It seems that the comments are unavailable for the “Right Angle: Backstage 11/15/23” episode. I am very eager for the new site to go live. Meanwhile, discuss …
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It seems that the comments are unavailable for the “Right Angle: Backstage 11/15/23” episode. I am very eager for the new site to go live. Meanwhile, discuss …
10 replies on “Comments for “Right Angle: Backstage 11/15/23””
Regarding the Apollo program…
Am I the last person to discover this website?
https://apolloinrealtime.org/
Best when used on a computer vs cell phone.
Nope. I was. Amazing to watch that Apollo 11 launch again.
I teach American Standard measurements as part of my sixth grade math content. I have a picture of a world map where the US, Sierra Leone, and Myanmar are colored in red with the heading Countries That Use The Imperial System of Measurement. The second part of the meme has the only the US colored red with the heading Countries That Have Put A Man On The Moon. I am now adding the Saturday Night Live George Washington sketch to that lesson. Thanks for the tip RA guys!
So there’s a movie about “The Greatest Walk-On Football Player of All Time”? It’s about to be displaced. Stetson Bennett III walked on at the University of Georgia and led them to two national championships and was MVP of every playoff game he played.
I would like to be on a jury, I think it would be an interesting experience. On the down side, I work late and get up around 11am. Getting up for a 7am jury call would be nearly impossible for me.
To Scott’s last item, it brings to mind the saying that you cannot help someone who doesn’t want help. The only thing you can say about the Palestinians is that they might just be brainwashed. Though, with the internet and so many forms of communication now, there is less of an excuse for that.
It is an interesting experience…. As in the Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times”.
Actually it was interesting.
I was the reserve jurist, so I had to watch the trial, but did not get involved in the deliberations.
So it could have gotten more interesting.
Decision was quick. Animal cruelty case. Neighbor “A” allowed cow to go into neighbor “B” yard and wreak havoc multiple times. “B” called it in, tried to reason to no avail. So “B” loaded his shotgun with rock salt and shot it in the rump. No permanent harm. “A” called it in and filed case. Not guilty. Judge same said, as best as I can remember to “A” “If I could, I’d find YOU guilty of animal cruelty!”
Heh, rock salt …
Brings me back to my childhood days that does.
We were visiting a neighbor named Ralph one summer’s evening. I think I was about 11 or 12 and Ralph was an old tobacco chewing farmer we rented a house from. We lived way out in the country at the time. Serious boondocks sort of way out.
We were outside sitting around the picnic table, the grownups having a beer and my sister and I sitting quiet and respectful listening to their conversation. Because that’s how you learn to be a grown up when your time comes.
Some high school aged kids in a car decided they’d just park on the road and have a party. After all, this is the middle of nowhere and why not? They were about 300 or so yards down the gravel road from where we were sitting.
No one would have cared but it wasn’t long before they started to get noisy and rowdy. When my neighbor had had enough of that he walked down his driveway to the road and yelled at them to take off. Mind you, this was still a couple hundred yards or more away so it wasn’t much of a conversation. However, the words “f^ck you” could clearly be heard wafting back on the still summer evening air.
Bad move.
So Ralph goes in the house and comes out with what I recall to be a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun. He pointed the gun down the road, elevated the barrel to what he thought was about right and touched off one round.
Car doors slam, the car starts up, lights come on and it throws gravel from the back wheels for quite a strip as it left.
My Dad asks “Rock salt?”
Ralph explains that the shell was loaded with light birdshot. “Not enough to do any real harm but enough to give ’em a little pepper to go with their sauce”.
My Dad says “What if they’d come this way instead of leaving?
Ralph says “The gun holds five shots. The next two are buckshot and the last two are deer slugs. I have a full reload of slugs and buck in my pockets, just incase they wanted to press the issue. What I don’t have in my pocket is any more birdshot.”
You see, Ralph was being polite and considerate. He had made his point with a light game load of #8 shot and had no intention of making it again. If they didn’t get the message the first time …
You see, Dad also had a deer rifle in the gun rack in the pickup truck we rode over in, and a box of ammo in the glove box. Those teenagers knew what time it was when the shotgun went off. Even teenagers aren’t stupid enough to push something like that too far. At least back then they weren’t but that was before anyone ever heard of Darwin Awards.
No police were ever involved, no fuss was made by anyone. This is just the way life worked back then and there. I think that was a better way of living but what the hell do I know?
The lesson for today, boys and girls, is don’t screw around with old men out in the country. If they’ll shoot live ammo at you for being noisy it can only get worse from there.
Rock salt would’ve been both ineffective at distance and a waste of good powder.
Reminds me of a story my wife had about her father. I never met him, as he died before we got married.( FYI. She is my second wife. My first cheated on me and left me. Both our mothers died before we met. Both fathers died before we got married, and she never met my father either)
Bit of background. This occurred in a small rural town where everyone knew everyone. Town drunk, town thief, person who you don’t lend money to if you ever expect it bsck, person who would always help out, etc. was known.
Her father grew so much extra food he gave a lot away. Ask, and if he had any, he’d give it away, no questions asked. Just don’t take it without asking.
My wife said he had a big fuel tank on the farm, and once saw someone steal from it and run through the corn field (Which according to her, got him just as mad or more than the theft)
Got his shotgun loaded with buckshot, aimed for over their head and fired. He then heard yelling and swearing as they left.
Called the sheriff and said, “If anyone comes by shot, it was me. They were stealing my fuel.”
Sheriff: “Ok. Got it. No problem.”
I wholeheartedly agree with Steve about New Mexico drivers. As a NM resident, I concur that a large fraction of drivers in this State are incompetent. What do you expect from a populace that votes for the likes of Michelle Lujan Grisham for governor?
The fact that Steve saw a large fraction of police on the south end of I-25 is not indicative of a statewide phenomenon. Most of the roads I travel throughout NM are as fast and furious as any in Colorado. I-25 is a straight-line corridor to Mexico, and Bernalillo (the center of Albuquerque, NM) and San Miguel (Las Vegas, NM) Counties are sanctuaries for illegal aliens (https://cis.org/Map-Sanctuary-Cities-Counties-and-States). Needless to say, DWI (that’s DUI to most) is a huge problem in NM; thus, increased patrols on that corridor are necessary. All that being said, being one of the poorest States in the Union, NM has to compensate for its lack of funds to pay for its corrupt politicians and bureaucrats — as Steve suggested.