Re: F&SF that I Read in 2007: W

John F. Eldredge <john@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>  If no one makes swords anymore, what do you call the long pointy
weapons 
>  still used with some military dress uniforms?  

Archaic, symbolic dress items.

>  You also see them in im****t/ex****t stores (mostly cheap versions,
>  without much of an edge), and at various Renaissance Faires.  The
>  last actual use of them in combat that I am aware of was by some
>  Japanese officers in World War II, mostly as a last-ditch weapon.  

I suspect that once you get up close and personal (as in
grappling/wrestling) knives are still usefull. But swords work best at
handgun/sawn off ahotgun distances, and there they loose almost all the
time to the firearm. 

>  Various terrorist organizations have been known 
>  to use them for beheading hostages, but I class that as murder, not 
>  combat.

Again, symbolic uses.

/Par

-- 
Par              	                          usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than 
 
ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things.    
		-- Terry Pratchett, "Equal Rites"