Right there's the picter.
Kind of gets y' to thinkin'--
Them folks, eatin' folks.

---

This is actually "Take II."  Take I was deleted, because I decided it was too graphic even for me.  From The Picture in the House.  (How do you write poetry about cannibalism without people thinking you're some kind of freak?)

Ha ha ha.

From baltimoresun.com :

Frank Melton, the flamboyant, gun-toting mayor of Jackson, Miss., was indicted along with two police bodyguards yesterday on numerous felony charges stemming from his controversial crime-fighting tactics.

[...]

Most of the charges arose from an Aug. 26 incident in which Melton, two policemen and a group of young men hired by the mayor allegedly destroyed an inner-city duplex during a purported crime sweep, according to the indictment and a source close to the investigation. The source said some of the young men are suspected of using sledgehammers to destroy the property.

Previous posts on Melton here.

From Hometown News:

Beaumont [Texas] police say one man is dead tonight and another is behind bars facing aggravated assault charges after forcing their way into a man`s apartment and demanding money. They say one man forced the victim into his bedroom and looked for cash when the victim grabbed his hand-gun. According to police, the other robber then entered the bedroom and the victim shot both men in self defense. One was shot in the chest and the other was shot in the leg, forearm and left side. The two men were taken to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital where one died shortly after arrival. The names of the men and victim have not yet been released and the case is still under investigation.

For GOP and the City Weekend Caption Contest.

UPDATE:  Ninth place!  Cool.

Stomp it or let it burn?

Condemned unto eternal damnation if you do, condemned unto eternal damnation if you don't.

More at TNOYF.

Last night we had what I think might be the hottest low temperature of the year at 79 degrees (according to my digital mini-weatherstation).

The temp didn't get very high today due to cloud cover, but it feels like a pressure cooker outside.  The humidity has remained quite high all day.

Now there's a severe weather warning, and it looks like it might be because of a Pacific hurricane:  Hurricane Lane.

I've been thinking for a while about starting an irregular series on the .357 Magnum.  Over the past few years, this has become my "favorite" cartridge.  It still seems a little odd to me that think that anyone could have a favorite cartridge, but it seems that it is what I shoot the most, and now I'm looking for a long gun that uses that round.  A while back I started doing regular searches for articles, news, and blog posts about it, and some interesting stuff has turned up.

What I'm aiming for is just sort of a round-up of any interesting articles and blog posts that I come across, and may be posted once every couple of weeks, or maybe even only once a month, or maybe a lot more frequently than that if there's a burst of .357 magnum activity.  Stuff about the .38 Special will be included, too.

I haven't even put the first one of these together yet, but I'll probably start working on it pretty soon.  So if you have any blog posts or anything else you think is interesting regarding the .357 magnum, let me know.  For the first couple of installments in the series, older blog posts will also be included.  This is partly so I can have my own listing of stuff about the .357 on my blog that will make it easy for me to search when I want to find it again.

Any suggestions for a name for the series will also be welcome.  Something catchier than "357 Magnum News Roundup."

Original at SondraK via Cowboy Blob.

My Gimp-fu still needs improvement.  I spent a lot of time just trying to think up the lame captions.

Alternate caption for the green headband guy:  "Abba Zaba, you my only friend."

UPDATE:  A similar twist.

This painting, California News, by William Mount includes a self portrait.  The artist has portrayed himself in the right foreground with a clay pipe in his hand.  This scene depicts Mount and other tavern patrons checking the newspapers for news of the California gold fields.

Mount grew up on a farm on Long Island.  During a time when other artists preferred to emulate the European academic tradition of painting historical, religious, or literary scenes, Mount chose rather to depict rural American subjects in a realistic style.  He became apprenticed to his older brother, who was already an artist and who had a sign-painting shop in New York City, after their father died when William was only 7.

Mount was once offered the opportunity to study art in Europe, but declined "for fear I might be induced by the splendor of European art to tarry too long, and thus lose my nationality. We have nature, it speaks to every one and what efforts I have made in art have been appreciated by my countrymen."

William Mount was one of the first American artists to portray African Americans in his paintings "with dignity although he opposed abolition of slavery."

He was also an inventor and an accomplished musician.  He invented a steamboat paddle wheel, a two-hulled sailboat, a painting studio on wheels and a hollow back violin named the "Cradle of Harmony."  He was also admired for his skill as a country fiddler, and was a composer and collector of songs as well, publishing several songbooks.

William Mount biographical info from askart.com.
Information on the Cradle of Harmony violin at HistoryWired.