Today I Shall Talk Of Spring

Although, You Guessed It, Not That Kind Of Spring - 
 - the one that comes with happy gambolling lambs all unaware that they're soon for the cooking pot, oh, and daffodils, too.  Can you put daffodils in the cooking pot?  Conrad is unaware, although their stamens are used as that yellow food colouring (saffron), which is horribly expensive - and turmeric does just as good a job at a fraction of the price.
     Sorry, where was I?  You know I get distracted easily.
     Spring.  Yes.  When the clocks go forward.  Next week - sorry for jumping around in time like the Second Doctor - I shall be attending a two-day wargaming event run  by my chum Richard, timed to begin at 10:00 after being set up.  It is called "Crisis Point".

Downtown Tcherbevan, Richard having a cheeky cuppa on the left

     Going back to last year (2015 for the confused and the time-travellers amongst ye), Conrad took part in the Saturday and enjoyed himself immensely, even if his Armenian Andreivian faction performed dismally.  Come Sunday, your humble scribe rolled out of bed at 8:30, ready to brew a coffee and scoff a crumpet or two before making the hour-long journey to Dungworth.  Once dressed, of course I checked my e-mails on the PC, only to find to my utter stunned disbelief that the clocks had gone forward overnight and it was really 9:30.
     No leisurely swilling or scoffing took place, instead a mad dash to Sheffield ensued.  
     At least there's no possibility of this happening next weekend!

"X The Unknown"
This is a taut little sci-fi thriller from Hammer, made in black and white in 1956.  I recently rewatched it and enjoyed the experience.  Or, you might say, the eXperience.

"Can anything escape it's terror?"
Yes, if you can manage a swift jog

      It observes one of the cardinal rules of horror films - hide your monster to begin with.  All you see for half the film is the terrified reaction of the victims, accompanied by a sinister crackling sound which conveys the impression of radioactivity.  This is wise, since when it finally gets screen time - well, it's a case of Meet The Mobile Mud Monster.  

Mud monster snacking on atomic pile

Mud, you see, not being especially threatening, although in this case it gives off sufficient heat and radiation to melt people.  There are a couple of quite gruesome shots of this happening, and the film-makers weren't afraid to kill a child* as well.  
     Truly a child of it's time, the two main leads are Dean Jagger and Leo McKern, both fine character actors yet not what one would call handsome or young; and there are no female leads at all.  Ah, those wild and heady pre-PC days!

Leo and Dean

     The film was originally going to be a Quatermass one, except Nigel Kneale** protested, and so you get the setting changed to Scotland and an American imported to be the Professor instead.  Worth watching if you happen to come across it.

And Now More Of Spring
Still reading "A Passionate Prodigality", Guy Chapman's autobiography of his experiences in the First Unpleasantness.  Looking out of the window at the torrential rain and driving winds, one understands that Guy and his comrades had to endure this and more, with an implacable enemy doing his best to do them in.
     And now to Spring, specifically the West Spring Gun.  I have mentioned this peculiar and dangerous weapon in the blog before, but a recap won't do any harm.  Art?

The engine in question, being cranked back

     It wasn't any variety of gun at all, in fact being a modern version of the Roman ballista or - get this! - Trebuchet, which is the font BOOJUM! is written in.  The idea was that the throwing arm was cranked back against the tension of a mass of springs, a bomb was placed in the holder and the arm released.
     I did mention "dangerous", didn't I?  Principally to the user.  Whether it ever injured any German is open to doubt, although if they saw it operating they might have got a stitch laughing.  Users frequently lost fingers to the WSG, including the inventor Captain West, which is, you might say, biting the hand that breeds you.
     Guy further points out that the WSG was liable to smash in the face of anyone incautious enough to stand in front of it.  Not only that, it often sent it's bomb vertically into the air.  After a few seconds gravity took over and returned to sender, who had made himself scarce if he possessed any wits.
     This unwieldy device was issued officially in October 1915, and Guy's unit had got rid of them by November 1915.  Depending on your viewpoint this is either a rush to judgement or sound common sense.

Too many words!  Throw in some pictures!

Okay, Young Folk Today
Here we have an illustration of Mina, Pete and Liam at lunchtime, mobile phones to hand -

     - although you can't tell with Pete, who had ducked out of the way for fear his face would feature.  Don't worry, Pete, I don't put up people's faces without asking permission.
     My point is, a tad ironically considering I took this photo with a mobile phone, that as they were all busy tecksting or MSMing, I was reading a book.

Conrad - dinosaur and proud of it!

*  Not literally, you quarter-wits!
** Creator of "Quatermass" and thus entitled to quibble, not just a name I chose at random.