COR D

I Suppose This Comes Over Better In Colloquial English
The exclamation "Cor!" is an utterance with some history here in the UK, a corruption of the word "God", as in the sense you could exclaim "Cor Blimey!", or, if you were Dick Van Dyke trying your best to be a Cockney "Cor Blimey Guvnah!" and not be blasted by a thunderbolt from the heavens for blaspheming.

Ah, Dick - he's so potty!
Although he is carrying a portable lightning-conductor

     Of course, the blog title refers to the word "Cord", which has several derivations of it's own.  Conrad was thinking of the Three Fates of Graeco-Roman mythology, who respectively spun, measured and cut the cord of life.  Actually "thread" but I'm putting "cord" in instead, and whose blog is it?  Precisely!  The Greek name for that Fate in charge of cutting off your mortal thread was "Atropos", and inevitably with Conrad, one revelation led to another.

A propos Atropos

     You're ahead of me here, aren't you?  "Atropine", a drug found in plants such as Deadly Nightshade and Mandrake.  Contrary to their names, it is actually used widely during surgery, and especially to counteract the effects of what you and I would call nerve gases, but which are more accurately called "organophosphates".  Fertilisers.  Some idiots consume the plants previously mentioned due to their hallucinogenic effects, which can include "a deathlike trance", which only goes to prove that some people really and truly are reaching for the Darwin Award.

Mandrake Root? Or cheapo Seventies Doctor Who monster?
Only you can decide!

Well.  I certainly didn't intend to rabbit on that much in the Intro.  Let us now move on to the meat of the matter, or the tofu in the topic for the veggies.

CORD: A Bit Of A Theme
Oh I'm so cleverly self-referential at times!  This one of those times.  You may applaud quietly yet appreciatively.
     Anyway, "Cord".  Conrad - Conrad - happened to be thinking about "Discord" on the way to work, and realised he could milk it a bit for the blog.  So here we are.
     Discord: "Conflict or strife".  Obviously from Latin -"Dis" meaning "against" and "Cord" meaning "heart".

The First Unpleasantness: Discord made concrete

     Concord: "Harmony or hippy heaven".  "Agreement or unification".  Add an "e" on the end and you get a supersonic jetliner.

Happy hippo.  Close enough

     Misericord: "Mercy of the Heart" although don't come anywhere near me with your complete-opposite-of-the-meaning dagger!  This was a long, thin-bladed knife carried by the footsoldiers of medieval times, intended to kill dismounted and/or injured armoured knights.  Medieval definitions appear to have strayed faaaar from the truth.

Mercy me!

     Corduroy: a variety of textile that has woven fabric lying in parallel lines, forming cords.  The name is a combination of cord, which I hope is obvious to you, and "duroy", an old English fabric long fallen into disuse.

Corduroy road.  Hard-wearing, long-lasting, just not very comfortable

     Cordillera:  A name given to an extensive range of mountains, derived as diminutive of the Spanish "cuerda", which means - "cord"

The Annamese Cordillera -a Spanish name for French Indo-China

     Corden, James: Ah, now, here you go, raw talent getting it's own reward.  James, as he himself would admit, is not one of television or cinema's pretty boys.  However, and this is quite useful in lieu of smoking good looks, he can act, produce, write, sing and present, has on OBE in recognition of same and is currently the host of "The Late, Late Show" in South Canada*.  Plus he played the role of an everyman on Doctor Who, getting edged out of the football team by The Doctor, who in the previous regeneration was a pretty spiffy football player.

James, probably wondering if he can get a cameo in Doctor Who

Phew!  Enough of cords.  Less words more pictures!

Probably The Best Halloween Pumpkin Of 2015
I don't know how they did this, but it really is very impressive:

Moon shot pumpkin pot

     Since it's three weeks till Halloween, they'd better put it in the freezer!

The Pub Quiz
There is definitely one difficult historical question included in our weekly quiz, as I mentioned last week.  Our baffling question this week was: "He was born on Christmas Day 1642 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.  Who is he?"
     They narrowed the field a bit by putting "he", removing 50% of the world's population.  Still not easy.  "Samuel Pepys" guessed our rivals the Bar Stewards**, which would have made him all of 13 by the time he started writing his diary.  Don't think so!  "Oliver Cromwell" guessed Rosie, meaning he would have been leading the New Model Army to victory - aged 3.  Nope!
     I shall end your suspense: Sir Isaac Newton!

Brian May.  Nearly as clever as Sir Isaac, and a dead ringer in looks.

When I Form A Band
This is not beyond the bounds of possibility.  You see, you can programme a sequencer one note at a time to create a tune, taking as long as you like.  A whole week to make 30 seconds of music?  Entirely possible.  Not only that, I have friends at work with whole studios-worth of electronic equipment going begging.  Plus, of course, my imagination, which is probably the most frightening prospect.

Conrad, going cocoa down in  Acap -
Actually I've no idea what I'm doing here.

     Anyway, it will all be instrumental music, or I'll have my voice put through a vocoder.  So, what I now need are title tracks, and I've been making a note whilst reading and watching the television channel guide.  Here are some of them:
     "Randall-Boot Cavity Magnetron Valve"; we'd have mellotron on this, I think, and lots of aeroplane engine sounds, a la "Spitfire" by Public Service Broadcasting.
     "Stamping With Indigo Blue One Day": ah, we can but have a lot of bass drum on this, processed of course, probably to sound like a heartbeat, and plenty of tuned percussion.
     "Encaustic Wax Art": guitar-heavy this one, with lots of effects pedals in play.  And we'd be sampling old wax records, too.

Finally - 
Another old photograph -

     Not sure what this is.  Knowing your humble scribe's dietary regime, it's probably poisonous.  Or radioactive, as it looks distinctly day-glo.  Perhaps both at the same time!


* Which means Brits have been presenting it for the past 11 years, so Ha!  American South Canadian Revolution!
** They do indeed prop the bar up all night, so a fair and accurate name.