Guns & Norwegian liquor

Sunday was a good day, at least in terms of the way I measure them. I drove 250 miles to go to a gun show. Then, I drove 250 miles to return home, having spent only about $50 to purchase an old, new magazine (clip, to the uninitiated) for one of my pistols. I like to have at least two magazines per pistol, and it is not always easy to find spares for some older models. I doubt I would have made today's trip a few months ago when the price of gasoline was ranging around $4.00 per gallon. A man must always be practical ....

This weekend, I also was able to obtain Volumes 1 – 10 of the Norwegian-American Studies series, and at a reasonable price. Published by the Norwegian-American Historical Society, these first ten books were produced between 1926 and 1938. As you might imagine, there aren't a great many of these older publications floating around. I've been working at acquiring the entire series (35 volumes) for four or five years now, so I consider myself fortunate to run across so many being sold as a unit. This acquisition will take care of my reading needs for a (brief) while ....

Just to offer a taste of the Norwegian-American Studies series and maybe to drive you up a wall, here are some of the essays/papers contained in Volume I:

-- Health Conditions and the Practice of Medicine Among the Early Norwegian Settlers, 1825-1865 by Knut Gjerset and Ludvig Hektoen

-- The Norwegian Quakers of 1825 by Henry J. Cadbury

-- Norwegians in the West in 1844: A Contemporary Account by Johan R. Reiersen and translated and edited by Theodore C. Blegen

-- An Emigrant Voyage in the Fifties (that is as in the 1850s) by H. Cock-Jensen and translated by Karen Larsen

-- Reminiscences of a Pioneer Editor by Carl Fredrik Solberg and edited by Albert O. Barton

Sound exciting? It is if you want it to be. All right, time to move along. Today, we will just wander the country of snow and cold, and skip San Francisco. It's time for a bite of lutefisk (think fjord) and sauer kraut (to satisfy the other part of my being), the taste buds first taunted by a bolt (or two) of icy Aquavit .... and, maybe later, a bit of room-temperature Bache-Gabrielson .... life truly can be sweet ....

Music Note: Currently listening to Neil Young .... fantastic stuff ....