Guns: S&W K-22 Masterpiece review

Introduction

There are some guns that you hope to pass on to your heirs, and Smith & Wesson's K-22 Masterpiece is certainly one of them.  This fine .22 LR revolver was first introduced during the Great Depression as a target and hunting piece (S&W called it the "Outdoorsman").  Both demand and production ramped up after WWII, and my example came from the early post-war era, around 1947.  How can you tell? Well, the gun doesn't have the old pencil barrel or blended rear sight, but it does have a "five-screw" frame (with screws in the top of the sideplate and the front of the trigger guard).  

At the time it came out, the K-22 Masterpiece was considered the best production .22 revolver in the world. But how does the 80-year-old K-22 stack up against modern guns? Let's find out.

Sights, Action, and Grips

As with most firearms back then, the K-22 Masterpiece came with simple black patridge sights, with a square pinned front sight and an adjustable rear sight.  They're pretty small (again, very common for a gun from the 1940s), but they are precise, and it's easy to get a clean sight picture.

After several previous owners and probably thousands of rounds, the blued finish on my gun is worn but the serrated double-action trigger is smooth, with a crisp and light single-action pull - maybe around 2 or 3 pounds.

My K-22 looks like it wears the original Circassian diamond magna grips with a target style square butt.  The grips provide a surprising amount of traction given how old and worn they are, and the gun remained very stable in hand in both double and single action fire.

Range Report

The K-22 is probably the best handgun around for training people who have never held a gun before. It's very easy to load and unload, and when shot in single-action, the light trigger makes getting good hits easy.  The full-size steel frame is a little heavy for smaller people, but it also makes .22 cartridges recoil like an air gun. Overall, the gun is so pleasant that I taught Mom to shoot with it about ten years ago:

Is the K-22 quite as accurate as modern semiautomatic handguns? Perhaps not, but it's accurate enough for my purposes.

12 rounds of Federal AutoMatch (the cheap stuff) at 20 yards:

18 rounds of Federal HV Match at 20 yards:

24 rounds of Winchester 222 bulk pack (40 gr.) at 20 yards: 

12 rounds of Remington Golden Bullet at 15 yards:

Functionally, the gun worked great, except for a few failures to fire (light strikes) when shooting in double action.  I attribute these occasional malfunctions to the 80-year old lockwork (I have no idea if the springs have ever been replaced).  Since I don't plan on using this gun for self-defense anytime soon, it's not that big a deal.

Conclusion

If you're tired of the quality control issues with the revolvers put out by Smith & Wesson (and every other manufacturer) nowadays, the K-22 Masterpiece is for you.  It hails from a time when it was commercially feasible to sell a full-size all-steel .22 revolver that required large amounts of hand fitting and polishing.  Those days may be gone now, but at least the guns remain...

Miscellany: TRUE Fitness Rō indoor rowing machine review

Our HOA finally renovated the community gym (just took them a few decades), so we've got a whole new set of equipment from TRUE Fitness: treadmills, stationary bikes, weights, elliptical machines, a stair climber, and, most critically, a rowing machine:

The gold standard of indoor rowers is the Concept2 RowErg, to the point where "erg" has become a generic shorthand for rowing machines. But the TRUE Fitness model one-ups Concept2 with some innovative features, including a magnetic brake/flywheel combo for wider variations in resistance levels, a convenient central pedal switch to change resistance levels on the fly, and a multipurpose handle that can be used like a traditional indoor rower, or swiveled hand-over-hand for a kayaking or canoeing motion.

Downsides? Well, there are still some question marks as to long-term durability (the TRUE Fitness rower uses a nylon belt instead of a chain drive like on the RowErg), and the foot pedal position doesn't seem as natural as other rowing machines.  Still, the machine is plenty good enough to allow me to row as a cross-training workout - maybe I can finally beat that half-marathon PR this winter.

Movies Leo Woodall Double Feature

We recently watched a couple of films starring English actor Leo Woodall, and we were quite impressed with the "rizz" he displayed onscreen.  Based on the strong performances in these movies, my guess is Woodall's career will break out like that of a fellow Londoner, Tom Hardy:

Tuner

This one has a lot of similarities to Edgar Wright's Baby Driver: a soft-spoken young man with hearing problems, a love of music, and a unique talent gets sucked into the criminal underworld by a semi-malevolent kingpin, with his civilian love interest caught in the crossfire.  Woodall shines here as the titular piano tuner-turned-safecracker, and he more than holds his own with the likes of Dustin Hoffman and Jean Reno.

Rating: 8/10

Tony

A biopic of Anthony Bourdain's formative teen years might seem like a bad idea, but Tony, directed by Matt Johnson (BlackBerry), is better than expected, thanks to the luminous Cape Cod setting, some slightly self-aware nods (there is a discussion of the proper pronunciation of bildungsroman), and Antonio Banderas's best performance in years.  The title role is played by a game Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), but Woodall steals every scene he's in with his turn as a charming, roguish line cook.

