Revolver

Yes, I Am Banging On About A Gun Again
I can't remember the path that led to it, but I ended up watching several Youtube videos last night about the Webley Mk. VI revolver, that piece of kit which served the British army well for about 50 years.  Once they get something they like, this army is reluctant to let go of it and move on.  I suppose you want a link -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr4lRmw3vhA&t=462s

     This has a bit of an international flavour; the duo speak in Italian (though one is British) and the ammunition - O horrors! - is German.  They make do with it, since .455 bullets are hard to find and expensive when you do.  About time for a picture.  Art?

A Webley revolver

     The bullets it fired were not very high velocity and made of lead.  This meant that they didn't go through your opponent and keep going; no, they stopped inside your opponent and made a bloody big hole to boot.  Generally, if you were shot by one of these, you promptly lay down and ceased to take an interest in proceedings from that point onwards.
     What's that?  You thought I was going to go through the track listing and musical impact of The Beatles record "Revolver"?  Then you are sadly misinformed, and today's title is only one more in a series of amazing coincidences, although since I do have that particular album, you can have a picture.  Art?

John looking rather sly, I feel

     Now, time to give the motley a shield and throw poison-tipped darts at it!*

For "Atmospheric" Read "Creepy"
What a weather day Monday was!  According to Ania, the dawn began, and then a fogbank rolled in and the city of Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell abruptly resembled a city of the dead.  I can prove it.  Art?

Silent Hill

     You might well expect a shambling zombie horde to come stumbling out of the mists at you, and it seemed highly appropriate that Freddy chose to discuss Pyramidhead from "Silent Hill" to a backdrop of a city rendered invisible.

Manchester

     Taking Edna for a walk was quite eerie, too, as visibility was down to about twenty yards and of course nobody else was daft enough to be out on a night like that, so it was a rather solitary experience.  And - was that noise an airliner going overhead, or something bestial getting closer in the fog?

A Modicum Of Mercy
I did trail this earlier in the week, and didn't give the answer.  You might have got it out of your own efforts, or you might have cheated and looked it up on the internet WHICH IS VERY BAD! but which I shall overlook this time.  Okay, the clue was: "A little lower on the farm (4)".
     And the answer is "Calf".  The lowing here being that noise which cattle make.  That's Perfidious Albion for you, devious in war and crossword puzzles.

A calf.
(Come on, you knew that was coming!)

Darling Daughter Is 23!
Yes indeed, our Sally is 23 today, so in celebration we are going out for a meal at Mi And Pho, the Vietnamese restaurant located handily near her.  This means I'm composing BOOJUM! here at home before we venture forth.  Don't worry, I'll take photos of what we have to eat.  The big question is, can we finish the meal, given how big the portions were last time?  Conrad is willing to give it a go.  Several goes, in fact.

I'm hungry NOW

Doing My Homework
Yes, I am finally sitting down to watch "The Deadly Mantis", a vintage black and white schlockfest from the Fifties.  It goes on at length about the various radar defences established in South Canada and British America, to prevent the Sinisters from mounting sneak bomber attacks, culling from several other films because that's much cheaper.
    The very title gives the game away, because our paleontologist hero and various other boffins spend ages not knowing what Mysterious Creature is causing such havoc in the Arctic.  We, the viewers, are handed this information immediately, which feels kind of dishonest; it's not as if we did anything to deserve it.

Marge realises that she left a spoon in the fork drawer

     I understand that it doesn't do to take films like this seriously, but there is a reason why we don't see insects 200 feet high.  They would collapse under their own weight, in addition to asphyxiating; dubbing them 'prehistoric' does not allow you to ignore the rules of physics.


*  Incapacitating only.  Not lethal.  Or, not lethal so far.