So, as a lot (some) of yall may know, I have recently been writing for a relatively new publication called Cigar & Spirits Magazine. I would like to say that I am now officially a published writer! I have two articles in the magazine's current issue, and have at least one slotted for it's next publication. I am pretty excited about this opportunity, and hope that you will check it out. The physical copy of the mag should be out in two weeks or so, and I will let you know where you can find it. The articles that I wrote begin on pages 14, and 35, but the entire magazine is worth a look. Enjoy!
Here I Stand
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Hiring our Heroes Review
I would first like to apologize for the tardiness of this post. I had originally wanted to write and publish about the Hiring our Heroes career fair within a day or so of the event, but technical difficulties foiled my plans. All that being said, here is the last of several attempts. 
The highlight of the fair, however, was the appearance by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate. They were there basically for the closing ceremony of the event, many of the companies stayed for a while afterward to get maximum exposure. The prince was very humble about his own service, but spoke about the sacrifices made by soldiers of both nations, and the need to assist returning veterans when they get back home – with education, employment, and all around reintegration. Maybe I am an optimist, or hope to believe the best in people, but I still tend to believe that Americans know the value of their returning veterans, and they know the skills and experiences that they can bring to the table, it is, unfortunately, only the current economic climate that keeps veteran unemployment numbers hovering around 30% or so (again, this might simply be my optimistic opinion)
My friend Meghan Weiten-Scott (wife of my USMA roommate, CPT Drew Scott) of Blue Star Families, spoke at length with the new Duchess Catherine about being a military wife, and it seems that the Duchess may work to implement similar programs with British troops and their families once she returns – it is, after all, a full time job being a military wife.
During my time transitioning from the Army, being in an underemployed workforce, and in business school, both in Florida and here in California, I have been to more than my share of career fairs. Some were military specific, some business specific, and some were little more than outright scams. The Hiring our Heroes veterans job fair in Los Angeles, however, was above and beyond. It was easily the most organized, professional, and well run career event that I have attended. I attribute much of this to the national level of the organizations behind it, the staffing from Blue Star Families – a non profit organization made up of military spouses and dependents which provided much of the staff and volunteers for the event, and also the international attention that Hiring our Heroes due to the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
There were around 200 companies represented in Hanger 15 of Sony Pictures Studios (Hollywood aficionados might know this as where they filmed much of the Spider man movies, as well as the Wizard of Oz, and numerous others) making it large, but not the largest of the career fairs I have attended. Employers ran the gamut of the mechanical and skilled labor jobs, to security and law enforcement that are staples of any military hiring event, all the way to corporate and financial positions that are typically reserved for graduate programs. I was particularly pleased to see organizations like Bank of America (a main sponsor of the event) and JP Morgan Chase offering military specific recruiting websites, acknowledging the flexibility, leadership, and technical skills of military veterans that seem to go unnoticed by many others. (It should be noted that upon further investigation, many of the “entry level” positions offered at these companies still required 3-5 years of financial experience... something not typically learned at Ft. Benning by a newly transitioning veteran. Full marks for effort though)
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| Meghan Weiten-Scott, Left, of Blue Star Families, discussing military families with Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge |
Note: in the time between the event and publishing this post, I have sent in dozens of applications, set up a few interviews, gone on one, and have still put in countless man-hours in the search for a career that does not require body armor. It is hard work being unemployed (for a Republican anyway) and remember to go after the companies you want to work for – you cannot just wait for them to come to you.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Iowa Congressman helps fight off home invasion
An excellent account of an armed, law abiding citizen defending his home and family. Congressman Boswell, a Democrat, is endorsed by the NRA, and has received an A rating.
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - An eight-term congressman from Iowa helped fight off an armed man who invaded his farm house in Decatur County and attacked his daughter on Saturday night, according to a statement from his office.
The attack occurred around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday at a farm in Lamoni, where Representative Leonard Boswell, a Democrat who represents Iowa's third congressional district, was spending the weekend with his wife, daughter and grandson.
The unidentified armed intruder entered the front door and assaulted Boswell's daughter, demanding money.
