Play Hard/Work Hard

84 thoughts on “Play Hard/Work Hard”

1. A?

   B – Vikings

   C – The Rat Patrol

   1. A has a lot of love associated with it.

2. (1) Loening C-2 Air Yacht.
   (2) Blackburn Baffin
   (3) SdKfz 254
   (4) Other than British and tiny, no idea. That air cleaner is pretty big for a chainsaw motor…
   (5) M-41 Walker Bulldog?
   *
   – Kle.

   1. Good try.

3. 4 is probably Carden-Loyd Mark I one-man tankette. There were also a few private developers of similar designs.

   1. Yes, it is.

4. Anyone who thinks dogs aren’t part of the family is probably a pitiable soul raised without the love of a canine.

   1. A dog is the only love that money can buy.

      1. One of favorites…
         —
         An old man and his dog were walking down this dirt road with fences on both sides, they came to a gate in the fence and looked in, it was nice – grassy, woody areas, just what a ‘huntin’ dog and man would like, but, it had a sign saying ‘no trespassing’ so they walked on. They came to a beautiful gate with a person in white robes standing there. “Welcome to Heaven” he said. The old man was happy and started in with his dog following him.
         –
         The gatekeeper stopped him. “Dogs aren’t allowed, I’m sorry but he can’t come with you.”
         “What kind of Heaven won’t allow dogs? If He can’t come in, then I will stay out with him. He’s been my faithful companion all his life, I can’t desert him now.
         “Suit yourself, but I have to warn you, the Devil’s on this road and he’ll try to sweet talk you into his area, he’ll promise you anything, but, the dog can’t go there either. If you won’t leave the dog, you’ll spend Eternity on this road. So the old man and dog went on.

         They came to a rundown fence with a gap in it, no gate, just a hole. Another old man was inside. “Scuse me Sir, my dog and I are getting mighty tired, mind if we come in and sit in the shade for awhile?”
         “Of course, there’s some cold water under that tree over there. Make yourselves comfortable.”
         “You’re sure my dog can come in? The man down the road said dogs weren’t allowed anywhere.”
         “Would you come in if you had to leave the dog?”
         “No sir, that’s why I didn’t go to Heaven, he said the dog couldn’t come in. We’ll be spending Eternity on this road, and a glass of cold water and some shade would be mighty fine right about now. But, I won’t come in if my buddy here can’t come too, and that’s final.”
         –
         The man smiled a big smile and said “Welcome to Heaven.”
         “You mean this is Heaven? Dogs ARE allowed? How come that fellow down the road said they weren’t?”
         “That was the Devil and he gets all the people who are willing to give up a lifelong companion for a comfortable place to stay. They soon find out their mistake, but, then it’s too late. The dogs come here, the fickle people stay there.”
         –
         (Author Earl Hamner //The Twilight Zone)
         —
         GOD wouldn’t allow dogs to be banned from Heaven. After all, HE created them to be man’s companions in life, why would he separate them in death?”

         1. Dog spelled backwards is man’s best friend.

            1. Genius.

            2. 😄😄😄

5. Identify the Aircraft:
   1. Loening OL
   2. Blackburn Baffin
   Identify the Vehicles:
   3. Sd.Kfz. 254
   4. Vickers-Carden-Loyd Utility Tractor
   5. M18 Hellcat
   Identify the Feature Film/Series:
   A. The Spy Who Loved Me
   B. Vikings
   C. The Rat Patrol

   1. You nailed them

6. Wouldn’t a Turkish aircraft carrier be limited to the Black Sea, unless the Turks plan to scrap the Montreux Convention ?

   1. I don’t think the convention binds the Turks, though it should.

      1. Yeah, not applicable to the Turks.
         *
         Also, they could just commission it in the Med, even if the convention applied. Not like it would be a good
         idea to try and use it against even what’s left of Russia…
         *
         I am not convinced they can actually build it, either infrastructure-wise (do they even have a drydock that size?)
         or financially. Even if they do, it is much more of a multirole, unusually gigantic Colonial Cruiser than it is
         anything else. They are talking about a small complement of fixed-wing, jet, manned aircraft, but they are essentially
         in the armed trainer class, so somewhere between an A-4 and maybe an F-16A in capability. Not really competitive
         with 1st-world aircraft. The rest will be UAVs and helos. Plus, it can apparently move a small battalion of troops.
         Good for crisis response and stomping Zulus (or in this specific case, probably Fuzzy-Wuzzies), but not something
         to be compared to Charles DeGaulle or QE, or even an America class LHA, really.
         *
         – Kle.

