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February 22nd, 2026

Memes for your enjoyment

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By Josh • Posted in Fruit of Contemplation • No Comment

February 13th, 2026

Great American Outdoor Show last days

This morning I received an email from a regional Yamaha dealer, offering me about a thousand bucks off the ATV I had looked at the other day, while at the Great American Outdoor Show here in Harrisburg, at the Farm Show complex.

And what a show this is, this GAOS. There is nothing else like it in the world. Something like twenty or thirty acres of floor space, covered in ATVs, UTVs, camping and RVing equipment, hunting gear, outdoor clothing and boots, firearms, gun parts, specialty ammunition, scopes, slings, binoculars, tents, roof-top tents with bike racks for your Toyota Tundra, kayaks, canoes, fishing boats (some Carolina Skiffs and some center consoles with twin Yamahas that make my mouth water), fishing rods and reels and lures, fishing and hunting guides from around the world, archery everything, tractors, farming attachments, seed dealers, etc

You, too, need to go to this show. Especially tomorrow, Saturday, or early Sunday, when many if not all of the vendors will be looking to make a deal on some of their wares, like ATVs, UTVs, forestry equipment, overlanding gear, etc. Nothing bugs a vendor more than having to lug back home all of the stuff they so carefully packed up and brought to the show a week ago. This weekend a lot of this stuff will be “priced to sell.”

And if you are a social butterfly, like I am, then you will have the added opportunity of seeing old friends here, like I did. In fact, one person I needed to see about important business just randomly sat down in a chair next to me, and kept looking at me out of the corner of her eye, while I made silly faces at her. Despite being friends for nearly thirty years, she did not recognize me, and I had to re-introduce myself. Yes, much of me is gone and what remains is unrecognizable, apparently, and that is all for the good. We ended up getting half of the business stuff done, while surrounded by all of the great energy of the Great American Outdoor Show, which included many of the people she needed to see, or expected to see, too.

See, when you are friends with a NRA national board member, and one of the better known ones at that, you have to accept taking second seat about half the time you are together anywhere in public, including at a small diner in East Succotash, PA, where such a person is really a celebrity.

I digress. Because the GAOS is really awesome, and filled with many wonders, and if you go you will make friends and see old friends and possibly empty your wallet and maybe empty your bank account, too. For all the right reasons.

Not every mountain house has to be luxurious. Maybe this is what most people can afford, and while it is small, it works just great

World class taxidermy. Imagine the trophy house this stuff goes in!

With a name like “BuckFinder” what could possibly go wrong with using a drone for hunting…er…they mean finding the deer AFTER it was shot

Old friends

Incredibly technical overlanding and cross country camping gear

Old friends

The Matthew Quigley rifle from the movie Quigley Down Under

By Josh • Posted in Family • No Comment

February 10th, 2026

The super power of apology

This blog is not a confessional or a tabloid. Our three readers will not enjoy prurient views into my private life. But once in a while we have to toss a tidbit to those three loyal readers, just to keep them coming around once in a while, so here it is.

Last week I said “I am sorry” to someone I care about a lot, but whom I had not treated with the kind of “care in handling” I would expect to do now or want to receive from someone else. The infraction was done decades ago. Yes, I am now so old that my doofus mistakes and selfish oversights are, generally, decades old.

And for decades a little voice had nagged at the back of my mind, “You owe that person an apology. You need to say you are sorry. SAY IT.”

This subconscious voice and its clarion message of redemption for all parties involved was accentuated annually in the Fall, every Fall, for years and years. And it became louder and louder, until one day I could no longer do what most adults are so good at doing: Ignoring things that are embarrassing or painful. I had to own up to a personal failing at a critical moment with someone vulnerable to my actions.

Thankfully, this person has a (one) social media account, and fortunately, this person is far more mature than I am and is better natured than most people would be, when dealing with a Johnny-come-lately lout seeking forgiveness. This person responded pretty quickly, and welcomed the opportunity to speak.

Some days later I got the call, and I was able to say forthrightly, person-to-person, voice-to-voice, what should have been said many, many years ago. I said I am sorry for x, y, z and some other loutish behavioral problem child kind of stuff. And this wonderful person, for whom my feelings and admiration have never dimmed, was gracious and wise, accepted the apology, and asked about my kids. I got a lesson in grown up relationships, and I felt literally a hundred pounds lighter when we hung up the phone.

One imagines that the other person quietly enjoyed knowing that I had been bothered for all these years, and was not uncaring, but had been simply immature. Know this, K: I am still immature. But remorseful.

