Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas!

That is all.

Die Hard and Ghostbusters

It's that time of year for everyone's favorite Christmas movie: Die Hard. I watched it last week on Amazon Prime Video in 4K UHD. 

And on a recent weekend (which is when I watch movies), I watched Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. I watched them on a cable channel which means they were "edited for content." I hate that. Also, I haven't seen Ghostbusters II since probably 1990 or whenever it was available in my local Blockbuster. I have Ghostbusters on DVD so I can watch it whenever the mood strikes.

While watching Ghostbusters, I remembered the connections it has to Die Hard. Everyone pretty much knows that Reginald VelJohnson played an unnamed cop in Ghostbusters and played a cop (Sgt. Al Powell) in Die Hard. (He also went on to play a cop in the sitcom Family Matters.)

Also in Ghostbusters is William Atherton as a pesky, annoying EPA bureaucrat. And he's in Die Hard as a pesky, annoying television news reporter.  

But then I went on to watch Ghostbusters II and it, too, has Die Hard connections. In it, Mary Ellen Trainor plays a mother at a birthday party. She was also a news anchor in Die Hard.

Finally, Wilhelm von Homburg plays Vigo (the bad spirit) in Ghostbusters II and James (one of the terrorists) in Die Hard.

Welcome to the party, pal!

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

SPORTS

M16A1

Here's a war story for you. Or, actually a basic training story.

I was in basic training (officially Basic Combat Training or BTC) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (Fort Lost in the Woods, Misery was what we called it). We were doing night shooting training. They gave us four magazines of 20 rounds each of live ammunition. We were supposed to shoot the first two magazines on semi-auto with our M16A1 rifles and then two magazines on full auto when they gave the word. I don't remember what this was supposed to teach us.

They cautioned us against pretending to have a jam so we could shoot more on auto. 

I got into position in a pre-dug foxhole (it was concrete lined), slammed in the first magazine, charged the weapon (cocked it), and prepared to fire. They gave us the order to fire over a loud speaker. I squeeze the trigger, and nothing. I probably tried again. Still nothing. So, as had been drilled into us, I did SPORTS.

What is SPORTS? 

• (S)lam (or slap) the magazine to make sure it's seated correctly
• (P)ull back on the charging handle (which you hope ejects the jammed cartridge)
• (O)bserve the port for any blockage (it was night, that was difficult)
• (R)elease the charging handle (which should put a new round in the chamber)
• (T)ap the forward assist*
• (S)hoot, you hope (some say the "S" means "squeeze the trigger")

I did that. Still nothing. 

So I pulled out the magazine, tapped it on my helmet to seat the cartridges. I slapped the magazine back in, charged the weapon, and pulled the trigger. Nothing. Now I'm starting to worry that the drill sergeants are going to think I'm faking this. So I did SPORTS again and it finally fired. I got through one 20-round magazine when the order to change to full-auto came. So I switched the selector from semi to full auto.  (The M16A1 selector switch had three settings: safe, semi automatic, and full automatic**) Now I didn't rock and roll like they show in the movies. You can empty a magazine in a few seconds like that. I did what I was trained to do: short controlled bursts. But it was still more fun than semi-auto. And I got to fire 60 rounds instead of 40 on full auto. 

The drills never said anything to me so they must have believed I was actually having problems. 

When I got to my first "permanent" duty station, Fort Ord, California, they issued us M16A2s. The A2 didn't have a full-automatic setting. Only a 3-round burst setting. You pull the trigger and held it and you get three rounds fired downrange. But I had been trained to fire short bursts and it drove me nuts. Luckily, I didn't shoot much at Fort Ord and only once on 3-round burst.

*The forward assist pushed the bolt forward so it seated properly in the chamber. It was on the right side of the upper receiver. When the M16 first came out, it was discovered that releasing the charging handle didn't always seat the bolt correctly. So updated versions had the forward assist. Basically, it was to compensate for a design flaw instead of fixing the flaw.

**Semi-automatic means you pull the trigger and one round fires. You release the trigger, pull it again, and one round fires. Full-automatic means you pull the trigger and if you hold it, rounds fire until you release the trigger or the magazine (or other feed device such as a belt) is empty.

Huskies' Regular Season Wrapup

The University of Washington Huskies' regular season ended Saturday, November 29th with a brutal 26-14 loss to the #6 (#5 AP) ranked Oregon Ducks at home. Our quarterback only hit 50% of his passes but the Oregon defense had him on his heels for most of the game. I won't bore you with why I say Oregon is basically a professional team in college football. Yet, still, no national title for them!

 The Huskies' regular season record is 8-4 which is a lot better than last year's 6-6 season (6-7 including the bowl game we lost).

One of the teams we lost to was Ohio State at home. Ohio State was at the time ranked #1 in the AP poll and undefeated (still is). Another team we lost to was Michigan who we played in Ann Arbor in The Big House. It's very hard to win in The Big House. Unfortunately, Michigan wasn't ranked at the time.

There were some nail-biter games. In the Maryland away game, the Huskies didn't start playing until about the middle of the third quarter and managed to score 24 unanswered points to win the game. We did beat #23 (at the time) Illinois 42-25. 

For one brief shinning moment after beating Illinois, we were ranked: 24 in the AP poll and 23 in the CFP. There was talk about the Huskies making it into the college football playoffs. It looked like we'd have an easy run to the Oregon game which was the last game of the season.

