Ranger Wings And Stranger Things

Okay, "Stranger Things" Is Clickbait
I put it in there because I wanted a phrase that would rhyme with "Ranger Wings", which is not what you might expect.

Not this, at all

     Now, the "Sciathan Fiannoglaigh an Airm", or "Army Ranger Wing" is the special forces arm of the Irish Army, and whilst Conrad might make a stab at pronouncing the name of any other European language, this is Gaelic and he politely defers.  ARW they shall be.
     There will be those out there who would laughingly rejoinder "Oho!  Irish special forces, eh?  Experts in drinking Guiness and eating taters!"
     If these selfsame people, whilst carrying guns and about bad business, were to encounter the ARW, they would be rapidly (and fatally!) surprised and corrected.  The ARW recruit from the Irish army, who themselves are long-service professionals with over 50 years of experience in support of the UN across the globe.  Conrad uses the analogy of the rabid weasel when talking about the Irish army - small but very dangerous.

Go on, make a joke about potatoes now.

     Now, "Stranger Things" - Conrad is on episode Seven and likes both the series and it's soundtrack, although the Joyce character is a bit wearing.
     Well the - the Intro is out and I've got less than three hours before Pub Quiz, so let the rock and roll begin!

"Murun Buchstansangur"
I am not making it up.  Proof, Tom, proof!

Murun and friend

     This odd series debuted on Channel 4 back in the day, and they seem to have simply told the animator to "Do bizarre".  He did.  For example, here we see one of Murun's human friends, except that, because he lived in a crack in a kitchen cupboard, they would need to be about the size of a Barbie doll.  Clearly this is an alternative universe where strange creatures that consist of limbs attached to a head are common.  Common enough for the miniature humans who - er - ah - who inherited this world after a terrible plage* - are not freaked out by them.
     This post comes about because Tom and Javed were discussing children's cartoons and which they preferred.  Of course, being considerably younger than your humble scribe, they described programmes significantly different from those I would have chosen.

Okay, perhaps not this one -

      Javed, in particular, was daft enough to be positive about The Smurfs, to the mutual derision of both Tom and I.  Respect the poor misguided beggar, he did stick to his guns.
     Since Conrad, like the hypocrite he is, has never watched the vile blue beasts, I had to take it as read when Tom harshly criticised "Gargamel" who is apparently the chief antagonist of the cerulean swines.  Tom dismissed him as an ineffectual incompetent who is hardly a threat to world peace.  Also, he sounds like a kind of patent cough-mixture:

"Is your sore throat giving you hell?

Smite it down with a dose of Gargamel!"

     Let us see what this baffoon looks like.  Art?

Obviously a transvestite - he's wearing that witches dress and Dorothy's shoes ...

     There was a cat in there, too.  Surely that should have been good at hunting azure upstarts?

Of Norks And Nukes
Another word to add to the Bloglossary - "Nork" = North Korea.  You knew that already, and DON'T go Google it.

A Knork.  Easily confused.

     I see that the Beeb are wondering what North Korea make of Donald Trump - he is the president-elect of South Canada, in case you've just emerged from the experimental Martian Environment Prototype after a year in isolation.
     Since this is most assuredly Politics mixed with Current Affairs, with the Norks fawning adulation of their leader The Sulky Fat Lad akin to semi-religious worship, where can we possibly be going with this, given our blog axioms?
     The "nukes" bit is a clue, as the Beeb's website also focuses on the Norks nuclear ambitions.  People are running around like headless chickens, panicking about a Nork invasion of the USA - oh, no, wait a minute, that was the "Red Dawn" remake.

Ambition.  A great thing

     The last nuclear test the Norks fired was, at most, 30 kilotons.  It was claimed to be a thermonuclear det, but frankly your humble scribe is unconvinced.  Not only that, it's taken the Norks well over 50 years to get to this stage.  It only took the South Canadians 8 years to get from the Trinity atom bomb (12 kiltons yield) to the Ivy Mike hydrogen bomb (10 megatons yield).  That's over 300 times the size of the Nork's risible det, which might even have been a "fizzle".

Swizzels.  Easily mistaken

     And with that, I am going to go have my tea.


*  Like a plague except it doesn't go on for quite as long