Branded Burger

Do you go out for dinner? I don't, hardly ever, but tonight a kind churchman invited, "We'll be in town this evening where we can do our business. Why not join us for dinner afterwards?" What, dinner in the NCTEZ (North Central Texas Exclusion Zone)? Terrifying prospect, but it can be done, at Branded Burger.

Branded Burger is a family owned Midlothian restaurant which has expanded into a few neighboring towns and their slogan is, "Where The Locals Eat." Their signature is a burger in a bun which has been branded with their... brand and stabbed through with a black plastic knife.

As in, take that, burger, I forgot my Benchmade or Opinel, so here's this plastic knife statement. Marketing aside, the Branded Burger is pretty dam good, coming in seared and quick at around 7 bucks. The patty? Close to an inch thick and properly medium rare. Yes, this is a good burger and I devoured mine like a hungry wolf.

Verdict: If you're lucky enough to travel through our storied lands, stop at Branded Burger, they're alright.

Boodles Forever,

LSP

But, But, Is It Accurate?

Is it Accurate? That depends on the Knife.

How many times have you heard it? "Is it accurate??" says some plaintive shooter, looking at a gun he (it's mostly men) wants to spend a fair amount of change on. And it's not just the purchaser's fault. Cynical huckster gun shop salesmen, (they're mostly men) gull mug punters with promises of unnerving dead-eye shooting precision. "Man. This CZ is outstanding. It'll group on a dime. It's that accurate." They want their sale, of course, and the inexperienced shooter will learn soon enough that the gun's more accurate than he is. Or she is.

Get on the X, for God's sake.

My point is, the "accuracy" talk can get stupid and annoying. Shooter, get accurate by learning how to shoot.

Here's an excellent video from Hickock45 on the subject. 

Right on, Hickock and I'm jealous of your range.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Peace Pole Awesome

I took a risk and left Texas for a week. "Why, LSP, did you do that?" Because I had to go to a conference just outside of St. Louis, at Our Lady of the Snows Shrine, in Belleville, Illinois. It was a good event and focused, primarily, on prayer.

Peace Pole

The present Shrine was built in  the late 1960s, I think, and features a "Peace Pole." Maybe you think that Peace Poles are harmless.

Harmless?

Think again.

LSP

Get Out and Hunt

There's few things I like better right now than getting out in the field after Sunday's Masses and roving about with a shotgun in search of dove, or small game. Going solo is good, just you, the countryside, senses sharpened in search of game and the satisfaction of something for the pot if things go right. If they don't? An armed ramble about the fields and treelines is good too. But I prefer to go out with company, which lately means GWB and his bird dog in training, JEB.

We shot a couple of the feathered acrobats and missed far more, they'll fly again to fight another day, and most of our time was spent set-up in silence along the edge of a big field waiting for the dove to fly. I like that silence. After a while you start to hear the sounds of the country, insects, birds, livestock, far off dogs and... dove! Then it's up and at 'em with a vengeance.

But they're canny rocketeers. They'll swerve to miss the shot, take off at impossible angles like gravity defying UFOs and otherwise defy the shooter. One seemed to play dead yesterday, stumbling in mid arc, nosedive falling straight down towards the ground, then taking off like an insane experiment out of the Peenemunde proving grounds. Well flown.

Then it was back to the tailgate to clean the birds as the sun was setting and back to HQ to eat them.

Fried up the breasts with onion, garlic and chili sauce on a toasted bun with mayo -- sandwich style.

Tasty, followed up by a glass or two of the right stuff on the porch and the usual banter about Angelic alphabets, Benchmade v. Spyderco, the wickedness of Yoko Ono and the perversity of thinking that the more you're taxed the richer you'll be.

God bless,

LSP