A Bit of A Mary-Tyler Today

Why?  Because There's More!
Yes, after Dick Van Dyke yesterday, today we have Mary Tyler Moore.  Who starred in the Dick Van Dyke Show.  You see?  It all links together.  Circular*.  The Wheel of Life and all that.

MTM back in the day.  Clearly a lady who avoided the Ugly Stick and then some

     Actually if there is a structure to life and it is a wheel, that would explain a lot.  As in when you feel tyred, or a bit flat, or when things look black, and also those people who get airs, or when you get in a rut - 
 - I shall stop now as Mister Hand is twiddling his bamboo skewer.

Mister Hand: ever ready to puncture pretension or prolixness

How Sunday Begins At The Mansion
The breakfast of champions!  A two pint pot of English Breakfast Tea and five cola-flavoured doughnuts:

They were only 19p, which makes them taste even better

      I scoffed the lot before Sal (up for the weekend) got out of bed.  Mind you, she did make an "Ewwww" face when she found out what the filling was.

More Of The Coincidence Hammer
Yes indeed.  You see above my copy of "Against The Day".  I know I've been banging on about this for an age, but it is extremely long and complex; today I made it to Page 800 - with another 228 pages to go.
     Anyway, what was Conrad going on about last month?  Glagolitic, that's what.  Medieval Slav language, as you surely remember.  Not a word that you come across very often - in fact if you didn't read BOOJUM! you'd probably never come across it.  Yet what do we see on page 775 of ATD?  Yes, Glagolitic.
     Just to prove that I am really reading it, the plot has now moved to 1908 and Tunguska in Siberia, at the time of the Event.

A Vent.  Close enough

Crap CV**'s And The Metro
This week the Metro actually amused Conrad, and not in his usual sneeringly dismissive way.  The paper can't take any credit, of course, because it was an article on a book called "Crap CV's" by Jenny Crompton, and it lists entries taken from real-life CV's sent in by people who are looking for employment.
     I shan't put any examples here actually I shall as I have just rescued the wretched rag from the cat's litter tray:
     "I was previously employed by my mother, until she moved house without telling me."
     "Duties:Moving chairs from one place to another.  Tables, sometimes."
     "I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse."
     "Can do excellent triceratops impersonation."
     &c.`
     This has a particular resonance for Conrad because in his previous job one of his thankless and difficult tasks was composing CVs for young people with very little to put on them.  Those wonderful cliches "I enjoy socialising with friends" and "Hobbies: football" were resorted to on too many occasions.  I remember one girl of nineteen with her baby in a pram who came in and wanted to do a CV.  She had a life-defining moment when she realised that all she could put down was her name and address; no qualifications, no hobbies, no referees, no achievements.  Nothing!  It was my job to tease some detail out of her life so that we could bulk-up the CV, but she was too depressed to stay.

See The Metro.  Close enough

A Modicum Of Trumpet-Blowing
Several years ago Conrad posted a series of stories over on Fanfiction.  What's that?  "Tell us more, Conrad, of your "UNIT UK" stories!" I hear you say, and it's very clever of you to know the title when I hadn't already mentioned it.  Clever readers!  Biscuit for readers!

The logo, from when you could call it "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce" and the UN didn't object.

     The rationale is that an officer in the Queen's Lancashire Regiment is part of a cordon keeping the public away from a "terrorist incident" at Beacon Hill and the radio telescopes there.  He happens to notice that the supposedly dead terrorists were actually men wearing huge plastic heads as part of a plastics promotion event, and investigates still further - which is when UNIT catch him and make a deal: no prosecution if he applies to join them.  He does so, and encounters the Third Doctor, then the Fourth.
     They are serious, no parodies here, and I attempt to match events to the series as it ran in the early to mid-Seventies.
Herein the link:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2526238/1/
     Fayza Banks, who just favourited it, described it as "Superb", which is flattering and maybe even true.

UNIT HQ Aylesbury.  The "Ministry of Defence" bit is disinformation.

Sinister Sound Effects
Perhaps I should italicise "Sinister", and amend the colour -
Sinister Sound Effects
Yes, I think that works.  I am referring to music or sounds that heighten tension, create anticipation and, at their best, cause people to hide behind the sofa until a bit of jazz comes on in the background.  I am thinking of examples, and one that springs to mind is the two-tone string signature in "Star Trek".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWAX6_pnnUQ

The Salt Vampire.  Creepy thing, probably has it's own theme tune

 - it's probably in there somewhere but the whole thing is nearly 50 minutes long, so I leave you, my loyal audience, to check it out for me***.  That two-tone bit of music always set the hairs on my neck upright with nervous anticipation.
     What else?  Oh yes, "Quatermass and the Pit".  This is an old TV series from the Fifties, about three hours long.  This length enables it to build up the tension gradually, some of which comes from the creepy sounds created by the Radiophonic Workshop.  They are definitely eerie and really escalate the tension.  Do not watch on your own if of a nervous disposition!
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6MwmPt7in4
     This is the whole series of six episodes.  Given that it was made in the mid-Fifties I am afraid the picture quality is not too hot, but persevere with it.

Not very scary?  Turn off the lights and watch it alone.

     A Bit Of An Experiment
As of course you recall, Conrad made a Pear and Blueberry Polenta cake last week.  Pondering about using polenta instead of wheat flour, I have today baked this:

Just about to go in the oven

     Made with polenta not flour, margarine not butter, and soya milk not the stuff that comes out of cows, I let it sit for perhaps 5 minutes too long and thus needed to scrape a bit of over-browned^ sponge off it.  Once it's cooled off Wonder Wifey can be the guinea pig, as Darling Daughter has gone back to her digs.

Finally
As I, in my capacity of Secondary Dad, simply cannot approach the utter awesomeness of Primary Dad and Mum, Edna will insist on keeping a sporadic vigil on her giant upturned pot-cum-sentry post

Pining, whining and not reclining

* Not so subtle code for "See how clever I am!"
** Which we here in the UK know and loathe as "Curriculum Vitae", whilst the more practical and logical South Canadians Americans know it as a "Resume"
*** Yes I am lazy.
^ I.e. "burnt"