Talking Rhubarb

No!  This Post Is Not About Sentient Vegetables
I've boosted the Wyndham estate's royalties quite enough by going on about triffids, thank you very much.  I'm less sure if the "Spitting Devil's Cabbage" from the Strugatsky Brother's 'Roadside Picnic' is sentient or not - though from the sound of it you definitely don't want to make salads with it - and the Broccoloids were both silly and vulnerable.  Art?

Delicious with butter

     No, what I want to discuss is rhubarb itself.  The legend has it that extras in film and television merely recite the word whilst they are in the background, so that they are not taxed with making idle conversation, yet their lips move, causing the Willing Suspension Of Disbelief.
     Here an aside, which just came to me.  A "Rhubarb" was RAF slang for a cross-Channel ground-attack mission during the Second Unpleasantness, before Occupied Europe was rendered Un-Occupied.  Not sure where the derivation comes from, although we can work on it.  Art?

Thunderbolts by name, and by nature

     Okay, back to the vegetable.  It's definitely not a fruit, so let's call it a root.  Is that okay?  Thank you so much!  And we are again inspired by John Robertson's "Poison Garden" website, which we linked to yesterday.  Again, we need a picture.  Art!

Delicous.  BUT DEADLY!

     Normally you we humans eat the stem of the plant, and Conrad recalls having a very nice Rhubarb and Ginger Jam once upon a thyme, back when he could guzzle sugar all day long and not worry about diabetic coma.  This is fair enough, but what you may not know is that the leaves of this plant are highly toxic, and if you are unwise enough to nosh on them, then you may be dead within the hour (although you'd need to scarf quite a few).  There are no reports on what the leaves taste like, although since raw rhubarb is exceedingly sour they are unlikely to be a gourmet's delight.
     This is not where the story ends, however.  O no!  Art?

Volgograd, on the Volga River

     You see, the name "Rhubarb" is derived from the Greek original, which was "Rheon Barbaron", and our Ruffian readers are not going to be happy, since this means "From the barbarous lands of Rha", or that region of the earth which includes the Volga river.
     I'm sorry, I simply couldn't resist the mellifluousness of that phrase, "The barbarous lands of Rha".  It sounds like something out of 'Game of Thrones'.

Iwan Rheon.  Scary coincidence.

     Oh, and don't forget - always use the politically-approved and contemporary "Volgagrad" for that particular city; calling it "Stalingrad" is a bit of a faux pas.*
     Right, time to challenge the motley to a hard-boiled egg competition against the clock and see who can neck 15 the fastest!

"Field of Fire" By Jack Swaab
Yet another book I am reading, the difference being that I don't own this one, it's a library book and it has to be back by 30/10/18, so it takes precedence.  There are one or two interesting coincidences present in the pages, the first one being mention of the "Weasel" or M29.  As you recall this was covered in BOOJUM! not too long ago.  Jack describes how he needs an M29 to tow his Jeep out of deep snow, as the Weasel is the only thing that can negotiate such bad going.  Art?

South Canadians not Highlanders but you get the drift

     For such a small vehicle it had a lot of heart.
     Second coincidence is his regiment's being based for several months, on and off, in the Dutch town of 's Hertogenbosh, because this is where I spent a summer many years ago.  Well, a pickled onion factory on the outskirts, which is practically the same thing.  Art?

Den Bosch, as the locals call it

     
Here's One For The Tourists -
Your humble scribe is now Official Dogsitter for the next two weeks, which will be an experience for both Edna and Conrad.** Last time I was an O.D. I was still working at Arndale House in Manchester, meaning dropping Edna off at sister-in-law's before bombing into Manchester in the Murder-Mobile.

No, Art, you bafoon!

     This time I am still Working From Home, so no mad dash is required.  Instead Madam and myself will need to accomodate her Being Most Sinfully And Wilfully Neglected By The Wicked Human, as I cannot process e-forms and e-mails single-handedly whilst petting a dog on my lap.  We shall learn, I suppose.  
     Meanwhile, here is a photograph of Edna enjoying a brief sojourn in the autumn afternoon.  Art?

Edna spots a crow -

*  Although Tsar Putin is probably a bit ambivalent about it.
**  Me, in case you were unclear.