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Tuesday, 3 November 2026

I Apologise For The Artwork Here

Your Humble Scribe Was Looking For Relevant Images

CAUTION!  SINGLE ITEM BLOG

Yet could not find any, so I had to go seeking amongst the AI Art Generator, for which I prostrate myself before you, gentle readers.  Both of you.  Art!


     Whilst this might not come across as a literal 'Truck Possessed By Demonic Forces' - whom can darned well get out there and work out their own financial plans with interest and defaults - it does epitomise the saga of 'GREEdy Streak auntY' and her nephew CAR KID, hereafter GREESY and CK.

     For Lo! we are relating another Reddit account on Youtube from 'r/Lounge' under the #familydrama# heading.

     Let me reveal firstly that this tale, unlike 99% of these tales, is set outside South Canada.  In fact it is set in British America, where the Commonwealth is still a fact and Kingie is still revered and the Perky Pats are amongst the first of military formations.  Canuckistan, in other words.  Art!

     CK's story involves a whole tranche of story about their entitled aunt so that I think I'm going to insert a couple of flags into the narrative as above for her: 'Red flag and trigger'.  Art!


     GREESY is both entitled and greedy, as you might expect from their acronym.  As evidence, they looted the probate of a relative they had wormed their way into as an executor.  They plundered the estate thanks to their legal status; everyone else stood aghast, unable to intervene.  yet they saw and remembered.

    Enter CK's uncle, whom he worshipped at a low level  This chap is a long-haul Canuckistan trucker.  The two were more like father and son, with CK frequently accompanying his Unk on travails  across British America.  Which is an enormous territory lest ye ferget.  Sadly, Unk got a terminal case of cancer whilst GREESY stayed healthy, as is often the way.  This vulture-in-human-form tried to get executor status for her bro and failed, because see above paragraph.  Instead he hired a lawyer who specialised in estates and inheritance, which caused GREESY to whine for two weeks, escalating so much that the hospice nurses kicked her out.  Art!

GET YE GONE!
                                                                                         

     Then came the reading of the will.  CK, to his amazement, was given Unk's rig.  Art!


     A 2008 Lonestar International.  A bit of a beast.  Plus! his uncle's 1966 Chevelle SS.  Art!


     Made out of pure testosterone.   GREESY threw a conniption, only to be told to sit down and be quiet.  She was last on the list of recipients - her brother knew her for what she was - and received a dirty dollar encased in a block of acrylic, which everyone but her found hilarious.  

                                          

     She then proceeded to harass CK for weeks by phone, pestering about what she called 'Her Car' and 'Our Truck', escalating to getting her boyfriend to bring a towtruck to CK's house in order to steal his Chevelle.

                                                             

     Cops were called.  GREESY and her soiled-underwear boyfriend were warned they were trespassing and committing Grand Theft Auto and to be on their way and I imagine those are the very words used as this is Canuckistan where people are polite.  Art!

                                                             

     The madness did not stop.  GREESY wanted those vehicles with the passion of a thwarted lover; clearly Unk knew which of her buttons to press.  She took CK to court a first time, which was dismissed before trial, and then again, which was Dismissed With Prejudice, meaning she couldn't ever bring the suit again, AND she had to pay CK's legal fees.  O boy I bet that stung!

     The rest of the family must have been watching and enjoying this charade play out, since CK's great uncle died and in the will -

     CK got a 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS, which had been restored by great uncle.  Art!


                                         

     Predictably, this sent GREESY into a frothing psychotic rage.  She and her boyfriend turned up at CK's home with a couple of flatbed trucks, and stole the Impala on one of them, driven by the aunt herself.  CK looked on in stunned disbelief as the boyfriend tried to get the Chevelle onto the other one even as he was calling the police.

     Both were arrested and sentence to 2 years in jail.  CK very wisely took out a restraining order against his aunt.  

     The cars keep coming, though.  His great aunt amends her will to ensure CK gets the great uncles other two cars: a 1958 Chevrolet Impala and a 


Plymouth Belvedere Fury, which is apparently the hell-spawn car from  'Christine'.  Way to go.  Aspiring to own an indestructible metal demon with a mind of it's own.  CK's cousin got rights to a Nash Metro that great uncle had been restoring, not that CK cared much as he deemed the Nash as ugly beyond redemption.  Art!

