Since today’s the day before Thanksgiving – traditionally a 4-day weekend for most, with many also leaving work early on Wednesday – I thought the WOT should be early this week. So here ya go.
Since it’s nearly Thanksgiving, I also thought I’d provide a Thanksgiving-themed video clip or two. Enjoy. (smile)
Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone – and a great long weekend.
—–
PS: FWIW, the WKRP “Turkeys Away” episode was apparently based, loosely, on an real-life radio promo stunt for an Atlanta radio station that went awry. The show (and many of its characters) were also somewhat loosely based on that same Atlanta station.
First.
Hey! I got it!
Way to go, way to be my man!
Thanks, Sparks.
And I believe that is a first First for our man Cameron Kingsley.
I am sure that the prior Firsters will be glad to instruct you on how to lord it over the Delta Whiskey and Whiskettes of TAH.
Cong of the Rats to you, sir!
Thank you Graybeard.😊
Second….
Guess who’s going to be PISSED!!! THE!!! FUCK!!!! OFF?!?!?!?!?
Guess.
I’m here bitches.
Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving.
Congrats CK.
Admins here keeping it FRESH!!! LMMFAO!!
Still FIRST in the Hearts and minds of the usual miscreanted d’weeded suspects. You know who you are. Maybe not so much with sj, Lars, SteelyI, et al. Some of my more attentive Brethren and Sisters may recall last week when I hit the 3 pete on the Friday Weekend Open Thread Coveted FIRST (Earned NEVER Awarded) that this weeks’s WOT would prolly be open game. I knew I was going further South on Sunday and had planned on leaving my high speed low drag Chromie at the Firebase Magnolia. Gots a Lady Friend watching over my fur babies and the crib. She was gonna do some web surfing and research. Thought I would be off the net entirely. We cobbled together this old HP that had been in a closet for almost five years and kept booting it till it would log on. This one is a lot like a bunch of us; old, slow, and decrepit. Even if I had been here when the WOT dropped I would of had to have a 10 minute headstart. This puppy is SLLLOOOOWWW. Baby Girl and I were on a provision run, picking up that 12 pounder from the HBH store.
Congrats to CK on his FIRSTNESS. Enjoy it while you can. Next Friday will be here before you know it.
Happy Thanksgiving to my Beloved Brothers and Sisters!
#foodfeastorgy
KOB, I promise you that the next one will be all yours. I only got lucky with this one.
Cameron: Congrats!
If you want to keep your promise to KoB, then repeat over and over and over these three words until Sunday:
“Roll Tide Roll!”
And these four magic words in December:
Go Army! Beat Navy!
(Please don’t ban me, AW1Ed. *grin*)
Sorry, I’ll leave that to you guys. Despite having a
Navy dad and an Army uncle, I have never watched that game. I have never been much of a sports guy (my dad was not much of one either). The only sport I cared about was equestrian and that’s when I was riding. Not trying to sound snobbish, it’s just not my thing.
Some asshole actually did a live turkey drop from a low flying prop job over an Arkansas town for several years until the FAA finally reacted to public reaciton.
Want to take a moment to caution all who may be thinking about sending a firearm back to Smith & Wesson for repair. In my case I needed bore sighting for a .38 Combat Masterpiece cause the sights were not adjusting properly. No sweat GI, here is a free mailing label and we will take a look. A month later they send a letter saying the look will cost me $45 although I was specific on what I wanted; and sighting then oiling another $60, and $13 return postage. After a not so friendly chat about ethical business practices the .38 is enroute back and for the price of a couple of boxes of ammo I’ll get a sandbag rest and sight it in. Had they told me up front the cost, I may or may not have sent it to them. Would appreciate bench rest sighting suggestions.
Turkeys fly. Not well, but they fly. I’ll guess they didn’t do so well from altitude though. What was the reasoning for air dropping a live bird?
Wild turkeys fly. Domestic turkeys fly too. Once. At 9.8 meters per second squared. Landings are Bernathian.
Wild Turkey.
Before dinner.
Awesome.
He thought it was funny. No so for those on the ground who watched the birds splatter or get injured, especially the children. No figuring out sick senses of humor.
Miz Poe and I had a flock of a dozen or more fly across the highway right in front of us at windshield level a few years back, here in the Ouachita National Forest.
Did you send it to Houlton Maine shop?
No, Smith & Wesson in MA. I subsequently found the original manual in the original box and will figure it out when I get back out to the range. It’s not rocket science. I was still hitting body mass equivalent but like to hit the ten ring not the six.
If the point of impact is too low there are two options: if fixed sights, you can CAREFULLY file a bit off the front sight and touch up the finish with something akin to a blue pen. If adjustable sights, you may be able to buy a taller leaf for the rear sight at Brownells. Or, you can replace the rear sight completely, or buy a longer elevation adjustment screw, or insert a shim between the rear sight and the frame.
