A Rush To Judgement

I Do Apologise!
Conrad is aware that "Sorry!" is the default state of all whom live in the Pond Of Eden.  If you tread on another person's toes = "Sorry!"  If you swerve across 23 lanes of traffic and tailgate into a courier with 23 kidneys for despatch to 11 orphans  = "Sorry!"  Should you bin all 100% of today's shop = "Sorry!"  And if you accidentally trigger World War 3 and the end of civilisation as we know it - "Really sorry!"

"Ooops!" would also work

     And, coming back to this Intro the next morning, I have no idea what it was going to lead to.  No idea.  What was I thinking last night?  Again, no idea <sighs>.  The mind can be a funny place at times, especially your own.
     Er - sorry!

More Of TANK
We continue with our look at Jonathan Parshall's incisive analysis of armoured fighting vehicle (which is what tankies say when trying to sound intellectual) production during the Second Unpleasantness, this time focussing on the Sinisters.  As he pointed out, when the Teutons invaded the Sinister Union, a lot of tank production facilities were lost in the lands that got over-run.  Being pragmatic, the Sinisters upped and moved whatever they could ahead of their uninvited guests arriving, railroading whole factories out east to the Urals.

An Ural mountain

     Faced with a sea, if not an ocean, of troubles, the Sinisters did some scholarly analysis of their tank's life expectancy, calculating that a tank lasted for, at most, 6 months.  If in action then that lifespan shrank to 14 hours.  This explains the extraordinarily slapshod way their tanks were put together - why bother with high-quality time-consuming workmanship if your tank's going to be on the scrapheap in a week or two?

Oops!  Sorry!

     If you remember Conrad's insensate warblings of yesteryon, then you recall it took the South Canadians 10,000 man-hours to build a Sherman tank.  "Wow! That's so many hours!" I hear you exclaim.  Hmmm.  Our Sinister friends got their T34s built in 35,000 man-hours, and that was a big improvement on the original 50,000 man-hours.  Remember these numbers!*

BOOJUM! Reviews Films
Which we've not done for a while. In case you are new here, or have a short attention span, I shall remind you that we here at the blog have our own - ah - style of reviews.  If you want accurate, nuanced, quality reviews then O My! are you in the wrong place.  Conrad only goes by the film title and is generally quite abusive and horrid to the unfortunate objects of his scorn and loathing.  Let the mockery begin!

"The Grinch": Conrad understands that the Grinch is a Doctor Seuss creation, who objects VERY VERY STRONGLY to Christmas.This instantly puts him in my good books and renders him a role model for the ages.  Three cheers for the Grinch!  I expect sequels at Easter, Halloween and Bonfire Night, thank you very much.

                                          Why two of them?  Because I can, and it's my blog.
"Robin Hood": What, another one?  They've been making fillums about this chap since the dawn of cinema.  Conrad cannot personally see the appeal.  He has, however, seen the trailer for this farrago at the cinema and was not impressed, as it seems to be pitched at attention-deficient twelve year olds with aspirations to be professional idiots.  Avoid.

This one makes all others redundant

"Nativity Rocks": Oh, it does, does it?  Very well, Nativity, I'll tell you what.  I rock, too.  Yes, indeed, and I have a large box of those very same rocks here, WHICH I AM GOING TO THROW AT YOUR HEAD.

How to get stoned.  In a manner of speaking.

     If any casting directors are reading this, you've got your next Grinch right here.

Pork Bellies
How odd, the things that pop up in one's mind.  Like "Pork Bellies", which your humble scribe seemed to recall had an acquaintance with the stock market, and which he hadn't explored any further.
     It seems that bacon is derived from pork bellies; bet you didn't know that.  Also, the South Canadian market for bacon is wildly seasonal, since it gets much more popular during the summer barbecue season, and is eaten far less in winter.

The raw material itself.

     So, to counter this volatility, meat traders used to buy up pork bellies and freeze 'em, as they could be kept this way for up to a year.  They were traded in "Units" that massed 18 tons each, which is an awful lot of bacon butties.
     Sadly for the pork belly commodity market, South Canadian tastes changed and bacon fell out of flavour - do you see wh - O you do - as trendy gubbins like quinoa took over, and it was de-listed on the stock exchange in 2011 as nobody was trading in them any more.

"Phew!"

     And there we shall leave it for today.

*  There won't be a quiz, but it might save your life.