The ABC Of Good Taste

Or, When More Traffic is A Good Thing
Because you know all those boring fuddy-duddies are always banging on about how The Car Will Kill Us All! - and I can assure all you humans out there that you don't need to worry little one bit, until Artificial Intelligence arrives and gets installed in automobiles.  You'll long for the days of Herbie then -

What?  No, Art, no.

     Before we go so far off track that we end up in orbit, let us return to topic. 
     Traffic!  behold the traffic stats and the map for BOOJUM!'s audience.  Note those three countries to the west, America, Brazil and Canada.  That's where today's title comes from.   A, B & C we salute your good taste!

     Also on traffic, which is a subject of endless interest for your humble scribe (your views do not matter).  Thanks to working late shifts and workload, your modest artisan is now completing the blog at work, loading pictures ahead of time*.  I used to wait until getting home before setting the post to "Published" but of late have done this whilst still working in the Dark Tower, usually by mid-afternoon.
     And what do I find on checking the traffic stats?  Why, some of you are so impatient to read this scrivelled bloggoreah that you get there before it's even posted on Facebook or Twitter.  I'm flattered.  I think.
     <sounds of electric cattle prod being used on Art>

Your future is here.
(Bow down to your beetle overlord)

     Time to push the motley down the overflow conduit of Ladybower Reservoir!

Grrrr
As you should surely know by now, Conrad loves him some books.  All the books, all the time.  Currently he is working his way through that impressively thick tome "The Maisky Diaries", which Art will now illustrate.  Art?

He can do it when he tries.

     However, when I turned page 49 over, it went right back to page 18, and continued that way until page 81.  I'm now up into the 100's and there's no sign of the missing pages.  The thing is, I can't remember where I bought it, as it was in the autumn of 2017 <sad face>.  And even if I did take it back, would they have a new edition with the error corrected?
     I suppose the next step would be a stern letter to the publisher.  Fingers crossed there are no more lacunae.**

The Mule In Warfare
Yes indeed, and I do refer to that four-footed offspring of the horse and donkey - not the M274 1/2 Ton 4 x 4 Utility Platform Truck, because that was a Mechanical Mule.  Art?

Thus

     The mule has been used as a beast of burden for lo, these many millennia, because it is better behaved and hardier than horses or donkeys, and can carry about it's own bodyweight in freight. 
     "Why do you mention this about mules, Conrad?" I hear you asking.  "Are you eating or wearing some?"
     Neither.  I am edifying you.
     Here an aside.  Conrad was never entirely sure why the villainous character "The Mule" was titled thus in Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' trilogy.  But he was.

Best cover illustration ever!

     Anyway, back to the mule.  It was widely used in that most mechanised of conflicts, the Second Unpleasantness, especially in Italy and Burma.  This is because of the denseness of jungle or the absence of mountain roads meant that an automobile couldn't be used.  So!  the sure-footed and patient mule got roped in.

A mule.  Having a day off, it seems.

     This is of interest because of a series of films that were created about Francis, the talking mule.  Art?

     We shall come back to this.  O yes indeed!

Hark, Hark, Promote The Shark!
Well, indirectly, anyway.   Yes, Conrad continues to plough his lonely furrow, trying to rehabilitate the shark's reputation.  I do like a challenge!
     So, let us abruptly shift the focus from the Pacific and sharks to Scotland and wolves.  Yes, we do shift subjects with alarming speed and regularity here, it's how we roil, do keep up.*** Art?


Wolfs

     The Beeb is reporting on a scheme to re-introduce wolves into Scotland, because Scottish life isn't hard enough what with snow and unemployment and bands of roaming tourists.  This is a good thing (for sharks, remember?  do keep up!) because the wolf is seen as a rather sinister individual.  That one above on the right looks as he's plotting to blow up the nunnery after eating all the orphans, and the one behind him is going to attack the ambulance crews when they arrive - none of which is true, just how people look upon our furry fanged friends.
     So!  If people learn that Wolves Are Our Friends^ then this may influence their stereotyping of the shark.
    

A wolf:  small domesticated variety.

     Right, time to go put some salve on Art's  semi-charcoaled carcass.  Really, our resident sub-human sloven never seems to learn to accurately caption or even come up with the right picture.  Endless comic relief, though.

*  Which doesn't work properly and gooses the whole format and layout and so won't be done again.


**  Latin for "gaps".
*** Good mental exercise for the modern world.
^  Unless very very hungry.