They Shall Have Stars

A Revelation And A Confession
Yesterday Conrad posted about the Dartford Bridge, and The Bridge from the sci-fi novel "They Shall Have Stars", then went looking for appropriate pictures.
     Surprise!  This turns out to be the opening line of a Dylan Thomas poem, which I didn't know, but James Blish* probably did, old Dylan turning his toes up only a couple of years prior to TSHS being written.  Allow me:

Sterling stuff!

     By now I am sure you all know how Conrad hates and detests poetry, but I am willing to give Dylan a thumbs up, quite uniquely.  I still remember the clarion verve of

Do not go gentle into that good night

Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.

     - and it must be 40 years since I last read that.  The chap had a way with words.  If you have a spare 90 minutes, here's a link to the full "Under Milk Wood", as spoken by Sir Richard Burton:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GwcvhZOwXM

     And now I must take my bitter hating heart away lest I confess more about poems that I like ...**

Oh, an aside about The Joker.  Just a thought.  Given all the negatives that follow the poor chap like a pack of rabid marmosets, one thing is clear - he'll never have trouble getting a seat on the bus ...

Cocamidpropyl Betaine
Don't panic, don't panic, it's not some fearful explosive compound that can level whole city blocks at a time, nor yet a foul genetically-engineered microbe that could finish all life on Planet Earth in a matter of weeks.  Art?

See?  Harmless as soap

     (Art's doing much better now, thanks, since we installed the remote-controlled electrodes in his gluteus maximus).
     As you can see, it's part of the constituents of soap.  It is derived from coconut oil and <deep breath> Dimethylaminopropylamine, with surfactant properties (that is, it reduces surface tension in liquids) and it also has antiseptic properties.

"Cloudy Cider Comes Alive!"
 - boasted the billboard, to a horrified "No!" from your humble scribe.
     I want my drinks to remain supine in their glass, thank you very much, not get up and dance to 128 beats per minute.

Hmmm.  An undead drink.
Ah, what the heck, I'd risk it.

"The 2nd Munsters In France"
This is a recent purchase, one that was in the Naval & Military catalogue going cheap at £2.50, so how could I not buy it?

Dammit, Art -
<electric sizzling noises off-stage plus agonised squealing>

    Really, send a boy to do a robot assassin's job -

There you go.  Yes, a slim volume.

      It's not long, but it doesn't waste acres of text explaining where the battalion recruited from, how they were organised, where they trained u.s.w., no, it's straight into  action in August 1914 with the rearguard at Etreux - one battalion against twenty-four German ones, eventually getting overwhelmed but not after giving the Germans a very severe handling and holding them up for a whole day.
     Also interesting is the fact that these are Irish soldiers, from what's now County Cork in the Irish Republic, who volunteered to fight for the British crown, and did so quite ferociously.
     Another pleasant surprise:

     Voila - detailed colour maps.  Normally these are reproduced in monochrome.  Of course if I'd paid full price this slender volume would have cost £14.50.

"Wellbaby From Vitabiotics"
As seen on a bus poster.
     I am afraid that Conrad, being the Something Wicked That Has Already Arrived, couldn't stop the following images from crossing his mind:

The well

The baby

     DON'T LET THE BABY GET TOO CLOSE!  MAKE SURE THERE'S A COVER ON IT!
      - and suchlike.
     Also I looked at "Vitabiotics".  "Vita" is Latin for "Life" and "Biotic" is Latin for "Living" so it seems a bit redundant at first glance, although it's always reassuring to know that your medication isn't being created out of zombies.

G.O.O.H.W.Y.D.
It's a good nine months since this strange acronym turned up at the top of a page of longhand notes, and I still haven't found out what it definitively means.  Until a better explanation comes along I am going to stick with "Get Out Of Here With Your Deinosuchus***"
     Quite by chance I found that it appears to mean something in Welsh, but as a word not an acronym.  When I followed the link it took me to a Project Gutenberg book in Welsh, "Goohwyd" not being easily visible.  I may try to find out it's precise meaning^.

For scale comparison

* Author of "They Shall Have Stars", not simply someone I dragged in off the street.
** "Ozymandias" by Shelley is a fave.
*** A species of dinosaur.  But you knew that already, right?
^ Not tonight - Great British Bake Off is in 15 minutes