A Day To Deign

It's Pronounced "Dane"
Just in case you're unfamiliar with it.  You may not be familiar with the term yet if you have a cat as a pet, or a rather fussy dog, then believe me you're familiar with the behaviour.  "To condescendingly permit or perform an action" just about sums it up.  I mention it because it allows me to 1)  Use cute animals in pictures and 2)  Show how noble I can be*.
     In this case I refer to Edna, whom I have been dogsitting this morning and into the afternoon, and quite gladly too, as the alternative was a morning's trawl along a whole tranche of North-West towns and their charity shops en route to collect a gigantic wicker chair.
     Here we have that bit of the morning where she deigns to utilise your humble scribe as a cushion, and he in turn uses her as a handy book-rest.  Art?

The exhausting and parlous life of a dog, eh?

     Of course this didn't last and she moved to the other chair, still regarding your modest artisan with either hunger or scorn, perhaps both.
     Later on I moved to the Upstairs Lair, intending to lie on the bed and watch "Battle: Los Angeles" whilst also reading "Bleeding Edge" - I like to compound the highbrow and the lowbrow just to confuse people, meaning that Edna could, if she so chose, lie alongside me.
     Well, it worked in the short term -

Modest artisan working, Edna lurking 

     There she is, deigning to sit on the bed. For all of 5 minutes, before she took off elsewhere.  Great.  Thank you for deigning Edna, you and your great deigns**.

Now that the Intro is an Outro, let the motley commence!

Mythbusters And Watersliding
Those lucky swines at Mythbusters.  Blowing things up - and getting paid to do it***!
     Well, this post comes about because the Foobs put up a Suggested Post for Mythbusters - thankfully no more ones about Dating Pagan Singles - and Conrad decided to run with it.  Art?

Ah, those immortal words "greased latex wetsuit"!

     One of the tasks that the Mythbusters used to take upon themselves was viral video-vetting; fans would forward or nominate a video and the team would investigate.  This busted some myths straightaway - Giant Destructive Ball Of Lego I'm looking at you - but others were more durable.  Take the one illustrated above:  is it possible to zoom down a giant waterslide 150 meters long, fly off the end and land in a tiny paddling pool of water?  Plausible or busted?  And how to you test it without putting Adam's life on the line?  You can't use Buster because that slide requires adaptive posture, so ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHu6LVg-0Hs

     See how they did it!

What's In A Name?
Yes indeed.  No, I'm not being philosophical and intellectual, and indeed worry about pitching stuff so obscure and obtuse that I lose readers, O! the worries of <Mister Hand intervenes to move on from self-pitying whining^>
     Dogsitting, as I mentioned, means lying on the settee so that Edna can deign to enjoy her Human-Shaped Cushion, whilst watching television.  This means I pick out strange programme titles in passing, such as these, from the Ideal Channel:

     "iRobot Vacuum" 

     "Proskins Intelligent Leggings"

     What on earth can these be?  Of course I didn't bother to actually look at them, where would the fun be in that?

Your humble scribe having as much fun as he can cope with

     Hmmm.  Obviously the first is a DTV sequel to "I Robot", about - er - robots in space?
     And the second one is a horror-slash-thriller about sentient nylon stockings that TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!  Just like me, or Pinky and the Brain.

Houdini And Doyle: "The Pall Of Lapier"
Another consequence of dogsitting is that I get to catch up on watching this Georgian proto-X Files, which opens in a very "Andromeda Strain" sequence.  A Canadian hamlet full of dead people, except the vicar and a small child.

See?  Andromeda Strain

     Now, SPOILER ALERT!  because I'm not completely made up of Evil.










Keep going, keep going ...





     - and you've arrived.  The first survivor we meet is the vicar, who fell asleep tinkering in the belltower, which Conrad instantly knew was a plot-reveal.
     Gas attack?  I pondered.  Correct!   Carbon dioxide from the nearby copper mine flooded out and killed almost everyone.
     That was quick, except our heroes had to go foil an assassination attempt at the King George Hotel, and this is where the location scouts need a big bonus, as the interior was fantastic, definitely period.  You can't fool an old dog like Conrad, he notices these things.

This might be it.  Or not.  Ask me if I care?

*  Or pretend to be.
**  Sorry
***  There is jealousy dripping from every character in that sentence
^  Or it could be whining self-pity.  You choose.