I'm Not Discreet, I AM A Cheat!

But I Admit It
Which immediately makes it okay.  I did have a load of material to write about tonight, and here is the proof:

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     However, two things conspire against me.  One, it is the Great British Bake Off at 8 p.m. and I'm not going to miss it, which means not starting on BOOJUM! until nine o'clock and thus not posting it until ten o'clock.  The second thing is that I've just been for a meal with Darling Daughter at Infamous Diner, viz:

I asked where it was of everyone in the office.
I walk past it every day on the way home.

     And here she is:

Winsome as ever

     Conrad is of course pathetically grateful that she condescends to hang out with a dinosaur like him.  She even paid for the meal, which was a reason to give me a late birthday present:

A hand-made scarf!

     Here's what I had, a chicken burger called "The Colonel":

With a name like that, how could I NOT have it!

The other Colonel.
You know, the humourless twod one.

     Now, that's not very long as a blog post, and indeed consists mostly of pictures, which is a practice Conrad frowns at, because he is locquacious in print if not real life.
     So -  here is the post from 19th August 2013:

 Okay, I exaggerated

     This is BOOJUM!  Don't expect boring things like linear thought, logic or sequential argument.

     Nevertheless, ladies and gentlemen, I present in the left corner - Full Metal Jacket!  One of Mr Stanley Kubrick's finer creations.  I love the central conceit of this film - recreating Parris Island and Hue City in the docklands of London.  As a film of two halves you get to see how US Marines are created before seeing what they do.  And, of course, you have the awesome - a word not used lightly here - the awesome Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann*, both hilarious and pant-wettingly scary at the same time.

     To get to the point, at the very end of the film Private Joker narrates a closing speech.  Hundreds of Marines are on the move in the dark, all singing -

     The Mickey Mouse song.

     It makes for a bizarre conjugation - a blazing, shattered cityscape at night with big hairy Marines singing "Who's the leader of the gang, the one for you and me? M - I - C  K - E - Y M - O - U  -S - E" for several choruses.  That's the only circumstance I've ever heard the song and can recite what they sing as it rather stuck in my mind.

     In the right corner - The Disney Corporation!  a bunch of litigious boors who will sue the arse off anyone they think is thinking of impinging on their cash-cow.  Cash-mouse?

  Anyway, suing is big on their menu as the first item.

     The question is, how did Stan get away with that song?  It's not subtle or short or winsome or whimsical or flattering or fairy-dusted.  How did he not get up the morning after and have his wife call out to him "Honey your ass is missing.  I think Disney sued it off overnight,"  ???

So, Tanks?

Wartime Matilda with additional decoration - captured Italian flag

    

The Matilda; or Infantry Tank Mark 2, at the Imperial War Museum, in Caunter camouflage

This squat little character is the heavily-armoured British Infantry Tank Mk II, better known as the "Matilda".  A few of these, literally a handful, put such a frightening on the Germans at Arras in 1940 that the Fuhrer almost wet the bed.  They were intended to accompany infantry in an advance and were thus slow, but well-armoured.  Dismayed Italian anti-tank gunners in 1940 and 1941 watched their armour-piercing rounds ricochet of the hull whilst doing no damage at all.  A German commander of a mixed 40-strong German and Italian panzerkeil took his group into action against 3 Matildas.  Two of the Matildas were knocked out but the panzers took so many losses their CO was known as "Panzer Killer" afterwards.

     I could witter on for hours on this subject but mercy compels me to stop here.