Miscellany: 2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon review - Bucking the Bronco

My Tesla Model 3 is in the shop after getting rear-ended last week, and the insurance company gods decided to troll me with a rental vehicle that is the polar opposite of a compact, self-driving EV: a four-door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car classifies the Wrangler as a "compact SUV," but this ain't a RAV4 or CRV.  First, the good: the Wrangler is probably the most durable, capable off-road vehicle available to the average consumer, with part-time four-wheel drive, body on frame construction, and a solid front axle.  With the right tires and a little preparation, you can traverse terrain straight out of, well, a Jeep commercial.

The bad? For everything but off-roading, the Wrangler is a compromise, sometimes a severe one.  As a commuter car, my example guzzled gas (around 18 mpg combined) and delivered a bumpy, noisy ride on the highway.  The engine is decent (FCA's Pentastar 3.6L V6, good for 285 hp), but the rest of the Wrangler's mechanical design, like big knobby tires and removable doors, are counterproductive in morning traffic.

As for the interior, the layout of the dashboard is clear and sensible, and the car is pretty easy to drive. 2024 was a refresh year for the Wrangler, with the biggest change being a new center infotainment touchscreen. The screen is actually well-integrated into the dash, and thankfully, doesn't displace physical controls for climate and audio.

Most of the rest of the vehicle is unchanged.  There's a fair amount of space for rear passengers and a sizable cargo area, but neither are best in class.

The primary competitor to the Wrangler is the sixth-gen Ford Bronco, first released in 2021.  The new Bronco was and is a big seller (both my uncle and my managing partner had one), since the Bronco arguably strikes a better balance between everyday driving and off-road capability. I assume the Wrangler's 2024 refresh was an attempt to add more creature comforts to what had previously been a spartan experience. I consider it mostly successful, though my car's infotainment system crashed multiple times and had to be reset in just a week's worth of driving.

All in all, I think the Wrangler was an interesting car to drive, though I'm happy I'll be getting my car back - eventually.

Miscellany: Penn & Teller: 50 Years of Magic

I never had the chance to see Penn & Teller live in Las Vegas, so when their 50th anniversary tour stopped by Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood last month, I schlepped myself over there to catch the show.

Like their long-running TV series Fool Us, "Penn & Teller: 50 Years of Magic" was a somewhat low-key affair filled with as many jokes as magic tricks. There was lots of audience participation, plenty of forcing, and some classic illusions mixed in with new material.

This is still, at its heart, a comedy magic act, and Penn & Teller haven't lost any of their comic timing over the years.  Even though they're both senior citizens now, they nimbly adapted to what the audience gave them, and the crowd was regularly laughing out loud during the routines.

For me, the most memorable trick of the night was a teleportation effect involving a credit card that I still don't quite understand. I don't know how many more tours these two have left in them, so if Penn & Teller are coming to your town, you might want to check them out.

Miscellany: Personal Alarm Faceoff - She's Birdie 3.0 vs. POM Personal Alarm

There are very few self-defense tools you can carry with you on a plane, especially if your final destination is a city like New York or Chicago. For such occasions, and in addition to my trusty EDC flashlight and pen, I've been looking into carrying a personal alarm.

What is a personal alarm? It's a noisemaking device designed to draw attention in an emergency.  Now, you have to temper your expectations - these alarms are not flashbangs, and they will not in any way physically ward off an attacker.  However, for certain types of situations faced by travelers (purse-snatchings, hotel room invasions, vehicle fires, etc.), they make a lot of sense.

I compared the most popular alarm on the market, She's Birdie, with an alarm from POM, and there are countless others on the market just like these (I'm sure they all hail from the same factories in China). Both alarms are rechargeable via USB-C port with very similar form factors, though I much prefer the feel of the POM alarm (She's Birdie seems plasticky and cheap). I also don't like that the She's Birdie alarm has an on/off switch - it seems like an unnecessary complication and one more thing to go wrong in an emergency.  

However, the alarm on the She's Birdie 3.0 is slightly louder and more shrill - not by much, but enough to notice. Since having a loud alarm is the whole point of the exercise, I think She's Birdie is the winner of this faceoff - barely.

