Rainy Days and Thursdays

• Colt, iconic manufacturer of the Single Action Army Model of 1873 (dubbed 'Peacemaker') revolver, 1911 self-loader, and M-16 rifle, is emerging from bankruptcy for the second time in a quarter-century.  The new CEO vows to re-balance the company's military/civilian/commercial production.
• So what happened?  Complacency.  The company had become too dependent on government sales (a lesson one would think they'd have learned when Beretta was awarded the M9 contract), and missed much of the civilian firearms resurgence.  

'Paterson' No. 5 - Choice of Republic of Texas Navy 

• On their website catalog you can find AR-15 variants, SAA and New Frontier revolvers, and 1911 variants.  But no Diamondback/Cobra/Python/Anacondas, the highly acclaimed revolvers which now bring exorbitant prices in the secondary market.  
• If I were back in college, I'd love to do a case study on the company, as it appears that the company now has either zero or miniscule market share in product lines that it originated.  Single action cowboy revolvers are now dominated by Ruger, Henry, and Italian and Brazilian firms.  No Colt Lightning carbines. No Colt shotguns (although, to be fair, this was never their forte).  Colt's gone from the double action market, as well.  Most 1911s are now produced by companies other than Colt, some of which risked cannibalization of their internally developed product lines to offer a version of John Moses Browning's venerable self loader (Ruger, S&W, Sig Sauer, et al).  The company does seem to retain a reasonable position in the AR-15 market, though far from a dominating market share.
• Martin Mull was on Carson [reruns] recently.  He was much more of a serious guy than I'd have imagined, considering himself primarily a painter. Interestingly, his Wikipedia page makes no mention of the two books he co-authored: The History of White People in America, and A Paler Shade of White, although it does reference the TV show of the same name.  Not sure if that's some form of political correctness or just an omission.

These are my people, my roots

• Upon receiving an email purporting to be a Peggy Noonan essay supporting the other Donald, I checked Snopes (while in some regards I find the site to be biased, it's a good starting point), which of course showed the attribution to the respected Ms. Noonan was false.  While I was there, though, I learned of a spoof news story that'd made the rounds, claiming the British would reclaim the USA if Trump were elected.

• In response to the fake news bit, someone was cheeky enough to write [not Lindsey] Buckingham Palace, and actually received a response (redaction Snopes').
• The classic Fleetwood Mac lineup reportedly has/have one last album in the works.

Cheer up, Lindsey.  The chick that every high school dude

in my day wanted *as girlfriend* has her arm draped over you.

Over a dozen years ago, after two decades of using an electric razor, I returned to using blades.  I have found that I prefer the three and four blade varieties, but I still experiment with other configurations if I think I can get a closer, more comfortable, shave.  Last week, I purchased a 6-pack of six bladed razors, thinking I'd found the holy grail. 

Actual photograph of my tonsorial experience

• Unfortunately, it didn't work out as I'd planned, and I arrived at work with about a half dozen bits of tissue paper affixed to my countenance, no styptic pencils having been anywhere to be found.
• Although the markets have been unwell thus far in 2016, increasing the Fed Funds rate - gradually - is a baby step toward restoring rationality to the economy.
• From the breech, the Chiappa Triple Crown shotgun is interesting, maybe almost elegant:

• But from the muzzle...not so much:

Oof!

• An interesting treatise on what drives Trump supporters.