Links

Of One Sort Or Another -
Your humble scribe sat down this morning and stared at the screen, which stared back.
     "O Muse!" I implored.  "Please strike - OW!" because she did. So here we have - links. 

As is

     What follows will be less a stream of consciousness and more a muddy puddle, because Links! Art?

<sighs>

     I suppose it's best he gets this out of his system straight away.  I am also minded of a somewhat cruel anecdote as retailed by Michael Bentine, of his time in the RAF, when a chap operating a Link flying trainer was shot up by a prowling Luftwaffe plane and badly injured, which is a bit rich when you're not even aloft.  I suppose a picture of a Link trainer would help somewhat.  Art?

                                          Links!
     As you can see, getting shot down in one of these is quite the achievement, if not something to strive for.
     Continuing with the martial Teutonic theme, allow me to introduce the German for "left", as in "left right left right".  Art?

"Links!  Recht! Links! Recht!"

      Okay, enough of links, I think we've broken the ice enough for one day.  And no, we won't be going into golf courses.

                                           <sighs>  No, Art, no:  "Links"*

Back To The War Of The Spanish Succession!
This is going to be a bit risky, given Art's propensity for Getting Things Wrong, so I hope you don't mind bearing with me.  Okay, what our South Canadian cousins know as "The French and Indian War", but which we more correctly call "The Nine Years War" or TWOTSS as above, showcased the talents of one John Churchill, possibly slightly better known as the Duke of Marlborough.  Art?

<sigh> there he goes -

     Unusually for the time, he was a British general who led coalition forces on the Continent, against the French.  Say what you like about the French, they do make a consistent opponent.
     Anyway, Ol' Jo proceeded to give the French what we in military analysis call "a right shoeing", by taking a passel of towns away from them.** Since he was severely limited in how much influence he wielded over his Dutch troops, he also had to be quite the politician and diplomat, and even more so because the British Parliament wasn't sure exactly what it wanted to be doing: attack the French abroad via the Royal Navy, or keep on attacking on the Continent via the army.

1702:  when wigs were WIGS (and Whigs wore wigs)

      Mayhaps tomorrow I will tackle the battle of Blenheim.

Oops
What do I notice about Ol' Jo's offspring?  Only that one married Scroop Egerton, which is an unusual name, except that I came across it yesterday in a collection of English ghost stories ...  in "Squire Toby's Will": one Scroop Marston, written by J. Sheridan le Fanu.
     Obviously the universe is try DON'T SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE THAT!
     Damn those creaking floorboards.***

The Coincidence Hydra, hungry for your humble scribe's nethers

Here I was going to add in an hilarious anecdote about my Apricot Crunchies, and another about Iron Captain and Man of America, except I've not uploaded the pictures into Blogger, and I'm typing this at work, so - nothing.  Well, except the word "Juxtaposition".

"Juxtaposition"
You ought to know what this means by now - an alignment of articles or entities side by side, usually for purposes of comparison.  Perhaps Art?


     There you go!  'Grand Slam' versus 'MOAB' - hang on, are the Mystery Jets still together?  Ah, yes, that's a relief - he was only locked out of the house, rather than being evicted -
     Back on track.  "Massive Ordnance Aerial Bomb", if you must know, although "Makes Overly Awesome Bang" also works.
     Okay, so where does "Juxtaposition" come from?  An unholy combination of Latin and French, actually.  "Juxta" from the Latin for "Next" and the French "Position" for - well, for "Position".
     And there you have it.  BOOJUM! educating you one fact at a time.^

Meanwhile, Back At The Aerodrome -
Since we've begun with matters martial, and continued, and then gone onto aerial warfare, and since we've mentioned 'Blenheim', I thought we could have the actual aircraft on display.  Art?

The Bristol Blenheim

     Although Perfidious Albion produced many fine aircraft during the Second Unpleasantness, this was not one of them.  It was out of date before the shooting started, because the newer fighter aircraft around could easily overtake it.  In which case it would usually get shot down.  Despite this is soldiered on for longer than it ought to have done, at considerable risk to it's crews.



*  Good lord aloft, it's a good job we don't pay him!
**  Hooray!
***  Hang on - this is a concrete floor ...
^  With, it's fair to say, a good bit of drivel mixed in between.