Head Rattle

Dwelling on guns and insanity lately....

I.
As far as I'm concerned, civilians should only have three types of concealable "firearms": (1.) Squirt Guns. Imagine if the current mad shooter had used H2O instead of bullets. Whatever delusional anti-government declaration he was trying to convey (if that was part of it; seems likely) would have been made with no casualties. He probably would have been arrested for disturbing the peace and might be in a psych ward now instead of facing a probable death sentence. (2.) Cap Gun. I had fun with these as a kid. I was more interested in the noise it made and the gunpowder odor the exploding caps emitted than in the gun itself. In fact, I would often remove the caps and hit them with rocks instead of firing the toy pistol. None of this made me want a Glock as an adult. (3.) Glue Gun. My wyfe is actually "armed" with one of these, which she uses to bond various unlikely objects together into artworks. This sort of gun could be injurious at close range, but mostly to the fingers of the "shooter".

II.
Confidential to E.H.P.: I'm an extremely patient human. Whenever the situation changes (physically or mentally), let's go fishing again.

III.
I watched It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in uninterrupted HDTV last night. I haven't seen this quintessentially American slapstick comedy about insane greed in ages. It actually made me chortle out loud, which is not easy to do these days. The print was pristine -- it looked like it could have been shot yesterday, except for some bouffants, the early 60s auto styling (much more imaginative than today's) and the relatively youthful visages of just about every comedian and comic actor you could name from that era. The film, which features some incredible pre-digital stunts and gorgeous cinematography of the California desert, was released in early November 1963. If it had been released about two weeks later, they might well have added another Mad to that title.

I also watched In the Loop -- a very different kind of madness, and a very different kind of funny.