It's Counsellor Troi - With A Boy!

Put Your Tongues Back In,
You dirty-minded rascals.  I refer to the character played by Marina Sirtis on "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

See?  Perfectly SFW

     Yes, that sweet young lady who was probably the most PC thing about the whole PC series, being an "empath" who could "feel your pain".  She couldn't cure your pain, however, or move objects with her mind, or blast Ferengi scum into bags of dog food with mind-bullets*, or cause collective hallucinations, but if you stubbed your toe - she could feel that. 
     With powers like that, Counsellor, there's a place for you with the Mystery Men!

Age Has Not Mellowed Me
Certainly not where First Bus is concerned, oh no not at all!  I intend to ride** them just as hard at 54 as I did at 53.  Let us sum up yesterday's miserable performance.
     First**, the 24 bus didn't turn up.  Then the next 409 was late.  I can no longer get off it in Royton to catch either the 181 or 182, because they no longer travel through Royton.  I had to travel into Oldham bus station and caught the 184.  I apologise for this numbers-salad, which ends with jam.  Of the traffic kind, as the Mancunian Way is closed, and will be for weeks, so there were swarms of motorists trying to find alternate ways around the closure.
     Still no reply to my letter of complaint, which might be because the HQ staff of First Bus cannot read, cannot read English (goat entrails are a breeze for them, though!), can read but cannot write, or, most probably, it instantly caught fire when received in the lower circles of Hell.

One of the Lower Circles.  Actually it looks more like a sauna-lovers convention.

"Magic Words" By Lance Parkin
This is the autobiography of Alan Moore I mentioned yesterday.  I read about his output for 2000 AD, and DC comics - Halo Jones, Skizz, DR & Quinch, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Marvelman - with wise nods of the head as I've a) Read, and b) Got, them all.  I also discovered, to my utter surprise, that Alan had written and drawn the comic strip "Roscoe Moscow" in "Sounds", the now defunct weekly music paper.  I distinctly remember the strip yet had no inkling** until this afternoon that it was by Alan.
     You live and learn, eh?

Blog Traffic And Statistics
SIT BACK DOWN!   You're not going anywhere, I've locked the door, jammed a lollystick in the lock and squirted it full of superglue.
     The traffic has now hit 17,000 visitors, and as I know you are a skeptical lot who trust nothing and nobody, here is some proof:

There you go!

     Well done Conrad, with a muted round of applause to Oscar (my memory), Mister Hand (my right hand) and Art (the coal-scoffing idiot responsible for pictures).
     This number of hits seems to have come round rather quickly, which is an observation not a complaint.  Also I have discovered the "Hits Last Month" count is variable because people can jump in and look at posts in July or June, which is why it might read "893" one week and "930" the next.  I did wonder.

Young Jupiter
All things are relative.  This "young" is in fact 20 million years old, as opposed to 4 billion years for "Our" Jupiter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33922503

That's the thing about astronomy, all the zeroes.

By Jove**!

"And Then There Were None"
I refer, of course, to the 1945 film version of the Agatha Christie novel "Ten Little Indians", and how it influenced both "Alien" and "Aliens".
     Yes, you read that correctly.
     If you consider "Alien" and "Aliens" as a version of The Haunted House trope of entertainment, then they are direct descendants of TLI.
     YES THEY ARE!

Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) prepares to - no, hang on a minute -

     Look at the parallels.  In TLI you have a small group in an isolated environment that they cannot escape from - a house on a deserted island set amidst stormy seas with no marine transport.  The group is relentlessly whittled away by a largely unseen enemy, who overcomes all their defences.  Not only that, one of the group is actually treacherously working against it from within!  The Judge, in TLI, Ian Holm and Paul Reiser's^ character in the other fillums.
     Have I convinced you?  Of course I have***!

Conrad Is A Happy Man
The strawberry cornettos are back in the shop freezer at work!

I'm Not Really Sure What This Is About -

     But it adds to the word count so it's going in.

* That's telekinesis, Kyle.  Sorry, Tenacious D in-joke.
** Do you see what I did th - o you do.
*** Remember, the door's still glued shut
^ Today's creepy coincidence, which will have to wait until tomorrow.