He has a point

     ANYWAY this must have occurred after GREESY got out of prison, as she was on her way to CK's house before her sister rang and warned her that setting foot on CK's property was a good way to return to prison, thanks to the restraining order.

                                                         

     So she turned around and spent the afternoon trying to extort the Nash from his cousin, unsuccessfully.  O boy that great aunt knew what buttons to press as well!

     GREESY then spent SEVEN MONTHS trying to extort the Nash from cousin, until he finally blocked her on every media platform he subscribed to.  No word of a restraining order but it would have been wise.

     ANYWAY great aunt then sells her farm, with nothing going to GREESY.  Not that she ought to have expected anything but you know what entitled people are like.  Art!

                                                                

     Then great aunt willed her town house to CK's cousin, which will have burned GREESY as previously it had been willed to her.  Yes well if you eff around you find out.

     In confirmation that CK is, indeed, Car Kid, he finished his first tale with the fact that he was restoring a Lincoln Continental Mark III, which meant nothing to Your Humble Scribe, until he mentioned that it's the car used in 'The Car'.  Art!

A bit of a beast.  Actually a lot of a beast.

     What is it with engineheads and evil possessed motor vehicles?  CK's cousin got in touch after all of GREESY's shenanigans and both are going to be working on The Car.  Best wear a crucifix whilst doing so, chaps.

     CK also made mention of a 1951 Studebaker 'woodie', which I'm guessing is not a car made of wood but with wood.  Let me dig a little.

"A Studebaker woodie is a car or truck featuring a body constructed or finished with real wood panels, built either by external coachbuilders using Studebaker chassis or as custom hot rods"

Art!


     In case you were wondering if GREESY was young and foolish, no she wasn't; CK let's slip at the end of his tale that she and her boyfriend had to come out of retirement to keep up their lifestyle.

     That's not the end of the saga of CK and GREESY.  There is another tale tacked onto the end of this one about how GREESY ripped off her brother to the tune of -

     But that would be telling.


Sunday, 1 November 2026

Hell And Angels

Another Blog Brought To You Courtesy Edna And Thinking Time

Also known as 'walkies'.  She recognises this word, so to sneak it past her we need to spell it.

CAUTION! SINGLE CONTENT BLOG!

     ANYWAY I had an epiphany near the huge rhododendron bush, recalling a bit of what Robert McCammon had written in his afterword to 'Swan Song', where there's a confrontation between the green-fingers-on-turbo girl Swan, and The Man With The Scarlet Eye, a.k.a. 'Friend' which is one of the most ironic titles ever.  Art!

Not looking too friendly there, mate

     "Swan realises that this demonic figure was once an angel. That within this creature is a longing to return to a state of grace."

     Wowsers, so that's 'Friend's backstory: a fallen angel.  Thanks for clueing us in, Bob.

   ANYWAY AGAIN I wanted to do a deep dive on a film I've just finished watching, "Hell's Angels" and wanted to clear up any confusion about the motorcycle gang.  They didn't exist until 1948, and were originally composed of ex-Army Air Force pilots and aircrew, and they came into being at the opposite end of California - although there was a later chapter in Oakland.  You'll see.  Plus they rode motorcycles, not biplanes.  Just to be clear.  Art!


     ANYWAY ANYWAY back to the film.  Just to recap, it's about the Rutledge brothers, staid Roy and playboy Monte, who join the Royal Flying Corps in the First Unpleasantness.  Both become pilots.  I shall leave out the initial part of the film, mainly since I've covered the Teuton zeppelin raid on London already.  We were also introduced to Helen, played by Jean Harlow, in a role that made her a star overnight.  Helen, being blunt, is a bit of a loose woman; so loose she nears falling apart.  Supposedly Roy's lady, she has an affair with Monte, flirts shamelessly with all the officers she serves at her canteen, and is caught by Roy canoodling with another officer.  Art!


    That man is a cad and a bounder!  He ought to be cashiered!  HE HAS HIS BOOTS ON THE TABLE! and O yes the canoodling bit.

     The Rutledge brothers have both volunteered for an extremely dangerous stunt the next day: they will pilot a Teuton bomber that had been captured intact, fly over Teuton lines and bomb an ammunition depot.  Doing this will almost guarantee British success in a forthcoming attack, as the Hun artillery won't have any ammunition.  Nobody asks the embarrassing question of how they get back to British lines, as the RFC will definitely attempt to shoot them down.  Art!



