Cross Word Cross Word

Who Knew?
As you should surely know by now, Conrad is an avid fan of the Cryptic Crossword, and regularly completes the one that comes with The Metro,* and also those in the M.E.N. when he gets that.  Never the Quick Crossword, that's too easy and presents too little challenge.**
     You'd hardly think that crosswords could be tendentious, contentious and seditious, would you?  WRONG!  Art?

Hmmm.

     Let us gloss over clue 18, for here at BOOJUM! we are eminently SFW.  As for clue 7, the compiler is being spectacularly unwise; with three vowels in a 7-letter word you can muck about to a considerable extent with the answer (which is "surgeon" by the way) and your humble scribe came up with a Cryptic Clue "Impulse over medical specialism" which would yield "Surge" and "On", and that's on about 20 seconds musing. 
     Predictably, there have been ructions in the press, questions asked in the House, a letter to the Times and a whole lot of eructations from people who spend all day long looking for something to be annoyed about.  If only they'd asked me ...

   
Yeah, About That -
"Tendentious", which means "To advocate a particular position or stance, especially one that is controversial".  Where does it hail from?
     No!   Not Latin The Zombie Language, nor Greek, which has been around so long it makes Latin look bright, shiny and modern.  German.  Specifically "Tendenzios".  And the Teutons borrowed it from French, and "Tendance", meaning "A particular tendency".
     There you go - BOOJUM! educating you one word at a time.

Tendentious is dull.  Have a fun Cavity Magnetron instead!

Yeah, About That (A Different One) -
If you recall yesterday - and unless you awoke from a coma today you really don't have an excuse not to*** - then you will recall our the use of a photograph of the giant praying mantis from that faintly silly classic "The Deadly Mantis", which is about LITHIUM-WAFER BATTERY DES - no, that's not right - hang on - about a giant praying mantis.  Art?

Evil weeny

     Yes, this is a normal-sized mantis, because the giant one is daft.  For one thing <long boring screed about chitin cross section versus mass redacted by Mister Hand> own weight.  Okay, let us meet another Praying Mantis.  Art?

Ta-dah!

     One of Perfidious Albion's more - ah - eccentric tank designs.  Except that it was based on the Bren Gun Carrier, which was more a kind of tracked jeep than a tank, which is splitting hairs I suppose.^  The idea was that it would drive around and hide behind a wall until it heard the language of the enemy (German, one supposes, rather than Babylonian), whereupon it would rear up, towering tall atop the terrified Teutons, and slay them with it's poison fangs twin Bren guns.  Art?

Hmmm.

     It looks better in the bottom photograph, more Gerry Anderson than Heath Robinson.  It couldn't have been comfortable for the two-man crew, who had to lie on their stomachs to drive and operate the thing.
     There you are - we once again fulfil that default Facebook blurb concerning the blog being about tanks.


Schadenfreude
More German!  If you are unaware, the above word encapsulates the concept of maliciously enjoying other people's misfortune.  As in 'Tom & Jerry' cartoons when Tom opens the cupboard and a bowling ball falls on his head, which is always hilarious.
     Anyway, there I was, ambling to work through Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell's Northern Quarter, where all the shops and bars try painfully hard to be trendy, only to espy a person now known as a "Civil Enforcement Officer", whom in days of old was called a "Traffic Warden".

Someone is in trouble!

     He was taking photographs of a car, so Conrad - being nosey and always happy to see someone else in trouble - stopped and asked if, indeed, someone was in trouble.
     Oh yes, replied the CEO, since the driver of said car hadn't bothered to buy a ticket.
     I ventured that he'd probably gambled that a CEO wouldn't be around early on Saturday morning.
     Wrong! replied the CEO.  They work on Sundays, too. 
     Heh.  Civil Enforcement Officers.  Keeping our streets safe and profitable (said the man who travels by bus.  Heh again).

But I do have to travel by First Bus, so it's not all sunshine

     Well well time will tell, here I am at work on a Saturday, hammering away on the keys and - that's as much as you're going to get today.  I shall post this on social media when I get home and because that's not going to be until well after 6 post meridian, I'm not doing a second post.**


Finally -
As proof that there is nothing as bizarre as real life, I Googled the term "Atomic Snail", and it came up with this - Art?

Quite apt, actually.

*  Come on, you didn't think I got it for the news, did you?
**  Yes, this is gloasting.  Live with it.
***  "Abduction by aliens" as an excuse will only be accepted with written proof.
^  Or, business as usual here on the blog.