Old Dave: Blog

Once again, I've wandered into Oystwer50's Smart Girl Universe. Should have packed a lunch. Lunch, hell, should have brought a chuck wagon and 35ft travel trailer. Gonna be here a while. If you have never been here, or it's been a while, it's a great place. So, come on in, or come back, the reading and imagining is fantastic.

We are blessed with some great writers on this site. Without a doubt, there are stories better than anything the best sellers lists ever imagined. Better than everything coming out of Hollywood these days.

Currently, I'm reading one of the best. I won't review 'The Legend of Eli Crow' as the writer prefers no reviews of his stories. However, if you are looking for a fantastic read, this is one.

It is not always "and I". You can find the grammar rules else where, but here is the easy way. If just one person was doing something would you say me or I?

I rode the bus. Me rode the bus. John and I rode the bus.

The bus took I to town. The bus took me to town. The bus took John and me to town.

(Unless Jody Daniel is writing about Tracy!)

Remember the bit about you have unprotected sex with someone you are having sex with everyone they had sex with?

With Covid, you breathe with someone and you are breathing with everyone they have. And that is a hell of a lot more than they screwed.

So, whether you are breeding or breathing, use protection! Ya don't want to take something home with you. 300,000 is enough, don't kill your family also.

I was wondering about things in some of the western stories here on SOL involving shootin'.

First, does getting shot throw a body across the room? Lacking first hand experience, I asked the experts, namely our fellow readers. The census was no. From a physics standpoint, the impact won't be greater than the recoil. (Equal and opposite actions and all that. Sand don't forget mass.) Also, the bullet is gonna pass through. Yes, it'll tear the heck out of you, but its gonna go through, unless it hits bone but it won't throw you across the room. Getting hit by a car will move you a lot more. As one responder said, watch a hunting show or Google 'meat target'.

Second question, in the old west, if you shoot somebody in self defense, do you really get to claim their gun, clothes, horse and everything in their room? In addition to our fellow readers, I posed the question to a professor of history at the University of New Mexico. He's either on a break or figures I'm some crackpot to ask in the first place cause I've not heard back. Seems likely the only place this is codified is here in fiction land. We've pictures of dead outlaws in their clothes, but that's about. Now, if you have to shoot some guy out on the trail and you ride off and leave his horse tied to a tree, the bag of gold and his gun on the ground, don't say much about your smarts. Especially if his gun, gold and horse are better than what you've got. Oh, are his brand new boots your size?