You're Going To Hate Me For This -

Or At Least 50% Of You Will
Since it is International Women's Day and am I am about to hold forth on beauty, or lack of it, in reference to - a woman.

This will make sense later, honest.

     I can hear the jeers already ...
     Personally I blame IMDB, as I am missing their Message Boards already.  Conrad has an observation and nowhere to post it, except here.  When it comes to the IMDB Facebook page, how do you find relevant content?  Where is it?  Is it?  Are there house rules?
     My point is to be made after watching "Sabotage" and seeing the character Lizzy Murray.  Holy heck is she ugly*!  She looks as if her beauty treatment consisted of being hit in the face with a cricket bat**.  A lot.  Now, I checked on this and she's played by Mirelle Enos, who is not actually hideous in real life.

Lizzy Murray

     And yet, and yet ... the character is a chronic drug abuser, of apparently long duration which is howlingly ironic as she works for the Drug Enforcement Administration.  As an example, she comes across a collection of demijohns full of mysterious liquid drugs; does she pause to test and confirm what they are?  How pure they are?  No!  She guzzles down a full eye-dropper of Whatever It Is.  In fact it isn't immediately clear that these demijohns are actually full of drugs; lucky for her their contents weren't Drano.

Kept small to protect you eyes

     Of course, NONE OF THIS WOULD BE VISIBLE if the IMDB Message Boards were still around.  I blame them.

Wait - What?
To steal a phrase from The Flop House.  As mentioned yesterday I am looking over my hex-and-counter boardgame "The Cossacks Are Coming" and had a closer look at the counters. 
     Wait - what?
     I enclose a photograph.

Your glimpse into a subculture you never knew existed

     What are these abbreviations?  Because they aren't explained anywhere in the rule book, all 40 pages of it.  I am going to have to do a bit of research on these names because eventually I'm going to be cutting them out and sticking them on a piece of A4, prefatory to actually playing a game with them.
     Yes, your humble hack enjoys an intellectual challenge, but - really! - there are limits.

Ah, Welcome Back Coincidence Hydra!
That, lest you be unsure, is irony.  I do NOT enjoy having seven sets of especially-sharp incisors fastened into my fesses, thank you very much.
     Here an aside.  I know that amongst the nicknames for our European brethren, I have failed to develop an hilarious one for the French.  This came to mind as "fesses" is colloquial French for "Bottom".  In honour of the French dream-pop band I am now going to call my French brothers "M83's" because that includes the numeronym "Mate".

M83.  No, I've no idea what it is either.  Vampire Chewbacca?  Warbling Wolfman? Terpsichorean Trichosis?

     Back on track (as much as we ever are).  Recall yesterday, if you will.  There I was, educating you in the cultural argot of the Nineties and early Noughties, where we came across that word "Leet".
     What came up last night on "Elementary"?  No!  Not a leek.  Sherlock's phone had been locked by that roguish anarchistic hacker collective Everyone and he was attempting to guess what the password was.
     "Go on, Conrad, you foolish old fogey," I hear you comment.  Leaving aside the courage you have obviously quaffed from a bottle, I shall explain.
     Actually I've changed my mind.  I shan't explain.  Ha!  That'll teach you.

The Flop House
Really, they ought to be paying me a commission.  Only, I don't think they have much of an income stream themselves, so any remuneration would be in pennies.
     This time they were riffing on "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".  The colon might not be quite where I've placed it, and I can't be bothered to check.  I have actually seen this film and remember NOTHING about it.  Thus a worthy target for the guys.  They began taking the mickey out of Wolverine, then out of Gambit, whom they describe as the most boring X-Man evah.  They then did a bad impression of a Cajun and something that sounded rather robotic, which of course was instantly pounced upon by Dan, who dubbed the impression "Gambot", rendering your humble scribe unto laughing out loud.

I Googled "Gambot" and this came up.

     Also their guest, Dash, who had won the competition to have a film reviewed.  You could tell he was enjoying it, as at one point in the podcast all four reviewers were speechless with laughter - indeed Elliot almost choked on his drink, he was laughing so hard.

"Hey!  Jackman!  Quit giving me a bad name!"

     Okay, I will explain.  The password to unlock Sherlock's phone was "Leet".  There you go.  Coincidence Hydra say hello to my fesses.

Finally -
I just have to add this -

It will all make sense later, trust me.

*  I can hear the jeers already ...
**   I use this bat advisedly, as it has a wide surface and thus a lot of area