From Dead Dog To Red Dog

And Pretty Close to Sled Dog
No! This is nothing to do with The Mansion's four-footed mobile alarm system, Edna Wunderhund.  Rather, it is a tortuous pun on that dreadfully unfunny Disney hound, and the proud discovery of Clyde Tombaugh back in 1937.  
     Pluto.
     You may not be up to the minute on contemporary astronomy, so I'm not going to be gentle or subtle about it:  Pluto is no longer a planet.

NO!  Dog Buns, Art, must you be so melodramatic?

     Apologies for our resident Neanderthal's tendency to exaggerate.  What I meant is, Pluto no longer has the status of a planet, even if the definition of "A Planet" is surprisingly difficult to nail down.  Pluto comes under the heading of a "Planetismal" which you can render in South Canadian argot as "Planet-lite" or in Perfidious Albion's vernacular, "Planetidgy".
     Here's the thing.  Pluto is a frighteningly long way off, at what we consider the limits of the Solar System, which has meant very little was known about it for decades.  There is only so much magnification a telescope can provide, after all.  Art?

Spot Pluto

     If all you have to go on is a small white blob, there's not a lot to say.  Sir Patrick Moore, one of the Truly Great Englishmen, tellingly described Pluto as "dead" back in the Fifties, and he had every reason to believe this.
     However.  Sir Pat made his quote in 1955, before Sputnik had even lofted.  We now have robotic probes that can, in real life, perform what would have been described as "science fiction" in 1955.*
     I have more to say on this subject, but don't want to bore you - BOOJUM! stays on-topic with all the regularity of a flea on a griddle ten yards across - so I shall end this particular post with a more recent photograph of Pluto than Clyde's above.  Art?

There you go

BOOJUM! Reviews Films
As we are wont to do, all your humble scribe bothers to do is take a quick squint at a poster on the side of a (late) First Bus as it hurries dawdles by, and makes it up from there.  If you want a proper film review, then you are on the wrong continent entirely.  Go chase up that Kermode chap, he's quite good.**

"Hereditary": Hmmm.  Well now.  I judge from the colour palette alone that this is going to be sombre in tone, and - Hay Pesto!  - what do we have but an allusion to another film, that horror one which used Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' to effect.  I shan't tell you which one because THAT WOULD BE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THEIR HANDS! and we can't have that.  Conrad is always highly suspicious of films that try to foster an audience by comparing themselves to another film.  Treat with wariness.

Now this - this film is a horror

"Show Dogs": Really?  That's it?  What is this, a 90 minute orgy of nothing but clips of dogs being cute or naughty or both?  I have a dog of my own who provides such entertainment for free, thank you very much.

And here she is.  The proximity of food and dog is closely related

"Solo": Again I have to quibble and query.  In my lexicography, "solo" means "alone".  You know, one of.  Singular.  Why, I count at least three people on this poster on first examination alone <sighs> really, these people are perfectly capable of counting out their millions; why can't they apply the same intellect -
     - sorry?  What's that?
     Oh it's character.  I see.  
     You spoiled my rant.   Go very far away very quickly!

I didn't count the Wookie.
(I'm so bad)

You What?
Some people, it seems, have more money than sense and less sense than tents, for Lo! what did I discover on Facebook but a very worrying advert.  Art?

     This thing is put across as an "inflatable tent" which allows the purchaser to "camp out in the water".  
     There are just one or two issues that your humble scribe has with it, however.
     Firstly, there's no mention or sign of an anchor.  So, you float your tent out onto the river at night - which I admit is an excellent way to avoid the zombie hordes - in the quiet waters of a placid stream, and wake at midnight, as you buck a set of deadly whitewater rapids ...
     Secondly, there's no mention or sign of nor positions for anything like oars.  So, if you survive the night, how do you get back to shore?  "A healthy morning swim comes as standard" is not what I'd expect to hear.
     Then there's the price.  £937 for a raft with a roof?  Water joke.***




*  Some traditionalists would have said "witchcraft" and insisted NASA be purged with fire.
**  And is also a big fan of the Comsat Angels, which will keep him out of the uranium mines when I take over.
***  Aaand that's the "bad pun" part of our Facebook description done.