I mentioned Batman yesterday, who, as any fule knows, inhabits Gotham City. This is a fictional city that closely resembles NYC and the allusion has been long understood.
What do I find on opening the DOPAF? An entry on Gotham - identified as NYC by Washington Irving in his splendidly-named work "Salmagundi".
He rather predates DC Comics, however. It was written in 1807.
 |
| Washington Obelisk. Close enough. |
Spiderman 2
I keep seeing a giant hoarding for this on the way into work, with all the feeling of a punch to the stomach. From right to left you have a character in a hoodie - the hoodie's a nice touch, it makes you anonymous and thus harder to arrest - whom I take to be on loan from "Twilight" thanks to his sparkling in daylight, then a chap on a surfboard who is definitely not the Silver Surfer thanks to the bilious shade of his board, and then stage left - I'm not really sure what it is - a robotic rhino?
Universal resorted to this tactic in the 40's - not just Dracula, but Frankenstein* and the Wolfman! How could people not be impressed with such concentrated evil for the good guys to oppose!
Well, I shall wait and see how Spiderman 2 gets judged.
 |
| "Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can. Hides in cupboards, scares housewives Likes to eat dirty flies" |
On another giant hoarding opposite Spidey looms a poster for "Pompeii".
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
I can tell you how this ends: Mount Vesuvius erupts and destroys the town of Pompeii, killing everyone in it. File under "Disaster-porn".
There. Saved you £10 now you don't need to see it. No, don't thank me, only doing my duty!
Palladium
No! Not "Saturday Night at the London Palladium". The element Palladium. Chemical symbol Pd. Atomic weight 46. A silvery metal with many uses - catalytic converters, dental amalgam, jewellery, electronic circuitry, mercury absorption. So, that diva singing on Saturday Night - oh call it SNATLP - might be wearing palladium in her amber brooch, and the broadcast occurs thanks to palladium in electrodes, and they drove there in a limo that used a converter.
Hmm. A bit tenuous but I think we managed to establish a link there.
 |
| A mass of the lustrous, silvery element Pal - no, hang on, that's not right - |
James Wellbeloved
Sounds like a character actor, a rotund, rosy-faced, grey-haired, amiable chap who popped up on television in the 1970's.
Wrong! It's a brand of pet food. I'm not sure if Mr Wellbeloved actually exists or if he's the product of an advertising account working out of Saffron Walden. The pet food is real - we had some here for Edna back when she was young and cute.
So - I can hear you questioning, gentle reader** - why bring this up? Since I saw an artic with information on the side - "James Wellbeloved - Dog, Cat and Ferret Food".
Excuse me? Dog food, yes, very common as dogs are two a penny in this country.
Cat food - yes, very common as cats are also two a penny in this country.
Ferrets? Bit of a niche market there, James. Or is this a Northern-specific advert, as every fule knows Northerners all wear i) clogs ii) flat caps and iii) ferrets?
 |
| James Wellbeloved. Because "James Badlyhated" would be an awful product name |
Three Versus Rommel
Just took delivery of this book today. Printed in 1943, to the "Book Production War Economy Standard", meaning in practical terms that the paper is quite coarse and apparently recycled. There was a war on, you know! Given that the book details the end of the war in North Africa, it can only have been published mid-1943 or later. It has that great "old book smell", which is probably due to dangerously high levels of toxic microscopic spores long lodged in the pages - but don't worry.
Technically, of course, the first opponent of "The Three" would have been Graziani, not Rommel, as the Italians were fighting in the desert for eight months before Marshal Laddie arrived.
 |
| Before you go whining about lack of tanks, look at this - there's three of them present. |
What on Earth?
Readers who were around before November last year will remember Conrad posting photos of the Enormous Giant Crane. In the crane's territory we now see these strange objects. Are they to remain in situ? Or be raised vertically? Or raised vertically to a new location?
Who knows. Conrad will continue to monitor the situation and report back to you.
 |
| Answers on a postcard, please |
* Yes, yes, I know, it's actually the Monster, not Victor himself. Do give me credit!
** That's not a metaphor. I upgraded my bionic ear-implants at the weekend, so, yes, I can hear everything you do.
No comments:
Post a Comment