Self-Defense On A Budget (1)

October 7, 2008
9:40 AM CST

It’s all very well to post pictures of beautiful old guns—and I do, often—but let’s be honest, those guns do not come into one’s possession easily, if one is not a pre-2008 bond trader or -hedge fund manager.

And sometimes, you need a sound, reliable gun in a respectable self-defense chambering, and don’t have a ton of money to spend on it.

Here’s an example of such a piece: the Charter Arms Bulldog, in .44 Special.

I had one of these as a bedside gun, once—in fact, it was the very first handgun I bought in the United States—and I slept extremely soundly knowing that it was on the nightstand, close at hand to take care of any untoward circumstances. It was reliable, and loaded mostly with Winchester Silvertips. Other than the occasional box of practice ammo just to remain familar with its (fairly stiff) trigger, I hardly ever fired the thing.

If I absolutely had to have an inexpensive handgun right now, I’d get one of these without a second thought. And even at Collectors prices, I’d consider it a job well done.

A Question Of Mathematics

October 7, 2008
8:35 AM CST

Everyone has become familiar with what happens when accountants start making decisions about marketing, or production, or engineering.

Here’s what happens when making money becomes a matter of mathematics. (And thanks to Howard Veit for pointing me in the direction of this excellent website.)

Take the time, and read the whole thing. Of special interest will be snippets like this one:

I’ve known about all this stuff for some time—although not quite in so specific an area—and we all know that throughout the business world, decisions are often made on personal outcomes (e.g. bonuses or promotions) rather than what is in the best long-term interests of the company. Indeed, if your bonus this year is going to be in the ballpark of (say) $10 million, why should you care if the company tanks in two years because of that decision? You’re set for life, regardless.

It’s enough (almost) to turn one into a socialist.

No, it isn’t. This is just one of those things which happens when wealth is created—wealth, as we all know, which accrues to all of us eventually, even with the jaw-dropping bonuses paid to a few.

Of course, it also makes one less sympathetic to the plight and woes of people who are crushed by their own greed—the management of, oh, Enron jumps to mind as an example—and the only pity in this case is that a lot of people are going to be caught in the fallout.

Capitalism. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it (despite what the socialists might think).

Confirmation

October 7, 2008
7:45 AM CST

One leg of our trip to Yurp in December proved problematic in the booking.

I mean problematic in the sense of: ”They want to charge us how much to fly from Rome to Paris?” The fact that we’d so far managed to find cheaper fares on the other legs of the trip (FRA-VIE, VIE-ROM) made the €€€€€€ they wanted to charge for this last leg all the more ridiculous.

Fortunately, The Mrs. (who should become a travel agent, were the job not so badly-paid) managed to find an alternative: Rome - Brussels (at a super-cheap rate), and then the Thalys express train from Brussels to Paris.

The Mrs. and I have been to Brussels before, as Loyal Readers may recall, and we have often spoken about the Grand Place—the main square—and how it was the first actual bit of architecture to make me feel like a complete yokel. In fact, we’d often discussed taking the kids to Brussels just to see the Grand Place, but it had always seemed too expensive to go to a city just to see that one thing—and in our opinion, there is only that one thing to see in Brussels. Now, however, we’ve been forced to go there, as it were, so it would be a great opportunity for the kids to add yet one more country/city to their already-extensive portfolio of Places Seen [sic].

The plane from Rome will arrive in Brussels Airport at about midday, and we’ll catch the train into Brussels Midi—the central station downtown—catch cabs to the Grand Place for lunch (yeah, I know, Tourist Central, so what), then scamper back to the Midi and catch the 4pm train to Paris.

Well, you can only book the train tickets 90 days before the date of departure, so we had to wait for those. Finally, the booking date arrived and The Mrs. jumped to it with her customary efficiency.

The tickets arrived in the mailbox yesterday (actually, UPS but you know what I mean).

It’s an interesting feeling to hold paper tickets on your hand again. We’ve become so accustomed to e-tickets, where all you get is a number sent to you by email: a number which can be scribbled onto any old piece of paper like a telephone number or any temporary number.

But here were the actual tickets, printed on that stiff card I recall so well, and even though we’d booked and paid for all the other trips, and received confirmation/ticket numbers long before, all of a sudden the trip became wonderfully real as I looked at the tickets: Bruxelles Midi - Paris.

I know that paper tickets are something of an anachronism: something that can be left behind, or lost, or stolen. But there’s a romance attached to those little cards which transcends all that, much as there’s romance attached to traveling with steamer trunks covered with labels telling of past destinations—another anachronism which has disappeared in the soulless, oh-so efficient modern world.

And it should come as no surprise to my Loyal Readers that I hate this thing called progress. I hate the fact that travel is now something which belongs, pretty much, to the Business Class, which means that all the “efficiencies” which have made business so joyless are now being applied to something as romantic as vacation travel.

And all it took to remind me of all this, was to hold in my hands a paper ticket reading Bruxelles Midi - Paris.

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I’d like to remind my Readers that our need for meal money in Europe is still pressing, and all contributions made to the Gold Watch Fund will be gratefully received.