When The Machines Rock

No! I Am Not Talking About The Gary Numan Track

Although, since I have mentioned it, I can now use it as an illo that is totally justified and not clickbait at all.   Art!

     Actually I came up with this title whilst taking Edna The Entitled trotties, as previously I was going to use the track 'Generator' by Bad Religion, perhaps also in conjunction with the Yes album 'Big Generator'.  Art!

     You see, today's Intro is another from 'Ripe's Youtube channel, and is all about hubris, pride, arrogance and rotor bearings.  It is narrated by Industrial MillwRIGHT, hereafter IMRIGHT, who explained that he and his team worked on maintaining and rebuilding industrial gas and steam turbines.  As you might imagine, these were whacking big pieces of kit, weighing hundreds of tons.  Art!

     IMRIGHT's area of specialism was in aligning the turbine and generator rotors together, in this case massing fifty tons and intended to spin at up to 3,500 revolutions per minutes.  They needed tolerances of 0.001", which is one-third the thickness of a sheet of paper.  To achieve this level of compliance meant operating with laser alignment tools, hydraulic jacks and shims, in a time-consuming process that typically took 12 hours to manage.  Enter the Superintendent, whom I will dub the Subintendent as he possessed all the wit of a jelly doughnut and who focussed only on budget and schedule, not critical details.  Then enter the villain of the piece, whom IMRIGHT dubbed 'Karen' with no sense of irony at all.  

Art!

     Karen was an obnoxious boastful blowhard who wanted IMRIGHT's job and openly sucked up to Subintendent, putting IMRIGHT down and claiming she could do his job much, much faster.

     Never mind that IMRIGHT had been doing this job for 5 years with no failures, Subintendent made the worst decision of his professional career and ate up all Karen's 'advice'.  He replaced IMRIGHT with her, quoting "She has a much faster method that she used on her last site".

     This was blatantly untrue and one can only speculate that her entitlement and arrogance made her think she could do better than an operator with 5 years experience behind them.  Art!

     IMRIGHT was told to go torque bolts, which he did, but not before warning Karen and Subintendent about 'Thermal growth' on the rotor.

     You see, a metal rotor spinning at 3,500 RPM creates a lot of heat, which causes it to expand, and this expansion has to be taken into consideration when aligning the turbine and generator rotors.  You CANNOT align them perfectly when they are 'cold' (that is, at room temperature) and there are engineering manuals that give exact figures of how much offset to use; in this case the turbine rotor needs to be 0.045" lower.

     You can probably guess where this is going.  Both Karen and Subintendent ignored the warning, then signed off on the paperwork.  Five days later the rebuild was complete and the plant was going to be started up.  IMRIGHT impressed that starting up a gas turbine is a lot more involved that pressing a 'Start' button or turning a key.  Art!

     The bearings are flooded with oil, then a safety gearing rotates the shaft to ensure there is free movement, the ignition sequence begins and the starting motor initiates.  There were no problems as the rotor hit 1,000 RPM since the machine remained fairly 'cold'.  However - a word you knew was going to crop up - things changed when the rotor hit 2,500 RPM and there was an awful metallic scraping noise as the machine rocked - hence today's title - more and more violently.  Smoke started pouring from the casing as alarm klaxons sounded and the plant operations staff initiated an 'Emergency trip', shutting the rotor down.  Art!

     It took ten minutes to come to a complete halt, by which time an enraged Plant Manager was at the turbine, wanting to know what on earth had happened, except with a lot more colourful language.

     Karen, looking pale and anxious, admitted/confessed/stated <delete where applicable> that she had aligned the shafts perfectly at zero-zero deviation, causing the Plant Manager to have both kittens and conniptions.  "You did not put the thermal offset in?" because of course she didn't as she had nil experience in this work.  They opened up the turbine casing.  Art!

     That's a Babbitt bearing, and all of them in the turbine were squashed flat; the rotor itself had long gouges in it.  The Plant Manager assessed the physical damage at $500,000 alone, on top of the failure to produce energy.

