A Second Bite At The Cherry

Yes, Conrad Attempts To Wibble Twice In A Day - Again
     For those of you with short attention spans, or who dislike bad puns - or even good ones - or who think that the  internet was a jolly bad idea and that we ought to go back to good, old-fashioned clay tablets and stylii - Conrad apologises.
     A bit.  Not very much.  In fact hardly at all.
     "Fame has changed you, Dad!" lamented Dogsitter Daughter earlier this afternoon, mock-seriously, causing Conrad to laugh like a drain* very amused person.
     Well, let's get it one, as the young folk say.

Tribble.  Close enough.

Hello Coincidence, Old Fiend
     I have to make another apology, this time for banging on about "Against The Day" (by Thomas Pynchon, don't you know), having reached page 190.  This leaves only 908 pages to go.  Anyway, in such a long work there are bound to be some coincidences that occur betwixt book and blog and daily life.
     Today it was Dangerous Chemicals! a topic dear to the atomic-powered pumping unit that sit's in Conrad where a human has a heart.  First up in Mr. Pynchon's narrative was  "P.E.T.N.", which stands for "PentaErythritol TetraNitrate".  You can see why they abbreviate it.  It is extremely powerful stuff, but - as far as these things go - relatively stable.  TP then mentioned "Polymethylenes", which turns out to be an alternate name for "Polyethylene".  Plastic, to you and me.  If you mix PETN with a plastic agent, why you get plastic explosives that can be moulded to shape as desired.  

PETN.  A lively little puppy.

TP also mentioned cyclopropane, which is a bit boring by comparison, as it only forms a highly flammable combination with oxygen.  Good as an anaesthetic, however.  Yes, really.  It can blow you to oblivion or send you to the Land of Nod.
     Next up was "Kieselguhr".  This is actually an inert clay.  It doesn't go bang, boom, whoomph, crack or hello-explodo, which is exactly why it was used in the explosives industry - it was mixed with nitro-glycerine to make dynamite.  Dynamite is, once again relatively speaking, stable stuff that you can juggle, drop, tramp on, slice with a knife, stir your coffee with or sit on the mantelpiece as a conversation-stopper.

Close enough.

     TP didn't mention nitro-glycerine, but I will.  It is liquid and extremely powerful stuff, like PETN, but - dearie me! - not anywhere near as forgiving.  If you drop a bottle of nitro-glycerine, the coroner will need a map to find your body parts.  If you heat it up the next thing you will see - depending on your lifestyle - is either Saint Peter or Old Nick.  If more than a few months old it becomes even more unstable thanks to impurities forming in it, which can deposit on the bottle cap interior and detonate when you try to unscrew it.  

That guy in "Lost" demonstrating, in a test-to-destruction kinda way, why nitro-glycerin is a Bad Thing

When frozen, nitro-glycerine is much more stable and it used to be moved this way.  The problem then arises of thawing it out - remember what I said about heat ...

I Said A Bigger Bowl!
     We're just not getting through the cheapo toilet roll quickly enough - 

Still 16 left - must try harder!

      So the kids will have to use bigger cereal bowls, with a lot more added fibre, 

HINT HINT

or the consequences are almost too terrible to contemplate ...**

Spicy Beef And Bean Casserole
     This turned out pretty well, spicy enough so that you know you've been eating food that had spices in it, rather than know you've been eating spices that had food in it.

The bread is, according to Sally, not fit for human consumption.  Which makes it just perfect for Conrad!

Baulked By The Kids, Edna Came To Look Appealingly At Conrad
     No!  She did not get any, despite lying there looking winsome and starving.  For a start, there's onion in the mix, which is poisonous to dogs.  Carrot she'd be okay with, but Conrad is not sure about sweet potato ...

Awww! NO! No food!

Yes, She Looks All Cute And Adorable Now
     At 7:15 p.m.

"Puny human!  Now I shall have to - zzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

     Conrad could not be bothered to propel her from the bed last night, so she slept there.
     Until 5:15 a.m.  
     When she proceeded to walk all over the bed, purring loudly in glee at being so wicked, then she went and poked about in plastic bags, purring at how loud she could be and then - the final straw - she came and started to take bites out of my hair.
     Conrad is getting on.  He needs all the hair he can get.  Cat-barbering is not appreciated!

* Why on earth did this saying ever get started?  I - I shall blog about it tomorrow.
** A stern finger-wagging and several loud "tuts"