Today's Impressively Weighty Theme - Mercury!

Yes, Unlike Yesterday's Aborted Theme  -
     - this one is interesting.  Promise!  

Mike Mercury of "Supercar".  You were expecting Freddy, weren't you?  Ha!

Plus, Conrad has been working at it.  This is due to not knowing what shift he was on first thing Monday.  Gambling at an 8:45 start, he didn't have to begin a fingery pas-de-deux (sp?) on the keyboard until 9:15, and actually arrived at 8:30.
     'O Noes what can I do?'
     First order of business - breakfast.  That is, stale bread and Marmite, the breakfast of champions.
     Next, get working on the blog article.
     Here we are - let's get started.

Cinnabar
     Not to be confused with the "cinnamon bear", which is described in "Right Ho Jeeves" and is a species of American brown bear.

     "CINNABAR"

      I know what you're thinking - it's a variety of breakfast cereal, one of those kinds that are basically a collection of sweets and biscuits* that are extremely unhealthy but which you can pretend is sensible, because it says so on the packet.

"Add extra fibre to your diet!" (Also salt, sugar, E245, saturated fats, MSG, colouring, flavouring and CF3) 

     Well, I doubt that Cinnabar would soften in your poured puddle of semi-skimmed, and it would definitely break your teeth if you managed to hack a bit off and eat is.
     Cinnabar, you see, is the ore that mercury is extracted from.

Tooth-shattering Cinnabar ore

Mercury, Chemical Symbol "Hg"
     I know, I know, "Hg" has nothing to do with "M".  Trust me on this, it's all Greek.
     Vermillion - no, not a large number in German.  It's a bright red colour, derived from Mercuric Sulphide, so it's veggie-safe because it's not made from crushed beetles.  But also toxic, so it tends not to get used on children's toys any longer.  Bah!  What's a childhood without a bit of risk!

Not to be confused with Vermillion Green

     Mercury is the only element that is liquid at room temperature, although boron runs it pretty close.  It is extremely toxic.  If it were a person you'd keep it locked up in a windowless dungeon and only let it out in a strait-jacket and muzzle.  Nowadays you couldn't get away with what I remember our physics teacher doing at school - holding a tube of mercury upside down, thumb over the open end to prevent any spillages.
     Sticking with science, it used to be used widely in measuring instruments, a whole family of -meters - thermometers, barometers and sphygmometers**.  That was back in the day, when men were men and women used mascara with mercury in it - oh, and still do, as a matter of fact.  Nowadays we use substitutes like alcohol instead of mercury because alcohol is completely harmless.

Comparatively harmless.  Imagine this scene with the subjects DRINKING MERCURY!

     Perhaps I should qualify that: "completely harmless when used inside scientific measuring instruments not people."
     That expression "mad as a hatter" became widely used because hatters used mercury to separate fur from animal pelts, and in the course of their treatments they probably bathed in the stuff, and gargled with it too, bloody show-offs.  That came back and bit them on the neurological system, see if it didn't!

Look out!  It's going to turn into Robert Patrick and hunt down John Connor!

Mercury The Planet
     Allow me to nick a picture of Mercury from the Twitter "Fun & Facts":

If you look really hard you can see "Daedelus 2"

     Beautiful picture, oh-so-different from those murky black and white ones of decades ago.  Still, whilst it might be nice to look at, you wouldn't want to live there.  Mercury makes Death Valley seem like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Mercury, Messenger Of The Gods
     The Roman gods, that is.  The Romans pretty much lifted Mercury from the Greek god Hermes***, even down to copying his shoes and hat.  Probably said it was an "homage" to avoid being sued.
     For the cultured, the winged shoes are known as "Taleria" and the winged hat as "Petasos".

"Hello, Air Traffic Control?  This is Sabena Three Six Heavy.  You're not going to believe what we've just seen ..."

     Mercury's job description required him to travel between the gods and us you mere humans, and to act as a psychopomp.  Shall I?  Oh go on.  A "psychopomp" is a being who leads the newly-dead into the underworld.  Interestingly, Ovid stated that Mercury also carried dreams from Somnus to sleeping humans - this probably explains some of the peculiar dream visited upon me by Dee^.

Mercury Rev
     I can't pontificate too much on Mercury Rev, as I only have one of their albums - "Deserters Songs".  This, though, is their breakthrough record from 1998, where they moved from dark and experimental to concise and melodic, going from cult to commercial.  I like it, and am positive that on at least a few songs they have a musician playing a saw^^.

Probably not on the playlist at any US Army Base!

Mercury Records
    This is a long tale (of acquisitions and buyouts), quite dull, really.  It's still around.  A bit like Bath Olivers.

Bath.  Oliver.  Sorry, couldn't resist!

     And there we will stop for tonight.  There is a lot more I could do on "Mercury", and may do in future, but for the moment - well, I've not had my tea, there's tomorrows lunch to make and shirts to iron.
     What a rock and roll rebel lifestyle, eh?  Speak up, sonny, while I go get my ear trumpet ...

*  The only proper breakfast cereal is porridge.  WITH SALT!
**  I'm sure they made this one up. What the hell can it measure - "syphgs"?
***  Me and Hermes have a bit of a history.  It's a long story.  See earlier blogs.
^  Dee.  My subconsicous.  A tricky fellah, which is why we call him Dee, a.k.a Devious.
^^  This is really possible, and it has a very distinctive sound. Remember The Saw Doctors?