B 52's

I Do Apologise!
This doesn't happen very often, so make the most of it.  I have wilfully mislead you as regards that not-so-classic (in fact downright corny) black and white Fifties sci-fi - er - thriller "Beginning of the End" - sorry?  what's that?  You thought this was going to be about that somewhat whimsical South Canadian band of "Love Shack" or "Rock Lobster" fame?  Gosh, what an unfortunate coincidence that was, because that's the most they're going to get mentioned for today.

A lot of people are going to have a very, very bad day

     No, I refer to my post of last night, about BOTE and mention made of a Goof about bombers.  The brief glimpse we get of the bomber in question is that of a B36, yet the cast refer to it as a B52 several times.  Believe me, it's a B36, you can't mistake that aerial monster for anything else, except perhaps a flying skyscraper.  Art?

Fighter delivery of pillow-mints in progress

     Last night I confused the B29 and the B36, which is a frightful error, one which I am ashamed to admit, so I throw myself on your tender mercies.*
     A nice short intro, so let's hurl the motley into the cement mixer and turn it on!**

"Beginning of the End" (1957)
Ah, the film itself.  Oh my! the special effects are - not-so-special.  Obviously and blatantly superimposed grasshoppers are not, one feels, a terrifying existential threat for the ages.  Why grasshoppers?  I suppose because the cooler creepy-crawlies, like ants or spiders, had already been bagged.
     We never actually see them chew anyone up, because superimposition simply won't cut it.***Constructing a mock-up grasshopper head with working jaws would also cost money, and the producer and director of this tarnished opal (can't really call it a gem) was none other than Bert I. Gordon, who never spent a dime if he could get away with spending a cent.^

You know, for a republic, them South Canadians dote on royalty

   We are told, for example, not shown, that firebombing the giant locusts didn't work.  Why not?  They aren't made of asbestos.  Why not just use conventional HE bombs?  Or strafe them with cannon? Or - you get the point.
     Oh, and here's a Goof that nobody else has picked up on (which delights my shrivelled soul no end):  during the pitched battle that the Army wages and loses versus a grasshopper schwerpunkt against their lines - what you might call the focus of the locus of the locusts - a few scenes of Wasp flamethrowers in action are shown. Art?

More dragon than wasp, really

     Problem is, these horrid little things were British, as British as a blackbird biting a boiled-beef butty on brown bread with butter, and the South Canadians never used them.

There will now be a pause in proceedings as your humble and hungry scribe goes off to eat his lunch.  Later!

Back from browsing.  Okay, let's see how the motley is doing - oh.  Well, the ambulance will be here soon.  Next!

Schadenfreudefest
Or, the enjoyment of other folk's misfortune.  Conrad knows little and cares less about the ballfoot game, which is not how other people feel. Not how some feel at all.  Thus, it was with a sense of wicked delight that he noticed Manchester City Football Club had won their game with - whoever, can't remember, don't care.  'Excellent!' I gloated, rubbing my hands and tugging the ends of my moustache, which I can do in the security of my Upstair Lair yet not on the bus (it appears to make people uncomfortable).  This is because it will have generated a veritable Niagara of toxic comments on the Beeb website.
     Which are terrific fun to read and enjoy!
     It's great when you don't have a dog in the fight, isn't it?

Don't Cross Swords Or Words With A Wordsmith
Particularly when it that wordsmith is ME!  For I am an anorak with access to colleagues who speak foreign languages.  Thus, the Flaming Lips latest opus "Oczy Mlody", got traipsed in front of Ania this afternoon, she being Polish and that phrase sounding positively Slavic, even if not really Polish.

Flaming lippy

     "It's nonsense!" declared Ania.
     Quite.
     Well, they are the Flaming Lips, whom I have long described as "potty but entertaining", which this simply proves.


*  Suckers.
**  Don't worry, there's no cement in it.  Just rocks.
***  Do you see what - O you do.
^  Note my cool command of South Canadian currency.