Hearing the commotion, Boswell went to the door and attempted to disarm the intruder, according to the statement.
While the two scuffled, Boswell's grandson grabbed a shotgun from a nearby room and confronted the intruder, who then fled into the surrounding field.
No one was seriously injured in the attack.
The Decatur County Sheriff's Department and state and federal authorities are investigating.
(Writing by James B. Kelleher)
Link to Story: http://news.yahoo.com/iowa-congressman-helps-fight-off-home-invasion-163355425.html
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Hiring Heroes - Los Angeles
Mobile blog from the Hiring our Heroes career fair in Los Angeles. Event is being staffed by Blue Star Families volunteers - a 501c3 non-profit run by, and for, military families. The guest speaker today, among a few notable veterans in the business community, is Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. There is a large, diverse crowd of veterans and military spouses here looking to continue serving their country - wearing suits instead of body armor. To quote a speaker this morning, "Veterans are a civic asset." Will continue to update as the day goes on.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Southern California's own Kean Coffee
Martin Diedrich, founder and master roaster of Kean Coffee, has certainly lived up to his title. The coffees that I have had at Kean formidably rank among the best cups of Java I have had stateside. I make this statement because there is quite a lot to be said for the environment where a cup of coffee is taken. It is hard to compete with the hot, sweet, comfort of a good coffee on a mountainside in the Chilean Andes; the sophisticated bit of an espresso on a bustling street corner in Naples; or the rich, chocolaty tones of a local brew on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. I also say this to let the reader know that I am no novice, and have discerning tastes when it comes to coffee. I take care and pride in my home brewed cups, and won't praise the bottomless coffee offered by just any greasy spoon diner.
The coffees at Kean, however, are comparable to any I have tasted. They have an excellent variety for nearly every discerning palette. Their rich mochas and Mayan spices are sweet and smooth. Their espressos have the creamy head that is the mark of a talented barista, with a full bodied flavor reminiscent of the north of Italy. The menu is playful and creative, giving a wide range of drinks that would put any national chain to shame. Their coffee by the pound is excellent. Ground to order (I use a metal filter at home) and intensely aromatic, I recommend the Medium Roast Fortaleza blend. It is what I am sipping as I write this, and has a rich, deep flavor, with subtle floral notes that end in a fruity taste of cherries and chocolate. I stoked up, so I hope it is still available.
The atmosphere is what would be expected of any high end coffee house, only brighter, cleaner, fresher. Kean glows with natural light, and is filled with students, artists, hippies, surfers, businessmen, and other Newport Beach locals that give it a perpetual feeling of fun and sophistication. Their outdoor patio is open and breezy, while often just as crowded and lively as the inside. There is always a line at Kean – which speaks to the quality of the drinks and the artistry of the baristas, and the best of luck finding a table, no matter what time of day, but there are ample entertainments to occupy your attention as your customized coffee is created. People watching is as enjoyable here as anywhere, and one can feel the energy and imagination echoing through the coffee house. Martin Deidrich, the proprietor (and, as mentioned before, Master Roaster) can usually be found hard at work, tasting new creations, roasting new blends, and conversing with the coffee aficionados that frequent his establishment. Kean is where I go for a mid day cup of pick-me-up, to write down my thoughts, and to gather ideas. It is the closest thing I have to a creative incubator... and the coffee isn't bad either.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
True Patriots - Kentucky Long Rifles
Read a great article on a historians collection of Revolutionary War era Kentucky Long Rifles. This Article is by Donovan Webster from Garden & Gun Magazine. I am a big fan of this magazine, and even though it is usually filled with good stuff, articles like this really jump out at me. As a history buff, Son of the American Revolution, and firearms fan in general, I can really appreciate the history and American culture behind these pieces.
The article is available at: True Patriots - Dan Webster
Almost every kentucky rifle has a story to tell. The one I’m looking at has a rectangular silver inlay near the rifle’s butt that reads: “C Kelsey.” And etched along the top of the rifle’s black barrel—in blocky and bold letters—is this: “New Market made by H. Spitzer.”
