Gimme That Old Time Music

... And tonight, it's really old music.

First, the Chester Fife and Drum Corps, Chester, CT:

My uncle was a member of the Corps for something like 50 years. This is not the Col. John Chester Fife and Drum Corps, by the way.

That reminded me of their near-by competitors, the Ancient Mariners Fife and Drum Corps:

 

Although the Ancient Mariners have more members, they are a much newer group, founded in 1959. The Chester Corps dates from 1868.

The Ancient Mariners Fife and Drum Corps reminded of the completely-unrelated Ancient Mariners Dixieland Band (from MA):

Yeah, About That...

Haven't yet, but with all the RWNJs out there, it's just a metter of time.

 

Source: http://hahagotya.com/11168/seen-this-on-facebook-yet/

NSFW: Sandy Hook/Newtown, CT

UPDATE: The lovely yet talented Mrs618 convinced me to tone it down.

But you know damn well what I mean...

THIS POST IS FOR ADULTS ONLY. IF YOU ARE UNDER 21, GO AWAY.

IF YOU ARE A RIGHT-WING NRA GUN NUT, LEAVE NOW. I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FECK* FOR YOU, YOUR OPINION, OR YOUR "RIGHTS."

Once again, the fecking right-wing whackjob gun nuts at the National Fecking Rifle Association have let loose the hounds of disaster, this time killing 20 children. 20 elementary school children.

TWENTY CHILDREN.

Because some fecking whackjob got his mother to buy and register four weapons, cause he couldn't, cause he was a fecking psychotic nutcase.

Twenty children are DEAD, because the National Fecking Rifle Association will not, under any circumstances whatsoever, consider any kind of reasonable gun control.

All right. So be it.

Here's what we need to do to prevent this from happening again.

BAN ALL PRIVATE GUN OWNERSHIP, WITH TWO EXCEPTIONS.

Only ACTIVE-DUTY military and active law enforcement officers should be allowed to possess handguns.

Hunters can hunt with a .22 rifle, or a shotgun that can hold no more than one shell at a time.

NO ASSAULT RIFLES, NO AR-15S, NO LARGE-CAPACITY CLIPS FOR ANY WEAPON.

THE NATIONAL FECKING RIFLE ASSOCIATION, WITH THEIR BULL-HEADED INTRANSIGENCE, OWNS THIS.

THEY OWN THIS.

THEY SUPPORT THE MURDER OF HELPLESS KINDERGARTNERS, INNOCENT THIRD-GRADERS, AND TEACHERS.

And if you're one of the whining, mewling, sycophants for the National Fecking Rifle Association, and you want to make your point, DO IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. You have NO fecking rights HERE, you murderous scum-burping asshole.

I don't fecking want to hear it, murderer.

Go the feck away, and take your deathtoys with you.

Don't talk to me about your "rights"... I don't give a feck. Our nation's right to protect OUR CHILDREN outweighs your "right" to go squirrel hunting with a 50 calibre machine gun.

I no longer give a shirt for your Second Amendment "rights," since you National Fecking Rifle Association MURDERERS use it as a perverted excuse to go on your damnable killing sprees.

Columbine, San Ysidro, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Oregon, now Newtown. You National Fecking Rifle Association DOUCHEBAGS don't deserve to call yourselves "Americans." You should call yourselves BRAIN-DEAD, SLACK-JAWED, DROOLING, MORONIC GUN-TOTING ASSWIPES FROM HELL.

And don't try to say "If the teachers had been armed, yadda yadda...," cause that shirt ain't gonna fly.

You bottom-feeding, inbred hillbilly yokels, YOU SOCKSUCKERS from the National Fecking Rifle Association, have forfeited any claim to consideration or even adult discussion.

THERE'S NO SENSE IN TRYING TO HOLD A RATIONAL DISCUSSION WITH A CRAZY-ASS MUTHERFECKING PSYCHOTIC NUTJOB.

YOU MURDEROUS FECKING ASSHOLES OWN THIS, YOU CHILD-KILLING SOCKSUCKING MOTHERFECKERS.

* "Feck" is a very useful word I picked up from one of the British paramedic blogs, either Trauma Queen or Medic999 (Mark Glencourse). It gets the point across rather well.

SCHTICKS OF ONE...

... A HALF-DOZEN OF THE OTHER[1]


MEMORABLE LINE OF THE DAY: “Butyl acetate is commonly used as a solvent or as a synthetic fruit flavoring.” (From an AP article about a train derailment in Kentucky)


ANOTHER MAKE-BELIEVE TEXAN:

“A burger battle is brewing between a Texas state legislator and the owner of Louis’ Lunch[2], a restaurant established in 1895, where it has been claimed the hamburger was invented.

“However, with the new session of the Texas legislature now under way, Republican State Rep. Betty Brown has proposed a resolution declaring Athens, Texas, is the original home of the hamburger.

[. . .]

“’It’s a well-known and established fact that New Haven is the home of the hamburger. In fact, New Haven’s claim to the hamburger is even supported and documented in the Library of Congress,’ [New Haven mayor John] DeStefano said.

“DeStefano notes that New Haven has been a cradle of creativity, as the birthplace of the cotton gin, the first rubber tires, the corkscrew, the Frisbee, lollipops, Erector Sets and pizza.[3]

“’We are even the birthplace of [george bush], who wants people to think he’s from Texas. So yes, the hamburger is as much a New Haven original as President [bush],’ DeStefano said. ‘Get over it, Texas.’” (AP article on the dispute)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU: Fire Engineering magazine is celebrating its 130th anniversary. Editor Bobby Halton on firefighters:

Firefighters do not regard themselves as heroes because they do what the business requires. They know that walking on the critical boundary of extreme fire behavior is potentially if not predictably fatal, but the rewards are so great that the men and women of the fire service risk it anyway.

Quoting another expert on firefighters:

Firefighters are going to get killed. When they join the department, they face that fact. When a man becomes a firefighter his greatest act of bravery has been accomplished. They were not thinking of getting killed when they went where death lurked. They went there to put the fire out, and got killed.
-- FDNY Fire Chief Edward F. Croker, in February, 1908, on the death of a deputy chief and four firefighters

[1] Stolen from one of Allan Sherman’s collection of pieces he didn’t feel like expanding into full-length song parodies.
[2] Located in New Haven, CT. Full disclosure statement: I have had many a fine burger at Louis’, when I lived in New Haven.
[3] New Haven was also the home of the first telephone exchange and the first telephone directory.