Rating: 7/10

Food: Best of the Bay State - Massachusetts Restaurant Roundup

Like most cities, Boston has its fair share of great dining options, but eating out in Massachusetts as a whole can be hit and miss.  Here are the best places my friends and I found during our summer vacation:

Santarpio's Pizza - This Boston mainstay is well over a hundred years old.  If you go to the original location in East Boston near the airport, street parking will be hard to find (your best bet is to use their lot under the overpass, but it fills up fast).  While Santarpio's is best known for their pizza, they grill a variety of delicious meats, including this awesome Italian sausage.

Aama Lama - There are a fair number of Himalayan restaurants in the Boston metro area, and the best one we went to was Aama Lama, a tiny place in Malden. I don't profess to be an expert in this type of cuisine, but there were a whole bunch of Nepalese people eating there, and the food tasted great - delicious momo, pakodas, and sukuti.

Marylou's Coffee - I am old enough to remember when Barnie's Coffee ruled Florida malls, and stepping into Marylou's Coffee gave me that same feeling: sweet-smelling flavored coffee, piles of premade muffins and other baked goods, and a distinct pink decor that, while certainly corporate, was less generic than a Starbucks. More importantly, Marylou's brews some of the best flavored decaf iced coffee I've ever had, and, with dozens of locations in south Massachusetts and Rhode Island, it was not hard to find one.

KKatie's Burger Bar - Plymouth has a raft of decent-but-not-memorable restaurants downtown, so we opted for something a little more casual - KKatie's Burger Bar. It's a small, family-friendly local chain serving up good burgers and beer in the South Shore. The "frickles" (fried dill pickle chips and banana peppers) and fried green beans (not breaded) were unusual, and pretty good.

Coffee Obsession - The Shining Sea Bikeway provides easy biking access to Woods Hole along with beautiful ocean views, and Coffee Obsession's two locations smartly bracket the Bikeway: one location is at the start point in Falmouth, right near the bike rentals, and the other is at the endpoint in Woods Hole, right near the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. Both locations offer pretty good coffee and tea drinks, as well as public restrooms.

Ziggy's - Finding dairy-free almond milk ice cream is a chore anywhere, but we found it was especially hard near the beach in Plymouth. One happy exception was Ziggy's, which has been there since 1957. The ice cream was great, the location was convenient, and the people couldn't have been nicer.

Neptune Oyster - For our last meal in Boston, we wanted to go out with a bang, so we grabbed a table at Neptune Oyster, a Michelin Guide-recommended seafood restaurant that typically has a long line to get in. The raw oysters themselves were good, but the real standout was the lobster roll, which is probably the best in the city.

Miscellany: 2026 Chevy Trailblazer LT review - Fond of sand dunes and salty air

For our summer vacation, we toured Massachusetts...everywhere from the charming fishing port of Gloucester, to the hustle and bustle of post-World Cup Boston, to the winding roads of Cape Cod. While some places were accessible via public transit, we needed a car to realistically get anywhere outside the Boston metro area.  As such, we got a Chevy Trailblazer, a Korean-made subcompact crossover that took over the nameplate from the old Trailblazer SUV:

Our 2026 model had the "LT" trim, which adds several big features, like keyless open and a better stereo system. Unchanged from the base model is the buzzy 1.2L ECOTEC engine, which squeezes 137 hp and 162 lb-ft of torque out of three turbocharged cylinders.  The engine (paired with an unremarkable CVT) had just enough pep to deal with everyday New England traffic, but it's certainly not going to throw you back in your seat, and long-term reliability may be...questionable.

Suspension-wise, I found the Trailblazer's ride to be a little noisy and harsh - the car had a tendency to crash over bumps and uneven pavement, which were pretty common on Boston streets.  On the plus side, the car handled well in the surprisingly hilly Massachusetts terrain, even when rain intruded on the last day of our vacation.

In terms of interior space, the Trailblazer fit four adults comfortably, along with their personal items and carry-on bags, though rear storage is reduced by the included spare tire (still a welcome feature in this day and age):

The car was pretty easy to drive, too - the dashboard layout is simple, and there are still physical controls for things like audio volume and climate. The wireless Apple CarPlay implementation was just okay - I didn't experience the full-on crashes of my last rental car, but Google Maps navigation was a little laggy, especially when negotiating the twisty intersections around the Boston area.

All in all, while I would never buy it, I was happy with the Trailblazer as a rental (my friends even liked the Cacti Green paint), and it'll always remind me of old Cape Cod:

Books: The Witchcraft of Salem Village

Salem, Massachusetts has really leaned into its historical association with the witch trials, so much so that almost every business in the downtown area caters to tourists looking for kitschy, witchy souvenirs (my understanding is that the place is absolutely bustling during the Halloween season).

After my friends and I digested about a dozen witch and goth-related shops, though, I felt it was time to learn some of the real history behind the tragic trials that led to the execution of 19 people (with more dying in prison or rendered paupers in the end). There are a lot of accounts of the trials, some scholarly and some less so, but a good middle ground is The Witchcraft of Salem Village by Shirley Jackson, author of The Haunting of Hill House.