“This weapon was made by Henry Spitzer,” Michael Tuccori is saying as he handles the antique Kentucky rifle, its curly maple stock glowing gold in the morning sun. “Spitzer was a gunsmith working in New Market, Virginia, and he made this gun for Charles Kelsey, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1794. Records show that Kelsey moved into Kentucky with his wife in 1795, only the next year. He took the rifle with him. Now it has come back home.”
As Tuccori says this, we are in a room in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Hung on a wall are his collection of roughly five-foot-long Kentucky rifles, also known as long rifles, amid a collection of equally long fowling muskets, gunpowder horns, and handmade pistols from the American Colonial era. A dealer and collector of antiques, Tuccori, sixty-three, focuses his weapons collection on the few years either side of the American Revolution for a specific reason.
“By the 1800s, you get a more cookie-cutter weapon,” he says. “Before that, it was master gunsmiths working on the frontier with a journeyman and an apprentice. They hand-bored each gun’s barrel, then hand-rifled each barrel themselves using a tool. It was slow and painstaking work. After about 1800, the process got more mechanized, so the weapons get less unique.”
Still, Tuccori goes on, it didn’t take long for everyone who saw a Kentucky rifle to want one. Since the rifled barrels shot balls much farther and more accurately than muskets shot pellets, long rifles quickly became very desirable. “The people settling this part of the world moved around…a lot,” he says. “They traveled into Kentucky, up to Pennsylvania, down into Tennessee, then back. They lived in buckskins or loincloths. There were elk, grizzly bear, and eastern buffalo everywhere, and these rifles helped to keep them fed. And there were also Native Americans who could be hostile. So riflemen and settlers wanted a more precise weapon, both to hunt and to protect themselves.”
A smooth-bore musket, Tuccori says, can fire shot pellets only at close range. Long rifles can be accurate to hundreds of yards. “At one point in Revolutionary times, a man named Timothy Murphy shot a British officer at three hundred yards using a long rifle,” Tuccori says. “That’s a pretty fair shot with an open sight. To the people settling this part of the world, an accurate weapon like that was indispensable. It was more valuable to them than an ax or a hoe.”
Because of their unique history and relative scarcity, the price of Kentucky rifles—as well as that of the long muskets and pistols—has risen significantly in the last few decades. And while it’s impossible to know how many Revolutionary-era long rifles are around, their rareness has made them very expensive.
“Even a nondescript one from the era we’re talking about goes into the six figures,” Tuccori says. “And while we do see a few New England rifles around from that time, the majority of them come from the area between Pennsylvania and North Carolina, though they’re generally referred to as Kentucky rifles.”
Though Tuccori says that new Kentucky rifle finds occasionally bubble onto the market out of attics and unknown family collections, most are traded from known and established collections. “Most are identifiable by collectors. The greater majority of them are made with curly maple stocks and the rest with another hardwood, usually cherry. And each has a hand-forged flintlock. After the Revolutionary War, gunsmiths began to trade once again with Britain and France, and they bought manufactured flintlocks from Europe, which is why the weapons prior to that time are more distinctive. After the Revolution, in places like Birmingham, England, they were making and exporting flintlocks by the boxload.”
Still, the variety of the designs and materials used in the creation of Kentucky rifles goes on and on. Earlier versions of the weapon have far thicker buttstocks, plus sliding pieces of wood to cover the butt’s “patch box,” an indentation where greased patches of cloth were kept to separate the rammed-down gunpowder charge from the ball rammed tight atop it. Later-made weapons have elaborate iron or brass patch-box inlays and thinner overall profiles, each design denoting a specific maker, whether there’s a gunsmith’s name on the rifle or not.
“You know, you look at the guns on the wall here,” Tuccori says, “and you can watch the design evolve across the American Revolution. It’s just another way of seeing how our country made itself.”
