Intellectual Firepower

No!  Nothing To Do With Sentient A.I. ICBM-Controlling Software
Because that would be Skynet, and we know what kind of trouble that involved.  Judgement Day, Armageddon, World War Terminus,* rescindment of individual travel discount on public transport - all the big apocalyptic scenarios.
     What I mean is the deployment of lexographical resources, the better to solve crosswords.  Because, in the end, human civilisation will be defined by how it approached the Cryptic Solution.  Well, I like to think so.  Maybe it's just me.  Art?

In case I get stuck

     I obtained these on three different occasions, which is a good thing, because they weigh so much carrying them all simultaneously would stretch your arm.  The Brewer's edition is easily the most dangerous, because choosing an entry at random inevitably leads to looking up another, then another, and before you know it, 1:37 in the morning has rolled around.

In column formation
(ignore background clutter!)

     There is also the Geographica Atlas, which probably masses as much as that lot above all together, except it's not really good for crosswords.
     Now to see if the motley can outrun a bunch of Giant Carnivorous Snails!**I'm So Excited!
There is an interesting sidebar on the BBC's website that your humble scribe just had to have a look at, and Art will show you why - if he can put down his knife, fork and plate of coal -

How excellent!

     They list several species of sharks that we are going to be seeing off the shores of the Allotment of Eden, in one of the benefits of global warming.  If you read the article, take note that scientists still don't know why the Hammerhead's head is hammer-shaped.
     In a nice touch, the Beeb goes to great lengths to emphasise that Sharks Are Our Friends! by noting how massively unlikely you are to get et by a shark.  KILLER EELS! on the other hand ...

The Leach Trench CatapultThis is another rather unlikely-sounding and -looking weapon from the trenches manned by Perfidious Albion during the First Unpleasantness, which was much less likely to maim the user than the terrifying West Spring Gun (even the inventor lost a finger to his own ever-hungry beast).  Art?


     That's the best illustration I can find for this particular engine.  As you can see, it's more like a crossbow than a catapult; a retaining cup was winched back against the tension in two sets of giant rubber bands, a piece of infernal machinery placed in said cup, and the bands were released.
     It may look unlikely, yet this thing could propel a hand grenade for 200 yards when the elastic bands were new.  
     However ...

Bombarding the bally Bosche with bits of badness

     On occasion the piece of frightfulness placed in the cup was given a lot of spin, which caused it to hit the ground well short of the target - and then come back the way it had been sent, which is, frankly, not cricket.*** Or it might simply fall out of the cup; again, making for a sticky wicket.

Oops
Just read on that fount of all that's fit to read, the Beeb's website, that a canal boater accidentally left canal lock gates open behind them on Tuesday, causing a whole section of the Kennet Avon canal to empty.  Art?

Voila; one empty canal
(Note absence of cunningly aware KILLER EELS!)

What it should look like

     I did imagine it would take an age to fill again, given the parched and sere nature of the Allotment of Eden at the moment, but apparently it has since been refilled, which is quite impressive, since we are talking hundreds of tons of the dihydrogen monoxide (the scientis's gag name for water).
     Next time, sirrah, a little more attention and a little less haste.
Finally -
It is Wednesday, and has been so for a good sixteen hours.  Nothing very remarkable about that, only it is the evening where your humble scribe heads forth to the supermarkets and buys food.^
     Tonight in Morrisons I shall be perusing the produce shelves and chillers to see if they have any of that scarcest of fruit, the Purple Mangosteen.  Since mentioning it in passing I have now become quite curious about this particular fruit, so we shall see.
    I can imagine the looks of bafflement if your modest artisan enquires of nearby staff whether they stock it.

     "A what?"

     "Is that a kind of mango?"

     "Do you mean a tangerine?"

     "Mary had a little lamb.  Does that help?"

 - and so on.  Well, enough drivel from me.  Later!

On the scene with a mangosteen

*  A little "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep" homage there.
**  After we tie it's feet together.  Fair's fair.
***  Re-enactors tend to use cricket balls, because even an inert training grenade is made of metal.  Hard, cold unyielding metal.
^  Okay, and beer.  There.  Happy now?