     Karen was immediately given a brush and told to sweep the entire factory floor, which she did with a beet-red face, terminally embarrassed, until her termination came through a week later.

     Subintendent, possibly thanks to family connections, was not terminated or even demoted, but was warned if he ever shirked any critical procedure, he'd be unemployed within the next five minutes.

     IMRIGHT assumed his old position and helped align the rotor correctly, being left entirely alone by Subintendent.

Number Seven

In the list of Rotten Tomatoes films scoring 0%.  This time it's 'Left Behind' in it's 2014 iteration, starring Nicholas Cage.  Art!

Left behind, right behind, centre behind

     The critics were merciless and thoroughly lambasted it, describing it as one of the most inept films ever committed to celluloid.  Back when they still used celluloid.  Art!

     You might think that's not bad, especially as these figures are from 2014, but don't forget the 50% Rule - the studio only gets back half of the box office total, so $13.5 million and it had a budget of $16 million.  Ooops.

     To sum the plot up, "A small group of survivors is left behind after millions of people suddenly vanish and the world is plunged into chaos and destruction"

     Nah, not impressed, not on my To Watch list.

What's In A Name?

Art!

     You might call this Item 'Fields On Fire' because I'm going to return to the subject of the Ruffian oil refinery and storage depot at Tuapse on the Black Sea coast.  It's very much the black sea now, covered as it is with oily residues, and the best the orcs can do is send people out to shovel it into buckets.  Art!

"Tuapse 1st May'

     This is the Kozaky giving the refinery a right malleting, again.  This is the fourth strike on the plant and the orcs don't seem to have anything defending it, although since the strikes were at night it's possible there were defenders.  At any rate, about 70% had been destroyed before this fourth strike.  Art!

Courtesy 'Professor Gerdes Explains'

     I can imagine the Ruffians simply giving up and not bothering to rebuild the site.  That's not all.  Art!

     This is the Ruffian oil pumping station at Perm doing an impersonation of a volcano.  There are two critical factors at play here; firstly, Perm is 1,500 kilometres from Ukraine and may have thought itself invulnerable thanks to that distance, which is now proven a rather hollow hope.  Secondly, it is a vital node in the oil pumping network.  Art!

Courtesy 'Jake Broe'

     It doesn't matter if oil is fetching $120 per barrel if you can't export it.  In fact, the amount of oil Mordorvia is exporting has fallen from 11 million Barrels Per Day to 4.69 BPD.  Less than half.

     Of course - obviously! - it's all going according to plan.

Another What On Earth? Moment

One of the things I miss about 'The Daily Beast' is their TEMU advertising bar, which used to promote mysterious-looking tat that was O-so-tempting to click on, in order find out what they were used for, such as the 'Golf Divot Replacing Tool'.  Art!

      I don't care if it has valves, transistors or integrated circuitry.  What is it?  What is it used for?  Why is the algorithm coming up with suggestions I have less than zero interest in?  Does it go in an engine?  Have I ever expressed a wish to fiddle about with the dirty noisy magic metal mass 'neath the bonnet?

     NO! on all counts.

Finally -

Here's another horrid photo of King Piggy, contrasting his orange face with his pink ears.  Art!

     Poor Melania.

The Divine Line

No, The Intro Isn't About Mis-spelled Nine Today

The 'line' referred to here is a telephone line.

     A little backstory about why Conrad chose this particular Malicious Compliance tale to tell.  As you should surely know by now, I used to work for HR at the Co-Op and Sainsbo's, which always involved a lot of telephone work from customers and stakeholders ringing us.  One of the prize calls I took was from a very well-spoken woman who wanted to know why there were no 'Mini-Shredded Wheat' on sale at her local Co-op.  I cobbled together a convincing excuse about SEL - Shelf-Edge Labelling - and sales figures and individual store management being entitled to make decisions about stock.  Art!

Bite-sized Shredded Wheat ain't going to attract traffic.  A 'tank' definitely will.

     This background is one reason why I took the temp gig at Footasylum - no phone work.  At my current coyly un-named employer, it's all phone work.