Something to ponder, or to at least chuckle over. Yesterday a friend asked if it is true that pencil neck is the SIL of Geo Soros. No, but he should be. Or maybe he is…
The guy is married. I cannot imagine what
woman would find him attractive in any way.
Even as a stepping stone or rung on the ladder.
As a doormat, towel holder or even a cuck for
her true lover. I just don’t get it.
Eight
Happy turkey day to everyone out there. My friend and his daughter were supposed to take me out for my post birthday tommoro. Birthday was last Saturday and I’ll never see 73 again, but I had a tooth extracted yesterday (Tuesday) so I had to cancel the dinner and that”s the whole tooth.
Damn, Jeff – that really bites.
(smile)
Just grin and bear it.
That “Gin” and bear it!
Don’t let it “dis-tract” you.
You can’t handle the tooth!!
Was going to say you look a little “long in the tooth”, Jeff LPH 3, 63-66. But, since it was extracted, I guess that won’t apply. Hope the dentist does put too big of a bite on your wallet. Hey, if you had a second one pulled, maybe the Doc would have given you a “toofer”. (grin)
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all here at Fire Base TAH! Eat wisely…… 😉
Happy Belated 73rd to the King of Puns.
Jeff is now KoP. 5th is KoB.
Need a nominee for a 3rd King. Things come in Threes, yes?
😉
FIRSTISH!
Hello people of TAH, This is your Captain speaking. For your viewing pleasure this Thanksgiving. Please make sure you have your tray tables in the upright position, be sure you have a put down any beverages you may be drinking, and keep all throw able objects out of reach. Thank you. Enjoy your flight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWkXNOtCWho
It it weren’t so confounded true about the SJWs, it wouldn’t be so funny.
Wow. My family must be seriously messed up. Nothing but thankfulness among any of them. And they really screwed up my education by forgetting to instruct me about hating people.
Who exactly committed genocide? Nobody in my family. Ever. Now, a few of them may have been victims of it, but none of them committed it. And we never ask for proof of ethnicity, gender, or other stuff to pull up a chair at the table. We do ask that all be grateful for something, though, and tolerant enough to listen to the prayers of others.
So, all you snowflakes just look the other way while mine celebrate all for which we are grateful and lift a glass or two of thanksgiving.
To everyone else: Enjoy the feasting with whatever group of misfits, family, neighbors, compatriots or fellow warriors you gather with.
KOB has been short sheeted.
Did not see this coming.
Freakin 5 day weekend.
I had no idea TAH was a union shop.
Not union, military.
One of the few ways the military (and to a lesser extent, federal and state civil service) can reward their workers is with time off. Monetary awards are virtually impossible for the uniformed military and not much easier for most civil service positions.
Ergo, time off is about the only way military commanders can reward their folks. In many if not most units, unless in the field or in combat a 4-day weekend at Thanksgiving was pretty much standard. And while I can’t speak for state civil service, in the Federal civil service fairly often an agency head (I think) or the POTUS would authorize a half-day early release on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. (Local supervisors are generally restricted to authorizing 59min early off or less due to Federal civilian pay regs. However, the Agency head [I think] and/or POTUS have broader early release authority and could authorize 4 hrs early release. Civilain workers still had to take leave if they wanted Friday off, though.)
Since TAH’s readership is largely military, I didn’t really think an explanation for the early WOT this weekend was required. I see now that it might have been.
My pension check was in todays mail.
It’s from a major defense contractor so
that’s just like military.
I was exempt salary and just took time off
whenever I felt like it.
Ike was right.
If your job let you ke time off any time you felt like it, that’s hardly “just like military”. It’s also hardly like the Federal civil service.
Neither the military nor the Federal civil service allows people to take time off “whenever they feel like it”. In both cases supervisory approval is required, and is at the supervisor’s discretion. Both take a very dim view of people not showing up at their place of duty when required.
In the Federal civil service, one risks being placed in “no pay” status for unauthorized abscences – and also a suspension without pay (or worse) if the behavior is repetitive.
In the military, taking time off “whenever you feel like it” is even more of a “no no”. You can literally go to jail for failing to show up to work without authority – though NJP is far more common.
Back in the olden daze of the 1960’s and ’70’s, a substantial absence of more than 30 days AWOL got one a special court martial, usually resulting in some confinement, loss of pay for several months, and reduction in rank.
Naw, no explanation was necessary.
However, there is a great deal of variation on that early leave practice. Kinda depends upon the mission and the job. Maybe location, and some other stuff that doesn’t currently come to mind.
Some of us even worked holidays. Maybe even most holidays. I usually did, so that whoever had little kids, or some other issue, could have the day off, especially Christmas. As a result, I usually got something special to eat and built some valuable good will among my peers. It was all good.
In the Land of the Losers, Phildo was King!