Food: Cortadito Cuban Cafe

One challenge of trial work is finding decent places to eat around the courthouse. Our team eventually settled on a hole-in-the-wall right across the street, Cortadito Cuban Cafe.  It's a pretty standard sandwich shop with minimal seating, brought to you by Nicaraguan brothers Alberto Valdivia and Jimmy Rivas, the same guys behind Rivales down the street.

I enjoyed the Cuban and Medianoche sandwiches at Cortadito, though they are on the expensive side...almost 15 bucks a pop.  The café con leche was good, too, especially given that the West Palm Beach courthouse's internal cafe hasn't been open for some time.  That said, I've had better Cuban food in my life (the pastries come from Sysco) and the menu is very limited, so if your trial is going longer than a week, you'll need to find other restaurants.

Rating: 2/4 stars

Music: You Get What You Give

I think people should emphasize the "wonder" part of the term "one-hit wonder" more often. After all, what could be more wondrous than creating a song so perfect for a particular time and place that you remember it forever?

That's how it was for me and my law firm, when the New Radicals' 1998 hit "You Get What You Give" played the day after we won a jury trial. If life sometimes feels like a movie, this was the slow fade-to-black for the end credits, the camera tilting up from the courthouse steps as the sun sets...

Tech: Slay the Spire 2 - early access impressions

I was a big fan of Slay the Spire, considered by many to be the ne plus ultra of roguelike deckbuilding games, so I broke my general rule of never buying "early access" games and picked up the long-awaited sequel, Slay the Spire 2:

The sequel doesn't deviate at all from the formula you know and love - you're still fighting enemies one by one in turn-based battles over three acts, with a final boss at the end of each act.  Even the starting decks of the returning characters - Ironclad, Silent, and Defect - are exactly the same, though most of the rest of their cards are new.  As a result, the initial hours might be a little underwhelming for diehard STS fans.

Where things start getting interesting are the addition of two new characters - the Regent and the Necrobinder.  They have unique mechanics that will change your playstyle drastically.  Many of the Regent's cards generate and spend an additional resource, Stars, that persist from turn to turn, while the Necrobinder summons a skeletal hand, Osty, that can both shield her and smack down her enemies. Like all early access games, the jury's still out when it comes to whether STS2 can become an all-time classic like its predecessor, but it's already a darn good game.

Guns: S&W 632 UC review - The Ultimate Carry?

Introduction

I've been shooting and writing about Smith & Wesson J-frames for 20 years now, so I'm pretty resistant to the "flavor of the month" when it comes to these revolvers.  S&W has put out various iterations of the formula over the decades - the LadySmith models, guns equipped with Crimson Trace LaserGrips, and sundry AirLite versions with scandium and titanium alloys - but I'm still not convinced any of them work better than the good old-fashioned 642.

That being said, when Smith and Lipsey's rolled out a new line of "Ultimate Carry" revolvers, including several chambered in the long-forgotten caliber of .32 H&R Magnum, I just had to see what all the fuss was about:

Revolver Overview

The 632 UC I picked up differs from my 642 Performance Center in a bunch of ways:

First, it's chambered in .32 H&R Magnum, an uncommon caliber that is a little weaker, more expensive, and much harder to find than .38 Special (especially for defensive ammo). The big advantages of a .32 H&R Mag is that it has milder recoil than a .38, you can squeeze a sixth round into a J-Frame-sized cylinder, and you can also shoot .32 Long cartridges, which have even less recoil.

Second, the Ultimate Carry has excellent sights, featuring an XS tritium dot up front, and a black U-notch rear. While perhaps a little imprecise for target work, these are way better than the default sights on the average J-Frame, and comparable to the three-dot night sights on my 640 Pro. The sights are tough and snag free, too.

Third, the 632 UC has some minor upgrades from a normal aluminum frame J-Frame.  It uses the sleeved barrel design of the scandium J-Frames, which gives you a shrouded ejector rod (and theoretically better accuracy), an upgraded "endurance package" action and trigger geometry, and no key lock.  The 632 UC also comes with a set of "high horn" VZ boot grips; I did not care for them, but they'd be great if you have big hands and like to ride high on the gun.

