It's A Palimpsest!

 No, That Is Not An Anagram
Don't panic, Tom - although if there is time you may feature again*.  In a combination of Intro and Didactism, BOOJUM! is going to look at this word ("Palimpsest" - do keep up).
     Your humble scribe first encountered it in an Andre Norton novel, although I cannot remember which one - "The Zero Stone"?  "Forerunner Foray"?  Whatever.  The concept also turns up in one of John Carpenter's most terrifying documentaries, "Prince of Darkness".

I had this edition!

     Let us look at the word itself.  Predictably these things have either a Latin or Greek root, and in this case it's a Hellenic derivation <"Greek" - translation from Poseur to English courtesy Mister Hand>.  The origins are "Palin" which means "Again" and "Psestos" which means "Smooth".  So, "Smooth again", because this refers to papyrus scrolls which were rubbed clean of old writing in order to be recycled with new inscriptions.  The old writing wasn't completely erased, however, and still showed through.
     Here an aside.  Imagine Michael Palin - we will avoid Sarah Palin as she is a politician - being whizzed back in time to Classical Greece and being asked by the bewildered locals to identify himself.

     "I'm Michael Palin."

     "Okay, what are you called?"

     "I'm Michael Palin."

     "Yes, you said, but what are you called?"

     "I'm Michael Palin."

     "We're not amused, Michael, but will continue to humour you.  Your name?"

     "I'm Michael Palin."

     "ENOUGH!"

     I caution Michael, and Sarah too, never to get on the wrong side of Doctor John Smith, for if you do he is quite likely to whiz you off to the Greece of antiquity on a whim.

Palestine and Latin yet the principle is the same

     "Ah - can you speed up this collection of non sequiteurs, Conrad?  The football will be on soon, you see," I hear you query.

This ball is struck by the foot

     The birth of this post was a brief conversation I held at work with Dave, whom some of you would categorise as a Yorkshire hippy, although New Ager is probably closer to home; a most remarkably laid-back feller by any description.  A chap of some intellect, despite hailing from the wrong side of the Pennines, who held forth about vanished Yorkshire dialects.  The English language, you see, is a positive palimpsest of other, earlier languages that have been overlaid since - probably when the Romans decided to investigate Ultima Thule as a holiday destination.
     So there you have it - a positive palimpsest.

The War of the Roses - still a hot topical issue in the UK today

Sweet Poison
If you are familiar with your humble scribe at all - and you should be, being regular readers and all - then you know that Conrad is basically a six-foot sweet tooth wrapped in human skin**.  For breakfast on Friday he guzzled down four pots of strawberry yoghurt, and here at home he has - Art?

CRYSTALLISED GINGER!!!

     I mentioned Tom in the Intro because he rashly - or bravely, the decision is yours - accepted a piece of crystallised ginger from Conrad last year, and then exhibited all the symptoms of a man ingesting a nest of needles steeped in battery acid.  I, however, will take great delight in scoffing the whole lot in a morning.  I may offer some to fellow work colleagues or not, depending on how - sadistic is the word I'm looking for - I feel.

"Elementary"
Conrad does so like this television series, which does not take itself over-seriously and is not at all po-faced or precious.  Yes, "Sherlock", I'm looking at you, victim of your own success.  To your humble scribe it scores over the Pond Of Eden version in having Lucy Liu as one of the co-stars, because she's a lot easier on the eye than that Martin Freeman chap.

Not to be confused with -

     Anyway, one of the reasons that Conrad likes it is the use of language he gives a thumbs-up to, in that it is unusual or obscure or just plain elitist***. Because I am a card-carrying member of the Anorak Brigade, I always make a note of what words crop up that earn a BOOJUM! Approval and here are a few:  "Enumerate"; "Communiques"; "Pretext"; "Philanderer"; Prurient"; "Exculpate" - I especially like that last.  Then you have Sherlock's dismissal of opera as "Tedious Histrionics" which is 100% spot on in Conrad's view.

*  Shades of "Keith"
** Just like his human disguise.  Except that's not metaphorical.
***  This says shocking things about me.  I do apologise.