How Very British!

The Sound Of Willow On Leather
No, nothing seedy!  This is BOOJUM! after all, frightfully SFW and all that, so wash your dirty minds out.  I refer, of course, to the noble and ancient game of cricket - the bat is made of willow and the ball is encased in leather, or so I'm told.  Conrad knows very little about the game - there are two sides, it involves bats and wickets and Silly Mid On - but it is so British.  

A game of cricket - or so I'm told

Currently it is a central feature in an episode of "Father Brown", being played on a village green.  I would caution anyone else about watching like this, especially South Canadians, as it might bring about an overdose of Britishness and cause you to repeal the Revolution* in order to bend the knee to QE2.
     Oh I say!  Lady Felicia has just taken a stand at the wicket - I shall have to stop watching or I'll get the urge to invade a hot foreign country with exotic cooking -

The sound of Willow on soon-to-be leather.

Well, after that tea-and-crumpet evoking Intro, allow me to move on to the rest of today's piffling wibble.  Or is it wibbling piffle?  Nonsense anyway.

I Really Am Terribly Sorry!
About not supplying the answers for those Pub Quiz questions I posted earlier this week. Hopefully this has not annoyed too many people for too long.  Here they are -

Q10)  Which television detective's trademark was a lollipop?  Kojak.  Probably well before your time, frankly, but big in the Seventies.

The evidence

Q3)   The Los Angeles Lakers play what sport? (Nothing to do with swimming)  Basketball.  I trust that you didn't Google this.
Q14)  "Aqueous humour" and "Vitreous humour" are found in which part of the body?  (No!  Not the funny bone). The eye.

     And we won a round!  Which means four free pints of bitter, of which we have already consumed two.  Sic transit gloria mundi, and fermented drinks.

"Bleeding Edge" By Thomas Pynchon
Yes, a continuation of my occasional series that explicates the pop culture and accountancy references in TP's last opus.
Bribe Payers Index:  This is a metric from Transparency International, rating the 28 wealthiest countries by the likelihood of their bribing their way to success.  A bit selective as it only touches on 28 countries and hasn't been updated in 6 years.  Though it was relevant enough for when BE is set.
Corruption Perceptions Index:  A similar concept to the above, a metric about how corrupt a country is seen to be.  Please note the Allotment of Eden is at Number 10.  No, cheeky blighters, out of 167, not 20.

There we are, Number 10

"Black Orchid Serum": Perfume?  Otherwise no idea.  Google proved to be singularly unhelpful for this one.  You may add a Comment if you have any clue.
"Shviger": Yiddish, as I had already guessed.  A somewhat dismissive term for "Mother In Law".  There you go, quite simple.
"Frosk":  Wellllll - either this is Anglo-Saxon, from the Old German "Fruskaz", meaning "Frog" - OR - it refers to an enigmatic and mysterious person.  On balance, I believe the latter.

A frosk Frosk

The Flop House
Once again, Conrad reiterates that he's not getting paid anything by TFH, although I doubt they actually have much of a budget to begin with, unless Stu is independently wealthy.
     "Get on with it, Conrad," I hear you mutter.  " 'Line of Duty' is on soon."
     Yes, okay, here's a Facebook thread that had 165 replies last time I looked, which was several days ago - "What are your top 5 favourite albums?"
     Of course your humble scribe had to add his 5, and because I am a completist, here they are:

"Waiting for a miracle" - The Comsat Angels.

"Animals" - Pink Floyd

"Tyranny and Mutation" - Blue Oyster Cult

"Frengers" - Mew

"Close to the edge" - Yes

    Almost without exception everyone who posted a reply subsequently added "Oh and these as well - ".  Because I am a completist (have I mentioned this already?) and an anorak to boot, I shall make a note of what folks have put and investigate on Youtube.

Any excuse to promote the Comsats

*  Which, as far as Conrad is concerned, never happened. Never!