Bring It On 2017!

Well, Actually, On Reflection -
Kindly don't bother.  Looking back on 2016, it seems Fate has been sitting back and thinking "How can I make Hom. Sap.'s live more - interesting."  This is one of those times your humble scribe regrets having those criteria about avoiding Politics, Religion and Current Affairs, because 2016 would provide plenty of content.
     Anyway, back to "Matinee" the film.  I realise I've spoiled the ending for you already, with my ever-malicious sense of humour and the fake atomic explosion; man up!  It came out in 1993 so you should have seen it already.  It stars John Goodman as the scheming film producer Lawrence Woolsey, keen to promote his giant insect film "Mant".  Fortunately, if you look at it his way, the Cuban Missile Crisis is taking place at the same time.  Art?

Cuba.  Just so we're clear

     Conrad was impressed that director Joe Dante had a HAWK* missile battery set up on the beach, because that's period-correct.  There were also repeated overflights by a trio of military jets, that Joe was careful to keep out of focus, as your modest artisan strongly suspects they were not period-correct.  It would he a big stretch to find three period-correct jets in flying order and this is long before the days when you could just CGI the stuff on-screen.

South Canadian jet 1963 vintage

     The film also features Robert Picardo in a supporting role as Howard the spineless cinema manager, a real human jellyfish.  He was the best thing about that Star Trek spin-off whose name I can't remember or be bothered to look up, as the Holographic Doctor.  That character deserved his own series.
     Also present is Omri Katz, who had already starred in "Eerie, Indiana", which is a television series worth catching.

Technical Issues
Currently typing this on the laptop as PC has frozen more thoroughly than an ice cube in a bucket of liquid nitrogen.  At the North Pole.  At night.  In winter.
     This is also to say that there will be only one post today, despite it being a Sunday when I usually hold forth twice.  Going  to a party, you see, to be there for 5:00 and doubtless gone for hours and hours.  This news may be welcome to some**.


More Of "Mighty One"
Johnny Red, eh?  More of Steve McManus' autobiography, including an introduction to a strip that your humble scribe has only read once - "Johnny Red".  The backstory is that Jonathan Redburn is dismissed from the RAF for passing the port to the right, or something trivial like that.  Still wanting to do his bit for King and country, he signs on as a merchant seaman and ends up on one of the, frankly, terrifying Arctic convoys.  The next time a Ruffian bangs on about winning the war single-handed, mention the Arctic convoys and make them blush.
     Johnny takes off in a catapult Hurricane fighter to deal with a German air attack and then faces a stark choice.  Art?

Catapult-armed merchantman

     As you can see, the CAM's fighter was sacrificed after action, the pilot normally ditching into the ocean with the pious hope of being picked up by the rest of the convoy.  Doing this in the Barents Sea is likely to kill you by cold pretttty quickly.
     So, our Johnny flies to Russia and lands there, to take the fight to the Germans as a Brit on the Eastern Front.
     Hmmm.  Well, now.  The Ruffians could be extremely appreciative of British aircrew; the pilots of Mosquitoes who flew the diplomatic mail in were lauded to the heavens, but they are somewhat suspicious and take a lot of getting used to new things.  A strange plane with a pilot who wasn't a Good Comrade would, one feels, be treated a little - ah, roughly.

Mind you, he looks like he can take it

I can't tell if we're up to count or not, yet I shall have to stop and get ready to party.  Tomorrow - I'll make it up to you tomorrow.  Is that alright?  Splendid!

Finally -
Because this might generate more traffic, I leave you with an infant wallaby -

Cute, eh?

     WRONG!  It just ate the postman***.
*  Homing All the Way Killer.  Really.
**  I will track them down later on.
***  There you go, my sense of humour in action.