Wow, you really snuck (sneaked?) that one in on us, Hondo! In awe and respect, I offer early Thanksgiving goodies – the trivia column! Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends on TAH!
DID YOU KNOW…?
How did the Guinness Book of World Records begin?
By Commissioner Wretched
Since we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I thought I’d go ahead and get a jump on the next big holiday and set out my annual Letter to Santa Claus.
(He happens to be a personal friend of mine, so I can be less than formal if I wish.)
Dear Santa,
Once again I bring my brief list of things I’d like to have for Christmas. It’s one of billions of letters I know you receive, so when the appropriate elf has scanned it, I hope he approves it to be read by you.
Santa, the biggest thing I want for Christmas – besides world peace and people loving each other instead of fighting and dividing each other – is that you please stop teasing me about the Chicago Cubs.
Either let them win another World Series or send them back to the bottom of the National League. Stop toying with me, Santa. I already bleed Cubbie blue … these also-ran seasons since we won it all in 2016 are killing me!
Oh, and peace on Earth and goodwill toward men and all that other stuff. Milk and cookies will be left out again; you beat Sassy to them last year, so here’s hoping you do so again. And I promise to be better at being good in 2020.
Now, on to the trivia!
Did you know …
… of the eight husbands of actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011), her first was a hotel magnate? Taylor married Conrad Hilton, Jr. (1926-1968) when she was 18 years old. The marriage lasted less than a year. (But during that year, she got the best rooms in the hotel!)
… it takes a phenomenal memory to be a taxi driver in London? Those who aspire to drive a cab in London must pass a series of tests on “The Knowledge,” which requires them to memorize 320 routes, 25,000 streets, and 20,000 landmarks and places of interest. The route to a taxi license can be four years long. (By an astonishing coincidence, that’s also how long it takes to navigate a taxi through downtown London. Go figure.)
… there is a store in Scottsboro, Alabama, where you can buy stuff left unclaimed on airlines? The Unclaimed Baggage Store is where airlines sell all unclaimed luggage, and the store re-sells everything at pretty good prices. (In case you ever wondered what happens to all that lost luggage, you know.)
… humans are not completely human? According to scientists, up to 8% of the human genome is not human at all. Over the millennia, bits of code from ancient viruses have seeped into our DNA … and some of that is more than half a million years old. (That explains my brother.)
… one of the best-selling books in history came about as a result of a bar bet? The “Guinness Book of World Records” was the idea of Sir Hugh Beaver (1890-1967). He was involved in an argument with another person about the fastest game bird in Europe, and discovered that there was no authoritative source he could reference to bolster his position. (He lost the bet.) So Sir Hugh decided to begin work compiling a book of facts and figures with which such bar arguments could be settled. As the managing director of the Guinness brewery in England, he put the name of the company behind the effort, and hired twins Norris (1925-2004) and Ross McWhirter (1925-1975) as compilers and editors. The book has become the absolute authority on such records. (And the go-to place when people want to act sillier than anybody else has ever done.)
… a day on the planet Venus is longer than one of its years? Venus orbits the Sun in 225 Earth days. But because it spins so slowly on its axis, a day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days. In addition, Venus rotates backward – the Sun would rise in the west and set in the East, if you could see it from the surface. Which you can’t, because of the thick cloud-filled atmosphere. Scientists now believe Venus doesn’t actually rotate backwards, but rather upside-down, with the planet’s north pole pointing “downward” in space.
… the classic phrase from the 1941 movie, “Casablanca,” “Play it again, Sam,” was never spoken? In the film, the character of Rick Blaine – played by Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) – actually tells the piano player, “You played it for her, you can play it for me. Play it!” Then another character, Ilsa Lund – played by Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) – says, “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’” (And generations of impressionists have gotten the line totally wrong ever since.)
… part of the United States was occupied by Japan during World War II? A small area of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska was occupied by Japanese Imperial forces during the war.
… Alaska has a desert? Its sand dunes are more than 100 feet high. The Kobuk Sand Dunes are located in the Western Arctic National Park in the northern part of the state. (That kind of shatters the old image of hot, dry deserts, doesn’t it?)
… wild turkeys can fly? Domestic turkeys are usually fed too much, weigh twice as much as their wild counterparts, and cannot fly. (I can’t help but recall the classic scene from “WKRP in Cincinnati” … “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”)
… more than 150 kinds of birds have become extinct since 1600? Among them are the dodo and the passenger pigeon. However, that is not an exact count, as scientists believe there are many more that went extinct before science ever learned about them. (You might wonder how they figure that out. I know I do.)
Now … you know!
Speaking of rare birds…I have a Gray Jay
that showed up a few weeks ago and and is a
regular at the suet. Pretty far south for one
of those. It looks like a giant Chickadee.
Don’t see them outside Maine east of the
Mississippi.
