I do a lot of my own sewing. I've gotten the 100 year old Singer motorized up and running, but most of my projects are sewing my hand.
The Remington typewriter lives on the sewing machine cabinet. I use that more.
Most all my work is re-attaching buttons (and I have a decent sized jar of cast off buttons and from destroyed shirts) and mending blown out pants seams.
But the plastic container I keep my sewing supplies in is over full.
What I need is a metal cookie tin. That'd be perfect.
2066 years ago, Gaius Julius Caesar, 55, noted author, Egyptologist, salad maker, and calendar enthusiast, died surrounded by his friends.
It can't be a good job. Being a House Dick. Like being a School Resource Officer in a big High School. But worse.
Tho, I'd think the Willard Hotel would have fewer Femme Fatales:
I love these 1940s war illustrations. Stylistically. Well, I like the british stuff. the German sourced stuff interests me historically.
The same reviewer has another video about the US 1950s golden age of illustration. Which also blows my skirt up. Rockwell to Bass, with some Frazetta comics thrown in. And another reason I dig www.lileks.com. All of it.
But is it true?
Say Pearl Harbor was EXACTLY like it was, except, magically, Enterprise and Lexington were anchored alongside battleship row, too. Same damage to the rest of the harbor as in the real December 7th, except the carriers got two or more lucky hits as well, and exploded, a total loss.
No other CVs could conceivably have been present. There were really only 3 carriers in the Pacific. In less than four years there would be 20.
The war would be longer, but Japan had no real endgame that went it's way. They relied on us getting sick of fighting in both timelines.
What does get Japan a W? Apart from us just giving us. The USA, with the strongest economy on the planet.
(I can only conceive of this possible negative outcome, and can visualize no other. And I only visualize that because I saw us quit in South and South East Asia in my lifetime. From fatigue. Also it was the only outcome Japan coceived)
Britain and the USSR could lose to the Nazis, somehow, and all join with Japan. Somehow. But that's less likely than war fatigue by the US public.
The "big wins early then resist til they quit" strategy worked well for Japan in the fight against China then, more importantly, Russia 35 years earlier.
I don't see Japan getting the bomb before us, if we set our mind to as we did in our timeline. So, eventually B-29s were going to make the trip for a few in the alternate timeline.
In most every movie about WWI there is the trope of the Tommy looking out a trench loophole for just a brief moment, and getting sniped by the Germans. It's nigh universal.
The British side pokes it's head up and gets shot. No one on the British side is returning the favor in these movie and stories. Always receiving, never giving back.
Except in All Quiet on the Western Front. Where Paul gets his at the very end. But it is only hinted at in the book (which was written by a German, so, perhaps the trope was universal) that he was sniped when he stood up. It is a likely explanation, and a form of suicide rather than a lapse in trench discipline. It's left in the air for the reader to decide.
In the two movies it happens. Sniping, I mean. But both movies were filmed in Hollywood. The English-speaking side of the war. So the Brit tropes may have leaked over.
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That said, I have seen no German language visions of the Great War on Film Maybe I need to check more closely. But translated books from that side I have read don't have references to sniped loopholes carrying off the FNGs like British accounts on the printed page do.
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Of course there WERE enthusiastic snipers on the Allied side. So loopholes were just as dangerous to soldiers in the German line, you'd think.
Whoa. This is amazing. Wire recording of the Battle of Kwajalein. The sound guy is from DC, and the commenter is from New Castle, PA. Near where I live and where I vacation. The accent of the commenter and his slang is interesting. Not quite modern Pittsburg or Cleveland. Know what else is interesting? All the bullet snaps from incoming fire. They are at the wrong end of a rifle range. Novel journalism for 1944. Maybe one day they'll bring sound and MOVIE cameras onto the front lines.
My crotchety old neighbor's boat, the USS Rockwall visited the atoll during the war. He wanted to know whey there was a forest of trees under the salt water. It wasn't trees. It was the mast of sunk Japanese ships.
I still made it 52 years without seeing this movie:
I KNOW! That's not like me at all. I mean, I don't gravitate to musicals, but still! If you can watch Wizard of Oz every year until age of majority you can watch this once.
Come to think of it, it didn't get a lot of syndication repeats for my area, to my memory. Miracle on 34th Street got a lot more air time. It's a Wonderful Life, of course.
General Waverly was the same actor from Twelve O'Clock High. Major Stovall, the Group Adjutant. Dean Jagger
I thought the same actress appeared in both this and It's a Wonderful Life, but I was confusing Mary Treen and Mary Wickes.
The sets were gorgeous. On a huge soundstage. And in VistaVision. Most of the outdoor shots were indoors. Fire in the fireplaces and everything. Inside. And I have the same steamer trunk as Danny Kaye. There is a LONG scene in the dressing that Bing and Danny make look effortless, but just memorizing the script for it would have been a big deal. No cuts. Vera-Allen has some serious dancer gams, and watching her, the boys, and Rosemary Clooney to a quartet about snow.... I found myself going "Damn!" at numerous points, so impressed was I with the performances.
And it starts out Christmas on the WWII battlefront. Sorta appropriate for what started for us EIGHTY years ago. I still haven't forgiven the Japanese for all that. I should probably let it go. I'm not Irish; I shouldn't be willing to carry paper on a grudge that long.
Gun content: I think I saw an unscoped Springfield 03 among the soldier in was was set late-war. I saw the 03, pretty sure no scope.
In the 17th C. London.
From reddit.
And remember, London in 33 years after this list will have a Bubonic Plague outbreak that won't see an end of til the town burns. That will do in 100,000.
Just considering the stuff that made the triple digits, the big ones.
Looks like a pre-war combination of a OG bullet proof vest and a pepper box. Hardly a machine-gun. More an AOW. Sorta like modern times, but a dude has a claymore attached to his plate carrier or helmet. And probably about as useful.
