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2017-12-03 Home Front: Culture Wars

This Week in Books, December 3, 2017

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Posted by swksvolFF 2017-12-03 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 Based on your recommendation, swksvolFF, I bought The Lawdog Files for myself. :-)

Posted by trailing wife 2017-12-03 09:38|| 2017-12-03 09:38|| Front Page Top

#2 25 years ago I read similar about checking home water shutoff valves. I tested my main valve, it failed immediately. It wouldn't shut off the supply and started leaking a fair amount around the handle that nothing could stop. I did this on a weekday at 0900, so I had the time to track down a plumber, contact the city water service & do all necessary to get the bad valve out and a good valve in. Additional advice: Everytime you leave your house overnight or longer, shut the main valve off. That way makes it less likely you will, say, return home and find your basement turned into a swimming pool while you were away. That actually happened to several families I knew.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-12-03 10:11|| 2017-12-03 10:11|| Front Page Top

#3 Just about happened to me recently. I'm not talking some random pipe on Dungeon Level III requiring a saving throw, it was easily inspected and look fine, other than the baby kraken nested inside. Working valve kept a souumbbitchk moment from becoming a Jaques Coustou special. 'ere, we ave ze plesiosaur in itz glory, in ze basement of swksvolFF.'

Posted by swksvolFF 2017-12-03 10:33|| 2017-12-03 10:33|| Front Page Top

#4 I tested my main valve, it failed immediately. It wouldn't shut off the supply and started leaking a fair amount around the handle that nothing could stop.

The way they build houses in SoCal, everybody should check for this. The handle on my valve was so rusty it was about to fall off. Cheap, third rate parts. The builder cut corners in every legal way and some that probably weren't. The main water valve still worked though. I learned that when the valve on the pipe that leads into the toilet broke the first time I tried it. But I had them both fixed.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2017-12-03 11:18|| 2017-12-03 11:18|| Front Page Top

#5 Still enjoying 'Horse Soldiers'. Thank you.

Anyone know of something to drink that has a very low freezing point which I can throw in the car?

In my early Chicago sub-arctic winter years I carried fortified wines and/or Orange Vodka. Either of which would work well in the windshield washer to breakup ice spray or make slushies with a cup full of snow.
Now it's more 'near beer' which may turn to a slushie but does not freeze and burst, yet.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-12-03 11:20|| 2017-12-03 11:20|| Front Page Top

#6 I once accidentally left a carton of Bud out in the car on a subzero night. Brought it in, beer appeared to be liquid somehow. I popped one open & was delighted to see the beer flash freeze on the sudden change in pressure in the bottle. The icy slush slowly oozed out of the bottle. While the bottle didn't break, I don't know. The rest of the beer I carefully set down on the kitchen floor to slowly warm it. No bottles broke.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-12-03 12:25|| 2017-12-03 12:25|| Front Page Top

#7 --- My car emergency kit includes a polyester filled sleeping bag rather than a blanket, works better to keep you warm.
--- I always carry a small bottle of propane, one of those cheap screw-on camping propane burners, a metal camping pot with lid and several cheap butane lighters -- all this stuff is lightweight, cheap and not bulky and will not freeze above about -45 deg F. You can melt snow or ice this way, and even heat up the inside of your vehicle if you take great care to allow the fumes to exhaust & new O2 to get in - otherwise fumes and low O2 can kill in confined spaces.
I once used this equipment to brew a desperately needed cup of real coffee on the shoulder of a Texas highway in the middle of nowhere. Just dumped the ground coffee in the pot of boiling water & drank the "supernatant" as we used to say in chemistry class. Best coffee I ever had!

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-12-03 12:36|| 2017-12-03 12:36|| Front Page Top

#8 Cheap, third rate parts. Years ago my electric service panel caught on fire when I reset a tripped circuit breaker. Turned out corrosion accumulated over decades had built up on the aluminum buss bar to which the ends of the circuit breakers are attached. This was hardly visible. Somehow a spark created by resetting the circuit breaker ignited either/or the plastic of the circuit breaker or the aluminum tabs of the buss bar -- all hidden under the other parts. Fortunately I stopped the fire by quickly switching off the main breakers at the top of the panel. Discussed this later with an electrician. He said this only happens with aluminum buss bars & not with copper ones. Sometimes fires would start spontaneously in the panels. Copper costs $5 or $10 more for the average home service panel.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-12-03 12:44|| 2017-12-03 12:44|| Front Page Top

#9 Favorite Christmas book, below review from Amazon

Using glowing, hypnotic images and a funny, provocative text, the narrator relives his father's most amazing childhood Christmas. A moody young boy living with his aunt on an island, "Red" Breathed sees himself as the "Red Ranger from Mars", his hero from the movie serials, and cannot picture life without the gift of a Red Ranger bicycle. Red is far too "swanky a human being" to believe in Santa Claus, but nevertheless he pays a visit to the aged island hermit, Lord Sander Clos, rumored to be the legendary man himself, now living in lonely, joyless retirement. This meeting triggers an emotional response within the self-absorbed Red and leads to the most remarkable bicycle ever delivered on Christmas morning. This book represents Berkeley Breathed at the top of his form.

Posted by Shipman 2017-12-03 13:50|| 2017-12-03 13:50|| Front Page Top

#10 I just finished The Desert Column about the Australian light horse in WWI.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2017-12-03 13:55|| 2017-12-03 13:55|| Front Page Top

#11 For those interested in reviewing swksvolFF’s past emergency preparedness columns, the Rantburg Search function at the top of the page will get that for you. Type “emergency preparedness” in the box, and then again in the box in the ‘Burg Search screen that pops up, changing the start date to January 2016. That will give you the comments as well.

Posted by trailing wife 2017-12-03 14:06|| 2017-12-03 14:06|| Front Page Top

#12 Seconding the Lawdogs book. I also picked up his book of Africa stories (which weren't all from Africa). There seem to have been points of difference between facilities available for an engineer's son and those available to a missionaries' son.

Posted by james 2017-12-03 18:19|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com 2017-12-03 18:19|| Front Page Top

#13 Glad you like the book Skid.

I have The Lion's Gate by Steven Pressfield on my short list. The Desert Column sounds interesting.

Thank you for all the help TW.

I really want the Africa Stories; last I checked it is electronic only.

Something fun for the kids:

Mustang, OK Fire Prevention

Posted by swksvolFF 2017-12-03 19:18|| 2017-12-03 19:18|| Front Page Top

#14

Afrika stories...?

Harold Bindloss, The Young Traders

Very old, but an excellent read.

Posted by Besoeker 2017-12-03 19:44|| 2017-12-03 19:44|| Front Page Top

#15 VDH is on c-span 2 talking about his new book.

Posted by swksvolFF 2017-12-03 20:14|| 2017-12-03 20:14|| Front Page Top

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