Word of the Day: dacoit

dacoit (n)

A member of a gang of armed bandits.

"Enough, you slimy jellyfish," the evil dacoit leader hissed. "Afflatus is currently running very hot. He's coming off two features that did solid business even in the smaller markets. For the rodent we've got stashed we'd be lucky to make back our chickpea nut."
--Woody Allen, "Tandoori Ransom"

Watching a movie about Western dacoit leader Jesse James recently (see Oct. 24, below) got me to thinking about guns. I've never owned a real one -- just squirt guns and an air rifle that shot ping pong balls. But my late father had a shotgun that he occasionally used to shoot woodchucks in our upstate New York backyard. I don't know where he got it, or why (he wasn't a hunter otherwise), or what happened to it. He kept it in the back of his closet, unloaded, and I remember being somewhat afraid but fascinated by it.... The only gun we have now is my wyfe's glue gun, which she uses for her art projects. You can glue almost any two objects together with a glue gun. It's also quite easy to burn your fingers with one, so it might be of some use for self-defense at close range. It would be hard to hold up a train or rob a bank with a glue gun, however. You probably couldn't take it on an airplane, though. A gun is a gun.