     ANYWAY this Intro is based on an 'r/Slash' compilation on their Youtube channel, as narrated by BAnking Telephone TestimonY, hereafter BATTY.  They worked as a Customer Service Officer for an un-named South Canadian bank, and were on the afternoon into evening shift, expecting to finish at 22:00 hours.  The only other person on the floor was their NIght Manager, hereafter NIM, whom I can absolutely guarantee was also watching the seconds tick away.

     I know the feeling they described as the clock ticks down to Close Of Business, where you dread a call coming in at 21:59:59, from someone with poor English, an accent you could slice and put in a sandwich, and an attitude.  Art!

Not what I anticipated, Art, but we'll let it stand

     There is nothing and had been nothing on the Call Monitor Screen - the great god that supervisors at the Co-Op would routinely sacrifice their first-born to - until a call comes in shortly before closing, which BATTY picks up.  Ooops.  The caller, Entitled Abusive Telephoner, hereafter EAT, instantly complains about having to wait ages in the call queue, when there hadn't been one.  BATTY explains to us that the longest EAT would have been waiting was 60 seconds as they went through the IVR - the 'call-tree' of options.  

     BATTY making an insincere apology about keeping EAT waiting, the caller then states that they're challenging being charged for not clearing their credit card spending and how they don't like paying the 'bloodsuckers' any more than they have to.  You just failed your Charm School test, matey.

BATTY then checks their profile on his customer database.  Ooops.  Art!

     Then he checked 'Customer Interactions', which was a notes field where his colleagues and managers would make entries on their calls with the customer.  It was a very long list, going back many months.  I can tell you from experience that a list of that length and detail is an immediate red flag.

     So it was with EAT.  Their modus operandi was to ring up and complain about being charged for not clearing their credit card balance each month, then threatening to close their account if the fee was not waived.  His behaviour got so egregious that the bank's Head Of Customer Relations and Retentions, whose job it was to keep customers, added a note saying that, if EAT threatened to close his account, it was to be actioned instantly. 

     You can probably see where this is going.  Art!

     BATTY calls NIM over and brings him up to speed.  NIM merely tells him to go ahead and carry out the instructions if EAT gets entitled and antsy.

     Which they do when told the fees are valid and will not be waived.  Once again, the threat to close their account is voiced, so BATTY asks them to confirm they want their credit card, savings and transactional account closing.

     "Yes, are you stupid?"

     Malicious compliance mode engaged!

     BATTY, whom is glad that EAT cannot see the enormous grin on his face, immediately hits Hold and has NIM help to close down the account.  It was a preferential account meant to only be accessed after several years, so there is a 10% penalty to pay, which in this case applies to $20,000, meaning $2,000 in penalty payments.  Ooops.  Art!

     BATTY then takes EAT off Hold and informs that, as per request, their account has been closed down.

     EAT then thanks him and ends the call.

     NOT!  No, they go stark raving made, threatening to sue BATTY, the bank, NIM, their branch in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, and Clarissa the Cannibal Combat Chicken.  O and the police were mentioned.

                                       

     In their best Customer Service Officer voice, BATTY informs EAT that the entire phone call had been recorded and he'd only done what he'd been explicitly told to do, then hangs up.

     NIM proved to be the second MVP, sending a report to the HOCRAR with an attached file of the call.  HOCRAR, rather incensed, sent EAT a letter stating that they were permanently banned from the bank's premises and if they ever tried to contact by phone or in person, police would be called.

     The killing joke is that BATTY posted how much EAT was calling to try and get waived - all of $30.

     Some people!

Falling Down

No!  Not the film featuring Michael Douglas, whom stars as a man wearing a pocket protector, that most mighty of totems, and toting a bag of guns and rockets in what is probably Joel Schumacher's best directorial moment.  Instead we have - Art!

     King Piggy being forcefully dragged from his seat at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, by the very laggardly Secret Service.  He was probably fighting to remain and finish his Happy Meal.  Art!

