Behold The Water Wonder!

Apologies For Still Banging On About Our Shower
However it is now graced by some fitments that contribute to an even better shower experience.

     See?  And we have a new bathroom curtain:

Note twinkles at top

     Currently Wonder Wifey is banging away with a tack hammer in there, as the old bath gets dumped at the Recycling Centre.

"Gravity's Rinbow" By Thomas Pynchon
Well there you go.  Tom mentions in passing a great deal about organic chemical synthesis, in one of his typical tangential topics, all about polymer design, structure and qualities.  He mentions the Swiss chemical company Sandoz, and Doctor Hoffman and his "famous discovery", which turns out to be LSD - Lysergic Acid Diethylamide to be formal about it.  Synthesised from ergot, I believe, which yields the lysergic acid of the title, and not to be messed around with - people who consumed food contaminated with ergot frequently died as a result of circulatory problems.  Remember that next time you have a slice of Hovis!
     Tom also provides us with the coincidence of the day.  Slothrop, under the unconvincing alias of "Ian Cuffling", is drifting about Geneva, eating Swiss baloney and rosti.
   What did Wonder Wifey bring back from today's morning shopping run?

Dead right.  Rosti.

Horror Channel, You Are A Liar
Mind you, so is the "CBS Action Channel"
     What is Conrad rabbiting on about today?  Why, nothing less than LIES AND DECEPTION!
     Let me present the evidence:

There you are.  The evidence

     If you have never seen "Wonder Woman" then let your humble scribe assure you that it has exactly nil horror content.  It used to be broadcast early evenings before the watershed, for heaven's sake!  In fact Linda Carter in a tight costume was quite the opposite of horror, actually.
     Whilst we're here - "Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman" appears on the "CBS Action" channel, which is surely another breach of the Trades Descriptions Act?  I recall <Mister Hand intervenes in the cause of brevity and sanity both>

Star Trek: The Trouble With Tribbles
I haven't seen this in decades.  It was presented in the "remastered" format, which normally tends to mean "CGI mucking-about"; in this episode such meddling interference was limited to the Enterprise and Space Station K7 exteriors, perhaps the Klingon battlecruiser too, although I didn't see any external detailed shots.

A pun-heavy show.  We should be grateful they didn't call this "K9"

     For an obvious comedy episode with some excrutiating puns, the background is surprisingly sombre.  Sherman's Planet is a planet claimed both by the Federation and the Klingons, and a war had been fought over it, inconclusively.  Under a peace treaty, the planet will become the responsibility of whichever party can better its development.  The Federation intends to manage this with Quadrotriticale wheat, the only species that will grow there.

A Tribble

     Art!  You fatuous fool, get it right -

A charging gri - no, sorry, Tribbles.

     
I recognised the actor Whit Bissell straight away, and recognised the pen-pushing Federation bureaucrat too - William Schallert, and the Klingon Captain Koloth seemed familiar too - turns out to be William Campbell, who played the "Squire of Gothos"*.
     Despite orders not to squabble with the Klingons, and a heavy security presence, there is an inevitable fist-fight aboard K7, with the Enterprise crew showing up for duty rather battered and bruised.  They get a severe browbeating from Kirk**.

Scotty getting ready to deliver "The Highland Hammerhand"

     This is great!  Imagine what would happen in "Star Trek: The PC Generation" - everybody sits down to drink Tea, Earl Grey, Hot, and they stare at each other before Guinan comes up with a silly drink that breaks the tension and the ice and they all get on splendidly for 44 boring minutes -
     Kirk also  feels much put-upon by Under-Secretary Baris, and makes absolutely no bones about expressing this scornful dislike.  Excellent!  I imagine Jean-Luc Picard would have been compassionate and considerate and put himself in the other man's shoes, but the essence of drama is CONFLICT!

William Shatner's finest moment, bar none.

Shakeshaft
Hopefully this won't provoke Misha and Grisha, nor any of the other duty staff at Strategic Rocket Forces Base Number Sixteen, off in the wilds of Siberia, where men are men, wolves are wolves, vodka is drunk and Moscow is the modern Babylon***.
     So!  Allow me to continue to batter the hapless old Barn of Avon with my polished wit and wisdom.  From Hamlet:

"Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?"

Well I dunno, Will, that's a curious kind of gripe.

One would think that you cannot take a blow.

I won't call you a pipe, but I will call you a oboe.

     ha!  Take that A Level English!

An Ebow.  Close enough.

* You know, the naughty little boy with awesome powers.
** Who was probably secretly impressed with how hard Scotty could punch; steel knuckles, that feller.
*** Okay, perhaps I Ur on the side of excess.