No, I've not been at the cooking sherry - Dry for January, remember? - nor have I been imbibing strange-yet-legal chemical compounds made up from half the shelf stock at B & Q. I have not been sleep-deprived for weeks, nor been beaten over the head with a cricket bat.
"So!" I hear you commenting. "What on earth is that word-salad you've conjured up atop the page, Conrad?"
Were you paying attention yesterday? WERE YOU! Because there Conrad explored the concept of the "Marionette", piqued as his interest was by the word occuring in a crossword. Naturally, when one mentions marionettes or puppetry, one's thoughts turn to what that hugely influential futurologist Gerry Anderson made his biggest series in - "Supermarionation".
There you go, proof that it's a real thing, not a gin-goblin.
"Oh aye," I hear you opine from the other side of the Pennines, as I have radar-enhanced hearing, "And what about the gratuitous insult?"
I take it you mean "Oxymoron"? Hold onto your chairs, gentle readers, as BOOJUM! practices it's self-appointed role of tutor to the masses*. This means two words paired together that are actually completely contradictory, like the "Metro Newspaper" or "First Bus"**. It comes from the Greek, "oxy" meaning "sharp" and "moros" meaning "dull".
Well then, look at "Supermarionation" - derived from "Super", meaning a product of exaggerated size, and "Marion", which is French for "Little" (actually "Little Mary" but why bore with accuracy?).
And what about that background to the logo itself. Just think, you go to all that trouble building a detailed scale replica of a refinery, it gets all of 2 seconds screen time and then Derek Meddings blows it up.
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| Before Derek |
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| After Derek |
Right! Go to go get another cup of tea. Back shortly.
Russian Spy Trawler
Okay, not sure if these are still extant, so we shall treat them as History, not Current Affairs. Before you ask, here's the sunshine:
Back when the Cold War ran rather hot, whenever NATO held a naval exercise of any size, the Russians would send out spy vessels to eavesdrop and eyeball. Supposedly "Clandestine" not to mention "Top Secret", in true Russian style - i.e. Logic? Get out of here? Subtle? I crush you underfoots! - they were instantly recognisable as a spy vessel due to the profusion of aerials, antennae and wires that sprouted, like a metal jungle, from their superstructure. To complete the illusion a crewman would appear on deck with a tin of sardines and a bottle of vodka every so often. He would eat the sardines, drink the bottle empty, chuck the tin into the North Sea and attempt to brain a seagull (which in Russian is "Chaika") with the bottle.
Revell, IIRC, used to do a RST model.
Of course, nowadays under Tsar Putin the First, they are rather less subtle:
| Egad! |
Yes, your modest artisan has returned to the Index he's been creating for the official "History of the 51st Highland Division 1914 - 1918". After a delay of five months. What can I say, I'm such a dilettante with many other calls on my time. Having now finished typing up "German Prisoners of War/Captures", which is indicative rather than definitive (it's hard to put a numerical value on "Many"), yet pretty telling for all that.
Having managed this I realised there was an omission - I'd not added in "German Units and Formations Encountered".
O Noes! I said to me. That would mean going through the 400 pages AGAIN, having to parse the text closely and make notes where relevant.
Sounds great!
You WHAT???
I despair at the untrammelled stupidity of some of you Hom. Sap. Trammelled stupidity I can just about put up with, but this really does take the biscuit:
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| Here we are again. |
GO AWAY NOW! FAR FAR AWAY FOREVER!!!
We've had lovey-dovey Russians - okay, fishy-wishy Russians at least - and a bit of sunshine associated with them, now I know you're wondering where the flowers are -
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| You ask, you get - |
* If 3 is a mass.
** Oh how I enjoyed sticking those in!
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