BOOJUM!: "Y" - And Why Not? (Another Theme)

One Reason WhY Not -

- would be to spare You the torment and trauma of terrible punnerY, except I quite enjoY inflicting the iniquitous* upon the duplicitous**.

AnYwaY, after a couple of themes that revolved around the letter Z, which is of course pronounced "Zed" thank you South Canadians, I pondered about that title I'd used "I Dream Of Theme-Y". It hinted, implied and otherwise suggested that there was a "Y" in the blogs immediate future.

Well there wasn't. Only another Z.

So, having felt ever-so terriblY guiltY***, I sat down this afternoon and found that the letter Y had prospects. Let the motleY begin!

That's enough silliness with the letter Y.

Yak

I know, I know, I can tell what you're thinking, "Oh Conrad! How cliched! Resorting to the fur-coated quadruped draught animal of the East, as the first entry!"

Yeah, yeah, laugh away. I don't mean the Tibetan bovine, I mean the Russian fighter aircraft, thank you very much.

The Yak-1 was designed by the Yakovlev Design Bureau, who came up with a robust, simple, manouvrable, under-gunned aircraft. In total the Yak-1 and later derivatives were made to the number of 37,000, which is rather milking it.

Blimey. With equipment like this no wonder it took them 4 years to defeat the Hitlerites

Yaw

NO! I am not referring to how folks in the South of England pronounce "Your" or even "You're". I mean a term in aerodynamics.

You may already be familiar with the terms "Roll" and "Pitch", more familiarly depicted as "wobbling sideways so much you go full circle and meet your dinner coming back" and "Going up and down like a rollercoaster". "Yaw" is rotating around a vertical axis, kind of "hardlefthardrighthardlefthardright hardlefthardright".

Art?

Sickbags at the ready!

There you go. Your yaw.

Yam

This is an edible tuber, mostly grown in Africa, resembling a piece of log before it's cooked.

Yams. Yum yum. Not.

Shall we have a look at it when it's been cooked?

Much better!

Yugoslavia

Now an historical curiosity, this nation state was nailed together from bits of the Hapsburg Empire and a few already-liberated odds and sods in the aftermath of the First Unpleasantness. It means "Kingdom of the South Slavs", as the population was mostly Slavic. A bit fragmented during the Second Unpleasantness, it got nailed together again by Comrade Tito post 1945. Gift of a name, that. Tito, I mean, and a lot handier than his real name, Josip Broz.

Perhaps some things are better gone ...

Anyway, it might have been a Communist state, but it thumbed it's nose at the Soviet Union at every opportunity. The nose-thumbing against the hideous capitalist South Canadian entity was kind of taken as read.

Oh, and it incorporated the Sanjak of Novi Pazar.

Yellow Dwarf

NO! Not the coconut. I refer, of course, to the Main Sequence G type star, of which our very own Sun is a prime example.

Just so we're clear, the Sun's surface is a balmy 5,000 Degrees Centigrade, at it's coolest. When things are really popping, it can hit 6,000 Degrees Centigrade, which is like the office going from 25 to 30 degrees. Almost unbearable.

Don't look that hot to me.

Oh, more relevant statistics. Every day the Sun converts over 50 trillion tons of hydrogen to helium. Impressive, eh? Nor is this a mere flash in the pan, as our gallant Sun can keep this up for 10 billion years^.

So, on reflection, "Dwarf" is about as inaccurate a description as calling BOOJUM! impartial journalism.

Yogi Bear

Ah, that cartoon staple of children's television in South Canada! First seen in 1958 and still either charming or haunting children today, depending on your point of view. I shall elaborate.

"But soft, what light from yondah - heyyy a pic-a-nic basket!"

Unlike bears around us in the real world, Yogi could speak. And not merely monosyllabic Neanderthal grunting-with-intent, oh no! Yogi could create, sustain and maintain complex interactions with human beings, such as Park Ranger Smith. He wasn't quoting Shakespeare (and I'm not sure he could read) but did claim to be "smarter than the average bear!" all of which might confuse a small child.

Then there was his clothing. Whilst most animals choose not to wear clothes, Yogi had a pork-pie hat, a collar and tie.

Nothing else. Thus he was either half-dressed - or half-naked. Again, likely to confuse and upset small children who overthink their cartoon heroes.