The Laggard Was A Blaggard

To Coin A Phrase
I'm not quite sure why you would coin a phrase, rather than just run one off from your printer, or arrange to have one done in a 3D printer for extra gravitas.  The march of progress, I suppose; back before William Caxton got it on with his pressing engagement,* your average citizen would have associated physical instrumentalities of creation with things like coins.  Unless you go back before 10,000 B.C. and then you're talking about stone tablets.  Art?

Tablets of stone.  Take two with water for a headache.

     Here an aside.  Don't knock the humble stone tablet as a recording medium.  It has no moving parts, requires no electricity, does not degrade over time, can be used as a doorstop and a paperweight combined, and works entirely independently of any software operating system.  Of course, the fact that you needed a wheelbarrow to carry around the equivalent of a modest modern paperback rapidly led to the development of papyrus.**

Papyrus.  Made of reeds.
(Reeds Recruitment unavailable for comment)

     We appear to have veered somewhat off-course here.  What I intended to talk about was that old English term "blaggard".

As used by U.N.I.T.'s Special Scientific Advisor

     One of the very rare occasions it has been used in popular culture is indeed in the dramamentary 'Doctor Who", where The Doctor describes the Limehouse Lamia as a blaggard, a.k.a. " - some slavering gangrenous vampire".  So - blaggards are not highly regarded, at all.  Especially not in the Seventies, when The Doctor could say what he thought; nowadays he's probably have to buy it a cup of decaff latte and enrol it in mixed capoeira classes.

Capon-here-a.  Close enough.

     "Ah yes," I hear you uneasily query.  "Er - what are you on about?"
     Well, the transitory and developmental nature of English etymology.  Or, if you will, how words change over time.  To wit: blaggard.  This word is itself a derivation of "Blackguard', which word referred to those of a lowly station such as menials, camp followers, torchbearers and pot scrubbers.  Gradually it appears to have changed meaning from "dirty scruff" to "utter scoundrel" for reasons not yet clear.

A blaggard in black

     Now, if you were an unprincipled scoundrel, it's entirely possible that you never turn up for meetings at the expected time - you villain! - in which case you would also be a laggard.
     Hence today's title.  Well, we got there in the end.  Now, time to put a helmet on the motley, balance a grenade on top of that and pull the pin!

Once Again, An Illustration
An indication of the difference between cats and dogs.  I know, I know, dogs simply fawn on humans no matter what, whilst cats are certain that something has gone slightly wrong and it should be them running the world.  I'm making a clever and witty point here, okay?  
     So.  "Edna, go lie down on that pillow and be quiet."  Art

     Obedient dog does as told.  Whereas the cat - actually, where is the cat?  She's not in the kitchen, nor outside whinging to come back in, so - ah.  I see.  Art?

CATTEH AM TRIUMPHANT CATTEH OWN BED

     Quite.  'Catteh' wouldn't move, either.  No.  She just lay there, purring smugly.  Your humble scribe had to pick her up and carry her down to the kitchen or she'd be there yet.
We've Had Tablets, Now Let's Have Aglets
Yes indeedy Ally Sheedy.  Have you ever wondered what the little defining bits on the ends of shoelaces are called?   Art?

Thus

     Well, wonder no longer!  These are 'aglets', which prevent the ends of the laces from fraying and becoming messy and dirty.

The Moon In June
Don't worry, I shall not croon - that would make babies and dogs cry.  Instead, let me ask you if you are familiar with the Taurus-Littrow Valley?
     If any of you pikers reply "O yes, I went hiking there last summer", then I shall blast you with a thunderbolt! for this feature is a valley on the Moon.  Hence this post's title.  Art?

Not really much to attract tourists, hmm?

     It served as the landing site for Apollo 17 - and, again, if any swivel-eyed loonwaffles start to protest that 'we never went to the Moon' then I shall blast you with TWO thunderbolts! - back at the tail end of 1972.  Art?

Harrison Schmitt proudly showing off a rock

     Ol' Schmitt was actually a geologist first, who got trained as an astronaut in order to bring specialist expertise to the job.  There you go - another new factoid for you today.  I think a nice panorama of the TL Valley is in order.  Art?


Finally -
This will make more sense when I pimp things on Facebook later tonight.  Let's have a picture of some ships altogether, and I stress the plural there.  Art?

Yeah!

     I think that about wraps it up for today.  Now to go and attack a sandwich or two!
*  Do you see?  Do you see how desperately clever I am?
**  I'm guessing here.