     You can just see the top of his Hair Helmet as he falls down.  No word on whether it was his ankles, knees or hips that gave way, or if he simply tripped like a doofus.  His explanation is that 'Someone' told him to get down, as he cannot stand being seen as weak or feeble, except that there were mikes all over the place and nobody said any such thing.  By next week his narrative will be that he personally saved everyone by heroically falling flat in order to save his ballroom and it was all Biden's fault.

     Thank you for your attention to this fatter!

"The Singing, Ringing Tree"

No, not the terrifying 1957 East German television film, which haunted the dreams of a generation of children in the UK.  This one is just as forbidding and dark.  Art!

     The 'Tree' part is purely metaphorical as this thing looks more like a war crime waiting to happen.  It sits - or perhaps 'lurks' is a better noun - in the hills above Burnley, where it plays what is laughably called 'music' when the wind blows across the ends of it's horrid piping.  Art!

     Conrad predicting that he is never going to visit.  Ever.  What a monstrosity!

Perun Or Pig?

In case you're unaware, 'Perun' is the Antipodean whose grandparents emigrated there from Croatia, and whom puts up detailed OSINT Youtube vlogs, principally about the war in Ukraine.  They're absolute gems but are at least an hour long.  No, I cannot put up a picture of him, he deliberately avoids any such kind of self--promotion.  Art!

     Then we have 'Lazerpig', the gay Northern Irelander whom used to work in a lowly position at MI5, and whose vlogs are a lot jazzier than Perun's, and with a lot more swears.  Take this one as an example.  Almost an hour long?  On the other hand, in one of his vlogs from 2024, he did put in a good word for the A15 Crusader tank, so he's not all bad.  Art!

     In all his hirsute glory.  This is one I may come back to, as I cannot remember if I've seen Part I.  You have to admit, 'Morozov's Pimp Wagon' is not anywhere as flattering as standard NATO descriptions.

Finally -

Going out with another Biercism.

"Chimpanzee, n: a species of pansy cultivated in Africa."

The Divine Nine

Yes, We Are Back On The Number Nine Again

SIT BACK DOWN!  This is interesting, and if you dispute it, say hello to the Remote Nuclear Tormentor.  Art!

Pretty sinister, hmmmm?

     If you recall our previous blog, when Vulcan was forcibly ejected from Olympus - they are pretty strict on library books being returned on time - it took him nine days to fall to Earth.  No word if he was wearing a spacesuit and had a supply of tanked air.

     This theme of nine days duration is echoed in the poem 'Paradise Lost' by Milton, which I can gleefully state I've never read nor intend to, ha!  It was published in 1667, the year when the Dutch Navy raided the Royal Navy in the Medway, giving it a right shoeing, which is a lot more interesting than Milton's moping.  Art!

     ANYWAY Milton waffles about the rebel angels being cast out of Heaven, 'Nine days they fell' which means they fell 26,000 miles, absolutely nothing compared to Vulcan, who would have fallen 360 million miles.

     Bridging the gap between Norse mythology and seventeenth century poetry, Milton also wrote 'Arcades', where he pondered on blatantly incorrect astronomical models.  You can't blame him too much, Newton was still ten years away from being born in 1643.  At the time he wrote 'Arcades' it was believed that there were nine spheres, which is obviously wide of the mark, as Jupiter alone has over 100 satellites*.  Art!

     ANYWAY ANYWAY in Scandinavian mythology there were nine worlds, namely Asgard, Midgard, Jotunheim, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Svartalheim, Helheim, Muspelheim and Niflheim.  You may recognise a couple of these being mentioned by Thor in Marvel films.  Niflheim, the realm of ice, sounds peachy and makes me a tad homesick, being an evil alien invader from an ice-world in the Centauri system.  Which is completely untrue if UNIT or Spectrum are listening.  Art!

     I saw them playing as the support to Eels, many years ago at the Bridgewater Hall.  Why are they here in this Intro?  O I thought you'd never ask!

     Because in English folklore, to be able to see fairies, one had to place nine grains of wheat on a four-leaved clover.  No mention of whether you're allowed to glue the grains to stop them falling off, or whether you had to carry this vegetable concoction around with you.  Besides which, what are the chances of you crossing paths with a fairy?  Art!

