The Creative Process

Is Being Slowed Today
For one thing I am watching "Elementary", a process that means dividing my attention between BOOJUM! and the television, which I can manage but it does slow me down somewhat.  I also have to make notes of the long or obscure words that Sherlock uses in conversation.  Well, okay, more "choose to" than "have to" - take my compulsions seriously, hmmm?
     Today we have had "rutting", "cabal", "canard", "afoot", "reconcile", "modus operandi", and I ought to apologise for not actually explaining what these mean, which is me making assumptions.  So - rutting describes the act of coitus, a cabal is a group (usually up to no good), a canard is a falsehood (or a duck in French or a type of aerodynamic surface), 

Proof!

afoot means the game is on (and is also the end of aleg), to reconcile is to make it up to someone and modus operandi is Latin for a method of working.  You hear it all the time in police procedurals but this is Sherlock using it in everyday conversation.
     There is also a pot of loose-leaf Darjeeling brewing in the kitchen which I shall have to go and decant periodically.
     There, that's the Intro done with, and the end of that episode.

Tea!

The Wonders Of Technology
Sorry but we're still banging on about "Elementary" here, so if you don't like it the exit door IS THAT WAY!
     I was watching Episode 20 'No Lack Of Void' and they played a song at the end, under the dialogue and then briefly in full.
     "I like that song", considered Conrad.  Because I have impeccable musical taste.  "However, I do not recognise it."
     Yes, I do really speak to myself like that.  Is there a problem?
     So I rewound the episode, got my mobile, replayed the song and hit it with Shazam. 

Art, you buffoon!

 Back it came with the result "Wrapped In Your Memory" by Shawn Smith.  Shawn, it transpires, is a musician with a long and varied history.
     Anyway, "Wrapped In Your Memory" is a top song and here's a link to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3oDWDmDmJM

     Lest you worry that your path and Shawn's might cross, I shall append a picture of the man.  

Shawn.  

     Sorry if I'm beginning to sound like Sherlock*.  Anyway, there you go, the wonders of technology when it works.

Art redeems himself

Diazolidinyl Urea
I know what you're thinking.  OH MY GOD WHAT TERRIFYING CHEMICAL COMPOUND CAN THIS BE!!!  Does it boil your brain in your very skull?  Melt the flesh off your bones?  flense your lungs into bags of bile?  Cause every water molecule in the world to spontaneously explode?
     Well, none of the above.  Rather boringly, DA - because I'm not going to type the full name any more - is a preservative.  It kills off micro-organisms and is widely used in cosmetics, so no, it doesn't do any of the dreadful things above.  Which is a bit boring, but probably good news for the planet.

Bad news for the planet!

VX
There has been news of late about an assassination carried out using the nerve agent VX, which touches on both politics and current affairs, so we won't go there.
     "In that case, why bother mentioning it?" I hear you query.  "Really, Conrad."
     Well, I wondered if you might not be interested in knowing where this ghastly stuff originates.  In conflict there is drama, no?
     Well, it was discovered by the German chemical company IG Farben back in the Thirties, by accident, if you can believe it.  They were looking into creating a more effective pesticide, and boy did they find it. 

IG Farben.  A bit dull.  

 The problem is that it was too effective, and proved to be far, far more lethal than anything previously created in the chemical weapon field.  You didn't have to inhale it, contact with the skin in minute doses is enough to kill.  I can see where you're heading with this.  
     "The most deadly chemical weapon ever invented in the hands of the Nazis?" I hear you quaver.  "Oo-er."
     And then -
     "But they never used it.  How come?"
     Well spotted.  This is because it took years to get the plant approved and created, and to get up to speed.  The fact that our Teuton opponents never used it is because they, mistakenly, believed that the Allies possessed nerve gases too.
     There you go.  History lesson for you.

I think this is bad for the planet.  Yes?  No?  Only you can tell!

*  I've changed my mind.  I'm not really sorry.