         1. The Turks faced an economic decline that they couldn’t reverse without a complete change of Sultans (and the entourage), which would be bloody. This kind of posturing over a new aircraft carrier is the same sort of bullshit that the US is doing with its navy. In the case of Turkey, they are trying to create a face internationally, but it doesn’t fool anyone.

         2. They have the ability to make the hull. Probably do it modularly and do a final assembly in a future dry dock.
            –
            And they’ve shown that they have the technical ability to do modern equipment. Like rebuilding and rearming their M-60s with a whole new turret, doing the same with their M-113s and making them actually far better than ours. They have a thriving auto manufacturing capability (I drive a Ram Promaster City, which is a Fiat midi-van made in Turkey and fitted with a US engine and the van is nice and works and doesn’t rust like a Fiat.)
            –
            Do they have the will to build? Yes. They’re fully in the ‘we need to build here and now’ mode.
            –
            Do they have the money for it? Well…. Then again, they haven’t wasted trillions on stupid vanity projects like the LCS classes and the Zumwalt and and and…

            1. Oh, I have no doubt of the Turks’ technical ability to build it.
               *
               – Kle.

   2. Will it really matter? Aircraft carriers are following the path of battleships; impressive, formidable, and out of date

      1. There are a host of naval experts who would assert that the days of the LHA and Aircraft Carrier remain in play. All of the significant naval powers on the planet continue to build and deploy them. The question of how to bring kinetic war to distant areas continues to require naval aviation… until it doesn’t. The People’s Liberation Army’s Navy think that their ballistic missiles will take out the US Fleet before it can engage their blue water navy off Taiwan.
         *
         In truth there are only submarines and targets.

      2. Aircraft carriers are a distance projection system. Floating airports to allow force projection in an area where no airfields exist. There is always a need for a world-spanning nation to have carriers and their associated aircraft systems.
         –
         But in today’s environment, yes, more attention needs to be spent on air defense. Better radar, laser systems and other counter-measures.
         –
         As to battleships, are they really out of date? An armored hull and superstructure, multiple gun systems to address all needs (long range bombardment, medium range bombardment/sea/air defense, close range sea and air defense,) missile systems for bombardment, precision targeting of moving targets both air and sea) and even a system to hit incoming space-borne threats like ICBMs and such. Gee, the ability to do what a Zumwalt was supposed to do and doesn’t and can handle battle damage that would put a Zummie on the bottom.

         1. BBs are really only out of date in the sense that they cost more than we have the will
            to spend on a somewhat niche capability.
            *
            – Kle.

7. Hitch is not wearing a Fez. I believe he is wearing a French kepi like some artillery troops wore during the Civil War.( war of northern aggression)

   1. Yes, a red kepi. I was taking literary license with my snark.

      1. Well like the Fez its wool as well maybe good for the cold desert nights.🙂

         1. He’s never gonna do it without the fez on!

            1. Steele Dan for the win Doc!

8. The best thing about the Rat Patrol were Jerry cans and jeeps. The 50. hanging of them was cool too.

   1. When I was a boy, I aspired to serve on the Rat Patrol!

      1. myself as well, to the point of joining the scout platoon of a combat support company of in an infantry battalion. we/they had m151 jeeps with m60’s mounted in the back and went tear assing around the bush like rat patrol. soon i learned how crap the tactics were, and went to the anti-tank platoon. it was fun while it lasted though. still had the jeeps, with tows, but more survivable tactics.

         1. Yesterdays Rat Patrol jeeps are todays “technicals”.

      2. Count me in. I learned to drive in our WWII surplus jeep on our ranch at about age 8. Rat Patrol? Oh, my!
         Here’s an interesting interview–
         —-
         http://www.fandom.tv/suncompass/lc_interview_cast.htm

9. Intellectually I know God is in charge, but emotionally I’m a wreck. However, you have improved my outlook a 100% with your post, and I thank you.

   Vickers-Carden-Loyd Utility Tractor??? OMGosh! I want one! I could hook up my Rubbermaid trailer and do some real damage on the property. Of course, in addition, I’d need a skid steer. Sigh…

   God bless you…

   1. X2…He is in charge but (guessing) shakes his head knowing Sodom was a cautionary tale that some among us fail to recognize was real. And my same thought on the Vickers, would fit right into the homestead.

