Data As Friar Tuck -

 - He Forgot To Duck!
What?  you were expecting some NSFW ending?  Shame on you!  Wash your mind out with soap and water!

Love the hairdo.

     There is a back-story to this episode, involving Q transporting and transforming the Enterprise bridge crew into the cast of "Robin Hood: Men in Leggings".  I can't remember anything much, except that Worf has the wonderful line "Sir! I protest!  I am NOT a Merry Man!"  Later on, Geordie as Alan A'Dale has been plunking away on his mandolin repeatedly.  Worf strides up to him, snatches away the offending instrument and smashes it to bits against a tree*.
     I am also enjoying myself by sucking people in with my witty "Star Trek" allusions.

More Of Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation is playing on the CBS Action Channel, and the episode tagline states:"Captain Picard is stranded on a barren planet with a woman who is desperately in love with him."

Er - not quite what I had in mind ...

     This being the PC series, I expect there to be deep and philosophical ponderings by Picard on why the planet is barren and empty and lifeless, what had happened to make it that way, could the Federation have helped or will help -

Barren.  And strangely familiar

     - you know, angsty shizzle like that.
     Whereas this chap -

"No hurry, Spock."

     "Stardate 2355.7.  Currently I am stranded on the barren surface of Celestis Four, with only a single beautiful besotted woman to keep me company.  Unfortunately it will take the  Enterprise many weeks to rescue us."
     You can imagine the rest ...

Some People Have Entirely Too Much Time On Their Hands
A statement which, if Irony were a person, would cause them to choke on their food whilst being knocked off their feet.
     I stumbled across a website yesterday entitled "Beyond the Sprues".  For your information, "Sprues" are the plastic ribs that the various bits of plastic model kit are attached to.

Sic

     I read on about the "Squawks of the FAA" in staggered awe.  Here is the link to the forum thread:

http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=3529.0

     Essentially what this person had done was create an alternate history (known by wannabe intellectuals as a "counterfactual") that was credible, detailed, sustained and accurate, all to be able to post this picture:

     There never was a "Douglas-Blackburn" company, nor an "HMS Leviathan", and the RN's Fleet Air Arm was certainly never involved in Vietnam!
     The person who created the picture and the backstory knows their stuff, however, and if you've been living in a fallout shelter on Weather Mountain for the past 50 years, you'd believe it.
     I think this website might also be responsible for the pictures of Thunderbird 2 in RAF livery, except if I go to research that I'll not be back for hours.  Maybe later.

House of Leaves
As mentioned, I finished this yesterday.  Long and complicated, although unlike Thomas Pynchon it hasn't thrown that many new and unfamiliar words up.  One such has been "docent", which turns out to be a guide, generally around an institute like a museum or library.  Then there was the disease "grippe" which Conrad has heard of, and imagined to be  a malady of the stomach.  Wrong!  An outdated word referring to "influenza".

It has an index.  I'm so happy!

     Then again, life has crossed paths with HoL in at least one respect -

House with leaves

     I was embarrassed by Degsy's chopping them down yesterday, so I cut them all up into short, Qubo-friendly lengths this afternoon.

More O' Poirot
Okay, I finished watching "Appointment with Death" and although it was shot on location (probably) (definitely I went and checked IMDB**) with a stellar cast, it was a bit of a bore, frankly.  It went on far too long for too little return.
     Now, take the television series.  These clock in at about 52 minutes as they don't have adverts in to stretch them out to an hour.  Much more coherent and pleasing - you generally only have to wait 20 minutes for there to be a ghastly MURDER, which, after all, is what ghouls like us we you and me are looking for.
     Anyway, last night's viewing was entitled "The Dream" and your humble yet perceptive scribe instantly realised that the supposed invitation of Poirot to a "consultation" was in fact an impostor playing a part in front of our Belgian whiz.  
     In my opinion the star of the show was the Art Deco factory that some location scout had come across and probably swooned over.  It looked exactly the part.

1935 in stone

     Oh, my supposition that the year had advanced beyond 1935 was wrong - Farley by implication confirms that the episode takes place in 1935.

Blimey!  The word limit hits us once again.  And I was so looking forward to more of "The Australian Victories in France 1918".  Maybe later.

Chin chin!


* Yup.  Not a merry man.
** See?  See how thorough I am?