Although I do think that Sheldon is a splendid role model, and your humble scribe has, on occasion, been compared to him, which is either a wonderful compliment or a terrible criticism - your mileage may vary here. Since I am larger of frame and greyer of hair than Sheldon, I think it must be our demeanour that chimes. Oh well.
But first! Let us pay homage to the cavity magnetron, because - because - because?
Art, put down that plate of coal and get to work!
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| Science rampant |
Where were we? O yes,
As you should surely know by now, your humble scribe has an unhealthy interest in things that go BANG, the bigger the bang the better - hence my worrying fascination with thermonuclear weapons - and here we have another entry in the list of Extremely Dangerous Substances
Azidoazide Azide!
Apart from having more "Z"s than is healthy for a word, this is a desperately dangerous compound; it is, in fact, so explosive that little is known about it, because it is so very, very difficult to study. It blows up if you shake it; it blows up if you move it; it blows up if light is shone on it; it blows up when in solution. In fact, the hardest thing to do with AZAZ is to not make it blow up. One feels that it bears the world an existential grudge for being brought into existence and it blows up out of sheer picque.
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| Read it and quiver |
Probably as one of the components of missile fuel. Some of the stuff used to propel missiles is as bad as deliberately engineered war gasses. We may come back to this, because milk is boring but POISONOUS CORROSIVE AND EXPLOSIVE rocket fuels are by their very nature interesting.*
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| Now you know |
Organs
WASH YOUR DIRTY MINDS OUT! I refer, of course, to the church organ, that most noble of instruments. This particular entry was inspired by listening to Radio 3 en route to Crisis Point last Saturday, where the feature "Building A Library" concentrated on organ music and specifically that of Charles-Marie Widor. Ol' Chuck was a bit of a prodigy, being introduced to the world of organ playing and composition by the organ builder Aristide Cavaille-Colle. Young Chuck got appointed in 1870 as a provisional organist at the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris, the premier gig for French organists. Art?
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| The monster in question |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtj300j129k
The link to a Youtube clip of it. And proof, lest it be needed, that organ music is not necessarily creepy. Pay heed Darling Daughter!
Quickly! Move silently upstairs without turning the lights on, as this means you will be out of eyeshot of the zombies. I hope you followed my advice on painting the interior of the windows with white paint, as otherwise you're going to have to sit in the dark.
"The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories”
This has
been mostly quite entertaining, apart from the story by Henry James, that was
indeed terrifying. Terrifyingly dull –
I gave up several pages in and have no desire to return to it in any way, shape
or form, not for as long as I live. So
if you see me reading “The Others” then it’s not me and an evil shape-shifting alien
has taken my place.**
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| Mostly readable |
The other story (do you see what I – O you
do) that’s a flop is one with a bizarre title in Latin, “Et In Sempiturnum
Pereant” by Charles Williams, and I really don’t know what to make of it. There’s a road that takes forever to travel
along, and a cottage with no fire but a smoking chimney, and a thin man, and
lots of smoke. The consensus on teh
interwebz is that it’s an analogy for Hell, although your humble scribe
considers it merely as confusing as Hell, and will not be looking to find
anything else ever written by Mr. Williams.
So there.
Well, we appear to be at count, so I shall leave it there.
* Or is it just me?
** That is, another alien even more evil than I. Just so we're clear.
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