Fun With Guns: Where Grammar Matters Edition
It’s a complicated story about a shooting that injured a man ice fishing on Cobboseecontee Stream last Sunday.
That’s in Maine, which is only in the United States by geographic accident.
It seems that Bryan Hickey maybe accidentally shot Scott Fraley. Hickey was out “shooting” and even through ice fishing as far a I know, which admittedly ain’t much, does not require a whole lot of movement. I think maybe you just sit there freezing like a witch’s boob in a brass bra in the Klondike. That make it real hard to step in front of a bullet.
But the real story is here:
“It was a gunshot wound to the head. It sounds like it was superficial,” District Game Warden Robert Decker said.
So now you are on your own to decide what was superficial – was it the gunshot or the head?
In my mind, anyone ice fishing in Maine in February leaves themselves open to that question.
By the way, did you know that it’s illegal to hun on Sunday’s in Maine? Yeah, neither did I.
Thanks to Brian for the heads up.
Once upon a time I taught English as well as other core subjects. Grammar seems to be the bane of everyone, no matter how well and highly educated. Doctoral candidates in this country are known to write “would of” instead of “would have”. They just can’t seem to hear the difference. Is grammar important. Doggone straight it is! Here’s an example.
Lets eat grandma.
Let’s eat, grandma.
Now, tell me which one is lethal.
1There’s more info now at the provided link. The shooter claims he was shooting at a squirrel.
Maybe he was shooting at a squirrel. But a squirrel is a small, agile target, easy to miss…so why did he not see, past the squirrel, the man sitting there ice fishing? Because he did not grasp the importance of visualizing past the target.
To complete the ironies, the man ice-fishing was doing so as part of an ice fishing tournament conducted by the nearby Rod and Gun club. Certainly the shooter should have known there was a tournament going on and thus more people around.
And it was Sunday and illegal to hunt anyway.
DUH
2It takes a special type of person to want to go sit on ice and go hunting. I ain’t one of ’em, either sitting on ice or hunting.
3They could both be lethal. It depends what Grandma cooked up for you.
4You don’t necessarily “sit” on the ice. There are all kinds of small shelters with portable heaters to keep one(me) warm while ice fishing. I sit on either a built in bench seat or a five gallon bucket. Cold water panfish-crappies,bluegills,etc taste just yummy and have less parasites than warm water fishies. Anytime its above zero and not windy is a beautiful time to enjoy nature at night.Besides,I can then claim to have walked on water and not lie like some wingnuts.
5“…a brass bra in the Klondike.”
6My that sounds bone chilling. J.J. you have gift for description. I had to put on another sweater after reading that.
Maggie-if you had known my Grandma Geronimo,(rest her soul)you would know she was lethal both ways.
7No hunting on Sunday is one of those Blue Laws that used to be a plague across New England. A result of being founded by the dregs of English religious thought.
8Here in Minnesota, “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, I see many fisher persons on the ice, and of course a lovely selection of interesting “ice houses”, inhabited by other fishy people. Now that’s just walking around lakes in the city. What I have never seen, is a squirrel on the ice. Never. This guy was sitting on the friggin’ ice and looking through a gunsight for a squirrel scampering along the shoreline? The little I do know about entertaining one’s self while sitting around a hole in an ice house, has to do with bringing warming fortifications in the guise of alcohol.
9The second Norman King of England William (II) Rufus was allegedly shot and killed by one of his retainers who though he was a squirrel.
10Montag, no Sunday hunting is the only Blue Law I support. It gives a brief respite to the animals and also to people who want to walk in the woods and not be mistaken for squirrels.
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