Yes, I did recite the jingle while spelling
Mississippi.
See if I can leave this here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg_Nw20GG0E
Scenes from Two Lane Blacktop! One of my favorite movies ever! Two thumbs up!
BTW, in case you didn’t know, that’s James Taylor driving and Dennis Wilson in the passenger seat (of the gasser).
Now, where have I seen that WKRP scene recently . . . . ? (smile)
FWIW: on the subject of cold deserts, technically most if not virtually all of Antarctica is a huge polar desert. The continent gets less that 8″ of precipitation a year in most coastal areas and substantially less inland.
The Gobi (China, Mongolia) and Taklamakan Deserts (Xinjiang region of China) also get freaking cold in the winter – as in -40 recorded low for the Gobi and below -25 F recorded low for the Taklamakan. Both are at rather high northern latitude as deserts go and are in a continental interior. The Gobi is also generally at a fairly high altitude (most is between approx 3,000′ and 5,000′ above sea level).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobi_Desert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taklamakan_Desert
“there is a store in Scottsboro, Alabama, where you can buy stuff left unclaimed on airlines?”
Yep. Am VERY familiar with Unclaimed Baggage.
You just brought back a wonderful memory of “shopping” there while in High School via VERY early 1970s (Bear Bryant). Then continued while in College (Bear Bryant).
Left that AOR in the late 70, so last memory of visiting was in the mid 80s.
Still have an Ovation Guitar bought for 75 cents around 1971/1972.
The store, which originally was “shabby” looking, became too commercialized for my taste. It had the “Mom & Pop” feeling when it first opened, but after becoming popular thru word of mouth (before the Internet) it started growing and took on a department store look.
And yes, Unclaimed Baggage in the 70s sold men/women/children underwear. Unpackaged. Used.
Was amazed what was sold. What was sad was finding Photo Albums full of personal and family pictures; High School and College Diplomas; Yearbooks; Engraved Wedding rings; urns for ashes of a deceased.
Some of the items were from other countries.
There were personalized dog collars. Personal monogrammed sweaters. “Autographed” pictures of Hollywood Actors/Actresses.
You would be surprised what folks put in their suitcases.
😉
Have learned a great lesson from Unclaimed Baggage. If you want to keep an item the rest of life, don’t pack it in a suitcase.
The “Casablanca” item is 100% correct. One of my favorite TV roast scenes, Jimmy Cagney (one of my all-time favorites) commented “Just for the record, I never said ‘you dirty rat.’ What I DID say was ‘Judy, Judy, Judy.'” You kids will have to get an adult to explain that to you.
Oh, and speaking of short actors, Michael J. Pollard died. Never knew before that the reason Michael J. Fox used the middle initial J. is as an homage to Pollard. Fox’s middle name is Andrew.
30 November 2019:
ROLL TIDE ROLL!
(Can’t wait until December. Watch out for KoB versus AW1Ed).
Happy Blessed Thanksgiving to All.
Was off celebrating a brother’s 64th birthday.
He got confused earlier this week and thought he was 64 turning 65, when I had him do the math. Then to help him remember, I posted a link to the Beatle’s “When I’m Sixtyfour” on his FB page. >grin<
I hope everyone has a safe Thanksgiving.
I am thankful that no-one was killed in that petrochemical plant explosion in SE Texas this morning, nor – it seems – in the 2nd explosion this afternoon in the same plant.
When you stop and think about it, we all have a lot to be thankful for.
Finally back at Casa de Sparky for Thanksgiving.
But unless I hit the Powerball this weekend, back out to the Annex.
Bad news, Sparky. I’m going to win the Powerball. No doubt, it’s in the bag.
Since most of us are fans of gun buy backs, I am sure many here would like to hear about the great success of the buy back of New Bedford, MA. Forty “guns” were bought “back” by the city. Of the forty, 22 were BB guns. So, it looks like Ralphie got $40.00 or perhaps $50.00 for that broken, aged Red Ryder. Likely of the 18 actual firearms, at least half of them are junk incapable of firing.
Happy Turkey Day, Dickweeds and Dickweedettes!
When all y’all get back to thinking about this being a WOT, got a request. Got into a conversation with the brother of a friend today. He was USAF, stationed at Clark AFB, in and out of Vietnam 1968-70. He spent some overnights in country and was exposed to agent orange, though that may or may not be well documented.
I spent some time researching presumptive exposure and discovered that it will take a very long time to wade through it all. Does anyone know off hand if USAF folks assigned other than in Vietnam have any chance of falling into a presumptive exposure category or must they prove absolutely that they were exposed? Seems like I read somewhere that those who were involved in the transport of the stuff and did more than set foot in Vietnam were. Or maybe I am misremembering.
Thanks for the help. I will continue to do the research, but was hoping someone could tell me to either not bother or that it would be worth the trouble.