Food: Crumbl

When I was a kid, chain cookie options were limited to mall stores like Mrs. Fields and Great American Cookies. Their products were addictive, sure, but not terribly interesting. In other words, people craved the sugary hit of those bags of mini chocolate chip cookies, but it was pure comfort food...none of the flavors would ever surprise you.

In today's TikTok-saturated world, with outré food items all the rage (cf. Pink Sauce), baked goods have to be zanier to get attention from the public - enter Crumbl, a chain of cookie stores angling to be the 21st century Mrs. Fields:

Crumbl's gimmick is to bake expensive, large soft cookies on-site with flavors that rotate every week.
While chocolate chip is always on the menu, it's joined by concoctions like Mango Frozen Yogurt, Cornbread, and Pineapple Upside Down Cake.  These cookies taste pretty darn good but are absolutely terrible for you nutritionally (don't eat more than half a cookie unless you want to blow your diet). Still, unless you like your cookies crisp and crunchy, Crumbl is certainly worth a try.

TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon has had a catastrophic fall from grace, but back when I was in middle school, he gave us one of the first teen-oriented fantasy dramas, the blueprint for all the Charmeds and Supernaturals that came after. Once you heard that wolf howl and the organ notes from the opening bars of Nerf Herder's theme song, you knew it was on:

The show followed Buffy Summers, a seemingly normal California high-schooler. Of course, Buffy was actually the Slayer, imbued with the strength and skill to fight vampires and other evil creatures. Refreshingly, the show started with Buffy already having been the Slayer for awhile, sparing everyone the origin story and getting straight to the high school drama and vampire-hunting.

Buffy was truly appointment television for me, since one of my schoolteachers was also a fan. Every week, we'd discuss the newest installment, especially as the show turned into a soap opera in later seasons. That sort of ritual is rare with modern on-demand streaming (the whole series is on Amazon Prime and Hulu, by the way).

Now, to be frank, Buffy was a mixed bag. Sarah Michelle Gellar's performance still holds up, I think, but the cheesy effects, trite monster-of-the-week plots, and diminishing returns of the various "Big Bads" eventually robbed the series of its vitality.  Some ham-handed handling of hot-button issues didn't help, either (Whedon repeatedly uses the "Bury Your Gays" trope). By high school, I had tuned out of Buffy, but I do look back on it fondly.

Guns: D-Dey Tactical "Conceal with Confidence" class notes

Awhile back, I took a "Conceal with Confidence" class held by the good folks at D-Dey Tactical and taught by D-Dey VP and retired U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Don Deyo. The one-day course was perfect for beginners looking for that "next step" beyond the basic firearms safety classes normally offered to obtain a Florida CCW. 

Here are my rough notes from the class:

Class Information

Location: OK Corral Gun Club

Conditions: Slightly chilly, so there are cover garments to clear

Context and considerations for using a concealed weapon

Legality ("1 beer"?)

Job Restrictions (business, department, or unit policy?)

Gun and ammo capable? Penetration test

Preliminary Instruction and Caveats

Can practice mechanics but hard to replicate stress of a gunfight

Safety and medical briefing

No need to speed reholster here

3-point check - chamber, magwell, breechface

Shooting Fundamentals

Stance (like a boxer)

Breathing (keep it as free as possible)

Grip (thumb forward)

Trigger (Squeeze...BANG...reset)

Drawstroke Drills

Dry-fire

10 rounds at 15 yards (slowfire accuracy test)

Draw and fire at 5 yards (rotate the gun as soon as it comes out - so you can shoot at any point from positions 2, 3, and 4 of the four-point drawstroke)

Reholster (put thumb on the back of the slide)

Draw and fire at 7 yards

Speed Drills

Controlled pairs

Balance of speed and accuracy

Failure drills at 5 and 7 yards

Rhythm and tempo shooting

Malfunction clearance (immediate and remedial)

Reloads (tactical and speed)

10-10-10 drill

Movement Drills

90 and 180 degree turns

Close range fire (forget striking with the off hand - just make sure not to shoot it)

Practice firing from the hip and watch the off hand

Big natural steps backward from target

Moving forward - heel to toe, use knees as shock absorbers

Special Situation Drills

Ready position, draw to steel

Drawing while seated at a table (including drawing from off-body carry)

Draw, stand, move

Concealment vs. Cover

Movement from cover to cover (Can clamp onto cover and use it)

Books: The Boys

People nowadays are familiar with The Boys through the Amazon streaming show, but to me, the definitive version of the story will always be the original comic book series created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Like the show, the comic centers on the titular group of CIA-backed operatives/vigilantes/thugs, who are assigned to "manage" (and sometimes eliminate) the superheroes of the world.

Unlike the show, however (which introduces various characters and conflicts to pad out its running time - Amazon recently renewed it for a fourth season), Garth Ennis's vision for The Boys is spare and uncompromising. The "supes" in the comic are often sadistic, venal, and perverted, and are all sponsored (and secretly created) by the sinister Vought corporation. To beat these enemies, The Boys have to play just as dirty, leading to a finale that feels both tragic and inevitable.

The constant violence and deranged sex in The Boys would be hard to read if it weren't so funny. Ennis's bleak view of American society post-9/11 is leavened by the constant send-ups of DC and Marvel's superheroes, including thinly-veiled parodies of the Justice League, Avengers, and X-Men, along with metacommentary on the comics business itself. If there was a "moral" to the comic, it might be that no matter how awful the world gets, you don't have to let that awfulness get to you.

Music: Bulls on Parade

You know you're old when you ask your smart home device to "play classic rock" and it starts playing this song: