Fickle Foodie Fretting

And By "Fretting" No! I Ain't Talking Of Guitar Strings
 - although that may come later.
     Last week my Pumpkin Cheesecake flew off the plate.  Today my Halloween Pumpkin Cake sat, desolate, as people ignored it.  There are still six slices left that I may <makes sad face, catches self in mirror, squeaks in fright> put out on Monday.  Mind you, Sophie and K. Mo* and Happy Mo and Manisha and Stephen and Rick and Katie were off today, so they may be interested if they return on Monday.
     We shall see.

The Holy See

Kekule
I got to the bus stop a little early this morning, hearing a lot of birds making a big fuss in the trees, probably about how the nights are drawing in and the mornings are pretty dark and how insects are getting harder to find and keep out of the Mansion, they've upgraded the laser defence grid** -
     Anyway, what pops into Conrad's mind but "Kekule"  There should be a grave accent over the second "e" but the alphabet isn't there in Trebuchet, which is slightly shocking as "trebuchet" is French.

A trebuchet.
As used at BOOJUM!'s beginning in 2013

     Sorry! Going off at a tangent.  Kekule.  A person, I vaguely remembered, and to do with chemistry.  Not had him crop up in my thoughts for a good thirty years.  What did Google reveal?
     Yes, a German theoretical chemist active in the nineteenth century, and who was of primary importance in the creation of theoretical chemical structure.  His most important contribution to that field was in deducing that Benzene had a circular structure**.  He said the answer came to him in a dream.
     In a dream!  Who's he kidding?

Dream command.
The Comsat Angels in disguise, actually

"Festoon"
A seasonally-appropriate term, this.  Very shortly the halls will be decked with all manner of horrid things, in preparation for Halloween.  After that the festoons get put on a bonfire, clearing the halls for considerably more cheery festoons.  So where does the word come from?

Garland.  Alex Garland.  Easily confused with a Festoon

     Ah, from that zombie language, Latin***.  From "festum", which means "feast", the via Italian and "festone", through French and "festone" and by the seventeenth century in English as "festoon".

Eden Underwood
This is the fictional English country village that I am creating as a background for a set of stories, the idea of which came to me in a dream.  I have decided upon a set of short stories, and - if I can manage the delicate touch required - have it as a black comedy, with a touch of the supernatural.  Enquiring of my pub quiz partners last night about what made an English country village, Rosie promptly added "the Women's Institute", which I duly noted, and also about the nature of the stone that made up houses.
     Typically Conrad has written up notes in three different places and now needs to get them all sorted, which he can do whilst watching "Undermind"^.

Eden Underwood.
Every house a home - to a SERIAL KILLER!

"The Great War Generals On The Western Front"
By Robin Neillands.  This is a cool and analytical look at the performance of, primarily, British generals and operates as a stern corrective to the "Lions led by donkeys" myth that was - oh, er, there's Mister Hand and his bamboo skewer of Hurry Up.
     Anyway, Robin^^ goes into another work, entitled "1914", which was written by Sir John French, about his times in command during 1914.  Robin pretty much skewers Sir John as a dishonest, duplicitous, disgraceful do-bad doo-dad^^^ whose work is a collection of lies in bound form.
     "Not so much a tissue of lies," chortled Conrad to himself sitting alone in the cafe with everyone oddly enough keeping well clear of him, "More like a whole toilet roll of them!"
     Hmm.  Perhaps you had to be there.

The closest to 19:14 I could get ...

The Powers That Be
Conrad occasionally mentions the comic book graphic novel series "Powers", by Bendis and Oeming.  It's been around for years and is both highly entertaining and thought-provoking.  It is set in a reality where superpowers are not uncommon; you might encounter them once a week, perhaps once a month, but not hourly or daily.  

The comic: inspiration but not representation

What flows from this, logically?  Why, that there will be Bad Guys who abuse their Powers, and vigilantes who aren't legally empowered~ to operate outside the law, and a Police Department that has to deal with both. 
     A pilot television programme came to grief a couple of years ago, but there is now a whole series in production as I speak.  And there is even a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P02QmncDOzM

     Conrad has all his digits crossed for this.

Guitar~~!
Rather than strings, I refer to effects pedals, and the DL4 in particular.  Ian, fellow work colleague of My Still Anonymous Employer Who You MIght Have Guessed The Identity Of By Now, posted that he'd re-discovered his DL4 effects pedal.
     Now, Conrad likes to listen to music, but the how of how it's made is a complete mystery to him.  On reading Ian's glad tidings he imagined a pedal thus:

Mk 1 Basic Pedal

     When in fact we are talking this brute:

I say!

     Ian, my lad, you must be operating this thing in bare feet with chopsticks tied to your toes!

Finally
"Harley's are skite!"
As I know vanishingly little about playing music, still less do I know about motorbikes, so I merely reproduce what Colin said.
     At least I think it's what he said.  Between us three we'd sunk about 18 pints.

Harley Quinn. Close enough

* Why "K" Mo?  Because she will, very likely, Kill you. Dead.  
** I know it doesn't sound like much, but hey!  those chemists had to get their jollies where they could.
*** Why "zombie"?  Because it's dead but it won't stop going on.
^ Conrad rather suprised this got released; it has a detailed plan for destroying British society from the ground up.
^^ I can call him that. I have two of his books.
^^^ I could have continued with the letter "d" but - Mister Hand.
~  Tee.  + Hee.
~~ As enunciated by Leftfield