Hip To Be Square

A Square Kilometre, That Is
Quite by coincidence, your humble scribe came across an advert for a 12-month duration vacancy in HR, his preferred field.  Based in Cheshire, so not really an option.  
     "Hang on, though," I said - aloud, this time, because I was safely solo in my Sekrit Layr - "The company has identified themselves."  For this is not too common; most job vacancies on websites are put there by agencies, who guard the identity of employers with jealous care.  Can't have people shortcutting them out and depriving them of £££, can we?

The root of all evil or what makes the world go round, depending on your point of view

     'SKA' was the employer.  Given that it was in leafy Cheshire, the possibility of it being associated with the music industry was quite remote.
     Well well well.  What the heck, Jane Kaczmarek!*

Jane.  Nothing to do with SKA

     For 'SKA' is an acronym, and it stands for "Square Kilometre Array", that being an array of radio telescopes.  With me so far?  The plan is to build these in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, connecting all sites with communication relays.  Thanks to the wonders of (I think) Long-baseline Interferometry, this will result - actually, Art, a picture:

No!  Telescopes, not toadstools

     - will result in a system that will be dozens of times more sensitive and thousands of times faster than anything currently around.  The reason for building in the Southern hemisphere is that there is less interference (and probably better weather) than here up north.
     The administrative hub will be in Cheshire, as I mentioned; in fact, according to the maps, located very close to Jodrell Bank.  Art?

An artist's impression

     In other words, too Dog Buns! far away to travel to <sad face> although perhaps if they happen to read this, they could open an outstation in Babylon-lite?
     What's that?  You thought this was going to be about a song?  By some unlikely assemblage called Hooey Newis and the Loos?  Pshaw!  What ridiculous nonsense you spout - get out of here with your invidious allegations!
     Okay, time to put the motley on a zipwire over the lions enclosure!**

Blimey It's Vimy
Mention of this to anyone but a British American or a sad military anorak splendidly well informed expert will probably be met with blank looks, or the offer of a handkerchief.
     To explicate - yes, yes, I know you want to get back to the 'Columbo' afternoon on Netflix, bear with me - I should inform you that Vimy Ridge was an important tactical feature in France during the First Unpleasantness.  Art?

Brown is higher elevation

     The Teutons had captured the ridge in 1914, and stubbornly resisted all attempts to remove them from it.  Their orders, essentially, were to hold the ridge to the last man, the last bullet and the last bayonet; under no circumstances whatsoever was it to be allowed to fall into enemy hands.
     Unfortunately, they hadn't encountered the Canadians at Vimy.  After a whackingly intense barrage, the British Americans went in and captured the entire ridge in three days covered a creeping barrage fired by both artillery and machine guns.  The Teutons wisely retired a considerable distance and gave up any hope of even trying to recapture the ridge.
     Now, the reason I raise this as an article is that I am reading "The History of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps" and have just gone over that part which details the Vimy battle.  
     Having set the scene, and not wanting to go too over the top*** - and Columbo is waiting - I shall return to this subject later on.  Art?

Someone on the receiving end is going to have a very bad day

Oh, Really?
Conrad is firmly of the opinion that entry into middle-age means that you automatically acquire a liking for murder mysteries, although I do balance my Golden Age affection for Dorothy Sayers with the far edgier Jo Nesbo.
     I happened to mention "Murder, She Wrote" to Wonder Wifey, who adores it, and I pondered if it was successful or not.
     I'll say!  Doing a little research, it was around for 12 years, and amassed 264 episodes, and has been successfully syndicated globally, and won Angela Lansbury umpteen awards.  WW declared that the best thing about it was identifying guest stars and deciding which of them were that week's villain.  Art?

She's British, you know.  Just to be clear.

     I suspect that she suffers from what I call "Charlie Chan" syndrome.  In his films, Charlie would turn up at a friend's, only for said friend to end up getting murdered.  To the point that, were I one of Chuck's friends, I'd never answer the door to him.


*  An expression of surprise that is still SFW.
**  Don't worry, it's probably high enough.  And motleys taste horrid anyway.
***  Do you see - O you do.