Spaw, re: your earlier post, have you ever been down-wind of a black-powder firearm when it went off? Phe-e-e-e-u-u-wy!!!

A bit of thread-drift. bob jr, Kim C is not necessarily bragging about her skill at being able to inflict injury. It's a sport. I've done a lot of target shooting (Smith & Wesson Model 41 .22 caliber, designed as a target pistol, never intended to be used as a weapon and poorly designed for that purpose -- it's over a foot long, has a muzzle-brake, and comes in a box, not a holster). The whole purpose is to improve your scores at poking holes in a piece of papar at 25 yards. The mental set is kind of like golf.

Also, I used to fence, but I never, ever, had any intention of trying to kill someone with a sword. Facing someone in a combat situation with a foil in your hand (and a protective mask on, of course) and imagining that if your opponent slips through your guard, you could wind up with two feet of sharp steel through your lungs is a kind of romantic, atavistic fantasy that lends a certain caution to your swordplay -- but to be faced with the real thing is not romantic at all!

There are a lot of sports that were serious survival skills and abilities in times gone by, but in a modern, civilized world, have outgrown their practical usefulness (I don't regard trying to inflict injury as "practical"). They are thoroughly enjoyable sports, nevertheless.

Don Firth