Seriously, though, how often does this have to happen to have me wonder what the Universe is trying to tell me*?
Okay, let me ground myself by telling you about First Bus. Imagine a Sunday afternoon, with little traffic and few passengers and yet the 409 manages to be late. It takes a rare skill to manage that.
Tonight, they must have run out of bus drivers and decided to employ random idiots press-ganged off the streets. The 181 proudly declared on it's front "Royton" as it's termination.
'Where in Royton?' I asked the driver.
'Royton,'
'Yes, but where in Royton?'
'Royton.'
'The Health Centre? The stop before that?'
'Royton.'
I gave up. If he were put against a wall and about to be shot, you can bet the last word across his lips would be -
'Royton.'
| "You, too, can enjoy a fulfilling career as a bus driver with FIRST BUS!" |
"Gravity's Rainbow" By Thomas Pynchon
Well into the 400's now, so less than 360 pages to go, at which you can all breathe a long exhale of relief. Until I pick up - let's see, there's "Vineland" and "Slow Learner" still left.
Anyway, what did Conrad stumble across in today's viewing? The abbreviation "u.s.w.", please note the lower-case. What is it? Apparently it's German for "Und So Weiter", meaning "Etcetera". So now we both know. Then there's mention of a "Bung-starter", which really stumped me. A little Google-fu proves that it's a mallet, used to knock (or "start") the rubber bungs out of barrels.
And there we are, today's coincidence, Leni mentions "Pluto, the new planet", and where has New Horizons been hanging around lately? Quite so.
I foolishly thought that this was today's Randomly Arranged Coincidence ...
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| Plutonium. Close enough |
"Manstein" By Mungo Marvin
What a splendid name! How evocative and - no, I meant "Mungo". You don't often meet Mungo's.
Anyway, I bought this ages ago, probably a couple of years and haven't touched it until today, as it's a real housebrick, 647 pages, the Notes pages being a small book in their own right.
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| Evidence |
What is a repeated theme in "Gravity's Rainbow"? Yes, German military action in South-West Africa against the Hereros. It's even more important in "V".
I've never seen this obscure but excruciatingly horrid little war mentioned anywhere else but in the pages of Tom.
You live and learn, eh?
Shakeshaft
Now, Conrad doesn't want you to think that decades of barely-suppressed slavering animal rage due to being forced to study Shakespeare for O and A Level English Lit. are erupting across the page when these little skits come up. Not at all! Not much. Hardly any. No, seriously, it's just that Bill the Bard is a huge static target for a wretch like me to pick on, and there's such a body of his work that this particular theme could go on for years.
Let us proceed ...
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
And so would your rancid malodourous feet.
Try calling it the "Stinking Bog Asphodel".
Then get back to me about it's smell.
ha! Take that, Will!
46 Years Ago Today
Sergeant Pepper taught - whoops, no, sorry, wrong reality!
We got to hear these words:
"Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed."
Far from being tranquil, this sea was the most hostile environment ever explored by man**. Why so?
Because we're talking about Apollo 11 landing on teh MOON!
Not a peep on the Beeb's website. I suppose they think it's all a bit passe now.
Well Wrigglesworth and J. Wilgoose *** don't think so!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzmOwvnDf4Q
This is a live version of "Go!", with a bit of deadpan drollery from J.W.*** in the intro.
Hang on, hang on, let's kick Art out of the attic^ and have him earn his pittance -
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| For an Eagle, kinda spidery and metallic |
Breakfast!
Conrad has long maintained a proud, if solitary, tradition of having ice cream for breakfast. Today he chose to forego the - excuse me for banging on about it - very nice Strawberry and Yoghurt ice cream he made last week, in place of a Cornetto:
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| The rascal in question. No! Not Conrad's fingers, the ice cream |
Could your humble scribe create a home-made version?
There indeed is the question! Coating a cone's interior with chocolate would be tricky, and you'd need two lots of ice cream on the go simultaneously - because you'd need to fill the cone with the pre-freeze mixture - but dabbing the end in a bit of loose chocolate and then daubing it with strawberry sauce -
A bit of a challenge. I'll get back to you on that.
* If it's "stop blogging" then the Universe is in for a serious disappointment
** Sorry, ladies, literally true.
*** Esquire.
^ He's harvesting spider's webs. No idea why.
^^ You do not want this. EVER.
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