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Sunday, 25 May 2014

Seize The Time!

Yes, A Line From "Pounding", by Doves
     One of the better anthemic rock songs out there.  I was going to change the CD playing on the i-pod but decided to let this one finish.
     I have absolutely no idea what the song's actually about, mind you, but it does sound great, whatever it means.
A Pounded Dove^

Ipecacuanha
     Yes, another of those random words that pop out of nowhere into Conrad's mind.  No, I have no idea why "ipecacuanha" suddenly appeared there.
     Naturally, Conrad thinks "what is it?"
     A rhizome - that is, a plant root.  From it is - or was - derived "Syrup of Ipecac", which is a very powerful emetic, that is, it makes one vomit.  The rhizome is poisonous, but it causes such rapid and powerful vomiting that the syrup is, to quote good old Wiki, "seldom fatal".  Conrad does not feel reassured at this qualified description.  How "seldom" is "seldom", because anything more than "not fatal at all ever" is, in his opinion, far too often.
"Seldom fatal", "living dead", two pairs of words you don't really want to hear
     Next, I can tell you're questioning why on earth would a pharmaceutical exist that makes you violently sick?  Apparently it was sold as a purge, so if you accidentally ingested poison you could consume a second poison and get: better quickly/better slowly/killed twice as fast.
     Unsurprisingly, Syrup of Ipecac has fallen out of favour.
     Good!
     Although Conrad wonders, given his stomach's ability to -
Conrad, eating coal marinaded in fuming nitric acid.  Don't worry, it wasn't date-expired

Hangman's Holiday
     I was delighted to pick this up at Oldham Library yesterday - a collection of short stories by Dorothy L. Sayer featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.  In the very first story Lord Peter chastens a police sergeant by announcing "We'll have no Savidgery here".
     Hmm, thought Conrad.  The story appeared in 1933; that pun must have had some resonance at the time, but not now.
     The root of the pun appears to be "Savidge", which Googling elaborated as Miss Irene Savidge, who was detained and interrogatedd by police for five hours for the heinous crime of - hold onto your washing - kissing in public!  Yes yes, I know they'd flog you in Iran for that, but really! 
     It did get a lot of publicity at the time and criticism of the police for trying to be guardians of morality.
     There you go - you now have a pun to wield if every you feel a lack of love for the police.




     What's that?  
     You want a picture?
     Oh go on then.
Lord Peter.  In appearance: A stuffed shirt.  In reality: sharper than surgical instruments.


The Kraken Wakes.  Take That Roger Waters*!
     I have finally finished notating the dialogue!  Whoopee.  73 pages of scribbled notes, which will have to be typed up; after that I need to review and amend and edit and generally muck around with it.
The Draken Breaks.  Close enough.
     Oh, the Roger Waters bit?  A line from "Time", off a little-known cult success of Pink Floyd's called "Dark Side of the Moon" - "Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines".  Try 36 pages of lines, matey, all part of Conrad's masterplan!
     No, the other masterplan, not the Taking-Over-The-World masterplan.  Do keep up!

More Books
     I put an order in at Abebooks and got a couple more at The Works, still waiting for the N & M Press order to arrive.  Anyway, a UNWHO research paper proves that people who have lots of books live longer, stay happier, keep their hair, wow the ladies and avoid liver spots**.


More Notebooks
     These are the second-line notebooks, independent of the primary two that I am using.  In fact I now have so many notebooks that I'm only going to write on one side of the paper.  Tee Hee!  Won't the Green Party hate me!
     Not sure if these give the same health benefits as actual books; can't do any harm, though, can it?



Conrad:  Happy Man
     Convinced that all the Old Golden Hen was gone, Conrad mournfully checked the cupboard since the fridge was definitely bare.  Not actually bare, there's lots of food in there, just bare of beer.
Hidden hens
     O frabjous day***!


Finally
     Yet another Cute Animal Picture, in this case Beej, whom is a bad photographic subject since he's usually hiding in a box somewhere, and if not he's liable to move out of the way when he sees the camera come out.  Occasionally you can catch him napping:
Seconds later, he ate the photographer





* Get it?  "Waters" - and TKW has lots of flooding and oceans? O please yourself.
** Some or all of these claims may be partially or complete lies
***  A phrase from "The Hunting Of The Snark" from whence comes the name BOOJUM!
^ Don't worry, Anna, no animals were harmed in the creation of this blog

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