Please Don't Hiss Mr. Brian Aldiss

Yes, Another Science Fiction Author
You might recognise his name as being associated with the fillums "Frankenstein Unbound" and "A.I." - which derives from his short story "Super Toys Last All Summer Long".  He's been a busy chap, writing since the Fifties, novels, short stories and also acting as editor of innumerable collections of short stories.  Try the novels "Greybeard" (about total sterility affecting the entire globe), "Hothouse" (a far distant future Earth over-run by plant life) and "Non-Stop" (a tale about a primitive culture with a big twist at the end).  I wouldn't recommend "Barefoot in the Head" as a starter as it concerns a narrative related by a victim of The Acid-Head Wars.  Not an easy read!
     I don't believe he has anything to do with the Aldiss Lamp, but I stand ready to be corrected.

I Googled "Hothouse" and it came up with this.
Brian!  This is one of those "cosy catastrophes" you criticise, isn't it!

I'm Stranded!
No!  I don't mean that seminal punk song by Australian band The Saints -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LA2DbwXJoo

Although here is the Youtube link if you're interested.  No, I refer to "Strand" cigarettes and their advert of the late Fifties/early Sixties.

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

     and another Youtube link.  The advert was a tremendous success and made a star of Terence Brook, the chap inhaling on his coffin nail, and the music was a big hit, too.
     The thing is, the Strand cigarette sold dismally and was off the market within a couple of years.  People associated it with cold, wet loneliness*.
     Why is this relevant?  Because of a bus poster I've mentioned previously:

Not, one hastens to add, movies about meerkats.
Because that would be silly.

     Ah yes the mighty meerkat!  Loved by all, now with cuddly toy versions of themselves.
     What were they advertising again?

How To Turn Your Problem Into Someone Elses
I remember writing a post about leafblowers in the blog an age ago, well over a year distant.  Today, en route to do the weekly shop (leaving behind a pining Edna) I witnessed a chap with a leafblower, gaily blowing sawdust and woodchips and foliage along the roadway from where he'd been pruning bushes.  Not blowing them against a flat surface that would thus enable him to sweep it up; no, rather he was blowing them into someone else's property.  Once he'd done a runner it would be for them to clean up after him.
     Leafblowers: invented by an anti-social engineer.

Polski Sklep
As you may know already, Conrad is not afraid to tackle food from any country, culture or cooking style.  What he particularly enjoys is Polish food, viz:

An automatic finger in the eye for The Nasty Little Man

     There you go - beer, pickles, cheese and sausage.
     I say "Polish" but I bet a lot of this stuff crosses borders and you'd find similar on the shelves of supermarkets in Lithuania and East Prussia.
     Na Zdravye!

"Inherent Vice" by Thomas Pynchon
As I mentioned, this is a far shorter, easier read than a lot of Tom's earlier work, yet you can't take liberties with it.  For one thing, the cast list just keeps on growing and it's difficult to keep track of who's what, especially the supposedly "dead" sax player, who Doc the PI is following in a kind of secondary case that interlinks with the original one, not to mention the "Golden Fang", which can be one of at least four different entities - a yacht, a Chinese Tong, a high-rent lunatic asylum or a building housing a lot of tax-dodging dentists.  There'll probably be another iteration along before now.

They also mention "roach clip" a lot.  A fly-fishing lure, I'm sure.

     Aha!  I think I've caught Tom out in a bit of fictional chicanery.  As mentioned oftentimes before, he has the knack of inserting things that sound as if they're true when in fact they're not - witness yesterday and the fake band "Meatball Flag".  Today it's the "Gleichschaltung M33 Automatic Bazooka".  Now, you can't have an "automatic" bazooka - that being a rocket-projectile firing weapon which will keep on firing as long as the firing button/trigger is held down - because it is loaded manually, one rocket at a time.
     Let's just Google this weapon, shall we?
     Yup, the only links are back to Pynchon websites like this one:

http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12

     Some people have far too much time on their hands!
     Er - 

"Quick!  Change the subject!"

Osmium
I was thinking more specifically of Osmium Tetroxide - heaven only knows why - but we can start off with the element itself.
     It has the Atomic Number 76, is a hard and brittle metal, and is extremely dense.  The name comes from the Greek for "smell" as it had a distinct and ashy smell when first separated out from a residuum**.  One of it's major uses is coating the nibs of fountain pens -

This is a fountain pen nib.  Just to be clear, as most of you won't know it from SADAM.

     And thus we arrive at Osmium Tetroxide, which is extremely poisonous.  Really, you are never going to throw an "Osmium Tetroxide Party", unless the death-wish weighs heavy upon you.  It's most common use is as a staining agent for biological samples, which efficiency also extends to staining the human eyeball, rendering you blind if you're not careful. It is desperately eager to poison you by inhalation, ingestion or skin contact - and it can be fatal in doses well below that which it becomes evident as a smell.
     OsO4 - Just say NO!  (whilst you still can)

Oz Mum.  Close enough

* That is, every weekend in the UK bar two weeks in "Summer"
** A real word but not one you encounter very often.

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