Death by gunfire

"Since the killing of John Kennedy in 1963, more Americans have died by American gunfire than perished on foreign battlefields in the whole of the 20th century. In 2005 more than 400 children were murdered with guns."
If these two sentences from The Economist, April 21, 2007, (pg 11), don't surprise, shock, enlighten, and make you wonder if we will ever come to our senses about guns in America, then you must be brain dead or callous to the extreme.

Disappointed at dinner

Last night I took a party of seven to the Outback in North Charleston and came away disappointed with the food. This was my favorite restaurant in the North Area for years. For openers the bloomin' onion was overcooked or fried in grease long past its shelf life. It was dark brown and hard, almost brittle, more so than I ever recall.

I ordered my usual - the New York Strip Steak, which is usually rectangular and anywhere from 7/8s to and inch and a half thick (depending on the quality of the restaurant) with a thin strip of fat along one side. (See picture from www.lacensebeef.com/shop/steaks/new-york-strip).

The steak I received was flat like a small pancake and about one-half inch thick, more like a sirloin or rump steak. I sent it back and several minutes later a woman supervisor brought me another identical steak. When I complained this was not a NYSS she told me it was and it looked as it did because of the way I ordered it: "medium well, with just a slight touch of pink in the middle". In 50 or so years of eating New York Strip Steak, I never heard this idiotic comment before.

Food probably lousy, but bombing?

A bomb exploded in the Iraqi Parliament's cafeteria in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone Thursday, killing eight people including three lawmakers.
The attack came hours after a suicide truck bomb blew up a major bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.

The little engine who could

In France the railroad set a record of 357.2 mph for a train zipping through the countryside from Paris to Strasbourg as Frenchmen cheered along the route. In Hanahan, SC, where I live, the total speed for the three to six trains a day plodding through the countryside doesn't reach 357 mph, as drivers wait at the crossing and file their nails. (The Japanese hold the record for train speed having reached 361 mph some time ago.)