The Beach Boys

Thrilling Wonder Atom Stories!
I lied.  There aren't any here, although if you want I can entertain you with a 5,000 word monologue on how "Forbidden Planet" has influenced - no? Not at all, not in any way, never ever ever?  Oh.  Okay then.
     Anyway, back to Mongolian Haemhorragic Liver Fever!
     Actually, no, that sounds a bit dull.  Onto more matters martial!
     I have recently been watching "Dunkirk" in it's 1958 iteration, and, like any good anorak, I had to check the 'Goofs' page over on IMDB.
     Oh my! 

On the beach

     They do get one Goof correct; at about 13 minutes in we see a montage of newsreel film, which someone with no wartime knowledge has edited, because it includes a clip of Tiger tanks rolling through the mud on the Eastern Front, years before the date at which Dunkirk is set.

A Tiger tank.  Well, kind of.

     There is another alleged Goof, at about 45 minutes, where a tree falls over before an explosion occurs.  The possibility that it had already been damaged in what was quite a sustained barrage is ignored, so Conrad is happy to render this one incorrect.
     What's that?  You were expecting a musical tribute to that iconic South Canadian band The Beach Boys?  Because of today's title?  Get out of here - Art?

Proof!  Proof, I tell you!

     There you go.  A beach, with boys upon it - you can't deny it.
     Okay, time to put the motley into a darkened room, together with a hungry tiger.*

It Is Now Safe To Be In The Same Room As Me
Grammar be damned, I'm now only irate, rather than being in the full grip of Frothing Nitric Ire.
     "What's jogged the horrid old codger's elbow today?" I hear you query.  "Not that one about a fork in the teaspoon section."
     No! - although a teaspoon in fork - dammit, you've got me off-topic.  No, nothing about forks, spoons or any other kind of cutlery.  No, I am railing about First Bus.  YES AGAIN!

First Bus spokesdemon:"Heh"

     Although First Bus maintain a fictional schedule in the evenings, they are normally on time in the morning. 
     Not today.  That bus which went whizzing past with "Ha Ha Laughing At You Because I'm Not In Service" might have been a 409, but we'll never know.** After 25 minutes standing and growing ever angrier, even my rage couldn't keep my feet warm <sigh>.  Obviously there's a clause in First's drivers contracts that mentions "picking up passengers is optional"
     Grrrrr!

On The Beach Boys
I refer to that cheery little tome by Nevil Shute,  "On The Beach", which has been made into a film not once but twice, because who can't get enough of the end of the world? 

Stylish and functional!

       "What brings this on, Oh Aged Scribe?" I hear you query.  Pausing only to narrow my eyes at what may be either sarcasm or respect - I will get back to you on that - I shall explicate.  No!  It was not triggered by those Dunkirk scenes but rather by The Only Fat Man In North Korea, Kim Jong Whatnot, who is desperate to get his hot sweaty twitching mitts on a thermonuclear weapon.
     Well, he would have loved the alternate future world of OTB, where a character decides that nuclear Armageddon was inevitable because of the uncontrolled proliferation of cheap nuclear weapons.  Apparently, at the end, even humble Albania had a respectable atomic arsenal, because a nuke could be bought for a mere £50,000.

Albania: villain of the piece.

      Conrad is not sure about the novel's central theme, that radioactive fallout would persist at lethal levels even after a year, before making it's way south of the Equator.  I shall come back to this, as you can, after all, have too much of the end of the earth.

Finally -
I'm not sure if this counts as being bitten on the nethers by either the Coincidence Hydra, or the Titanic Terror Turkey from "The Giant Claw", which Art will grace us with, by providing a picture -

Death from above!
Honestly.  You'll die laughing

     If you recall, Conrad came out with a ton of mathematics to prove that this thing was incapable of travelling to Earth unless it was i) immortal or ii)  capable of travelling at 100,000 times the speed of light.
     We can now safely eliminate that second option, because Lo!  and also Behold! for what do we have on the Beeb website but proof that Option ii) is, indeed, impossible.

     Of course, I may be overthinking this ...



*  Defanged and declawed, but don't tell the motley that.
**  Yes, I know it says "Sorry" on the display but their intent is clear.