Then we played Wisconsin in Madison. They were 2-6. We were 6-2. It should have been an easy win despite the awful weather conditions. But we lost, 10-13. Nothing went our way and there were dumb mistakes made. That knocked us down to 6-3 and we were no longer ranked. Our star wide receiver and star running back were both hurt in the Wisconsin game making that game a pyrrhic defeat. 

Then the rumors started that head coach Jedd Fisch wanted out. His family didn't like Seattle and his wife had moved back to Arizona. At first, Fisch didn't say anything and the rumors were everywhere. At his weekly press conference, he denied that he wanted to leave. But the rumors persisted. And after that loss at Wisconsin, maybe no one wanted him.

Then we played Perdue at home. They were 2-8 and in last place in the Big Ten. We beat them handily 49-13. One of our freshman receivers left the game in an ambulance. The Perdue players were jerks. Awfully cocky for a last-place team.

Next we played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. UCLA was 3-7 overall and I was a little nervous because the Huskies had struggled with away games. I needn't worry; we beat them 48-14. (At one point it was 34-0.)

One thing that I didn't like was the number of teams we played that were coming off of bye weeks. They were:

• Ohio State
• Maryland
• Rutgers
• Illinois
• Wisconsin

That's almost half the games we played and 55.5% of the conference games we played. We won all but two of those. And for the Wisconsin game, we were also coming off a bye week.

Years ago when the Huskies were not very good, I came up with the criteria for me to call it a good year. They were:

• Have at least an 8-4 record (did that)
• Beat Washington State (they did)
• Beat Oregon (they didn't)
• Go to a good bowl game (they likely will)
• Win that bowl game (we'll see)

Now we just wait to find out on Selection Sunday (the 7th) what bowl we're going to play in and later if our coach is going to leave. He was rumored to be wanted at Florida, but they hired someone else.

UPDATE: The Huskies played in the "Bucked Up LA Bowl" on December 13th. That was the first bowl game of the season. They played Boise State and beat them 38-10. So they didn't go to a good bowl, but that did win it. If it weren't for that Wisconsin loss, they would have been a pretty good season.

Happy Thanksgiving

I remember years ago someone told me that Thursdays are the best days to post blogs. So since then I've mostly posted my blog on Thursdays.

However this year is unique. Not only does Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) fall on Thursday as usual, but so does Christmas and New Years (Christmas and New Years always fall on the same day of the week). So the question is, do I post blogs on all those Thursdays?

Well, maybe on New Years Day.

In any case, if you live in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving!

I Like Cars with Actual Names

1959 Cadillac Coupe deVille

The other day I was at a stoplight behind an Acura ADX A-Spec. That's a mouthful. Not sure what that "A-Spec" means. It doesn't seem to mean more horsepower or anything sporty according the the Acura website. (There is a Type S ADX that has more horsepower.)

But I was struck by the designation of the car: "ADX." When I was a kid most cars had names. Yes some still do, but a lot of car companies have just gone to alphanumerics. Acura is one of the worst offenders, as are Cadillac (except for the Escalade and their electric vehicles) and Infiniti. The Ford F-150 (pickup truck) has been called that since 1984, but Ford and Lincoln still name their other vehicles such as the Mustang, the Explorer, and the Navigator.

BMW, Audi, and Mercedes Benz have, as far as I know, always used alphanumerics. They used to mean something. For example a BMW 540i was a 5-series with a 4.0 liter V-8 engine. The "i" meant that is was a fuel-injected gas vehicle.

Car names used to evoke emotions such as Camaro (a made-up word) or Bonneville. Ford sullied the Mustang name by attaching it to an SUV EV. I've read that Chevrolet is planning a Corvette line of vehicles, including an SUV. I hope not.

It got me thinking: which letters are cool on cars and which are not? There's only 26 letters in the alphabet and some haven't been used, as far as I know. Such as K or U. Even B found a home in the Toyota bz4x EV.

"GT" has been used a lot on cars, especially the Mustang. "GT" stands for "grand tourer" or "gran tourer" (or in Italian, "Gran Turismo"), Ferrari also used "GT" on some of its cars such as the  250 GT California Spyder. (I talk about what "Spyder" means here.)

I miss cars having names. the Cadillac CT5 isn't as evocative as "Coupe deVille." 

What do you think? Do you prefer cars to have names or just alphanumerics. And which letters aren't cool on cars? Let me know in the comments below.

Technology has Changed so Much

Atari 2600

My 6-year-old grandson came to visit on a recent weekend. One of the things he wanted to do was play video games on his uncle’s Switch (it might be a Switch 2; I can't keep up). He's coming for Thanksgiving, too, and I'm sure will want to play video games with his uncle then, too.

I realized he’s never lived in a world without video games or the internet or small portable screens, and big-screen televisions a couple of inches thick, if that. His father and uncles had video games but not handheld ones until the Gameboy came out.

I remember seeing my first arcade game at about age 15. It was a space thing that was a blatant rip off of Star Trek.  I specifically remember playing "Tank" on an arcade for a quarter.  I didn’t have home video games until I bought an Atari 2600 when I was 21 or 22. I remember circa 1994 (I was 33) learning about email and then the internet. Now look at me, blogging and stuff.

I stopped playing video games about the time I turned 50. I kept dying because I couldn't react fast enough. It was no longer fun. Although I did play "Angry Birds" on my phone. Even that was a long time ago.

My point: my grandson will grow up with stuff I never had. His parents are smart and limit his game time and his "tablet time." And I noticed he plays mostly educational games on his tablet. I just hope he gets to enjoy some of the joys of my childhood: playing outside and riding my bicycle all over the neighborhood.

When did you first play video games? How old were you? Let me know in the comments below.