     My 'Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable' holds that nine knots made in black wool are a cure for a sprained ankle, which is quite bizarre, in that the best cure for a sprained ankle is to keep your weight off it, slather it with a poultice or ice, keep it bound up and elevated.  I can guarantee that all those people you see limping are also carrying a matted bit of wool in their back pocket.  Conrad himself has been known to resort to similar, that is to say, hair of the dog.  Art!

     

   

     As you ought to know by now, Conrad loathes him some Shakespeare, whom he considers to be a seventeenth-century hack elevated to ridiculous heights by contemporary critics.  Thank the dear lord aloft I didn't have to study his poetry or love sonnets, I would rather descend into the toxic acidic crushing atmosphere of Venus than endure such.

     ANYWAY AGAIN in 'MacBeth', which I studied a good 50 years ago, he has the Three Weird Sisters.  You couldn't get away with that today, they'd be the 'Three Differently-Mentalised and Horribly Discriminated Against Persons Of Different Religioisity' or similar.  Art!

Cooking a plutonium pudding?

     The Barf Of Avon has them boogying around their cooking vessel, declaiming 

"Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, and thrice again to make up nine"

     Conrad is shocked that they're not working to a proper recipe with amounts and times and durations, you're never going to get anything edible from cooking like that. Don't forget, though, that The Barb Of Avon believed that, if you didn't invert your boiled egg and smash it in, that witches would steal it and traverse the seas in it.  Seventeenth century witches being small of stature, one presumes.  Art!

     The witches also lay a curse on another person, intoning -

""Weary sev'nnights, nine times nine / Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine"

      'Sevn'nights' is a week, in case you were wondering.  So, matey is going to be sleepless for about a year and a half, when a week or so is sufficient to send someone screaming round the bend.  Perhaps he should have taken his library book back on time?

Another WOE Moment

As in 'What On Earth', as we here at BOOMUM! do not descend to the NSFW versions that I will not even reference.  Art!

     Ah yes, how many times have I rolled out of bed in the morning, simply thirsting to purchase another Alexander Cupola, to add to my collection of cupolas.

     Exactly none.  News stream, your algorithm is broken.

  

We Are Going To Get Technical

SIT BACK DOWN!  This is interesting.

     We are once again returning to James Holland's 'Cassino '44', and the theme that Ol' James established early on, that he is going to absolutely lambast General Bernard Freyberg of the New Zealand Corps.  The criticism is fair enough. since the First and Second Battles of Cassino, planned under Freyberg, were costly failures.  Art!

     Why were these battles such failures?  Well, you can add Terrain and Weather to any explication, but Ol' James also admits an explanation at Page 431:

"Admittedly,  Freyberg  still  did  not  have  a  properly  functioning  corps  staff -"

     The 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division had been paired with the 4th Indian Infantry Division to create the New Zealand Corps.  Normally, in an organisation like this there would be a Corps staff, which would carry out: traffic control; road maintenance; logistics from railhead to divisions; communications between divisions; signal troops; control of medium artillery regiments; control of heavy artillery regiments; dedicated reconnaissance aircraft and other works.

     If there was no Corps staff, none of the above would be done either properly or competently.  I have been unable to find out why the New Zealand Corps did not have a proper HQ staff, apart from it being a temporary formation.  This doe snot cut ice, as corps were only ever semi-permanent organisations.  Art!

     I just dug this out of the Book Cave.  Can't find anything about 'staff work' in the index, so I might have to re-read the whole book.  O what a chore.  Having to read military history and make notes about it.

The File Of Tile

I didn't post the end fragments of 'Ripe's story about acoustic tiles, because we had most of the story and I like to leave a morsel to come back to.  Go look at 'Death On The Tile' to understand more comprehensively.  The short story is that his previous employers had bankrupted themselves two years after firing him.  Art!

     His current employers were able to purchase critical industrial kit at a fraction of the cost from the fire sale, and ATM even got the Walk Of Kudos through the now derelict and deserted factory where he had once worked. 

