Oh The Dilemma

What Pangs Of Artistic Anguish I Suffer!
     Do I create a long blog post that only goes live at 11:45, leaving insufficient time to be admired, or do I bash out something quick with lots of photos that - frankly - is less than the 110% excellent you, my ambivalent audience, deserve?
     We'll see how it goes.

That pose will give him pins and needles

Beware Of Zombies!
     Well, not right now.  Nor tomorrow.  Maybe next year.  Possibly the year after that.  Definitely the one after that!  It depends on how long the Martian micro-organisms get weaponised from the - 
     - except I'm getting ahead of myself.  The BBC recently reported on how a long-dormant virus was brought back to life:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26387276

     This micro-organism has been lurking in the tundra ice-box for at least 30,000 years and is still infectious when thawed.
     I'd post a photo of the virus, except that it's rather boring, so here's 

- a zombie walrus instead

Blitzkrieg Commander
     A set of 1939 - 1945 wargaming rules actually, usually abbreviated to "BKG", although that tends to get members of the public asking if it's Popcorn Chicken or does it come with coleslaw?
     Anyway, BKG.  It must be about a year since I last played a game so I am rather rusty.  Make that very rusty.  Okay, okay, almost completely composed of ferrous oxide* in fact.  I need to get practice in before April and the "Crisis Point" game that fellow gamer Richard has organised.  That particular scenario is "Cold War Commander", the modern variant admittedly.
     Here's what I've managed so far:

The Italians (i.e. most of them) and the Germans (small force on right)

I simply could not find the L/47 Semovente.  I know what you're thinking, and you're right - it's so embarrassing when the L/47's don't turn up!  Not until I dug out all the trays in all the boxes did they finally appear, at the bottom of the last one.
     "But surely, Conrad," you ask, "Surely the Axis forces in the North African desert war were all German, with a few Italians thrown in for comic effect?"
     Patience, Veronica, patience.  We will return to this theme.

Irony
     Continuing yesterday's theme of "Iron", we have this concept.  We here in the Old World have long held that Americans, those brash world-spanning upstarts, do not "get" irony.  Which is, in this sense, using language to convey the opposite of the intended meaning.
     Please, allow us our gentle illusions.  Once the Americans do get irony, there'll be no stopping them.  They'll storm the cultural barricades with books and films and CD's and utterly overwhelm us and there won't be a thing we can do <tails off into paranoid raving>
     An example:

Greek meet Greek (metaphorically)

I post this because on my drive home I saw what appeared to be a large AA recovery truck getting ready to winch aboard an AA van.
     "Har har what delicious irony!" gloated Conrad*.  Until I got closer and saw the broken-down Range Rover hidden between the two AA vehicles.
     "Birdsweat!" exclaimed Conrad.  "That would have been so cool!"

"The Wolf Of Wall Street"
     Once again the trusty and dependable bus-poster provides a ready-made muse for Conrad, much as Smash used to provide trusty and dependable dried ready-made substitute for mashed potato**.
     Okay, here's the poster:

I thought the stock market was all about Bare's and Bull?

     Where do I start?  Call the ASA!  Look, this lead character is obviously a human being.  Hom. Sap.  Homeo Sapiens, if you want the long version.
     Unless this is a horror film and - no, no, otherwise it would be "The Werewolf Of Wall Street".  Don't laugh at the back, there was a fairly feeble political satire called "The Werewolf of Washington" back in the Seventies.

Evidence!  Proof!  Rubbish!

     Let's look at that title again.  "The Wolf Of Wall Street".  Again, this is stretching credibility beyond breaking-point.  "Wall Street"?  I mean, really!  Yes, you get urban foxes, but NOT urban wolves.  If Joe Q. McPublic woke up hearing his wheelie-bins getting knocked around and went out to chase away what he fondly imagined was a cat, or at worst a dog, and came face-to-face with Rufus Lupus - "Local police reported that the partially-devoured body of resident Joseph Quintillius McPublic was found beside his wheelie-bin.  Bite marks, spoor and hair <cont. Page 94>

Seconds later, he ate the photographer

So - Tanks?
     Oh - let's be quick, then.  I present - "Cuckoo"

Yes very good a nice big star.  You did well in class?

This was a German Panther tank that the British captured in full working order, and decided to re-cycle.  In order to avoid potentially deadly confusion, they added a very large white Allied recognition symbol.  It rendered splendid service for a short while until, typical of late-war German tanks, it broke down.

*  Continuing yesterday's theme of "Iron"
**  It didn't taste of potato, mind you.  Also, you could eat it dry out of the tin.