With firearms being in the news, we visited a gun shop in Texas to talk to shoppers like this raccoon-hunting 16-year-old girl. She was buying a holster for her dad, I guess so he can stop lugging his gun around in his hand and have someplace to stick it.

What caught my eye in our photo series was that people were pushing big shopping carts, like they were at Kroger or something. Is it just me, or does that sound like, pardon the expression, overkill?

How much weaponry do you have to be buying to need a CART? Are they like shopping for a small army or an entire post office, or what? Is this where General Santa Anna shopped on his way to the Alamo?

All I know is, this is NOT a store where I’d try cutting in front of anybody at the check-out line.

Cliff Sherrod browses for guns at Cabela’s store in Fort Worth, Texas, June 26, 2008.

Stella Richardson, 16, shops for a holster at Cabela’s.

REUTERS photos by Jessica Rinaldi

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Quick quiz: you can tell if a woman has class if you offer to buy her a glass of wine and she says…

a) Thank you, I’ll have a supple Margaux
b) Thank you, I’ll have an earthy Syrah
c) Thank you, I’ll have an overpriced Pinot Grigio
d) No thanks, hot-shot, I got me a brassiere full of cheap sweet red, right here!

Yes, female wine drinkers no longer have to bother with bottles and corks, they can just strap on this wine bra. And for guys, there is a wearable beer belly. It holds brew, and it also helps attract the kind of chicks that find a beer gut really attractive!

Of course, there may be that lingering notion that if you’re actually strapping alcohol onto your body maybe you have a little problem…

Belly/Bra Slideshow Other posts about drinks

A couple poses with the wearable beer belly (Bierbauch) for men and the wearable wine bra (Getraenke-BH) for women in Ismaning, Germany, June 19, 2008. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

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Blog Guy, I just don’t see how candidates pay for campaigns these days. It’s so expensive!

Well, as you know I get most of my news from seeing photos and guessing what’s going on. But it looks to me like they’re getting into product endorsements.

This scene has the feel of a classic infomercial, where the woman tells Barack Obama this gizmo can prevent decay. At first he’s like skeptical, but then he caves in and says he’s going to brush every day now andby the way, you can get the Ginsu Knives if you act quickly. Operators are standing by.

Coming tomorrow: John McCain demonstrates his George Foreman Grill…

Presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is presented with a dental hygiene kit by dental hygienist student Holly Siemens at a campaign stop in Taylor, Michigan June 17, 2008. REUTERS/ Rebecca Cook

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If you’re aboard the International Space Station, the very last thing you want to see - maybe except for alien life forms seeping through the vents - is an “out of order” sign on the only toilet. Sadly, that’s pretty much the situation. They are up to their astronauts in plumbing problems.

Not to get indelicate, but crew members reportedly have been fumbling with plastic bags since their zero-gravity toilet made “a loud noise” and stopped working properly last week. Ewwwwwwww!

I’m guessing there’s more they aren’t telling us about. Like maybe an increase in ”space walks,” as crew members grab a tattered copy of NASA Magazine, scurry out the hatch, and give new meaning to “moon shot.” Anyway, new parts just arrived and they’re fixing the thing tomorrow. Or sooner, if the crew gets to vote.

More posts about toilets

Help is on the way. At Cape Canaveral, Florida, technicians load toilet replacement parts aboard space shuttle Discovery, May 28, 2008. (NASA photos)

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Blog Guy,

Please settle a bet I have with my sister. Can the Pope fly? I say no, but Sis is sure she remembers something about that.

Well, no, not exactly, although his attire is quite aerodynamic. Sometimes it takes on a life of its own, as these pictures show. But I think your sister is confusing the Pope with Sally Field’s character in The Flying Nun, which went off the air, so to speak, some time ago.

Related, sort of: Your Holiness! We’re MELTING!

TV publicity photo

Pope: REUTERS/ Giampiero Sposito

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I’m as surprised as anybody, but not a single item about Victoria’s Secret made it into the top five postings for this blog in May!

Oh sure, everybody will have a theory on that, but personally I think it was because we didn’t have a single post that even mentioned Victoria’s Secret.

Apart from that, the most-visited items had absolutely nothing in common. A mango-eating contest, a dead writer’s skull, a bra with a difference, and so on. See for yourselves:

5. The whole mango fandango!

4. Stupid story gets much stupider

3. Take off your blouse, babe, I need to charge my laptop!

2. Sir, that carry-on bag is too large! Sir!

1. Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you…Oh, it is?

Models from Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, 2007. REUTERS photos by Mario Anzuoni

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We have a video report about how auto designers are shifting into neuteral, so to speak, fighting for the pet owner market by adding Fido-friendly features. I have a list of the options my own dogs are demanding:

- deluxe hamburger dispenser

- giant window control buttons 

- peanut butter dispenser

- big fans aimed at their face

- toast and jelly dispenser

- indoor tennis ball flinger

Come to think of it, that doesn’t sound like such a bad car, does it?

Video report:

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If you’re like me, you figure this is a Number Six Cylon being resurrected on Battlestar Galactica. But no, turns out it’s actually a photo from a beauty show underway in Japan.

Our caption calls this “carbonate skin care equipment.” Since I don’t know what that is, I’m guessing this gizmo sucks your old face out through the hose and shoots a new face back up the same tube. Thummp! That’s the sound of your old sucked face, heading down the toilet!

This looks like a textbook definition of low self-esteem. I’d basically say unless this contraption can turn Mamie Eisenhower into Angelina Jolie, then sitting with a pink bedpan necklace isn’t worth the damage to your ego, if you have one.

More beauty posts

Visitors try carbonate skin care equipment “Sparkle 1000″ at Beautyworld Japan in Tokyo, May 20, 2008. The mask is soaked in carbon and water which is believed to improve blood circulation and replenish the skin. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao

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Blog Guy, you don’t write about signs of the Apocalypse much lately. Is it no longer a threat?

Just the opposite. Signs are coming at us so quickly, it’s hard to keep up.

For instance, some guys have turned relieving themselves into a video game. You aim at sensors in the urinal to fight aliens, etc. Folks are queuing up to try, hence the expression, “Mind your pees and queues.”

Ah, I guess that DOES sound like the Apocalypse is near!

Well, the actual sign here will be when there is a short-circuit in the electronics while somebody is playing the game. We will see the most embarrassing obituary in the history of the world. Here’s our video report.

Learn to spot the Apocalypse from home!

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Just what we need, another frickin’ super hero. This one’s “Fusion Man,” and check out the slideshow. I guess he has an okay act, if you’re impressed by a macho hunk soaring majestically over the Alps in a rocket suit, nothing below him but miles of blue sky. But I worry that all the good super personas have been taken, leaving nothing for guys like me.

I need something just a little safer, so I’m trademarking my own super character, “Airport Moving Sidewalk Man!” Picture the scene:

“Someone PLEASE help me! Ruffians have grabbed my duty-free Chivas Regal!”

“Fear not, gentle lady! “Airport Moving Sidewalk Man” is on their trail!”

“But they’re running, and you’re barely moving on that sidewalk! You’re an imbecile!”

“No need to thank me, ma’am, just doing what’s right…”

Related post: I’m Toothache Man! You know the drill!

Former professional Swiss military pilot Yves Rossy, also known as “Fusionman,” soars in the sky like a rocketeer in the southern Swiss Alps near Bex May 14, 2008. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse