Rated PG Tips

Ha!
I'm pretty certain I can keep this punning up indefinitely, or at least until the heat-death of the universe.  Whether you lot can keep up is another question.  Oh, and for those of you unlucky enough to live in the blighted, benighted lands that lie beyond The Allotment (for I have heard that such places exist!), allow me to illustrate what PG Tips are.  Art?

Voila

     They form part of the background to our culture, which means nobody know why they have that peculiar name.  I suppose "Tips" because that's the part of the tea plant that gets picked.  "Pelham Grenville"? after Sir Wodehouse?
     Alright, moving swiftly along, we now come to - the Comments.  As you know by now, these are only sparsely added to over time.  Quite what the chap ranting on in Vietnamese was going on about is a mystery, but the latest one isn't even in the Roman alphabet.  Arabic?  Punjabi?  Novipazarian?  It looks to be fairly succinct.  I can't copy it so a screenshot will have to suffice.

Suggestions on a postcard, please

    
Atomic Rockets
Oh dearie me, just when management at the Dark Tower are expecting us to start tackling the new database, I stumbled across the above site.  Briefly described, it is a long hard look at the physics of real space travel and combat, eschewing any of the "pew pew pew" silliness of Star Warstrek and similar ilk.
     There is an awful lot of it!  Unfortunately - or perhaps not, if you are one of the more senior minions in the Dark Tower - it is monitored by our IT folks, limiting access to lunchtime.
     Herein the link:

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/

     Of course, once you have logged on at lunchtime, they can't tell what you're looking at from that point onwards*.
     Be warned, there's a fair amount of actual physics involved in the various essays, so if you prefer your sci-fi to simply be flashy things flying around going "bang" in the depths of space, it may not be for you.

BOOJUM! Reviews Films
We haven't done this for a while, so allow me to recap on our editorial policy:
     1) We go off the title alone
     2)  That's it.
     If you want a proper, impartial, nuanced, carefully judged review - WRONG BLOG!  Go talk to that Mark Kermode chap.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch -
'Kingsman: The Golden Circle': Do they know something I don't?  As far as your humble scribe can recall, QE2 is still sitting on the throne.  She might be a bit long in the tooth but she's not dead yet.  Plus, a circle sounds a bit dull.  Couldn't they make it a "Death Circle"?  Or - "Deadly Circle"?  Even a "Slightly Peeved And A Bit Liverish Circle"?

Or - a Golden Army!

"Goodbye Christopher Robin": Wow.  Probably the world's shortest film, eh?  No dialogue, just a shot of someone waving.  I bet they still charge you full cost for it, though, the chiselling weasels.
'Victoria And Abdul':  Dear me no!  NO!  I anticipate this being what Conrad sniffily dismisses as a 'Big Skirt Film", made for women or soppy men trying to get in touch with their inner female.  Bah!  Go very far away very quickly!

If It's Wednesday, Those Teeth In My Behind -
 - must belong to the Coincidence Hydra.  After Ambrosia and The Thing, we now have St. Vincent.  Conrad knew nothing about her, or them, or even it, before Saturday just gone, when he heard their/it's/her latest hot platter being played at Fopp.  The track conformed to The Rule - if it's Very Good then Conrad buys the record.  So I did.
     Enter the Beeb.  What do they have as an item on their homepage?  An item on St. Vincent.  Art?

     It really does make me uneasy when this - DON'T SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE THAT**!

Luffing Cranes
No!  This is not a concealed swear; as you should surely know by now, "Dog Buns!" is the official epithet of exasperation here on the blog.  No, Luffing Cranes are a real thing.  Art?

Rather birdlike, non?

     The idea is that the hook, and whatever is being carried thereupon, remains at the same level, whilst the jib moves up and down to move said hook backwards or forwards.  So, the cargo is moved horizontally not vertically.  You can see cranes of this variety at the dockside.  I'm looking out of the window right now at an array of cranes across the skyline of Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell, but none of the swines are the kind I want, the luffers***.




*  Heh.
**  I'm an old man.  Heart attack a genuine risk.
***  Do you see what I did there?