     His old employer tried to sue him a month after their counterfeit product had  been seized at the Port of Los Angeles citing "Maliciously witholding critical business information".  This was scotched by his lawyer proving that ATM had been fired and was in no way connected to the farrago going down about counterfeit product.  Lawsuit immediately dropped.  As ATM said, discovery would have embarrassed, humiliated and destroyed his previous employer in one.

Meanwhile In Mordorvia -

Massive malleting ensues.  I've already mentioned the oil refinery in Tuapse, Mordorvia, a resort city on the Black Sea.  The Kozaky have been hitting it for the past ten days, and Wowsers, have they been scragging it.  Art!

     Things are so incredibly bad that Putinpot himself has now begun to comment,  making bland statements about the local Governor having everything under control and it's really not that bad when you stand back and look at it  - yeah well  -

Finally -

That's quite enough.  Be on your way now!

*  Although some are not really spherical.

Death On The Tile

I Know What You're Thinking

But NO! that is not a typo.  You're thinking of the film adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel, featuring a horribly mis-cast Peter Ustinov, aren't you?  Well, no, we're not going there, but it does allow me to use a related illo.  Art!

     Nothing against Pete, a fine actor and raconteur, just not good for this role.

     ANYWAY I bet you know nothing about industrial acoustic tile moulding, just as I didn't before I came across an example of Malicious Compliance on 'Ripe's Youtube channel.  Let me disabuse you of anyone being killed in today's Intro, but there were a few narrow squeaks.  Art!

     That's a pretty meaty piece of ceiling decoration.  The tale was  narrated by Acoustic Tile Man, hereafter ATM.  He explains at the start that these large, heavy panels need 'curing' at the right temperature and have to adhere to a very strict chemical combination, or the tiles shatter or warp in place.  The chemicals involved are pretty toxic and dangerous in themselves.  He developed a special process for curing acoustic panelling that made it lighter yet stronger than any competitors.  Art!

     Then he did a deal with the Devil, or a much larger construction company that wanted access to his curing technology, whilst ATM wanted their distribution network.  However - that word again! - his lawyer insisted on inserting a paragraph in their contract that stated, whilst Colossal Construction Company - hereafter CCC - had the Distribution rights, ATM retained control of the Production and curing processes.  In fact, his title was 'Director of Production'.

     I mentioned a deal with Old Nick, tongue in cheek, as things continued merrily on their way for ten years, coining it in with ATM's industry-wide top tier panels.   

     Then CCC's CEO retired, and sold the business to a venture capital firm, which was very definitely a deal with the Devil, and all his minions, too.  Art!

     Enter VIPORG, or VIce President Of Operations, Gary.  He was put into the workshop and had one aim: cut costs, by using AI and offshoring to cut costs, and did I emphasise cutting costs?  'Trimming the fat' as he elegantly put it.  He was full of bright ideas about using AI to design the acoustic tiles, getting rid of ATM's team and - you may be ahead of me here - cutting costs.  He had to be gently educated in how acoustic tile design worked.  The next bee in his bonnet was outsourcing tile production to a factory in South-East Asia, in order to help with the pistachio harvest in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar sorry cut costs.  Art!

      This is how VIPORG saw ATM - as a 'gatekeeper' who was 'afraid of the future' and guilty of 'legacy overhead', and matters came to a head 6 months after VIPORG turned up.  ATM came into work and found his gate access didn't work.    Then he was called into a meeting with VIPORG and HR and sacked, alongside his entire department od thirty people.  VIPORG, looking smug, and tweaking his moustache ends*, informed ATM that the acoustic panels were being outsourced to that Chinese firm at only 40% of his cost.  

     When ATM countered that CCC only retained Distribution rights, not Production rights, VIPORG merely insulted him, doubtless not having bothered to read the contract itself.

     "I am ordering you to shut up and get out," were VIPORG's parting words.

     So ATM complied, maliciously.  You see, they - but I get ahead of myself.  Art!

