Church Organ World Event Is GO!

Yes This Is A Real Thing
You might be forgiven for thinking that your humble scribe is resorting to Random Word Salad in order to fill the blog, yet this is not so.  "Church Organ World" exists as a viable entity on Facebook, honest.  In fact I think I have a screenshot to prove it.  Art?

See!

     The good news is that I shall have the opportunity to go attend on Saturday 1st October, as Wonder Wifey is not off on her trawl around the Med on a big posh ship.  I don't have the itinerary yet, that comes closer to the time.  Professor Ian Tracey is known to Rosie and Phil, partners in Pub Quiz, proving that it is, indeed, a small word. Of course it is, it only has 2 letters in.  It's also a small world.  From the sound of the covering letter sent out to me, this event is going to last well into the afternoon, so I had better get brushed up on organ classics.

Speaking of music, I am now up to Season 2 Episode 4 of "Game Of Thrones" and can regretfully confirm that there are still no bagpipes.

"Napoleon's Invasion Of Russia" By Paul. B. Austin
I still have a few hundred pages to go of this volume, which really was a bargain even if I had to tear out half the pages, put them back in upside down and read from back-to-front.      "What are you writing about now, Rob?" asked Stephen at lunch on Friday.   "Napoleon's Invasion of Russia!" I informed him, and both he and Adam burst into a fit of giggles.  I think this is because Napoleon does not, frankly, cover himself in glory.  
     I've banged on already about his dismal tactics; one omission that the French don't seem able to grasp is putting cannon on sledges, as the Russians do, repeatedly, to terrifying effect.  Cannon-on-a-sledge.  It's not quantum mechanics or super-string theory.

Et voila, Nappy

     That has nothing to do with what I'm going to yark about now*.
     Communications.  This subject, like logistics, is pretty dull stuff compared to the blood and thunder of battle, a bit like the broccoli you have to eat before getting to your Black Forest Gateau.  Communications are still essential.  So is broccoli.  EAT BROCCOLI OR DIE!

 - plus you won't get this

     Nappy's comms have broken down completely.  Normally he'd be getting daily despatches by courier from Paris, together with other staff officers coming in with news from the Grande Armee's other Army Corps.
     Not any more!  This is another consequence of being in Russia without invitation: ever-present Cossack bands who swoop down and carry off stragglers, foragers - and couriers.
     This is a serious problem for an Imperial dictatorship that is centred on Nappy's person, which is stuck in Russia, a very long way indeed from the corridors of power in Paris.  There has already been one attempted coup d'etat ...

"The Purge"
The films, not what Nappy's going to instigate once he gets back to Paris. I think at 3 of these you can say it's a franchise, and a successful one, as Hollywood rarely follows failure with money thrown after it.
     Here a confession:  Conrad hasn't seen any of them.  Wonder Wifey cordially detests the very idea, condemning them as establishing a baseline-of-barbarity universe where only the very worst of human nature proliferates.  With explosions**.

Abraham Lincoln: Club Mugger

     Maybe so, WW, but given their comparatively small budget yet BIG returns at the box office, they are going to be with us for a while yet.

IMDB Rating                   Title                                 Budget                          Box Office
5.7                               The Purge                         $3 million                      $89 million (!)
6.5                               The Purge: Anarchy            $9 million                      $110 million
6.1                               The Purge: Election Year    $10 million                     $96 million

     Bear in mind that BO for the last one is dated 4th August 2016 and it will only increase.  Thus a box office of $295 million for an investment of $22 million, or a return of x13.  That, Vulnavia, is the kind of maths that Hollywood loves to listen to.

Smaug's bed, 21st century style

The Peerless Platform
I did wonder if putting Jenny's cat igloo up on top of the island unit might discommode her, which was foolish of me.  Take a look - 

Cat Language for: "All I see belong to me"

     She is able to lie there, far above the grubby and mundane kitchen floor, and mockingly observe the dog and us mere humans going about our quotidian business whilst she perches on her mountain top.
     


*  Typical, eh?
** I assume, because everything goes better with explosions.