     This is not a radio-controlled model, it's a real biplane.  In fact it's a Sikorsky S-29A, a South Canadian plane tricked up to look like a Teuton Gotha bomber.  They only made one of them and at the climax of the film -

     Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Art!



     Note artillery being used as improvised anti-aircraft guns.  Art!


     One of the film's strong points is that the Teutons are not portrayed as caricatures or evil, nor do they speak cod English with a Teuton accent: they speak German.  The Teuton squadron takes to the skies for their morning constitutional, getting uncomfortably near the Rutledge boys.  Art!


     Despite these pilots being experienced ex-service members, this is a DANGEROUS stunt, with up to sixteen aircraft moving at speed in close proximity; a rut or rock or a sudden gust of wind would cause collisions.

     For your information, there were 72 pilots and 65 mechanics employed keeping 'Hughes' Private Air Force' in operation.  One pilot died when delivering an airplane to the Oakland site, and two more during production.  The final bill for this air force being used came to $1,200,000 and those are 1930 numbers.  That's on top of $560,000 used to purchase these planes in the first place.  Art!


     What Von Bruen is doing here is looking all around him, what we call 'situational awareness' today but in the First Unpleasantness was called 'Beware the Hun in the sun' or 'Brit hiding behind it'; pilots had to constantly scan the skies for enemy or friendly aircraft and most especially look at the sun, as an attacker with any nous used that as their vector.  Art!

The Rutledge boys reach the depot

     They drop their 6 huge bombs and - you may be ahead of me here - the whole place goes up in apocalyptic style.  The pyrotechnic work here is excellent and could teach modern film productions a thing or ten.  Art!


     These are RC miniatures.  Art!



     None of those wretched flame-pots here, these are large-scale miniatures and RC vehicles being blown to bits.  I bet the set builders had a bit of a bitter-sweet moment when their painstaking replicas were reduced to matchsticks.

      Then the Teutons encounter the Rutledge boy's RFC squadron in the skies and a massive dogfight ensues.  Art!


     The RFC join the party.  Hughes did several reshoots of these dogfights because he wanted clouds in the background to give a sense of speed that was absent in an empty sky.  In real life the Rutledge boys would have steered their bomber into the clouds to escape the pursuing Teutons, but Hughes must have jibbed at how dangerous this would be.  Art!


     The Rutledge boys bus gets shot up.  Conrad is unsure if this kind of dense bullet strike is realistic or not and one of the 'IMDB' 'Goof' comments mentions the same.  However - O that word again! - the twin machine guns on a Teuton plane could pump out 1,000 per minute, or 17 per second.  I estimate about 40 bullet holes in the rudder but, again, although that amount of strikes is possible, I strongly suspect they'd be a lot more spread out.  Art!


     British SE5s to the rescue!  I am familiar with these thanks to the 'Biggles' stories of Captain W. E. Johns, where his rival Wilks flies one of these, nicknamed a 'Glasshouse' because they had a small windscreen in front of the pilot.  Art!


     I counted 17 planes here, with possibly another dozen out of shot.  Need I inform you that this is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS stunt work!  Simulating a dogfight by using real planes with real pilots is inherently dangerous as the risk of collision is so high.

     Also, you can tell which side a plane is on thanks to the machine gun barrel shroud or jacket; Teuton guns had a lot of slats cut out to aid air-cooling, but the British stuck with a solid water jacket on their Vickers guns.  Art!


     Art!


     The PILOTED Sikorski is crash-landed, and I wonder if this is the stunt that the pilots refused to do, and which Hughes did himself.  As people say, he got the shot, but he also got a broken jaw and concussion.  Art!


     As a coda, we get the British attack going in, with a terrific simulation of a Royal Artillery creeping barrage in action, as good as that in 'A Bridge Too Far' which is high praise indeed. Art!

Teuton lines over-run

     This was the most popular film in South Canada in 1930 BUT it didn't make a profit, because the cost was so high $3.95 million.  I've already mentioned the cost of having an air force; then there's the sets, of which there were 70, constructed at a cost of $800,000 and dressed to the tune of $70,000 and costumes to the value of $160,000.  You can see why it didn't make a profit.  Art!


     Harlow and Hughes.  The original lead had been cast before talkies arrived, and proved entirely unsuitable thanks to her heavy Norwegian accent.  Enter Jean, recommended to Hughes after being seen at a revue.  The legend goes that the entire film was reshot to accommodate her role, which does not bear much scrutiny as only her scenes needed reshooting.  Also, the zeppelin and later scenes feature out-of-sync voices, because they were later dubbed in.

