Old York, That Is
The Little Apple, not that trans-Atlantic mega-city consisting of skyscrapers, neon signs and caustic wit. Also lambs being traffic hazards. Art!
"Osiauitek" sounds Lithuanian
You see, phone traffic at my Still Coyly Un-Named Employer is down, thanks to the good weather, in part. When it's hot and sunny people go out and sunbathe, or walk the dog, or go to the park with a picnic: the last thing they do is consider 'Whom can I pester on the telephone today?" So we the staff have been putting our names forward for unpaid leave, and Your Humble Scribe got Thursday off.
Whooppee! <note single exclamation mark, no going overboard here>
Time for another visit to a Regimental Museum, which occasional project was put on hold during the Plague Years. So off to York and the York Army Museum it was. Art!
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| The Gate of Mickle, which means 'Large' |
Micklegate, with steps to access the city walls just out of shot to starboard. These features are why York will prevail during the Zombie Apocalypse, since they act as natural choke points and all you need is to park a car at an angle, then mak
ANYWAY I want to post a couple of other photos to set what scriptwriters call 'mise en scene', which is Pretentious for 'Setting'. Art!
The River Ouse, pronounced 'Ooze', and yes only the Yorkies would grace a body of running water with what sounds like an insult. It's also prone to flooding. Art!
A couple of geese take to the River Slime, sorry Ooze sorry Ouse. O boy I'm scoring points left and right with the Yorkies, aren't I? Art!
Note the mother following her small child making the hill ascent, and the gloomy grey skies that necessitated wearing a coat. Here I sat and scoffed my remaindered schwarma and a tin of something fizzy, orange-flavoured and Polish. Why here?
It's opposite the York Army Museum. Art!
It looks tiny, which is deceptive, as only the shop is on ground level. You will be proud of Conrad not spending any money on the books, models or other military guff they had there. Will of iron. Art!
Since not everyone is an anorak like Conrad, they provided a few basic concepts, such as 'Cavalry' and 'Infantry'. The 4/7th Royal Dragoon Guards (to port) were technically a cavalry unit, in that they rode horses. However, their horses were very much fifth-rate nags as the dragoons fought dismounted, not on horseback. The infantry are footsloggers who, even in the 21st century, have to able to march march march, possibly all day long, petrol costing what it does. Art!
A little ahead of time, there was a mural above a series of film clips that portrayed the 4/7th in action in Normandy, which also repeats the canards about Shermans versus Tigers et al. They omit the 'soft' factors such as reliability, ease of maintenance, reliability, availability, reliability and lack of gun barrel overhang. Did I mention reliability? Art!
Sorry for the lack of puny humans to give scale, just take it from me that this is a life-size schematic. You can see how cramped a Sherman was, and it was quite roomy as tanks went. The driver and bow-gunner/radio operator sit down at the front, with the commander, loader and gunner all sitting in the turret 'basket'. Art!
On the other side of the room, and jumping back in time 150 years, here's a depiction of a typical 'redcoat' circa the battle of Waterloo, 1815. The blurb alongside gives more details about whom and what you're looking at. Art!
The nomenclature of British infantry regiments is horribly confusing. Be advised that, in 1881, the 14th Regiment of Foot became the 'Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment'.
If your glazzies aren't up to it, the relevant part of the text states "The ability to operate as part of a well-drilled and disciplined team is still vital when faced with the intense pressure of battle."
The diagram points out Yorkie's musket, atop which is a bayonet, French cavalry for the confounding of, his water bottle, haversack, a knapsack for storing larger items, and an ammunition pouch containing 60 rounds of ammunition. Art!
Ammunition pouch 1815 vintage
Yes yes yes, I know a modern Yorkie could, if he wanted to earn the CSM's wrath, go through 60 rounds in about 10 seconds, including time to change a magazine. HOWEVER - O that word again! - back in the time of Nappy-nobbling a soldier could manage perhaps 2 shots per minute thanks to have to load powder down the barrel, tamp a piece of paper on top of that, then ram his lead shot down there, replace the ramrod, cock the hammer, put a dash of gunpowder on the pan, go to full cock, then lay aim and fire. So that's about 2 hours-worth of bullets. I shall be merciful and avoid going into detail about the enormous amount of smoke these flintlocks generated. Art!
A kindly-provided detail about an infantry company and how it was structured, with 52 privates being supervised by 6 non-commissioned officers (3 corporals, 3 sergeants), two junior officers and the captain. With a drummer, whose job it was to beat out different rhythms rather than have the captain scream himself hoarse. Hence 'Beating The Retreat'. Art!
10 companies made up a battalion, with 8 line companies of infantry, 1 of grenadiers and 1 of skirmishers. The battalion's flags were kept towards the rear as losing them in action was deemed an unforgiveable disgrace. The Colonel would be in the middle of the battalion, best placed to observe and issue orders. Art!
Yorkies preparing to meet their most deadly opponent. The Lankies. THE FRENCH! sorry, I meant the French.
I think we'll call a halt for these reminiscences at present, but rest assured we will most definitely return. I bet you can hardly wait.
Parboil In Oil
I have to put up the illo that the AI Art Generator came up with the cue 'Man with leg stuck in deep oil fryer' because it's so well over the top. Art!
The doofus in this case was tasked with cleaning the vents over the oil deep fryers in a fast-food restaurant. Normal process was to let the fryers cool down before attempting any cleaning, then use a kick-stool or small ladder to access the vents. Danny Doofus decided to shorten this process by -
- balancing on the edges of the first, only just switched off and thus swimming with oil at 200ยบ C, fryer to have it's hood cleaned.
He slipped. Not only did his leg enter boiling oil up to his knee, his foot got stuck in the trap at the bottom of the fryer. By the time his leg was released it was in such a state it had to be amputated below the knee.
Boiling oil: great for chips but not when up to your hips.
First, Catch Your Rabbit
You ought to be aware that we here at BOOJUM! keep a weather eye on Hom. Sap's investigation of distant worlds, the exoplanets that were unknown before 1996, and which have been detected in the thousands since then. If fact it seems that most solar systems have planets, and frequently a lot of them. Art!
The planet in question is LHS 1140 b, although they use an image of a completely different exoplanet, K2-18B. Art!
Not enough time for an artist's impression?
LHS is a rocky world located in the 'Goldilocks Zone' around it's parent star, and has been detected losing helium into space from it's atmosphere. Next up. the James Webb Space Telescope will be turned onto it, so investigate if any water is present in said atmosphere. Fingers crossed!
Art?
What's known as a 'Super-Earth'
O Boy What Has Lindy Come Up With NOW?
I shall have to mark this one down as 'Watch Later', since I've got more annotations to manage tonight. Art!
He might start with the shocking revelation that the Odd. is fiction. I know, who knew!
Finally -
You may be aware that the usual suspects have been conspicuously absent for several days now, which is me trying to prove that I really can avoid them for 72 hours at least. Don't worry, they will return.
