The Catcher In The Wry

The Ghost At The Feast
 - and Edna, lurking at one's elbow.  Conrad threw together a hasty meal last night, nothing particularly fancy: sliced chorizo, pitta, chilli cheese dip, pickles and a pecan plait.

     EXCEPT IT WASN'T A PECAN PLAIT!  It was actually chocolate chips rather than pecans that deceived me, along with the semi-opaque wrapping.  Disgusted, I gave it away.  You can see it, lurking maliciously at the edge of my plate.
     "Hello there!" said Edna.  "I couldn't help noticing that you have some sliced chorizo sausage there."
     Conrad gravely regarded her.
     "I don't want to impose," added the Wunderhund, "But, if you experience any difficulty in coping with that chorizo, I would be delighted to help."
     Conrad continued with his cool gaze.
     "Just putting it out there as an option," she finished.
     Conrad finished off the chorizo.

Further Of Food
Conrad has to occasionally suffer the slings and harrows of curious colleagues whilst dining at work, because he does not subscribe to conventional wisdom concerning what goes with what.  Thus, Alex, quoth yesterday: "That's weird".
     NO IT WAS NOT!
     Allow me to elucidate.

Now, just what is heretical about that lot?  And be careful how you answer.

Today's Theme Is - Mercury
Because there's lots of room with a topic like this.  First up,
Cinnabar:  This is a mineral, mercuric Sulphide, and the name derives, like all too many things, from the Greek "Kinnabar".  It is bright red in colour and is the principal source for the metal mercury.  It's also the source of the dye vermillion.  Which used to be ground up for treatment as a pigment, so one imagines this is why some artists of times gone past were a bit potty.

Grind with caution

Mercury:  The metal itself, symbol "Hg" as it used to be called "Hydagyrum".The only metal to be liquid at room temperature and extremely toxic with it.  It has a ferocious reaction with aluminium, which is why many airlines ban it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Ilxsu-JlY

     There's a link to mercury destroying an aluminium strut.
Mike Mercury: The test pilot who flew "Supercar" in the eponymous Gerry Anderson television series.  It's one of his earlier efforts so you may not be familiar with it.  I shall give you pause as the following picture is, frankly, rather frightning.

Sinister!

     His eyebrows appear to almost encircle his head, which probably makes for a good warm seal if he has his hood up.  But then we'd not be able to see his elaborately coiffed hair, would we?
Mercury Rev:  A South Canadian band.  I only have one of their records, the breakout "Deserters Songs", which is well worth getting and one of the few contemporary records I know of that features a musical saw.

That's enough for today.  We will return here in future, though, count on it.

"Martin Chuzzlewit" By Charles Dickens
This is a considerable contrast to the last Dickens I read, which was "A Tale Of Two Cities", which, believe me, is not a comic novel.  Murder, arson, mass murder, manslaughter, infant death, political imprisonment, permanent deafness - it's hard to find a laugh in it.
     Whereas MC is considerably lighter in tone.  I confidently predict that it will not end with the lead character getting himself guillotined.  Only 50 pages in so far, as the Introduction and Foreword take up a lot of room.  We have been introduced to the fabulously wealthy Mr. Chuzzlewit, who is being pursued by a pack - I use the word advisedly - of greedy, grasping relatives all interested in getting their sweaty digits on his money.

Project Daedalus
I came across this, or, rather, re-discovered it last night when chasing up pictures of James Blish's "Spindizzy" in order to add hilarious captions to them.
     "More Greeks, eh?" I hear you comment.
     Not really.  It was a sophisticated engineering study carried out in the Seventies by the British Interplanetary Society - which sounds exactly like it was invented by H.G. Wells - to design a spaceship capable of interstellar travel.  Art?

Daedalus, with Saturn V for scale

     They restricted themselves to current or near future technology, and it had to make starfall within a human lifetime.
     As you can see, it's frikkin' enormous, the first stage massing 46,000 tons, and even the comparatively small second stage hit the scales at 450 tons.  It would have to be assembled in orbit and you'd need to harvest tens of thousands of tons of Helium-3 from the Moon to serve as fuel.
     The kicker is, thanks to using nuclear fusion for propulsion, it would manage to accelerate to 12% of light-speed.  Which would probably trip a few speed cameras.

1st and 2nd stage.