Weekend Open Thread: Return of the WOT Edition (free hats for new commenters)

By Adam Green Last updated Oct 19, 2024

Live from Knoxville, it’s Friday Night!

Welcome to the return edition of KNIFE Magazine’s Weekend Open Thread. We were on hiatus last week, as I was with my family in Montana visiting Ethan Becker, who lives in a guest house on the ranch of a close childhood friend.

It was a Fall Break trip nominally for my daughter’s 16th birthday, but all of us had a wonderful time.

The kids spent the week riding Razors and Horses, shooting guns, but most priceless of all, spending time with “Uncle Ethan”.

For those who don’t know, Ethan’s grandmother was the author of the original Joy of Cooking, and was editor of editions 4 and 5 I believe. He gave the kids a private cooking lesson every evening.

The West Prong of the Bitterroot River flows right through the ranch, and I was able to fish 4 of the days.

But the two times I went fishing with my daughter were the most special.

I lost track of how many fish I caught in total over the course of the week, but Emery caught 4 completely on her own, and landed another 6 that I hooked on casts beyond her skill level.

My wife and I have long spoken of moving back west (we lived outside Idaho Falls from 2002-2006) when the kids move out, probably closer to Livingston, but outside Missoula certainly has its appeal.

Just watch out for the “lawn chocolates” when walking across a field.

Fall Break is over, and Press Day for the December issue is coming up on 10/30. Between now and then I will be coaching my Middle School girls at the annual Battle in the Burg lacrosse tournament, so I have no time to attend any knife shows myself. But if we have a look at the KNIFE Magazine Events Calendar we will see a busy couple of weekends…

ABS Piney Woods Super Hammer-In

We are still dealing with the embed issue, where the display is the first year the even was entered. I do confirm these before posting…

Same situation here…

Moran Foundation & Museum All Forged Knife Show & Auction

Say Hi to Hocky if you go.

Next weekend…

Art Knife Invitational

and…

Fall California Custom Knife Show

We are working on getting that fixed. (mildly NSFW)

I have used Warren Zevon as the musical guest before, but I just heard he was snubbed again for Rock HoF induction. He remains among my all time favorites. He is famous for the line “enjoy every sandwich” when asked about his impending death from cancer.

Which leads me to an unfortunate segue..

Jeff was a member of what Allen used to call the “Knoxville Knife Syndicate”, a group of Knox area collectors and makers who all used to get together for lunch pre-pandemic. That is where I got to know Jeff and his work. I didn’t know him well, but he was a nice guy and and a heck of a maker. He will be missed.

There is plenty in the news that has been memeworthy.

Hurricanes, and hurricane recovery top the list.

They should have given Milton back his Stapler. (+1 entry for the first person to name the movie)

Made you look.

My wife has a coworker who went to Disney last week, despite the storm.

The supply shortages are for real.

There will never be a better opportunity.

Mountain Strong Y’all.

Not long after the Browns announced they were moving to the suburb of Brookpark…

Watson is a joke…

God Hates Cleveland™

Hopefully the team I used to root for will be eliminated too by the end of the weekend.

And while my Bucks crapped the bed against Oregon, you couldn’t pay me to be a fan of the Team up North.

Truly a missed opportunity.

SpaceX didn’t miss an opportunity. Whatever you think of Elon’s politics, he is moving humanity forward in ways that will resound for potentially centuries. Decades certainly.

Since we took a week off, there is no drawing this week, but for our drawing next week we will be giving away away a Spyderco Clipitool…

We are also going to promote the WOT on our social media, in an attempt to infuse some fresh commenters and expand the community. So we are having a secondary contest. If you are one of the first 14 new commenters, you win a free hat. (in addition to being entered in the Spyderco drawing)

The way our Open Thread Drawings work is your first 5 comments or replies are your entries. If you are new to the blog and this is your first time commenting, your first comments will be held in moderation until I can approve them, but you will be entered into a secondary drawing where a picking order will be drawn at random, and you will get your choice from the hats seen below.

Additionally, if you are a regular commenter and you are drawn for the Spyderco, you can opt for first choice of hat as well. I am pretty sure Hocky would rather have the Ruana hat than an import Spydie.

Speaking of Hocky…

Leading off our smorgasbord of non-themed memes, which hopefully will have you Laughing your own Ass Off..

I think I went to school with that guy…

I am glad I am Dutch. Though Kyle Daily sent me this…

I told him he had to come to TN to collect.

Somewhat related…

Truth…

“Think of the fact that there’s not one state in the 50 that has the death penalty for speeding. Although I’m not so sure about Ohio.” (another +1 if you can name the movie)

Indeed they do.

C’mon Chicken. Reminds me of this classic…

Makes me laugh every time.

Motivated me. They also gave away certificates for Baskin Robbins.

SOmewhat related. Definitely Relatable…

Not meant to be political, just really stinking funny.

Meanwhile, this is me in bed…

The bedroom should be fun.

That one is too obvious to give you +1.

Tough Crowd.

Ghost > Home Repairs

Not as scary as Barney or the Banana Splits.

The scariest thing is I am not completely sure.I think between Axel Rose and Brian May.

Tragic.

Life Goals. Though Trebuchets are Physics, and Physics is STEM.

Speaking of Douchebags…

He FAFO’ed.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar assumed room temperature, not at the hands of an elite special forces operator…

…rather the unit that took him out was made up of a bunch of guys who enlisted after the October 7th massacre. I read that it was the equivalent of being pwned by the Nebraska National Guard. Not to disparage Guardsmen, whose service is as honorable as any, but I read that the guy who fired the killshot was 19 years old and only 9 months into his enlistment. Congrats to all of them.

Sinwar died alone and broken. It appears he was caught as he was trying to flee to Egypt. He had cash and an UNWRA passport.

If you didn’t see the drone footage, it is pretty incredible.

This is footage from an IDF drone moments before arch terrorist Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.

Justice has been served. pic.twitter.com/HafylyK47t

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 17, 2024

Redsteez won the internet with this thread…

I hope that the hostages are returned and I can soon retire this section of the open thread. I am not overly optimistic. Henry Kissinger said it best when he said that “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”.