     Reportedly, one of Stanley Kubrick's favouritest films.  Stan: a man with good taste.







A Nasty November

It Looks Grey And Cold Outside

Just as long as it's not raining, because I intend to stroll down into Lesser Sodom and purchase more 'Ginger Shots' which I neglected to do on Friday morning.  That'll teach me.  There is still a bottle sitting in the cupboard, it's just I like to have a couple in reserve.  Art!


     I called it 'pricy' at £3 per bottle, yet that's about half of what other brands retail for, in smaller bottles.

     ANYWAY it's time to put out the links.

2025

BOOJUM!: Hades Over America

2024

BOOJUM!: A Rollercoaster Ride Of Risibility

2023

BOOJUM!: We Have A Theme!

2022

BOOJUM!: Sunk Tank Punk Prank

2021

BOOJUM!: A Raptorial Tutorial

2020

BOOJUM!: Conrad: Prescient Person

2019

BOOJUM!: Vikings!

2018

BOOJUM!: Let The Train -

2017

BOOJUM!: A Resteatution

2016

BOOJUM!: Bat Man!

2015

BOOJUM!: I Can Explain Everything, Officer

2014

BOOJUM!: The Weather

2013

BOOJUM!: "Last night I dreamt of Manderley*"







Saturday, 31 October 2026

Flip Flop!

 Ladies, Gentlemen And Those Unsure, We Have A Theme!

I bet it's been months since we last had one for either the whole blog or just the Intro, and thanks to walking Edna and Thinking Time, I came up with the following.  Art!


     I cannot be bothered to try and explain in plain english what one of these is, especially as it's a lot easier to let AI do the explaining.

"A flip-flop circuit is a bistable digital electronic circuit that can store a single bit of binary data (either a 0 or a 1) and hold that state indefinitely until directed to change by an input signal"

     I hope that makes it clear.  If not -

" Bistable States: The circuit has two stable output states, typically labeled Q (logic 1 or 0) and its complementary inverse Q' (the opposite value).

Clock Control: Unlike basic latches which react continuously to input levels, true edge-triggered flip-flops change their stored state only during a transition (rising or falling edge) of a clock signal. 

Sequential Logic: Because its output depends on both current inputs and the previous state it already holds, it serves as the foundational memory building block for sequential logic systems"

Art!


     Briefly put, flipflop circuits are basic memory storage in computer systems.

     Great!  Now we've got that esoteric technical information out of the way, and not coincidentally boosted the Word Count, let us move on.  Art!


     These are what you probably expected to see first: flip flop sandals.  We here in This Sceptred Isle won't be seeing any of these for another six months.  Their utility is in that they protect the feet in public spaces such as swimming pools or lidos, and allow the feet to remain cool in hot weather, a phenomenon I have often heard about yet rarely experienced.

     Incidentally, the flip flop is known in Antipodean culture as a 'Thong', which has led to misunderstandings amongst tourists.  Art!

Art!


     No, they aren't wearing sandals of any variety.  'Flip Or Flop' was a South Canadian reality television show where the two hosts, Christina Haack and spouse Tarek El Moussa, acted as real estate agents whom bought up houses in bad condition, renovated and attempted to sell at a profit - a process known as 'flipping'.  You might think this a rather lightweight proposition and maybe it is, but it was popular enough to last for 10 seasons and only ended in 2022 because the now-divorced couple found it too stressful to continue.  So some of you out there are still human SORRY WRONG FILM so some of you out there were watching it.  Art!


     I should explain that this still is from a 'CNN' news item of Friday that I bookmarked to come back to as the explanations sported are interesting and then some.  Hosted by the not-at-all ugly SORRY I MEANT talented and perceptive Erin Burnett, let's steal some of their graphics about Pig Daddy abandoning a gig on the stump in Iowa.  Art!


     Check out those numbers.  So, why did Cankles Von Yamteats bail on two states he was due to make appearances in?  O I thought you'd never ask - Art!


     "Look at this guy, he's way out of shape," is Mr Mashed Potato Brains' response to being asked why he wasn't going to Kansas or Iowa, which is his go-to answer when he's asked a hard question or one he doesn't understand.  The irony!  It burns!  

     "I'm not going to go to Kansas because he's doing so well,' is the explanation.  Let's once again boost some 'CNN' graphics.  Art!

