What Ho What Ho - It's Edgar Allan Poe!

Anyone Saying "Who?" Will Be Put Out Of The Airlock
I know we're not in orbit but that's how serious I am.
     EAP, American author and promoter of the short story.  He only lived to the age of 40 but was immensely influential at the time and afterwards.  The detective in literary fiction was invented by Poe.  He pioneered what later became known as "science fiction".  He was a perceptive, analytical literary critic.  His poem "The Raven" was an instant success.

NO!  Damn it, Art Department -

  He put forward the Big Bang theory 80 years before it became accepted.  He also influenced cryptology (via the story "The Gold-Bug") and inspired the chap who broke the Japanese Purple code in The Second Unpleasantness.

Thank you.

     There are far too many film and television adaptations of Poe's works to go into here, but here's a link to the relevant Wikipedia page, should you desire to know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe_in_television_and_film
     And that's this Intro over.

"Are You Doing Anything Nice This Weekend, Rob*?" Asked Rabina
We were in the lift and there were 7 floors to go.
     "Why yes!" I replied, "But some people would think it to be cruel and unusual punishment."
     Curious looks from the others in the lift.  What - did Conrad strap himself into a chair and taser his Hairy Underside?
     "I've got a "History of the 51st Highland Division" but it doesn't have an index.  So I'm writing one myself."

The evidence

    I lied about not starting it if I'd known how long it would take; by now you know how my mind works and I simply love hair-splitting pedantry of this sort.
     Slow work, however.  I am now up to page 318 - only another 82 to go! - after picking up from page 300, and that took an hour and a half.

Sitting Cat And Dog Sitting
Usually when I sit down at the kitchen table I am rapidly joined by Jenny, who emerges from wherever she's been hiding, purrs loudly and proceeds to sit on my book or notepad.  She knows not to approach if I'm eating; well, not to approach all at once.  Her tactic is to sneak forward a little at a time ...
     No sitting on books today.  Perhaps I am out of favour:

She loves that box

     I was certainly out of favour with Edna whilst sitting at the table; non-stop whimpery-whiney pup performance until I went into the lounge and lay down on the settee, whereupon:

Presto - instant dog bed

     She got off at times, and when she returned would head-butt my writing pad out of the way so she could lie down.  Then there was the alternative lying position, almost a dog boa:

Jowly old men make excellent lying-posts, apparently

Smoke Fairies
This is kind of tangential to my continuing references to Public Service Broadcasting and "The Race for Space".  I'd never heard of Smoke Fairies before listening to the album, where they perform vocals on the track "Valentina".  Wikipedia lists them as "dream pop", which they most definitely weren't when playing live.
     Why did J. Wilgoose Esq. arrange to have them sing on that track?  Here's a hint:

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

Apollo LEM for the hard of sight

     And what is on the cover illustration of "The Race of Space"?

Again, Apollo LEM for the hard of sight

     Artistic minds thinking alike, eh?

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream
Conrad is getting back into making his own ice cream again, after an hiatus of about a year.  Having rediscovered the recipe for Strawberry Ice Cream, I now need strawberries.  A visit to the Co-Op in Royton beckons.

As seen on that most fruitful of sources, a bus

     Conrad also has to approve of this ad and the ice creams thus displayed.  Black ice cream - a tough sell.  I wonder, what flavour of ice cream I could make that would suit black?  Treacle?  Liquorice?  Tar?  I do have black food colouring**, so - you know, this intrigues me.  I'll get to you on that.

The Mystery Towers
I've blogged about these monster constructions before, although not for some time.  They were M and N towers, two of a planned twelve that would have been spaced out across the English Channel to prevent German U-boats slinking past the coast.

No sense of scale, sorry

Somewhat better

     The First Unpleasantness came to an end before they were joined by the rest.  One of them was towed out to the Nab Rocks and became a lighthouse that's still there:

- if a little rusty

     What happened to the other?  It remained in harbour for several years, as it was allegedly 6 feet too wide to get out:

And there it sat.

     Then it got broken up and used for local construction.  A bit of a sad end, really.

Right.  Time to go get strawberries.

UA-61206227-1


* Conrad's Sunday-best name
** No, I don't mean fountain-pen ink.  Proper black food colouring.