A Word About Cross

I Was At A Loss
But first, an aside.  Yes, already!
     It is lunchtime on Saturday, and your humble scribe is watching Episode 5 of 'Lost In Space', so his creative output will probably be a little slowed.  That's not all; I am Working From Home, and so had better not get caught up in LiS and watch the whole episode before realising that lunch was over an hour ago -
     Anyway, back to the MEN's Codeword.  You know the thing I'm talking about; a crossword puzzle with no clues, only numbered squares, and you are given two letters to help you complete the whole thing.  Art?

Thus

     Now, it has long been an unwritten rule that the words are not too difficult, because doing all the logical selection, variation and alternatives for letters is hard enough.
     Until recently.  I grumbled about using "MILIEU" as a word - because it's French.  Then there was "OSTIA" - a Roman city and just barely passable in terms of history.  Latest bending OF the rules?  "OHMMETER", which should be hyphenated or two separate words entirely.  Plus, "FARO", which absolutely floored me  It was a card game popular about a hundred years ago - and I'm expected to know that? - or they meant the Portuguese city.  Neither of them exactly fair choices!
     There.  I've had my little rant and tant and feel much better for it.  Thank you for listening.

Your humble scribe, looking happy.

     Right, time to take that food out of the oven, and replace it with a foil-wrapped motley!*

More Of Giant Spiders
It's pretty easy to come up with an example of a Giant Spider As Villain - "Tarantula", anyone? - but a whole lot harder to come up with examples of Giant Spiders Being Good. 
     There was a species of giant alien spiders in 2000AD's 'Nemesis the Warlock' who were actually the good guys, but evidence of that is hard to find.  Art?


     That's about the best you're going to get.  
     Then there's Percival Goodbody, a giant talking spider who wears a natty bowler hat.  Art?

Thus

     He's actually a bit of a deadbeat, avoiding paying his child support, cheating at cards and pulling scams on other bar patrons.  Visible in "The Goon", that titanic masterpiece of mayhem and mischief by Eric Powell.
     You just wait, I bet the MEN Codeword tries it on with "Arachnophilia" in one of next weeks.

Astronomically Interesting - BUT WRONG!
I refer, of course, to E.E. Smith's 'Triplanetary', which has an opening of appropriate magnitude - two galaxies in collision -

"Hey - that's 'E. E. DOC Smith, sonny, and don't you forget it!"

     - oh - yes, quite.  As I was saying, our author has it that, before this collision, neither galaxy had more than a single planetary system present, and only the collision created them in the aftermath.
     Well, no.  We know that planets form by accretion around a sun, and our galaxy - absent any collisions - seems to have planets around every sun already.  Nor is our galaxy notably different from any others out there.

Art!  You bafoon -

     You can't be overly critical of Doc (happy now?) because even this amended version of the novel is 70 years old, which is 10 years before NASA was even a thing.
     You wait and see, I bet the MEN Codeword tries it on with "SYZYGY" next week.


Conrad, A-Musing
That is, thinking.  Of course, the end product of his musing might also be amusing, but that's not a given, and you can hardly describe your modest artisan as one who looks amusing; Conrad's grim visage is not designed for smiling (I refer you to my earlier photo above).
     You see, I have just been to see "The Incredibles 2" and it was a hoot and a holler.  It picks up exactly where the last one left off - you remember The Underminer?

About to break into song, it seems -

     I shan't spoil your potential enjoyment by giving away any plot details, for my real point was - why doesn't the Government have it's own superheroes?  Odd ones living here and there, or a whole task-force of various talents, all ready to fight crime and supervillains.  Because, whilst the streets of 'Municiberg' (the Incredibles' hometown) are free from superheroes, you cannot say that of supervillains.
     We may come back to this, but meanwhile - to the Vatmobile!  Somebody needs an emergency tax audit!

Finally -
Once again, in order for Facebook to make sense, I have to add in a bit of nonsense that doesn't necessarily fit in with the rest of this post.  So here are some hatchets -



Oh, and in case you're wondering, you're only getting one blog today, because once again I have been WFH, which rather eats the day up.



*  Don't worry, motleys love heat.