 


     Abject proof Don Snoreleone cannot do simple arithmetic.  Rather than embarrass himself by counting on his fingers, he instead flies into a rage.  It could be worse, Donold, the numbers involved might be over 10 and you'd have to take your socks and shoes off.

     Art!


     This lady posits a few of the reasons DJ Tango might have bailed.

1)  He's tired

2)  He's not making much sense on the rally stages when he croaks out his speeches.

3)  The crowds are small.  Instead of stadia he's been booked into high school gyms.

4)  He's frequently getting heckled, which he does not like.  The poor dear.

5)  The candidates know he's as toxic as plutonium and don't want him there.

6)  Running away to Florida is a desperate expedient

7)  He may finally be paying attention to his staff's advice to STAY AWAY.

     Except this item wouldn't be in the Intro if it didn't involve flip flop.  So - Art!


I'm looking at a 'CBS'  news item about this,  where they can only speculate about why, in that Donold Judas Trump's ego may have taken offence at any or all of the suggestions above, so now he's going BACK to both Iowa and Kansas on Sunday.  To date, and I'm typing this on Saturday, the White House has claimed that the in-person appearances were due to advice from staff and supporters.  The Ice Cream Bandit Party is probably thanking them effusively.

                                           
     I also add a Comment from the Youtube clip above.  Art!


     Conrad is all for The Nodfather going off to two states since it increases the chances of him falling down the steps of Air Force One, a prospect that has J D 'Judge Death' Vance  rubbing his hands in glee.

     I should have bought more popcorn on the weekly shop.


'Yee Yee Life'

Yes, back to the vlog of Parker shooting progressively bigger guns at a rack of cast iron skillets, risking ricochets as the bullets disintegrate after piercing a pan or two.  Art!


     This is a '30 06' bolt action rifle, meaning it's 7.62 calibre, and the round was officially adopted in 1906.  I wish the South Canadians would stick with either Metric or Imperial instead of chopping and changing.  Art!

KERPOW

     For the fourth time, it only penetrated 3 pans.  

     Then Parker brought on the monster Barrett Light (!) .50, which fires the Browning .50 calibre round, initially intended for anti-armour use.  Art!


    Unlike his previous attempts, with the BL Parker isn't taking any chances as the bullet fragments from this weapon can kill or cause serious injury, so he dons a helmet and body armour, sensible chap.  STILL no ballistic shield though!  Art?

That's at least $5,000 of gun

     Art!

KERBLAMMM

     Net total: 4 pans holed.  Boom.


Warby Explicates

I mean the vlogger 'Paul Warburg' on Youtube, whom has been analysing recent Ukrainian drone attacks on Ruffia, where they are seeking to break the supply chains essential for orc food and equipment for when they get mobilised shortly.  Art!


     This was a facility that produced canned food for the orcs.  What's left comes ready-cooked!

     Art!


     Those ashy smears were once Su-34 fighter-bombers.  That makes 8 destroyed since September, out of a fleet of 140 aircraft, or 6%.  This is a serious loss since usually only 1 of every 3 aircraft in a modern air force are actually available at any one time, as others undergo maintenance or repair.  So they've gone from 47 available to 39.  Ooo-err Matron!  The other nagging question the orcs must be asking themselves is - how did the Kozaky know these planes were out in the open and vulnerable at this specific moment?  Spies from 'Atesh', the Russian resistance organisation?  South Canadian satellite data?  Ukrainian spotter drones or spies?  MI 6?  All of the above?  Art!


     This is the Ruffian refinery at Novykuibyshevsk, which got an absolute malleting, being hit by 11 Ukrainian drones simultaneously.  An attack on this scale will not merely disable the plant, as with only one or two drones, it will permanently remove it from operations.  So much for them holding off on refinery strikes before the South Canadian mid-term elections; here Prez Zed is thumbing his nose at the Orange Landwhale.  Who has no cards.  Art!


     Back in 2022 this would have read like science fiction.  Not any more.


You What?

Let me prod Art into semi-sentience with this burning bamboo skewer -


     YOU ARE CONTRADICTING YOURSELF!  If it's a 'dwarf' planet, a.k.a. a 'planetismal' than it CANNOT BE HUGE.

     Really.  Some people lack basic astronomical skills.


Finally -

Going out with another You What? moment from my newsfeed, which has revamped it's webpages but retains the ability to recommend rubbish.  Art!


     Goodbye!