If you have hurt someone, intentionally or by mistake, recently or in your young adulthood, take my advice and say you are sorry to them. It is powerful medicine. It heals both parties. Take the opportunity while you are still compus mentus, still capable of remembering to open your fly when going to pee, and don’t put it off. If that person was angry at you, or hurt by you, they will have at least some grudging admiration for you, if you take that step to bring some healing.

People have conflicts. This is human nature. People make mistakes, this is human nature and we all know it and we all readily accept it when we make those mistakes. After all, we make those faulty decisions because of whatever was going on in our mind at that time. Those mistakes make sense to us.

What is rare is to step up, own up, and take ownership and responsibility for the stupider mistakes we have made, by recognizing the other person’s experience at our hands. The avoidable ones. The careless ones. The unnecessarily hurtful ones. The immature ones. Not talking about principled stands here, or legitimate disagreements about policy, law, values, etc, but just simple personal acts that we all do, that did not go the way we would have wanted them to go, had things been handled better.

But this should not be a rare or difficult thing to do. It is easy and it feels good. Thank you, dear old friend, I finally feel like a grown up man, thanks to your willingness to hear me out. I feel like I might even have had a hidden super power all these years. Glad I finally got to use it.

By Josh • Posted in Fruit of Contemplation • No Comment

February 8th, 2026

What NFL football game? Halftime halfwit what?

I keep hearing about this NFL something-or-other, and seeing headlines about this football halftime thingybob today. No idea what these people are talking about, what these events are.

See, in 2015 the National Football League began going “woke” and invoking national politics while trying to pose as athletes peforming circus tricks for audiences seeking a time-out from life. Being politically Leftwing while trying to entertain the masses are two mutually exclusive endeavors. Never the twain shall meet. And both shall fail.

It was intriguing that in 2016 the NFL players began kneeling during the National Anthem, as a sign of disrespect to America. The same America that made these halfwit imbeciles multi-millionaires was suddenly no good, they said, and apparently by demonstrating that they rejected America, the NFL players showed how virtuous they were.

None of it made any sense, until we realized that it all had to do with rejecting Donald trump’s Make America Great Again political message and movement, and the capitalist American culture that created the NFL among many other things.

So, since 2016, I have ceased watching football. I refuse to support something and somebody that does not support me. I refuse to embrace and celebrate people who reject and denigrate everything I hold dear and value the highest (America, our flag, our anthem, our 250 year old identity as a constitutional republic etc etc).

So, no NFL game for me today, and no halfwit time-out “entertainment” freak show by a South American man in a woman’s dress who sings about how much he hates America, followed by a Canadian band called Green Gay or Green Bay or something, who also sing about how much they hate America.

None of this makes sense to me, none of it is entertaining to me, but all of it does make me recognize, yet again, just how acidly destructive the political Left is. Because the Left makes every effort to take over every institution it can get ahold of, and then bend that institution to its ideological purpose of promoting Marxist revolution and destroying freedom and capitalism, it will destroy the very things that the people hold dearest. Like football.

At one time football was “America’s sport,” and from PeeWee Football on up to the NFL, young men from every corner of our great nation aspired to qualify to aggressively compete in front of the nation. It was fun, it was an honor, and the NFL was a good income. Now? To quote Rush Limbaugh, watching the NFL games is like watching the Crips versus the Bloods, a gang fight. Very little class, all violent, all selfish and arrogant behavior, and now in 2026, with a huge helping of We Hate America FU poured on top of it.

No thanks, NFL. You can stick your crappy event and your crappy business up your you-kn0w-what. You lost me. I will be spending my evening reading by the fire, maybe smoking some cherry cavendish in my pipe, maybe a glass of whisky at my elbow. Things here at my home will be peaceful, happy, and all-American, not that you NFL people have any idea what I am talking about.

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By Josh • Posted in Family, Immigration • No Comment

February 5th, 2026

Feeling antique? See you at the 18th Century Artisans Faire

Every February, a bunch of fascinating people gather round to share in their enjoyment of living history here in Central PA. At my age, and at their age, at our collective antique age, it sounds like a big ol’ birthday party social, but in fact there is a lot of cool stuff at the 18th Century Artisans Faire.

