The previous one was from Russia Insight, which seems to be more of a general news channel.

Harun

Kocatepe Mosque

We've been watching Behzat Ç., a Turkish detective series on Netflix. Every episode they have a murder, sometimes several, to solve, and some social issue is often illustrated, all fairly typical for TV series about homicide detectives. This show has a different feel than Law & Order. Basically we have a crew of four guys running around Ankara collaring killers. They have a support crew of three back in the office, but that's it. There are a couple hundred murders a year in Ankara and these guys handle them all, and that's all they do, day after day, year after year. If there are no murders to solve, they hang out together drinking beer. Naturally, Behzat, being the Captain of this crew, gets crossways with the higher ups on a regular basis, but because he has such a phenomenal success rate in solving cases, intermediaries get him excused.

Behzat has his style, his own modus operandi. It's not very sophisticated, it's more like 'grab the bull by the horns' confrontational style, but when you realize that he's been dealing with killers for 20 years, you can see his point. Most murders are committed by people who just lose their shit, and getting slapped around a bit might get them to realize just how the deep the doo-doo they are standing in is.

Behzat and his crew are basically garbage men. They cruise around the city picking up the human refuse and carting it off to the pokey. It's not a glamorous job, but it needs to be done, and somebody needs to do it. It's not a huge job, so this small crew is all the city needs.

Harun is Behzat's sidekick. He is a big lumbering oaf. At first I thought he was just young and inexperienced, but as the series winds along I've come to realize he really isn't too bright, but he has found his niche with the murder crew. He interrogation technique is crude (he basically models Behzat), lots of yelling and cursing, but he gets results, and that's what counts.

Restaurant Biz

Fly Fishing for juvenile Tarpon

A young man I know got started in the restaurant business several years ago as a dishwasher. He advanced rapidly until he was the head chef at one of the premier restaurants in Portland. (Didn't know such a thing was possible. Must be a talented guy.) His wife was working as a sommelier. Things were going great, and then COVID-19 hit and they both got laid off.  They tried starting up a catering business doing lunches for wineries, but it wasn't enough, so they have packed their bags are going to Campeche, Mexico, to cook at a fly-fishing camp.

Juvenile Tarpon seem be the hot fish in this area. I've heard of Tarpon before, but it's been a very long time. Possibly because they are not popular as food.

Scuppers The Sailor Dog

Another Man's Treasure - Tom Thordarson

Looking for pictures of old shipwrecks, I came across this and said 'that looks just like the house that Scuppers built'.

Scuppers building his house

Tell me I'm wrong. Scuppers has been here before. You can get a copy from Amazon for $4.

The Mythical 45

Sublime - Santeria (Official Video)(Daddy's got a new .45)
TheofficialSublime
The 45 caliber M1911 pistol got its start with US Army during Moro Rebellion in the Philippines. It's still very popular. I never had a strong desire to own one, they're kind of big and heavy, only hold a few rounds of ammunition, and because the bullet is a largish chunk of lead, the ammunition is expensive. 9mm automatic pistols are smaller, lighter, cheaper, hold more bullets and the ammo is cheaper. But a 9mm is not a 45.

My Everyday Carry

No it's not a real 45, it's just a butane lighter, but whoever made it thought it was important to include '45' in the logo. No you can't see it, but trust me, it's there.

From the title sequence for Behzat Ç.

Turkish TV detective show we've been watching.

I never had a strong desire to own a 45, mostly for all the rational reasons I mentioned above, but then the other day I inexplicably got a hankering for a fancy 45, so I go looking around on the net. As you might expect, there is no end of fancy 45's out there.  People are weird, man. Why would you buy one of those gaudy, over-priced play pretties when a plain steel 45 works just as well?

Gold plated Colt 45 with fake mother-of-pearl grip

Makes no sense, but I still want one. Maybe when I get the new house project done I'll buy one for myself for Christmas. In 2021.

P.S. The price of ammunition only matters if you are going to be shooting thousands of rounds. If you are only shooting a hundred rounds a year, which should be plenty enough to keep your hand in, the price difference between 45 ACP and 9 mm is just background noise. And when's the last time I went shooting anyway? I should rectify that.

Boom!

 

Boom Supersonic Prototype Business Jet

We have hardware, not flying yet and probably won't for another year, but it's a big step up from drawing plans. 

I've posted about supersonic business jets before, but the name Boom hasn't appeared.

Via FlightAware