It's About Bleeding Edge Time

Yes, Back To Thomas Pynchon
 - and "Bleeding Edge", and your talented typist's attempts to translate contemporary South Canadian culture into language the rest of the world can understand.  Of course, if you were reading that title in a hurry, or your brain was filling-in whilst your attention was elsewhere, then you might have wondered at BOOJUM! being a bit sweary.
     That reminds me of a joke from one of the "Doctor" films, the ones starring Dirk Bogarde (more properly Sir Derek Gaspard Ulric Niven Van Der Boegarde), where James Robertson Justice is lecturing to a group of young interns about how long it takes for blood to clot.

Dirk.  Ogling again.

     "We call that the 'Bleeding time'," he clarifies to his students.  He sees Dirk not really paying attention - probably ogling nurses - and barks at him.
     "You.  What's the Bleeding time?"
     Dirk looks at his watch.
     "Ten past ten," he replies, which was as close as you could get to swearing on the cinema screen in Fifties Pond of Eden*.

Just about to ask the question ...

Back To TP
No!  Nothing to do with wig-wams!  Are you suffering from what Dirk Bogarde was?  TP = Thomas Pynchon, do keep up.  Okay, we are now up to Page 124.  Part of my reasons for checking up on odd names, nouns and artefacts is that TP is quite clever enough to invent  a convincing yet utterly fictional version of same.  So!
     Narciso Rodriguez:  according to teh interwebz, a fashion designer, although all that he seems to design nowadays is perfume.  Which make him pretty redundant in the eyes (and nose) of Conrad, who has 0% ability to smell.

Yeah, right, just like Midol

     Midol:  A pain relief medication for ladies, during that special lady's time.  No! Not Happy Cocktail Hour - menses, to be Latin about it.
     Bernie Madoff:  Conrad was vaguely aware that Bernard had been a naughty boy in some financial matters.  It turns out to be a lot more than 'naughty'; he was a stockbroker and financier who ran a gigantic Ponzi Scheme, possibly for as long as 30 years, defrauding investors of (pause for drum roll) $65 billion.  Currently serving a 150-year sentence, which, given that he is in his sixties, means him seeing daylight is rather remote.
     Front-running:  More crime!  This is where people take advantage of foreknowledge of activity by a company, which they know will affect the price of stock, either driving it up or down.
     Detsl:  My only additional note here read "music".  He turns out to be a Russian rapper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU-XAxBkEaE

     That's a Youtube link to one of his tracks, if you care to take a look & listen.

Detsl: the Middle-Aged Years

     
"Strident"
That's the word I was looking for!  As you know Conrad likes to play up the sheer Britishness of BOOJUM! on occasion, which means being downbeat, underplayed, subtle and generally admiring the many different tones of grey.
     Which, as I have already said, makes these particular blossoms STRIDENT!  Art?

     Of course, Conrad cannot leave well alone, and when this word popped into his head yesterday he wondered where it came from.
     Latin, of course, which lanaguage we don't seem to be able to shake free from.  The Latin "stridere" means "to creak" in the sense of being unpleasant to listen to, or to see in the above example.

Trident
This appears to be making waves at present**, and I can't resist adding this post in.  Nothing to do with "Strident" but instead coming from the Latin for "Three Teeth", which is 39 less than an Alsatian has, but you really wouldn't want one of these turning up at your door with a police escort -

Someone, somewhere, is about to have a very bad day,

A Bit Of Jargon Explained
At this point you can imagine your modest artisan rubbing his hands with glee, chortling at the venomous hate being poured out in the Comments section of the BBC's Ballfoot web pages.  The rules for posting are fairly simple - don't swear, don't threaten, don't act like a complete or partial bumbletuck - yet people get so IRATE that their comments get removed.

Conrad.  Gleeful, oh so gleeful.

     Which brings me to the abbreviation "A.B.U."  Not being a sporty person, your humble scribe had to go look this one up.  It means "Anyone But United", and I think - can't be 100% certain here - that this "United" is "Manchester United".  The term, I understand, refers to people who hate and loathe MU so much that they would rather see anyone else achieve a result, even if it isn't a team they support.



*  It's raining heavily today.
**  Do you see what - O you do.