This Will Take Some Explaining
Firstly, in time-hallowed tradition, allow me to explain what we here at BOOJUM! are not talking about. Art!
The Pixies
Conrad has one of their albums knocking around here somewhere, probably 'Surf Rosa' which I won't bother illustrating as they aren't the focus of this Intro. I seem to remember that they were okay, nothing special. Sorry to all the Pixies fans I've offended there, but not very much*. Art!
Then there are the pixies of traditional English folklore, originating in Cornwall and Devon, and mighty difficult it is to find pictures of them thanks to the band. Pixies were mischievous little imps that delighted in playing pranks on passing members of Hom. Sap. although only up to a point, they jibbed at anything cruel or overtly malicious. Today, they would make your GPS send you into a cul-de-sac, not into the nearest river.
ANYWAY we are back on the subject of 'York Army Museum' SIT BACK DOWN! if I dared to travel to Yorkshire to get this pictorial evidence you are most definitely going to be entertained by it. Art!
This was a cavalry exhibit from the Napoleonic era, if I remember rightly, showing a subaltern's tunic, sabre and helmet, and in the foreground a batch of lead shot to port. The sort of stuff that made life unhealthy and best avoided if at all possible. That map in the background is of the Netherlands and was used by one of these gallopers for orientation and location. Yes, those are Minifigs to lower starboard, the museum staff had scattered them across the venue to engage their younger patrons. BE PATIENT ABOUT THE PIXIES! Art?
The infantryman's tools of the trade, you might say. At upper port are various pistols, traditionally the mark of an officer, which also mark one out as being the priority target for snipers. To starboard of that are a variety of swords, again a traditional accoutrement for an officer and quite handy in a melée when it took perhaps 30 seconds to reload a flintlock pistol or musket; of considerably less use once the magazine rifle came into being, although still issued to BEF officers in 1914.
To lower port is a Vickers-Maxim machine gun - you can tell thanks to the smooth brass water jacket, which was extremely heavy - standing in for all heavy machine guns of that ilk. Art!
From port to starboard you can see the progression of rifle weapons across the ages, moving from the smoothbore muzzle-loading musket, via bolt-action to semi-automatic (the FN made under licence in the UK, with no full automatic option).
Beneath this row there are a couple of light machine guns - relative, as they are not remotely light when you have to carry them, and a couple of now obsolete sub-machine guns, which have been replaced by the next item, an assault rifle. Art!
What the average infantryman has been wearing for the past 150 years. You can literally see the transition from scarlet tunics to khaki, enabling Yorkies to blend into the landscape instead of visually shouting HERE I AM. So, too, you can see the reintroduction of body armour, rather less stylish than a cuirass yet more durable. The interesting stuff to lower port is parts of a 'range tank' which has been subjected to live fire, demonstrating how big a hole can be made. Art!
Meet the - waitforitwaitforit - PIXIE SUIT! which was issued to tank crews in the latter years of the Second Unpleasantness. Lined with serge, it was large enough to be worn over the normal uniform, yet not too large for the confined interior of a tank and was renowned for being extremely warm and dry. It was not unknown for British tank crews to bribe South Canadian tank crews with pixie suits for other benefits. Art!
A bunch of mischievous imps
Conrad was about to settle his buns on this item before realising it was the shell casing for a verrrry large artillery round, 15" or upwards. No note or blurb about it in the display, despite which I decided to perch elsewhere to avoid uncomfortable tinglings. Art!
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| There is no reflection! None! |
I know, I know, very elaborate. What you're looking at is a table decoration for the 14th Regiment, with the Black Prince discovering the body of Blind King John Of Bohemia, whom had unwisely decided to fight for the French that day. Ooops. Art!
Hmmmm celebrating the absolute malleting of the French for 500 years does seem to be rubbing chlorine trifluoride into the wound a tad.
Apologies for bouncing around in time. You begin to understand what The Doctor's companions feel like, nicht wahr?
Alright, I think that's enough YAM for one day, we still have LOTS to get through, you lucky people. Look happier!
O Dearie Me
Take a look at this sad sack. Art!
Courtesy of 'Hoodlum' over on Twitter as of 02/08/2026. Donnie Dorko not looking a day over 95, which is also his IQ. That 'President Donald Trump' patch is to remind him what he is. Compare this with the ludicrous wet-dream version he put up on his social media platform - Art!
He seems to have dropped 200 pounds of fat, as well as the bonespurs. Don't forget BOOH got out of the Vietnam draft by repeated medical deferrals, as he is incredibly protective of his own delicate epidermis - what other people describe as 'cowardice'. The reason he's shouting is because of the airport next door. If you know, you know.
More Of The Peculiarities Of Post-War Politicking
When I say 'post-war' I really mean a kind of interregnum that ran from after the Teuton-imposed Treaty Of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918, upon the newly-formed Bolshevik state. The treaty was extremely harsh, rendering the Ruffians sullenly uncooperative at best and murderous at worst. Art!
Smug Teutons to port, appalled Ruffians to starboard.
This is all background to the relevant pages in Nick Lloyd's "The Eastern Front" where the Teutons were discovering that getting into Ruffia was a lot harder than getting something out of it. For one thing, they were inextricably bound up in newly-formed Ukraine both politically and economically; Ober Heeres Leitung (Teuton supreme command) had already overthrown the Ukrainian government once already when it didn't slavishly obey them. Art!
You might be ahead of me here, thanks to the photo above, and realise that there were severe problems with Ukrainian railways that crippled the Teuton logistics there. For one thing, Ukrainian rails were wider than Teuton ones, meaning everything had to be offloaded at the border before being onloaded again for forwarding. Not only that, the Teutons had to supply Ukraine with coal when it was in short supply in Germany itself, or risk a logistics collapse. No pressure, then. Art!
Far from being a cash cow, Ukraine proved to be a money pit of colossal proportions, sucking in Teuton capital to the tune of 125 million Marks per month just to prop up the state. Nor is that all - Germany had issued over a billion Marks in loans to their puppet state that were never, ever going to be repaid.
Ironically, the Teutons over-running Ukraine seems to have been one of the best things possible for the Entente powers, forcing Germany to squander resources they did not have to keep what they couldn't get.
Tons Of Hardware
More artwork from Mister McKie, whom tends to portray things on the grand scale. Art!
These three are rather dull by contrast with all the prior artworks, so I've made a montage of all to get shot of them as quickly as possible. Then we can proceed with a more exciting one. Art!
Much more entertaining! if not somewhere you'd ever want to live, if for only that insurance costs would be prohibitive. Once again, this looks like a book cover with that pregnant space at top, but can I find it in a Google search? No I cannot! Muted 'Bah'. A very, very red palette, pet
Is He In Heaven, Is He In Hell -
That damned elusive Mitch McConnell. You know, the chap who used to be Senate Majority Leader over in South Canada, until his health began to make DJ Tango look like a model of marvelousness by comparison. Mitch hasn't been seen in public for weeks and weeks, which is making his political opponents very angry, and the conspiranoid loonwaffle society eager to fill the news gap with swivel-eyed nonsense. Art!
If he has indeed shimmied his way off this mortal coil, there will then be an election, which might go badly for the Lizard Wizard Gizzard party, so the theory goes that they're pretending he's perfectly healthy for as long as possible, or until the smell and flies give the game away.
Finally -
Ginger beer brew #3 is on the ferment as I type.
* I'm horrid like that.
