Time And Travel

Not, I Hasten To Add
Time-travel, as in the sense of that chap with the big blue police box.  Although mucking about with time does come into it.
     Many years ago your humble hack read a sci-fi story that involved a soldier fighting at some frightful front line, known only as "H".  He got Relieved, and thus discharged from the war, and made his way far to the south.  As he went through different zones where time ran progressively more slowly towards normal, his name expanded, to "Had", "Hadol" and finally "Hadolarisondamo".
     After 20 years of living the good life, he gets an Emergency Recall, makes his way back to the front line and discovers that there, only 10 minutes have passed.
     It was grim but interesting stuff, AND I COULD NEVER REMEMBER THE TITLE!
     Until a few days ago, when I was messing about with sci-fi works that had "Time" in their title, Lo!  What's this?  A collection of short stories edited by Michael Moorcock called "The Traps of Time" and - hey, this story sounds suspiciously familiar...
     "Traveller's Rest" by David Masson.
     Now I know, and so do you, too.

More Of Time, Travel And Unpleasantness
Last night I bit the bullet, which is a particularly apt aphorism, and put away the wargame that I'd not played for probably a year.  In fact in order to continue it I'd have to go back to the rule book and start reading it again from scratch.  Plus there were a couple of maps that seem to have gone missing.  Heaven knows where they can have gotten to in my Sekrit Layr.
     So!  I broke out "The Cossacks Are Coming",

Splendid Roger McGowan artwork

a hex-and-counter boardgame created by People's Wargames, who were an avowedly Communist wargaming company working out of Oakland, Ca.  Hey, it takes all sorts.  Actually the driving force behind PW was Jack Radey, who is still around.  I remember reading a review of this in "Strategy & Tactics" circa 30 years ago, which is another time reference for you.  There's the counter sheet, the map and the rules.

     Ah yes.  The rules.  These run to about 40 pages of small type, with another three sheets of Corrections and Addenda.  Plainly this game is not one of the beer-and-pretzels variety.  I may have second thoughts about waging this, but hey - I like an intellectual challenge.
     Here an aside of some length.  TCAC represents the campaign of late summer 1914 on the Eastern Front, where the armies of Hohenzollern Germany and Romanov Russia clashed.  Things went badly for the Germans at first as the Russians moved into East Prussia - incidentally the only time any Entente power got onto German soil - which had been accepted as a risk by the German General Staff pre-war.  In actuality the local Prussian Junker aristocracy squealed so loudly that they were heard in Berlin. Tellingly, because this political pressure affected the nascent Western Front ...  If you have any literary pretensions, then Solzhenitsysn's "1914" describes this campaign in detail; military history and poseur credentials in one (not so easy) package.

Not the right issue, but I bet you're not reallllly bothered, hmmm?

The Wonder Of Words
As I have already said, the scriptwriters of "Elementary" continue to give the sulky self-entitled man-child a plethora of words not commonly used in conversation, to wit:
     "Paean":  From the Greek, and ancient Greek at that.  This was a hymn of joy, in contemporary context (if used as it's not exactly frequently found in chit-chat) meaning to praise something to high heaven.
     "Picquant": Spicily hot.  As of a curry, or a Jalapeno chilli eaten solo*.
     "Quagga":  pronounced "Kwah-hah".  An extinct sub-species of the zebra family.  Gone utterly by the late Nineteenth Century, a few photos exist.  We have met this beast before at BOOJUM! when your modest artisan was listing Interesting Things Beginning With "Q".

Not much of a loss, frankly!

     "Apprised": To be kept informed.  For example, Conrad keeps you apprised of thermonuclear weapons development. Whether you want to be kept so apprised is, indeed, another matter.

The marvel that is MARV

     "Malfeasance": Exhibiting the behaviour of a cad and a bounder.  Generally, the quality of being up to no good.
     "Beef-witted":  I have a sneaking suspicion that this is from Shakespeare, the Barf of Avon, whom - as you surely already know because you are a regular reader are you not? - I detest as a plague upon the planet only slightly less scrofulous than mink lice.  It means not scoring highly in terms of mental acuity.  Dull.

That's "MAnoeuvrable  Re-entry Vehicle" in case you were wondering.

*  If you even dare, you foolish, foolish boy.