The book is written for kids, so Jackson relates the events like a sad fable.  In her telling, the hysteria was caused by the lies of children, the pride and paranoia of adults, and the rigid doctrines of the Puritan faith.  There was also an absence of the basic tenets of the American justice system, such as the presumption of innocence and the confrontation of witnesses. My hope is that as long as we follow those procedural safeguards, nothing like the Salem witch trials could ever happen again.

Miscellany: Buying Pepper Spray in Massachusetts

As a lifelong Floridian, I am sometimes taken aback by the strange weapon restrictions that other parts of the country live under. When my friends and I traveled to Massachusetts, for instance, I knew that carrying a gun was out of the question, but I also learned that even pepper spray is hard to come by.  

You see, under Massachusetts law, you need a permit to buy pepper spray if you're under 18, and only an FFL can sell it.  The practical upshot is that unlike Palm Beach County, where pepper spray is available at retailers like Walmart and Target, I had to travel a solid half hour out of Boston to buy it.  Thankfully, the folks at J&J Arms had a whole rack full of POM canisters, so I was all set:

Tech: Star Fox (2026 remake)

I've written before about how the original Star Fox was one of my favorite SNES games, but the N64 installment (unimaginatively titled Star Fox 64) was great, too.  While it largely retold/rebooted the story of the first game, it introduced both the "Rumble Pak" force-feedback accessory and a surprisingly fun 4-player split-screen competitive multiplayer mode.  Since Star Fox 64, though, the series has been in a bit of a rut, bouncing between so-so sequels, spinoffs (anyone remember Star Fox Adventures?), and re-releases/remakes of the N64 game. 

Well, buckle up, Star Fox fans - they've remade Star Fox 64 again for the Nintendo Switch 2:

As far as remakes go, developer Velan Studios did a fantastic job, faithfully preserving the gameplay and level layouts of the 1997 classic, but totally re-doing the graphics and sound to the levels of a modern game. While you lose some of the now-classic cheesy voice-acting that the original had, you gain an amazing graphical overhaul that sometimes drastically changes the look and feel of a level, almost always for the better (the first level, for instance, depicts a war-torn city much better than the antiseptic, LEGO-like polygons of the N64 version).

Disappointingly, however, with the exception of the multiplayer maps, this is the exact same game you played almost 30 years ago, and it would've been nice to have some new levels and enemies to go along with the fresh coat of paint.  There's a very small amount of replay value in the form of special challenges that unlock entries for the in-game encyclopedia (in addition to the original game's medals and Expert Mode difficulty), but here's hoping Nintendo gives Velan Studios a crack at a true sequel.

Rating: 84/100

Sports: The Forever World Cup

A once-in-a-lifetime confluence of events has conspired to make this World Cup feel both ever-present and endless.  Of course, the U.S. is hosting this edition along with Mexico and Canada, but this summer is also America's 250th birthday and also the first time the qualifying field has been enlarged from 32 teams to 48 teams.

Practically speaking, that means there has been daily, wall-to-wall World Cup soccer for almost a month, with at least three matches televised a day.  If you have even a passing interest in association football, there have already been moments of high drama (underdog Cape Verde moving on to the knockout stages), shocking upsets (Germany bowed out after the group stage on penalties), and, in perhaps an effort to appease American tastes, a whole lot of goal scoring. The U.S. is scheduled to take on Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight in prime time, and time will tell whether this is the start of a generational run for the USMNT, or simply another disappointing early exit.

Music: Ivy "Traces of You" Concert review

Ivy has long been my favorite dreampop band, so when I heard that they would be playing a live show at Respectable Street, I couldn't believe my luck.  The concert would be just blocks away from my office, at an intimate, hole-in-the-wall venue, and was one of only a few stops on Ivy's 2026 "Traces of You" tour. I could understand them playing New York or Chicago, but West Palm Beach seemed like such a random city to visit - and so bizarrely convenient for me.

Respectable Street itself is little more than a bar, a small open floor, and a stage - there is some seating at the edges of the place, but for most concerts, including Ivy's, you have to stand for the whole thing. I lined up about a half hour before the show and heard the band sound-checking and rehearsing the classics, like "Undertow."  I even saw them pop out and walk down Clematis, presumably to kill some time while the opening act, Sweet Bronco, played their set.

Finally, Ivy took the stage.  As I expected, the songs were a mix of tracks from prior albums (though there was nothing from "All Hours," which I gather Dominique Durand and Andy Chase do not like) along with new material from "Traces of You." Of course, the concert was dedicated to departed bandmember Adam Schlesinger, who is gone but never forgotten.

The production was spare (a video screen and some lighting) and the arrangements were basic (along with Dominique, Andy, and Bruce Driscoll, there was a drummer and a horn player, and Adam's parts were played with a bass track), and the band showed some rust from not having played a show in 14 years. For an Ivy superfan like myself, that stuff just didn't matter.

Setlist:

Keep Moving

Thinking About You

Mystery Girl

Disappointed

Undertow

Midnight Hour

Tess Don't Tell

I've Got A Feeling

Fragile People

I Think Of You

Everyday

Say You Will

This Is The Day

Worry About You

Encore:

Get Enough

Edge Of The Ocean