      1. I’m not easily shocked since I “came of age” in the 60’s (born 1945), but the stuff going on today is just horrific.

         Maybe we could share a Vickers – including the firepower. :-)

         1. The economic situation that we ALL face collectively must be put right by the upcoming Trump Administration. Four more years of this decline and morass will cripple us all permanently.

   2. I, too, wish for that utility tractor. Sigh.
      –
      And then I thought, Beans, why not just up-armor a skid-steer since you need one anyways? Put a pintle-mount on the roof and have a ‘person-cage’ on the back for the gunner to ride in or put in a remote weapons system on the roof. Put a ditching tail like on the back of a Renault F-17 tank and you can make a ram scoop for the front. Make a mini-killdozer.
      –
      And now I want a skid steer and a plasma cutter and some armor plate and a welder and a magdrill and and and, well, a farm with a barn to build it all in. Dammit.

      1. Go full Marvin Heemeyer, might come in handy at some point in the near future.

10. idk, i think hillary’s october surprise has a couple of days left to be sprung. she said it was going to be spectacular and so far i haven’t seen spectacular. i’m staying close to home, and installing a hand pump on my well jic. i really don’t think they are smart enough to avoid the pitfall you describe. then again the la times/wapo thing might be a sign they have given up on this one and started getting ready for ’28. as you said, there’s plenty of chaos available to them in the meantime. the court ruling that va. has to add illegals back on the voting rolls reminds me of the cotton tariffs prior to the war for southern independence. they can cram only so much feces down our throats before it comes back on them. they have no idea what they will be unleashing.

    1. Could get jiggy if the Dems and their handlers get more desperate to maintain power.

11. off topic but i was curious as to why tptb are doctoring the death toll due to helene. what purpose does that serve? one bona fide account from a little ol’ lady that lived in one holler would account for the total official estimate. she is the only survivor from a community of three dozen homes of multiple persons each, including 12 in her home, that washed down the mountain in a 30 foot high mudslide. nearly everybody she knows, many of them kin, are gone.

    1. People lost families, they lost homes, and they lost the infrastructure that we all rely on in 2024. I don’t know why the scrotes are playing with death toll numbers or any other numbers for that matter. Setting things right (to the extent that they can be) is not just a federal government problem. It’s an American problem. With Pedo Joe/Ho f-ing about, I have no idea how long it will take to have the proper focus put on repairing things. They need a Marshall Plan, to be honest, and a serious Army Corps of Engineers effort toward ensuring that it won’t happen again, no matter how big the storm is. That may be underway, but if it is, I haven’t heard a whisper about it.

       1. 👍

       2. Scrotes gonna scrote. It’s their nature. They don’t “do” anything else (sorry, Mikc_C).

    2. >why tptb are doctoring the death toll
       Because deception and manipulation are their nature. Sheer force of habit. (At best habit. Culturally transmitted very likely. In some cases possibly genetic.) I honestly think it’s as simple as that.
       —
       Totally O/T: I’m sitting in this Indian-themed “bowl and wrap” place in WDC and people are choosing toppings: veggies, sauces, and so forth. When did we start saying “do” instead of “have” or “would like”? As in “I’ll do the chicken tikka. Yeah, the lemon rice, and I’ll do pumpkin seeds too.” Do pumpkin seeds? What does that even mean?

       1. Yep, they are like the scorpion.
          *
          – Kle.

    3. Why is the death toll, both actual and projected, so doctored? Because if the actual death toll was reported, that is, in the thousands, even the mostly-brainwashed and braindead leftists would see that the Fed Gov just watched a bunch of people be wiped off the face of the earth and isn’t doing diddly to help.
       –
       Same reason as to why we’re not still hearing 24/7 coverage of the disaster. We’re basically not hearing anything about the disaster. Like we hear more about the last California mudslides and/or wildfires than we’ve heard about North Carolina or any of the other places damaged by Helene and Milton. Crickets.
       –
       Of course this is due to the people being affected by the two storms being mostly solid conservative voters and haters of the current regime.

       1. X2

          1. X3

12. Excellent opening treatise LL, sums it up. I’m isolated enough to avoid any ensuing melee’…might not even “watch” the election night media garbag, need to keep my disappointment stress to a minimum…might as well wait until morning to find out who “won”. For certain, the cheat will need to be massively more than 2020 for The Sedition Machine to prevail. And it sure looks like The Dem’s and Swamp Dwellers and their wealthy operatives are purposely losing with the KH & TW pile of manure show. But hey, we’re the nuts who demand ‘1-day in person voting with ID, paper ballots counted in real time with results before 10PM”. Not hard one bit…but the Dem’s and Swamp Dwellers can’t cheat if we reuse what worked for 250 years. God help them if they even try.
    ***
    Vikings (B)- Thinking I should go with the hair and beard style of the warrior dude on the upper left, might help keep the GP from bugging me when out and about…like making a Costco run, would clear the aisles to speed up the shop…might even make the mobbed checkout quicker. Win win.

    1. Lemme put this here also…
       Nov 6. I’ve got fireworks and firearms. One or the other will be called for.

       1. Embrace the power of ‘Both.’ Fireworks are excellent for burning out your enemies so you can shoot them.

    2. Vikings. What crappy set design, armor and clothing used. Bastids. We know how they dressed, how they fought, how they build really good airtight houses, h, ow they armored.
       –
       So, of course, on a show that should have been rather excellent, they had to go stupid with clothing and armor and set design and make them look like stupid Hollyweird versions of actual Skandinavians.
       –
       I tried to enjoy that show, but, well, it sucked. Bleh.

13. The “Our Democracy ©” people already replaced the candidate who had the votes in favor of the one who didn’t and no one cared.

    The assassination attempt… if the Secret Service had been quality that would not have happened. But they weren’t quality, that one agent was unable to put her pistol back in it’s holster after multiple attempts! Was the quality of the protection done on purpose?

    Like you said, “They play the long game”…. and they have been winning at it since the 60’s.

    1. If only it were the 1960’s. Since at least 1913, but almost certainly earlier, like the 1900’s.
       As Freud said to Jung in 1909 as they spotted the Statue of Liberty from their ship, “They don’t realise we’re bringing them the plague.” Of course, that was true, but incompletely so: They WERE the plague. Freudian thinking is deeply messed up. Yes, he had some important insights, but the man was likely very much soul-sick.
       —
       Edward Bernays (Freud’s nephew by a curious coincidence, actually related even more complicatedly than that) did more for propaganda and social manipulation than anyone else I can think of. At first it was just advertising (like cigarette ads) openly, but subversion and innuendo and weird “longhair” academic stuff on other fronts. Now they are so powerful that Fink carries on the work through financial power, and the delegated authority of the federal govt. It’s almost a new Arenda system. I don’t blame the Fink. It’s probably in his nature. I blame our elected officials for handing him that power.

14. 26.2 miles not 22

    1. You are right. I was surprised it took so long for anyone to say so.

       1. Thanks, Kerrys and Ed. You’re keeping me honest. Sometimes I get a brain freeze. (corrected)

          1. I just blame it on Autocorrect AI….self-exoneration is a wonderful thing, eliminates the built-in Catholic guilt.

    2. The modern Olympics marathon was 25 miles until the 1908 Games in London. An extra 1.2 miles was tacked on so the Royal Family could see the finish. Italian candymaker Dorando Pietri was in the lead by a comfortable margin, but collapsed in the final several hundred meters. He was helped to his feet several times by the umpires. (Once fighting with the umpire who pointed him to the finish, on the theory that the English judge must have been deliberately misleading him.) Pietri still finished first, but was then DQ’d for “having received aid”. To recognize his achievement, the Queen subsequently presented him with a silver cup. And ever since then, the marathon was fixed at 26.2.

       1. Fighting with the “misleading” judge: Inglese e diavolo incarnato. (Mike’s bad gutter Italian.)
          —
          Back to “do”: some guy just said, “I’ll do cilantro.”
          WTF? Mike

    3. It’s not truly a real Marathon unless you run it nearly naked and then die after crossing the finish line and delivering your message.
       –
       Anything else is just, well, LARPing…

       1. Heheh

       2. “Rejoice! We … aaargh” [☠️]
          —
          Wait! What? Rejoice we WHAT?!!
          Damn it, Phillipides!

15. Turkeys, Rio Grande subspecies and acorns. Harvested a gobbler after a morning of sitting on a deer stand. Group/rafter came by, and using a 30-06 was able to shoot across the spine with no loss of white meat. Shot was pure luck as it had been many years prior that I’d earned SS (sharp shooter) badge. During the gutting process observed this bird was full of acorns to the gullet. Same morning friend shot a gobbler that was full of crickets.
    What we observed is that the acorn fed bird was very moist and tasty, probably from the oil contained in the acorns, while the bird feeding on crickets was more dry.
    We have a healthy number of Rio Grande turkeys around our place, although I cheat a little to hold ’em here. Although we’re fortunate to have acorns, pecans and live water, I add some milo to corn in the deer feeder. Turkeys love milo, and the deer, hogs anc cattle have difficulty eating milo off the ground.

