Gadzooks! Coincidence Upon Coincidence ...

These Are Beginning To Worry Me
I can't entirely blame "Brewer's"* for this, as this did happen before purchasing it, usually - but not restricted to - when reading Thomas Pynchon.
     Okay, one book I've been reading recently is:

Author sounds familiar?  He's the BBC's Security Correspondent

     The book begins in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, focussing on Vienna, where MI6 was operating against the Russians.  Much mention is made of Graeme Greene and "The Third Man", to wit:

I'm providing pictures here.  Art is locked in the attic.

     Today I open up the most recent edition of "Empire" and what do I see on Page5?

     No caption needed, I feel.

Coincidence The Second
Yesterday I went rambling on about a few of the victims of the Dotcom Crash, as mentioned extensively in Tom's** novel "Bleeding Edge".  I'd done a bit of work on this in preparation as I'd only be posting after having done the shopping, and here it is:

Please note those words "South Sea Bubble"

     I did wonder if there were any precursor analogies in the South Sea Bubble, which was a speculative enterprise that went bust after shockingly criminal abuse.
     Today I open up Brewer's on Page 118 and there in the first column is a mention of the trading term "Bear", and a few lines in there's our old friend "SOUTH SEA BUBBLE".
     Is the universe trying to tell me something, I wonder?

"Star Trek: The Original Series": The Doomsday Machine
Ah, now this is one of my favourite Star Trek episodes, and I like it more than "City on the Edge of Forever", as it has a whole lot of BLAM! to it.  I noticed with interest that it's by Norman Spinrad, another American science-fiction author who was hot at the time, and later.
     The plot line is quite straightforward: the Enterprise comes across a Big Gun, which cannot be destroyed by conventional attack, but which is quite capable of destroying the Enterprise.  I have carped on about the "enhanced" exterior shots and effects but they do work well in this instance, giving a more detailed feel to the Planet Killer.  They are also impressive in re-imagining the badly damaged USS Constellation.

The rather crude original.  Still, it was pretty good for 1967

     Kirk quickly realises that what they're dealing with is a doomsday weapon, triggered by extra-galactic aliens who may no longer survive, whilst their robot monster still thrives.  The sole survivor about the Constellation is Commodore Decker, whose crew are all dead - as revealed in this bit of dialogue:
KIRK: Where is your crew?
DECKER: On the fourth planet.
KIRK: There IS no fourth planet!
DECKER: Don't you think I don't know that!

1967 vs. 2003

   Commodore Matt Decker is a bit of a tragic bottomwipe.  After risking the destruction of the Enterprise, and convinced he should have died with his crew, he suicidally pilots a shuttle-craft into the maw of the monster.  Give the man credit, he doesn't chicken out or look away until he gets vapourised. 

" "A tragic bottomwipe", eh, Conrad?   I'll see you later."

     Interesting fact: overloading the impulse engines on a starship akin to the Enterprise will give you an explosion of almost 100 Megatonnes yield.  Watch those dials carefully, Scotty!
     One thing I liked about this episode is that when Kirk takes a party across to Constellation, the only usual suspect is Scotty, the others are completely unknown characters - you begin to get the feeling that the Enterprise crew is actually as large as made out.
     Favourite Kirk moment:  Alone aboard the Constellation, about to be either vapourised by the Planet Killer or the impulse engines overloading, Kirk calls the Enterprise and calmly announces "Gentlemen, I suggest you beam me aboard now" - that's the casebook definition of grace under pressure.

" aboard now.  Also, I believe I left a light on in my room."

     Finally, the episode ends with a Cheeky Oboe Trill that is utterly out of place - akin to a Norwegian pagan death metal band playing at a bar mitzvah.


Well, there we've gone from picture-heavy to text-extant.  Not only that, I've run out of margarine and there's a spoon in the sock drawer!***

"Oh no!  The horror, the horror!
A spoon in the sock drawer!"

Farewell To Janice
Yesterday saw a long farewell to Janice, as she goes off on maternity leave for at least nine months.
     No!  I didn't write a goodbye pome for her, she got one last week on her 30th birthday.

That's my spoon in the bottom left corner, and my Ikea knife at mid-right

     We really will miss her as she is tremendous fun and also brings in nice things to eat^.  Hailing from Cameroon, she met her Dutch husband in Malaya and is now living in the UK, so quite the globe-trotter.

Well, we've hit 850 words without me even getting half-way through what I wanted to post.  I'll be back.



* That is, "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable"
** We're on first name terms
*** Not really - just trying to create dramatic tension.
^ Except for the snails.