Range Report

Like a lot of gunmakers nowadays, S&W's quality control is hit and miss.  Out of the box, I experienced a lot of failures to fire with pretty standard Magtech wadcutter ammo, so I sent the gun back for repair.  Once I got the gun back, it was reliable, though obviously it's galling to have to do that with a brand-new revolver that retails for well over $600.

At the range, the 632 UC is noticeably easier to control and more accurate than a typical .38 snub. At 10 yards, I could easily get two-to-three-inch groups standing unsupported, which is pretty top-end accuracy for this shooter and this type of gun.  I attribute that mostly to the caliber/ammo and the sleeved barrel, as the trigger, while fine for a J-Frame, was not nearly as smooth as my Performance Center guns.

Fiocchi 97 gr FMJ:

Federal 85 gr JHP:

18 rounds of PPU .32 Long - very low recoil, though I had one flier:

Buffalo Bore 100 gr wadcutter - great ammo, but very expensive and pretty much only available online.  Whether or not a .32 is sufficient for self-defense is a touchy subject.  I will say that whatever load you choose, make sure it has sufficient penetration, like the Buffalo Bore .32 H&R Mag loads:

Magtech 98 gr wadcutters.  There is a decent selection of foreign-made wadcutter ammo for the .32 Long, since it's often used in target shooting internationally:

S&B .32 Long wadcutters:

Conclusion

I appreciate the thought and care that went into the 632 UC, and there is something to be said for a 6-round centerfire snubnose with mild recoil.  But when it comes to actually living with the gun, the esoteric caliber choice is just too hard to deal with.  It certainly might be the "ultimate .32," but I'll stick with my old .38 snubbies, thank you very much.

Tech: Resident Evil Requiem (Switch 2 review)

Many Resident Evil games have multiple playable protagonists (with some even allowing you to swap between them at will), but the latest and ninth entry in the main series, Resident Evil Requiem, takes that to a new extreme:

Requiem is effectively two games in one.  As Grace Ashcroft, a rookie FBI analyst, you're a nervous Nellie who has trouble holding a handgun steady.  As Leon S. Kennedy, grizzled veteran of multiple Resident Evil games, you're a zombie-killing one-man army who tosses out one-liners. Grace's sections are focused on stealthy first-person exploration (similar to Resident Evil 7 and 8), while Leon's gameplay is bombastic third-person action with big bosses and setpiece battles (much like the fourth, fifth, and sixth games in the franchise).

It's a great mix, because Grace and Leon's sections are palette cleansers for each other.  Just when the anxiety of running from your Nth zombie as Grace reaches its zenith, along comes Leon to open up a can of whoop-ass. And just as you start getting bored of decapitating zombies as Leon, the game turns to Grace and makes you vulnerable again.  As such, about the only major criticism I have of Requiem is its middle third, where the game abandons this dichotomy and makes you spend several somewhat-tedious hours as Leon in a ruined Raccoon City.

I played Resident Evil Requiem on the Nintendo Switch 2, and Capcom did a fantastic job in squeezing the title into the hybrid console.  Through the scalability of the RE Engine and the magic of DLSS, the Switch 2 version looks comparable to those on much more powerful machines, albeit with choppier framerates and worse graphical effects (Grace's hair is a noticeable victim).  Still, it's a minor miracle the game looks as good as it does, and if the Switch 2 is the only system you have, or if you care at all about playing the game away from a TV or computer, then it's a great option.

Rating: 90/100

Miscellany: RIP Chuck Norris

"Chuck Norris actually died 20 years ago - Death just finally worked up the courage to tell him yesterday."

Books: Legends & Lore - Ireland's Folk Tales

For St. Patrick's Day this year, I picked up Legends & Lore, a slim volume of Irish folk tales by Michael Scott. The book is built on all the oral and written stories Scott has collected over the years, going all the way back to his time as an antique book dealer travelling the Emerald Isle.  

As such, the lore in this volume goes well beyond your everyday leprechauns and banshees (though there are plenty of those here, too).  You'll read about legendary characters like the Gobán Saor and Finn mac Cumhaill, who are little known outside of Ireland.  I had never read anything from Scott before (as the cover repeatedly proclaims, he's the author of the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flemel series), but the book is written in an easy, conversational style perfect for elementary/middle school age children with any interest in Irish mythology.