You Say BATF, I Say….

Tim C.'s note below on the recent name change for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms cast my mind back to my own days in the early '90s living in the heart of confusingly named bureaucracies, the District of Columbia, when my roommate Peter Cachion (a producer with the lamented TV series TechnoPolitics) referred to it, because of its bizarre random selection of vices, as the Bureau of Chawin', Spittin', and Cussin'.

Comments

[Bob]

I saw a cute T-shirt:

Alcohol
Tobacco
and Firearms

-Who's bringing the chips?

[Anonymous]

yeah, that's m'weekend shopping list.

[The Mountain Goat]

You would think guys with alcohol, tobacco and firearms in their title would be a lot of fun. But forget the chips: it makes the fuses hard to light, and is tough on the gun bluing.

[Anonymous]

Ever play the Illuminati: New World Order card game from Steve Jackson? The BATF card from that game would still apply: the art on the card displayed a self-satisfied agent chomping on a cigar with an open can of beer in hand and an assault rifle slung over his shoulder, as the Waco compound explodes in the background.