A Bit Pot-tea

It Makes More Sense Spoken Aloud
Although, if you do practice this recommendation, do not, as I did, try it on the bus.  This will lead, at best, to a collection of strange looks directed at you, or people moving away from you with haste -

 - which probably happens to this chap a lot, too

     Well, the blog was popular yesterday - 230 hits, or about twice what it gets on a good day.  Were I at all serious about this blogging business, I'd go back and scrutinise the posts and load up the Google analytics and pore over the statistics.  But because I'm not I cannot be bothered.  We shall see what today brings.

Tea!

     Initially, it has brought sunshine.  Whilst this might not be news to many of you out there, here in the Allotment it is frequently a matter of interest.  As I have often posted, our weather is never extreme enough to be exciting, just dull enough to be depressing.  Today looks set to be brighter and warmer than most of our so-called "Summer".
     With that rather wistful Intro over, let us hurl the motley into the dinghy, after puncturing it*.


The 6th MG Co.
Another recap of the Official War Diary of the 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade Machine Gun Company (you can see why it gets abbreviated).  I have now read up to February 1918, and note that as of the 9th, our British American compatriots are saturating the Teutons opposite with 15,000 rounds of indirect fire.

Imagine a daily dose of this!

     Here an aside.  This will be fire where the machine guns are aimed at a precise angle above the horizontal, giving them enough elevation that the rounds will impact in a beaten zone out of line-of-sight.  The target zones would be likely avenues of approach for Teuton relief parties, ration or ammunition wagons, headquarters, horse lines, forward artillery and so on. 
     Tonight this indirect fire seems to have been especially galling; the diary records that the Teutons respond with searching artillery and machine gun fire.  In fact our Teuton chums are in a bit of a bind; this indirect fire is obviously effective, or they wouldn't bother to respond.  However, in doing so they are revealing that the indirect fire has been effective, and so encouraging our British American chums to carry right on those lines.

I Cannot Sit Down
Due to the Coincidence Hydra having it's teeth firmly fastened in my nethers.  Yes, again!  Conrad must be extra-specially tasty this season.  Some time ago I laboured to explain what the phrase "piling Pelion upon Ossa" meant.  It refers to Greek mythology and a couple of Titans trying to reach Olympus by piling one mountain - Pelion - upon another - Ossa.
     Enter Jeff Hawke.  Art?

Look!  Look!  Upper right speech bubble - more of mountains

     These strips are uniformly excellently drawn and, more to the point, excellently scripted.  Conrad remembers reading them when much smaller (if no less cute) and whilst the stories were rather beyond him, he can still recall some of the startling artwork.
     And here we have today's coincidence -
     What I like about these stories is that the alien characters suffer from all the frailties that human flesh is heir to, in terms of moral vices.

Elucidate, Illuminate, Educate
But never EXTERMINATE! for that is the purview of the Daleks.  That title sounds rather like an album by Public Service Broadcasting - did I tell you I went to see them the other week? - and let me just break off to check and see if Ben Folds is still alive - Phew!  yes he is - it was just a drawing pin he stood on, not a bear-trap.
     Where was I?  The party going on in my head 24/7 can make it a bit - KEEP IT DOWN IN THERE! - make it a bit difficult to keep on track.

What goes on in my head.
(On a quiet day)

     Ah! Yes.  Elucidation.  In the spirit of yesterday's explanation of what BOOJUM! calls different nations across the world, here are some of the words and phrases unique to the blog, straight out of the surreally disturbing landscape of your humble scribe's mind**.

Scrivel:  What you are reading.  Or, if we have reached the 25th Century, telepathizing.  A combination of "Drivel" and "Scribble".
Gloasting:  What we never do.  Hardly ever do. A combination - oh all right, what we do all the time - of "Boasting" and "Gloating".
Bumbletuck:  An insult, frequently used of First Bus management.
Pratmangle:  Another insult, of more recent origin.
Dog Buns:  The Official BOOJUM! swear, because we might be howlingly eccentric yet cherish our SFW status.
Bloggorhea:  Again, what you are reading.
Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell: An hilarious description of Manchester
Babylon-lite: An hilarious description of Oldham
Foofoodilly: A euphemism for a nuclear weapon, used in the hope that this will help to keep MI5 and UNIT off my back.
Vulnavia:  A possibly mythical reader, appealed to when we need a named person.
First/Second Unpleasantness: The First or Second World War.  Because they were, and we don't like to disturb out air of British sang froid.
Frothing Nitric Ire:  Conrad's default condition, being a towering rage, frequently directed at First Bus, or the absence thereof.

I think that's enough for today, as we are once again venturing dangerously close to the 1,000 word mark, and even though this stuff doesn't come with a health warning, an excess had been known to cause bleeding from the eyes, nausea, nightmares and an obsession with grammatical accuracy.  Tomorrow we might venture to describe the beasts of the BOOJUM! stable.

*  Don't worry, the sharks are miles off.

Er- at least they were

**  Or is it disturbingly surreal? Only you can tell!