Great Minds Or Folie A Deux?

Only You Can Decide!
"Folie A Deux" refers not to French cookery, but instead to what is more formally known as "Shared Psychiatric Disorder", where one persons pottiness affects another*.
     "It's only just gone Beer O'clock!" I can hear you puzzle.  "Sobriety ought not to be an issue. What on earth are you babbling on about now, Conrad?  Tell us!"
     I refer you to yesterday's blog, where I spouted at length on the relationship between JRR Tolkein, The Lord Of The Rings and the First World War.  One Google attempt I made with this theme brought up a link to a blog that featured:

http://atolkienistperspective.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/the-military-structure-and-ranking-system-of-mordor-part-i/

     This chap knows his stuff and no mistake, with a thorough analysis of the title.  If you're curious, pop on over and have a look; it's illustrated with film stills so it isn't just a dry text article.

Stromburg Horn
No!  This is not a smutty remark.  BOOJUM! is as pure as powdered titanium dioxide; go launder your dirty minds.  Sorry to bang on about WW1 again, but I am reading "The Mammoth Book of True World War One Stories" at present and an entry mentioned the sounding of a "Stromburg horn" and the clanging of gas gongs.  Now, as you surely know by now, Conrad is widely-read on the subject of WW1, and has never read of a Stromburg horn before.  What is it?

Straight out of Looney Tunes

     Ladies, gentlemen and those unsure, may I present the Stromburg horn.  That's all I can do, it doesn't crop up on Youtube so, potentially, nobody now living has heard one**.

Metaphor
You've all read the word or used it in the "metaphorical" sense.  Why, here it is in my Book Of Scribble.  I was trying to explain further about The One Ring and made a rather strained comparison of it being as much a metaphor as an artefact, which is a bit weak.  Then, of course, my mind wondered*** about where this word originates.  Possibly Greek?

Metaphor, Plus four, easily confused

     Correct!  From combining the Greek "meta" for "across" and "phero" which means "to carry".  Thus to transfer an idea from one position to another.  Then we have the French derivation "metaphore" that became the English "metaphor"
     BOOJUM! - we'll get you learned in Greek eventually^.

Six O'clock Already - Where Did The Day Go?
First part was spent travelling to and waiting at Pepe's in Chadderton, then getting a haircut.  Being a creature of habit, Conrad has been going there for, oooh, the past seventeen years and is now greeted by his first name and a cup of coffee.

Before

After

     Now, lady at supermarket checkout, do I look like a grandad? Actually don't answer that question ...

Today's Book Haul
Damnation, the Bookfinders stall outside the Arndale was closed today.  The owner only opens during the early afternoon during the week so I'd hoped to catch him there today.  Never mind, I did strike gold at the Oxfam shop:

Too much bother to realign.  Sorry

All for £9, which makes reading them all the more appealing.

And Seperately, For A Reason
I suspect that very few of you, dear readers, know the name Brian Michael Bendis.  Bad readers!  Naughty readers!  No biscuit!
http://brianmichaelbendis.tumblr.com/
     Let that be a lesson to you.  BMB is the writer behind the "Powers" series, besides others, and has recently been overseeing the television adaptation thereof - Conrad has high hopes for this.  Plus he's got a new comic out - "United States of Murder", and Conrad is waiting for the TPB to come out in December.
     Enough background!  Here is BMB's recently published book "Words for Picture":

Words! Pictures! Word for Pictures. "Powers" bottom left

     The reason I post this apart is because it was purchased with my Birthday Book Token, so a big thankyou to any work colleagues from My Still Coyly Un-Named Employer.

A Bit Of Conscience-Salve
I also bought two DVD's, which see below:

     Never seen "Another Earth" but I like the concept.  I have seen "Splinter", not entirely legally <cough cough> but I liked it and that means I have to buy it.  Made on a shoestring, it has an excellently threatening monster, and never lags or lacks for suspense and has a twist that I didn't see coming.  If you ask you can borrow my copy.

Some Sounds
That reminds me, I need to give Fopp! some feedback.  Good feedback, the staff there are interested in music and it shows.

Oscar Peterson, Hawkwind, The National (x2) and Robyn

     "Robyn?" I can hear your scandalised voices declaim.  "But - but - she's not heavy metal or indie rock!"  Well no, whisper it who dares but Conrad does like some lightweight pop and he already likes her "With Every Heartbeat".  Besides which she does earn a certain amount of street cred by her recent collaborations with Royksopp.  And she swears.
     By coincidence, she is Swedish as is Oscar Peterson, and what was playing in Fopp! whilst I was shopping?  "Palme" by Olof Arnalds.  She's Icelandic, not Swedish, but damn it! the connection is close.


* As ever, BOOJUM! studiously ignores the opportunity to mock certain current marriages and political conjunctions.
** Except maybe Bugs Bunny.  Who is real.  He IS!
*** Or wandered.  Both equally valid.
^ This does not constitute a legally-binding contract and Conrad points out that "eventually" can also mean "until the heat-death of the Universe"