Turn Full Circle

Remember No Irish Need Apply?

Works both ways:

It is hardly the way to win over tourists, but this Irish cafe doesn't seem to care.

Peter's Place, a pretty eatery in County Kerry, has placed a notice in its window banning 'loud American's from entering.

The cafe lists the undesirables it would prefer not to receive in its establishment, including bus and coach tours and rowdy tourists from across the Pond.

Arrival

This is a vintage copy of the classic Marble's Woodcraft hunting knife, made in Solingen, Germany, and featuring a stag handle, brass guard, and nickle-silver pommel. No sheath, but sheaths for these old knives were usually of poor quality, anyway; the replacement I'll have made won't be.

In the first half of the 20th century the knives and other outdoor products made by Webster L. Marble's company were what American men carried in the woods, and they were the first real innovation to come along in nearly 100 years, US hunting knife design being stuck to that point on variations of the Bowie knife. The Marble's knife patterns remained popular throughout most of the 20th century, until the coming of knifemaker Bob Loveless and his handmade dropped point, tapered tang knives.

No less an authority than Horace Kephart advocated the Woodcraft pattern in his classic book Camping and Woodcraft.

This one was acquired on eBay for $50.

I should note that while the Marble's name still exists, the product line is knockoff crap made in China these days, and so not worth spending your money on. There was a period during the 1990's when the owners of the name hired Mike Stewart of Bark River Knives to make their knives, and for a few years the Marble's name again meant quality, but that period has ended.

Meanwhile, In Texas...

...a court ruled that the state can't ban Confederate flags on license plates:

According to the Los Angeles Times, there was a 2-1 ruling in the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Texas department violated the First Amendment rights of the Sons of Confederate Veterans group when they rejected their specialty license plate application in 2011. The majority vote made by the court stated that the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles “engaged in impermissible viewpoint discrimination.”

Last April U.S. Judge Ann Sparks ruled that the state had the right to reject the plates, but now that ruling has been overturned.

Johnny Winter, 1944-2014: R.I.P.

Dead at 70 of undisclosed causes in Zurich, Switzerland. Got to see him once back in the early 1980's during his Alligator Records years, and he was in fact scheduled for a Charlotte appearance later this year. I'll miss him, he was a favorite of mine.



h/t Ann Althouse.

Meanwhile, In Connecticut...

...a man was arrested for stabbing a watermelon "in a passive-aggressive manner."

He Scalzified it, in other words.

Carjacker Deterrant

Drive a car with standard shift.

It's looking more and more like most of those dummies can't drive a standard shift car. And they might just conveniently put their gun down while they try to work three pedals and a shifter.

It Wasn't the Book, Jesse...

...it was the fact that you chose to sue the widow of a hero.

Jesse Ventura is unhappy that he's no longer welcome at SEAL functions.

The Voice of Midnight

A concept from a couple of strangely-named men:

Gurf Morlix:



And his friend and fellow Austin resident Slaid Cleaves:

It Takes a Village...

...to teach Jabba to read.

Ho Ho Hooooo