     They enjoyed sleeping-in and fishing for two months, well aware of how long the Chinese firm would take to make the tiles from scratch.  Then a competitor of CCC's hired ATM and his whole team.

     Ten weeks post-firing, the container ship from China carrying the acoustic tiles arrived in the Port of Los Angeles, the tiles were offloaded, US Customs inspected them and, as per the letter and evidence ATM had sent them, seized them as illegal counterfeit goods.  Millions of dollars-worth of product, all confiscated and unable to be sold.  

     VIPORG rang ATM, absolutely frothing with rage, screaming insults an demanding the goods be released.

     ATM calmly informed him that his legal counsel was preparing a suit for copyright infringement, per unit, being applied to 5,000 units.  Art!

     CCC defaulted delivery on three sports stadia, whom promptly actioned the punitive clauses in their contracts and gouged the company, which cost them hundreds of thousands.  The Chinese company rushed production of re-designed panels, hoping to get around the copyright issue, and air-shipped them over to avoid port seizure.  

     The rush meant QA was not properly done.  Panels began failing and falling - hence today's title.  These panels weighed up to three hundred pounds.  No snowflakes they!

     CCC's reputation instantly tanked.  VIPORG was fired, possibly from a cannon.  The company was hit by lawsuits from clients suffering from dud tiles.  Two years after ATM being fired, CCC filed for bankruptcy.  Or should that be 'tiled for bankruptcy'?

A Million Conspiracies Are Born

You will undoubtedly have heard of the gunman arriving, uninvited, at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, and the ensuing kerfuffle.  Shots were fired in the reception area and matey was brought down without getting into the event space.

     What's realllllly interesting is the reactions from the Secret Service and the police.  Art!

     Flat-Top here isn't mucking about, he grabs Just Dismal and physically drags him away, backed up by another agent.  However, with King Piggy, it was measured at 15 seconds before he was dragged off his seat.  So the title ought to be 'Vance and Trump' and I bet DJ Tango is irked about Vance getting priority.

     There is more to come on this, O yes indeed!

Mordorvia Welcomes You To The Latest 'Mount Doom Installation'!

A picture can tell a thousand words, and this particular one manages a good hundred thousand of them.  Art!

     Whomever posted this is taking a risk, as the FSB doesn't like any publicity about successful Kozaky drone or missile strikes being put up on social media.  Normally they would track down the location and bully the poster.  For this one, I doubt they'll bother, because it's blatantly obvious that the Tuapse refinery is aflame, again.  I'm frankly amazed there's anything left to burn.  Art!

     Being a resort city, you'd expect people to be heading there for holiday.  Instead locals are being evacuated and the shoreline is coated with oil.  It truly is the Black Sea.

     And where is Bunker Midget Grandad?  Nowhere to be seen.

A Little Gentle Shoeing

I only took a sidelong shot at Donnie Dorko in the Item above, so I'm going to put this one up there as well, because I'm horrid that way.  Art!

     That he wears adult diapers is well known, and it's rash to stand behind him at press conferences.  The 'Daily Star' is hardly a beacon of outstanding journalism, so if even they are critical  then the retirement home beckons.  Art!

     He looks as if he carries his own bathtub around with him.  Reminds me of a certain cartoon character - Art!

I think they expand indefinitely

     Which is interesting but not amazing, in my opinion.

Giving Yestice

There was a pithy Comment on a Youtube channel I'd been watching, where the main focus had been on bottomhole manglement trying people taking leave.  In South Canada, of course, as I've often remarked their managers seem to think employees are indentured slaves.  Art!

     Thank you AI Art Generator, for your interpretation of a bottomhole manager.

     ANYWAY AGAIN, the Commenter's mother worked for a manager who continually denied her leave, because reasons stated above.  He did this over many years, until she hit age 63 and went to inform him that her retirement date was in two years time.  He was puzzled as to why she was informing him so far in advance; she told him she was taking all her accumulated leave from the next day onwards and would never be in the office again.  Then left.  Boss!

*  He may have been clean-shaven but I'm adding this detail in.  Because I can.