Now in its third or fourth year at the Carlisle Expo Center (in Carlisle, PA), all kinds of talented blacksmiths, funnily dressed people, gunmakers, historians, antique tool and furniture makers, jewelers etc will gather tomorrow Friday and Saturday. I will be visiting gunmaker Mark Wheland, who has a 62 caliber percussion rifle project under way for me. Modeled on the 1850s British Sporting Rifle design, with a custom Rice barrel using Forsyth rifling, a beautiful Rod England lock, and stocked in a museum display grade piece of highly figured Turkish walnut, it will be my go-to percussion hunting arm for Pennsylvania’s October antlerless and bear hunting seasons. More on this rifle later, as an article about it is forthcoming when Mark is done.

Simeon England, one of the talented blacksmiths at the show

Hope to see you there tomorrow. And don’t forget that the Great American Outdoor Show at the PA Farm Show complex starts on Saturday. Lot of cool stuff going on here in a very cold time of year.

Andy Curtis

By Josh • Posted in Family • No Comment

February 1st, 2026

MELANIA movie is great!

If you had told me before this afternoon that I would willingly go see a movie about a pretty lady and her courtiers, and actually really enjoy it, I would have told you that you are nuts. This is because I am an unapologetically toxically masculine Alpha male who likes old firearms, leather boots (Danner Canadians are my fav), custom hunting knives, heavy packs, and rugged landscapes far from humanity that challenge my physical stamina.

My favorite thing to do is a solo wilderness camping hunt in wilderness areas, where if something badly goes wrong, there is only me to deal with it. A man should regularly spend time living on the edge, and challenging himself, smelling badly and getting dirt and maybe blood under his fingernails.

So, girl stuff, girl clothing, high heels (lots and lots of high high heels in this film), fabric, pretty hair, makeup, etc are not really in my bailiwick let alone my universe, OTHER THAN enjoying a beautiful woman who can put it all together in a nice package that makes my head turn and makes me let out an involuntary whistle. And if you are a manly man lucky enough to find one like that who will share your man cave with you, you have hit the jackpot.

President Donald J. Trump hit the jackpot with Melania, and this movie about her shows us why. She is gracious and graceful, gentle and kind yet quietly tough, stoic, better-than-Vogue stylish and stone cold to those who say they are her enemies, while openly loving to her family and allies. World class beautiful. What a woman.

Lucky you, Mister President. Lucky America, to have a First Lady (FLOTUS) with all this class and refined poise.

Apparently Amazon owner Jeff Bezos underwrote this film, and in it we catch a brief glimpse of Bezos sitting next to VP Vance at one of the main 2025 gala Inauguration dinners. Money buys you political access, right? Smart guy, Bezos, right? Everything about this film is A+ professionally done. Everything. Every tiny detail. The music choices, the editing, the filming, the scenes, every. single. thing. in this film is 100% perfectly done. And if Melania were a Democrat, this whole movie would have been done free of charge a hundred times over by the mainstream media, NPR, PBS, etc. in a hundred different articles and documinis.

One of the other perfect things that comes through is the enormous role of gay men, behind the scenes, in Melania’s life. Which is the life of chic lifestyle the world over. From the clothing that Melania wears to the Inaguration invitations to the table settings and arrangements, gay guys are running the show.

Now, if a hulking, hairy, smelly, straight Alpha guy with the artistic sense of a brick like me is telling you the following, you can put it in the bank: Our world would be a much much poorer, much less pretty, much less enjoyable, much less beautiful place without gay men. Strange though they may be from a biological perspective, gay men are a work of hybridized biological art that combines the best that men and women do separately, in one package, only better. Just have to say it, because though I have known that the fashion world is rife with them, this movie revealed it like nothing else could. Serious talent, gentlemen. Wow.

No, I am not an “ally.” Nor am I “pro gay.” Rather, I am pro human. I want everyone on this planet to be treated fairly and equally and to have the same opportunities. I also like giving credit where it is due to people who have earned it.

President Trump obviously makes some appearances in this behind-the-scenes filming done after the 2024 election and through all of the White House prep and resulting balls and dances and Inauguration speeches. Some funny quips and comments on and off the camera. His kids make brief appearances, while young Barron Trump gets the most attention out of all of them. I would not underestimate Barron Trump. Whatever this young man sets out to do, he is going to do it perfectly.

And why not? His mother is the most impressive Melania.

Go see this neat film. Sharing the movie theater with us were 85 other people. I have not counted anywhere close to 85 people in a movie theater since Top Gun: Maverick four years ago, and before that I cannot recall being in another movie pulling in so many people at one showing. After the lights went on, I spoke with some of the audience members still standing around, and they all liked it for different reasons.