Olympics: American Sniper. Wow, This Doesn't Fit The Washington, DC, Story Line -- August 6, 2016

First Olympic gold medal.

Goes to the US.

Goes to a woman.

Goes to a teen-ager.

Gun.

Gold medal.

Link here.

Beats out the top two Chinese shooters and the top Russian shooter in a field of eight. Questionable whether she would even medal.

Remember that name. It's an easy one to remember: Virginia Thrasher.

American Sniper.

The comments at the story are quite interesting.

The interesting story line not talked about: just to get to the final eight, she had to beat a lot of Olympic competitors. Just to make the US team, she had to beat a gazillion US competitors.

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The Weber Page

The Weber Mobile Grill arrives at Sturgis.

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It's A Wonderful Life

Some days, or perhaps more precisely, some moments can never be more perfect. For me, most of those perfect moments occurred in Yorkshire, along the Scottish border, some years ago. 

I am having one of those perfect moments now. I sat down to my usual Saturday lunch: four pieces of pickled herring in wine sauce, and 3/4 ounce of a great Scotch. The particular Scotch hardly matters; I can enjoy them all, although it may take me a few minutes to renew my acquaintance with Laphroaig.

I sat down at our incredibly nice new dinner table (another story for another time), took a bite (or a bit) of herring and a sip of Scotch.

I then went back to the "Review" section of today's Wall Street Journal. Nirvana. Page C5: a book review of Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane, c. 2016, 434 pages, $18. The review was about a third of the entire page, and was all about "landforms" and words and descriptions of the Scottish highlands. There was a picture of the immensity of Scotland, and it easily could have been me several years ago, although my hiking attire would have been different.

The words I love to hear were repeated in the review: heather, moor, bog, hag, crag, loch, and lochan. And that was just in the first few paragraphs.

But there is more. Here is the link.  Note the writer of the review: Tom Shippey. I missed that the first time. I don't know when I noticed the name, but when I did, I said, "wow, that name looks familiar." No wonder. Tom Shippey is the author of one of my favorite books: J.R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century.

Scotch, pickled herring in white wine sauce, and memories of Scotland -- some moments can never be more perfect.

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Salmon Dinner