Marco Polo

Yessirah, Indeed!
But first, as we need to deceive the vigilant Hamsters who stand guard at the very Gates of Dawn, I have to offer up a bit of random banter and -
     - I'm terribly sorry, but I think you'll find that Hamsters do run the world.  From the interiors of servers and tower stands and squeeeeeezed unimaginably flat in laptops, the furry little rascals are -
     - well, let's not get sidetracked.  Banter!  begin!


Doctor Who Calendar
Aaaand who do we have this morning?

"Boo Who*"

     Another Weeping Angel.  I know why it's weeping - "No longer unique!" it's bawling, aware that it is now the second of two unlovely monsters to emerge from the calendar.
     I shall also controversially inform you that I know what's behind Door Number Twenty-Four.
     But I'm not going to tell you what it is!  <Snicker>

Strauss
Pay attention at the back there!  Okay, yesterday we had the "Radetzky March", a stirring waltz by Johann Strauss.    Today I give you -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CTYymbbEL4

     The Blue Danube.  And whyso?  Well, not only does it have considerable musical appeal all by itself, it is also the background music to one of the most memorable space scenes in science-fiction cinema, the Pan Am shuttle's approach to the Space Station in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfo9TSWVS84

     To get the real impact you have to see this at the cinema, preferably one with a VERY LOUD PA system.
     Oh, and all those craft that appear before the shuttle does?  All weapons.  Bombs, missiles, particle beam guns, lasers - this follows on from the ape with a club.  Explicit in the book, less so in the film.

Ah, what the heck, close enough.

"How Are You?"
Cheryl asked of me the other day**.
     "I'm fighting fit! I'm in fine fettle!" I replied.
     You see where I'm going with this, don't you?  Obviously - obviously! - Conrad had to find out what "Fettle" meant and where it came from.
     It's not quite that simple.  Firstly, "Fettle" can mean to tidy up and abrade the rough edges of a piece of metal.  Courtesy of Darling Daughter, it is also the working of dry clay before firing.
     What Conrad found, is that it has mutual ancestors:  Old English and "Fetel", meaning a strip of material, and German, "Fessel", meaning a chain or band.  To have fettle is thus to be girded up and ready for action.

A band and a chain all in one.  Conrad is "rocking it" tonight!

O Frabjous Day!
Like BOOJUM! this is from Lewis Carroll, but from "Jabberwocky" if my ailing memory banks do not deceive me.

- and they don't.

     Why such a red letter day exclamation?  Because with the Winter Solstice behind us, the days are going to lengthen and the nights shorten and before you know it, it will be Spring again.
     Yes, I know it's not much to get excited about but in the current climate you take it where you can get it.

"I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud ..."
Excuse me!  I follow on from the post above and the state of our weather at present.  That is, uniformly wet and depressing.  Also Grey.  And Wet.  And not even icy.  Did I mention wet yet?
     If I may point out, what we see above us is an unbroken vista of clouds swollen with rain, running from horizon to horizon.  I have a term for this: "Uniform Grey Layer".  Where, pray tell Mister Wordsworth, do we see single, unique, unaccompanied, solo, individual*** clouds dancing merrily across the firmament?
     Nowhere!  Got it in one!
     Now, William, take your quill pen and ink pot and leave the room - immediately!  And take a brolly with you.

Signs.  A film that could never have been made in the UK

Aha:  "The Theory of Everything"
Thank you mobile muse^, Conrad has just seen another film poster about "The Theory of Everything".
    Well.  That's biting off an awful lot, Hollywood.  If you have ten thousand years of recorded history then that's 0.72 seconds for each year in a 2 hour film.  And how would you cram in the sheer amount of Everything that's happened in the past century?  8.64 seconds for the First and Second World War? 0.008 seconds for the Apollo Moon landings? 0.0019726 seconds for The Royal Jubilee?
     Pshaw! Away with you!

"Is Conrad banging on about time again?  Some things never change, eh?"

Marco Polo
Oh, sorry, were you expecting a post about the great Venetian explorer?

     I've got to make the most of these, there are only so many puns you can work out with a packet of Polos.


* Sorry.
** She didn't really want to know but we'd made eye contact so ...
*** Mister Hand intervenes to point out that this is quite enough.
^ Busses