The article is available at: True Patriots - Dan Webster
By Donovan Webster | Feb/March 10 |
True Patriots
Virginia collector Michael Tuccori’s eighteenth-century Kentucky rifles are studies in American history
Almost every kentucky rifle has a story to tell. The one I’m looking at has a rectangular silver inlay near the rifle’s butt that reads: “C Kelsey.” And etched along the top of the rifle’s black barrel—in blocky and bold letters—is this: “New Market made by H. Spitzer.”
“This weapon was made by Henry Spitzer,” Michael Tuccori is saying as he handles the antique Kentucky rifle, its curly maple stock glowing gold in the morning sun. “Spitzer was a gunsmith working in New Market, Virginia, and he made this gun for Charles Kelsey, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1794. Records show that Kelsey moved into Kentucky with his wife in 1795, only the next year. He took the rifle with him. Now it has come back home.”
As Tuccori says this, we are in a room in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Hung on a wall are his collection of roughly five-foot-long Kentucky rifles, also known as long rifles, amid a collection of equally long fowling muskets, gunpowder horns, and handmade pistols from the American Colonial era. A dealer and collector of antiques, Tuccori, sixty-three, focuses his weapons collection on the few years either side of the American Revolution for a specific reason.
“By the 1800s, you get a more cookie-cutter weapon,” he says. “Before that, it was master gunsmiths working on the frontier with a journeyman and an apprentice. They hand-bored each gun’s barrel, then hand-rifled each barrel themselves using a tool. It was slow and painstaking work. After about 1800, the process got more mechanized, so the weapons get less unique.”
Still, Tuccori goes on, it didn’t take long for everyone who saw a Kentucky rifle to want one. Since the rifled barrels shot balls much farther and more accurately than muskets shot pellets, long rifles quickly became very desirable. “The people settling this part of the world moved around…a lot,” he says. “They traveled into Kentucky, up to Pennsylvania, down into Tennessee, then back. They lived in buckskins or loincloths. There were elk, grizzly bear, and eastern buffalo everywhere, and these rifles helped to keep them fed. And there were also Native Americans who could be hostile. So riflemen and settlers wanted a more precise weapon, both to hunt and to protect themselves.”
A smooth-bore musket, Tuccori says, can fire shot pellets only at close range. Long rifles can be accurate to hundreds of yards. “At one point in Revolutionary times, a man named Timothy Murphy shot a British officer at three hundred yards using a long rifle,” Tuccori says. “That’s a pretty fair shot with an open sight. To the people settling this part of the world, an accurate weapon like that was indispensable. It was more valuable to them than an ax or a hoe.”
Because of their unique history and relative scarcity, the price of Kentucky rifles—as well as that of the long muskets and pistols—has risen significantly in the last few decades. And while it’s impossible to know how many Revolutionary-era long rifles are around, their rareness has made them very expensive.
“Even a nondescript one from the era we’re talking about goes into the six figures,” Tuccori says. “And while we do see a few New England rifles around from that time, the majority of them come from the area between Pennsylvania and North Carolina, though they’re generally referred to as Kentucky rifles.”
Though Tuccori says that new Kentucky rifle finds occasionally bubble onto the market out of attics and unknown family collections, most are traded from known and established collections. “Most are identifiable by collectors. The greater majority of them are made with curly maple stocks and the rest with another hardwood, usually cherry. And each has a hand-forged flintlock. After the Revolutionary War, gunsmiths began to trade once again with Britain and France, and they bought manufactured flintlocks from Europe, which is why the weapons prior to that time are more distinctive. After the Revolution, in places like Birmingham, England, they were making and exporting flintlocks by the boxload.”
Still, the variety of the designs and materials used in the creation of Kentucky rifles goes on and on. Earlier versions of the weapon have far thicker buttstocks, plus sliding pieces of wood to cover the butt’s “patch box,” an indentation where greased patches of cloth were kept to separate the rammed-down gunpowder charge from the ball rammed tight atop it. Later-made weapons have elaborate iron or brass patch-box inlays and thinner overall profiles, each design denoting a specific maker, whether there’s a gunsmith’s name on the rifle or not.
“You know, you look at the guns on the wall here,” Tuccori says, “and you can watch the design evolve across the American Revolution. It’s just another way of seeing how our country made itself.”
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