How is alfalfa here gonna get gud with this? Can you picture the RO's face?
* Original Gangsta
** Any Other Weapon
*** Range Officer
And we have a special relationship with them. They are very good friends, neighbors, allies, cousins,
But Australia is our brother.
Our two nations have a similar make up. European colonists let loose in a vast wilderness and build a nation. With all that entail. The two are of similar size, the center is conducive to ranching and mineral exploitation. We both have rough histories warring with stone age indigenous people that we still beat ourselves up over, it was such awful conduct at times. We speak the same language. Sort of.
Folks came to America and went, "Look at this challenging wilderness, deadly snakes and spiders and bears and poison ivy. So dangerous!" Then Australians came along. "Deadly snakes and spiders? Hold my beer, mate. No bears, but we have these big birds... And, oy, never touch the gympie gympie plant."
Both countries even had a similar firearms culture until recently.
But, while Britain supports us in our Military Defense quite often, Australia ALWAYS does. They are always willing to pitch in, no matter what. They stood with us in Viet Nam, a war too unpopular for Britain to touch. We should remember that.
While we were scrambling to turn the Imperial Japanese tide we stopped their Fleet at Midway and were thinking to block them by having Marines occupy Guadalcanal to keep their Army from turning that flank.
But the Australians blocked the Japanese at an arguably more important center thrust in conditions even worse than Guadalcanal, and with fewer resources. The Kokoda Track Campaign which then lead to the Battle of Buna Gona.
If the Japanese had managed to scale the Owen Stanley Range successfully, then actually descend down and take Port Moresby, they'd have airstrips and an air supply route from close by Rabaul. The distance is hard on the ground but easy by air. From Japanese held Port Moresby, the north coast of Australia would be vulnerable to attack. And it would better secure the massive base at Rabaul.
The whole thing was misery. Jungle rot on every bit of cloth, leather, and wood. Deadly scrub typhus from lice that the Australian soldier hadn't built any sort of personal immunological defense to. (Nor Americans, and we'd suffer from it too, especially on any sort of battle line in New Guinea.) Malaria, of course, and dengue fever. And all that was before facing a determined and better armed Japanese military force. Things were so desperate and prevailing so important multiple generals were sacked during this battle when they didn't achieve enough militarily.
But the Japanese had to be stopped and stop them they did. Heroically. 79 years ago, now. Battalion size unit clashes because of the terrain. Americans help in the push but don't pay that no nevermind. This was an Aussie show and they faced down the Japs and a green hell splendidly, at Australia's Thermopylae.
This guy has been making the round on social media. Gone viral and all.
I wanted to see if there was more. There is. You can see the stuff much more up close, and Wow. Worth it. Thank you History and Culture by Bicycle blog.
The guy really has a thing for golden-era John Deere...
A real one. I have a shop full of tools, but nowhere near a proper drill index.
But my shop full of tools is focused on handtool wood working.
And the cancer has robbed me of the stamina to do much with even the tools I have. Not like I should expand into a metalworking shop at this late date. Spendy, huh? Not really that bad. I'd spend that kind of money on myself now, anyway. What with how short life can suddenly get.
No, at this late date, if my back and stamina issues went away I'd probably concentrate on barrister bookcases. They are modular. I have most all the tools for it now. I have a pile of walnut, enough for ten shelving units or more. And I got the books to put in em.
"What do you mean most of the tools, T-Bolt? What woodworking handtool tool are you missing?"
Ah. Not really a hand tool. Remember the stamina problem? Even at full energy it is a piece of work to thickness four quarter walnut to 5/8ths. I can and have done it. But things can go faster with one screaming beast. I eschew most all other electrical tooling, normally. Well, except a bandsaw. Same reason as the thickness planer. It's a LOT of work resawing or ripping a board.
But a good drill index IS a thing of beauty.
I guess if you have a round in the chamber and the firing pin back the 'trigger' is protruding? That's be a tell and you might not open the knife to cut your apple and maybe put a .22 through the Granny Smythe.
"For Automobilists!" If your car breaks and axel you can put it out of its misery? 1922 carjackings?
"Absolutely safe" I really dunno...
I can see a trapper use this for his trapline if one of his fur bearing animals is not dead, but... There are better knives for knifing and a .22 revolver isn't that bulky.
I consumed a LOT of coffee table sized books about military aviation in the 1980's. Remaindered books, less than $10. Loved them. A snap shot of history, now.
And back when the history channel had history, they'd sometimes do similar stuff, but ad-laden and light on detail.
Well YouTube solves the lack of detail, and scratches that itch I still have.
For instance, I knew what the Blinder was, but I had no idea it was a vodka truck. The coffee table book missed that and the History channel was too busy selling me hand lotion and cellular plans.
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The channel is still kinda new. So now is the time to get in on the ground floor.
Huh. I usually have something new and interesting to say about this day, 1944. Been a little distracted and I am away from home right now trying to have fun.
I saw bits of a reaction video to Saving Private Ryan not long ago. Some Millennial, first time watching. "I need to learn more about history, I don't even know where this cemetary might be." At the beginning and the end of the movie.
No worries, you can see it from space!
See it?
How bout now? It's easy with the labels. But if you don't know where Normandy is and you just followed the North France coastline you'd see this little bit of US territory overseas.
You can almost make out the stones.
You definitely can here.
In lots of English fiction from 100 years ago, a handgun is called a revolver. Doesn't matter if it is a revolver or one of them fancy new semi-autos from Colt or Savage or imported from Belgium.
(And being when it was, those semi-autos were invented by...?)
Which bring us to our second point. In France a pistol was apparently call 'Le Browning', no matter what it was.
I found this interesting.
