People who are familiar with the Corelle brand of glass dinnerware are aware of their claim that their Vitrelle line is resistant to breaking and chipping. However, I have come across conflicting opinions on this matter via comments on forums and blogs as well as from talking to various owners of the dinnerware.

Some people believe that Corelle’s claims are true whilst others think that they are blatantly misleading customers. For example, I read about someone who was shopping for a Corelle Livingware dinnerware and while in the store, she “accidentally” dropped the display piece on solid ground, and it remained intact. Another case involved a woman hand washing her Corelle plate and it slipped through the finger and onto the ground, breaking into several tiny shards of glass.

There was a pattern behind all these cases. I noticed that when the corelle dinnerware is brand new, the protective coating around them lessens the likelihood of a break or chip. However, as time progresses, this coating begins to wear off leading to a greater chance for breaks.

Here’s the scenario: Your wife gives you a nudge at 2:00 AM, and tells you that she thinks someone’s in the house. No problem, Rambo, you have a huge gun safe loaded with tactical carbines and automatic pistols in your closet. All you have to do is stop crapping yourself, get out of bed, run to your closet, and spin your safe combination on the rotary dial. By the time you do all that, the invaders could bust into your room, tie you both up, loot your house and put a bullet in both of your heads.

Ok, I’m sorry, that was a little extreme, but it happens. Chances are, you won’t experience a home invasion, but there’s no guarantee. Under these circumstances, you need every second you can get to get your mind right, get armed, and protect your family. I don’t care if you have a Dillon Aero Minigun, if it’s locked behind a door that takes a minute to gain access to, it’s useless! You know I’m going to tell you what you need, right?

What you need to adequately prepare yourself for trouble are biometric gun safes. Biometric gun safes, are safes protected by fingerprint scanning locks. The scanner reads your print pattern, runs it against an algorithm, and decides whether or not to let you in. Though they aren’t 100% accurate, they’re exceptionally close. If I need to eradicate a bump in the night, all I have to do is tell my wife to calm down, reach underneath my nightstand, swipe my finger, and grab my locked and loaded TP9…I can go from being a target to the Terminator in less than a second.

That’s no understatement. It only takes a second to swipe your finger over the biometric scanner and grab your firearm, and with a few practice runs, you can make it all happen with no-look entry. As implied, fingerprint gun safes are best served as small, personal safes. They’re perfect for storing pistols, extra ammunition, and small valuables next to your bed or on a closely accessible wall safe.

Biometric locks are also available on full size long gun safes, but for these, I much prefer an old fashioned rotary lock. “But you just told that story about the guy who got shot because he had a rotary lock”.

No, I told a story about a guy who didn’t have a quickly accessible gun next to his bed. Biometric gun safes are perfect for getting what you need quickly, while keeping children and lazy thieves out of your firearms. The reason I suggest sticking with a rotary lock or an electronic keypad on your large safes is because, though I mentioned that fingerprint readers are very accurate, they aren’t 100% accurate. Veteran burglars can find ways to fake these fingerprints, and though the chances are very slim that they’ll be successful, I still wouldn’t want to put my several thousand dollar gun collection on the table to find out.

I believe that about covers the basics. Biometric gun safes serve the perfect balance for getting to your firearms quickly, while providing a sound barrier between your gun and your kids.

photo credit: Torley

The councilman ordered the large doll house for his unfortunately named niece, Bootsy.  The poor spoiled child! Would she ever be able to get over being named after a cat? How could she ever explain it to the girls she’d meet in future years when she attended Wellesley? When the dollhouse was delivered to the councilman’s house, he immediately unpacked it so he could check out all the furniture. Everything seemed to be included.  There were tiny boxes labeled kitchen, small bedroom, living room, master bedroom, second small bedroom or sewing room. Where were the small tables for every room? He had seen pictures of them in the catalog, and that was one of the main reasons he had ordered this particular dollhouse. The dollhouse was delivered by Oliver, the UPS man, around noon two days before Bootsy’s birthday. As the councilman examined all the furniture, he realized that he was enjoying it very much. Neither he nor his sister, Elise, had a dollhouse when they were little.The memory brought tears to his eyes.