The lesson of the splattered tater

I killed the potato. Killed it good. That potato was obliterated.

In preparing for a concealed-carry class, we figured we should have a physical sense of how to handle a handgun, not just head knowledge, and a friend agreed to teach Red and me the basics before we took the class.

As part of that training, he had us do some target practice. The goal was to hit a potato he had placed on a log about 15 feet away.

After four or five carefully aimed shots, I finally blew up the potato. T...