    1. Yes. All true, and even with that nobility in a bird, the Turks don’t like being compared to them. Go figure.

16. There have always been thugs in government; and sometimes it appeared there were too many to handle. This is one of those times, but they’re a very small part of the population, and vulnerable. I think it will get ugly, but without a disarmed population, the odds are against the thugs.

    1. The Second Amendment is the essential bulwark against tyranny. They can always push, but there are limits, and they know that.

17. Used to run…a lot…5-10 miles at a clip 4-5 times per week. Ran track in HS, thereafter was my “professional career/college” stress reliever and to stay in aerobic shape. Ran mostly trails or backroads not traveled. Ran in one “race” a 5k…hated it…too crowded and no fun. But never once thought to do a 26.2 marathon, or even a half marathon…seemed like elective punishment to me and generally pointless. 50 and 100 milers seem even worse (other than bragging rights). But hey, whatever floats one’s boat. At some point stopped running altogether, started losing too much weight…switched to road cycling, did a few centuries but only on routes with a store along the way, even better if they served ice cream…why suffer needlessly, life is hard enough.

    1. The triathlon is worse, IMHO.

       1. Good point…more lengthy pain. Used to watch the Ironman each year (I was a competitor in other sports), but the open water swimming part was the decider for me (not a water baby, can swim and drown-proof, but only to save my life, not for fun or competition and prefer to stay away from sharks).

       2. Says a SEAL? I don’t Tri, because I’m a terrible swimmer. The swim is what keeps a lot of us endurance sports guys from triathloning. 😳
          —
          Training: so a dear friend ran 10 miles each day. It was her stress relief. One year the marathon came to town and she signed up. Base of 70 miles/week, yeah? Should be fine. I spectated and at the 10M mark she was doing great. Later I found out she walked the last few miles. “It was all great through the half marathon. But by mile 20 I felt terrible!” And it was all downhill (figuratively) from there.
          —
          I treated myself after chemo to a formerly aspirational item, namely a Merlin titanium road bike. “Gotta get back into shape,” I justified to myself. And it became a habit. Unfortunately not the riding part. The Ti bike buying part. It’s gotten out of control. ☹️

          1. I didn’t say that “I don’t do tri.” However, today, with a torn rotator cuff, the favored swimming strokes would be more agony than just jumping into cold, dirty water and swimming as though my life depended on it. Age, Mike_C, is a terrible thing that fells the mightiest of oaks.

          2. I bought a high end bike in Europe and brought it home.
             Parked it in my sisters garage. Went looking for it a few months later and it wasn’t there.
             I asked my sister.
             My nephew took it and converted it to do Tris with.
             He did quite well.

18. “Housekeeping: It’s important to visit the family when you’re in the area. Though some reject the notion, dogs are part of the family, too”.
    Sometimes you visit family members just for the company of their dogs.
    “A shadow government has run our nation under the Biden regime for the past four years”.
    When Trump beat Shillary, Obama bought a large property in D.C. and openly said they would create a “shadow government”.
    Trump’s mistake, IMO, was trusting the wrong people, giving them the benefit of the doubt. Will he make the same mistake this time?

    1. I hope that Trump has learned his lesson, but he exists in a bubble now in much the same way as he would in the White House (again). The bubble is also your enemy in that situation.
       –
       You have an exceptionally popular dog, beloved by all.

19. “why won’t they do so again, in 2024?”
    For Nov 6th, I’ve got fireworks and firearms. One or the other will be called for.

20. ** Boating with EdB.
    I did that once. It was embarrassing.
    I was tired of the waves walking me off the beach as I slept waiting for the kids.
    So I really gave it the gas….

21. Cute little British carrier. I’ll bet I could amuse the neighbors with it.
    .
    I’m hoping and praying that DJT will win. Then the fun begins. The Deep State will release their Flying Monkeys again, and I expect a whole lotta pandemonium, destruction, and many deaths. The Big Cities will be aflame again, and darkness will cover us.
    .
    Of course dogs are family. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Roxy looks like a Pit, or Amstaff. I’ll bet she’s a sweetheart.
    .

    1. Roxy is a Pit. They have a lot of personality. She’s no exception.

22. Fez? Well they were irreg.

    Good election call, imo.

    1. … and was that a BREN? Two round bursts

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