For someone who's supposedly getting "ignored", about 200 (?) hits between 2 threads on a topic i started all in good fun isn't too bad, eh? Shazaam!

Capos are great on guitars, but how many of us have used 'em on a 5-string banjo? You've got to trig that little 5th string down with something to keep in in tune with the other 4, cause if you just keep crankin' it up, it'll surely snap on ye! I used to catch it under an HO model railroad spike driven into the fingerboard about 3 frets below the 5th -string peg, and whittled notches on both ends of a 2" X 3/8" dowel which I glommed over the strings with rubber bands passed around the neck to capo the main 4.

In order to get a Concealed Permit in Maine, you have to provide evidence of training, as an NRA firearms safety course - which is, IMO, fitting and proper. My certificate of 1st-Place service-revolver award from the NH State Police Academy did the trick just fine. I would reccomend the book "In The Gravest Extreme" by Massadd AYOOB as a must-read primer for anyone even considering the use of firearms for home and/or self defence.

I got in trouble with some of my NRA cohorts a while back by agreeing with Gov. KING that individuals under a protective restraining order from the Court generally be excluded from CW (Concealed Weapons) permits. If some yahoo has been abusing or stalking his "ex", he (in 99.9% of the cases it's a "he") has NO business packing, IMHO. I went beyond that to suggest that similar limits / sanctions to intoxiction be placed on the bearing of arms as is currently applied to operating motor vehicles. I've seen too many then-fellow Cops too wasted to walk in a bar, knowing that they were packing hot (loaded) iron; sometimes more than one. Badge or no badge, that practice never struck me as being at all intelligent, and I don't think that the 2nd Ammendment was ever intended to apply to drunks and lunatics! "Well Regulated" sort of implies "sane and sober" to me. I seem to be able to alienate folks on BOTH sides of an issue. It's a gift.

MAV and I are seperate entities, although we share a bench at the Lantern Works and certain political persuasions. He likes Jazz and Swing, but has not nearly the affection for "Folk" Music as I do. But he's very tolerant and a good sport about my Irish jigs, reels and Shanteys on the pennywhistle out in the parking lot during breaks. I've broached the subject of "Blues Whistle", and he just smiles and shakes his head...