Sugar And War

Or, What I Bought Today
Hmmm.  If you follow BOOJUM! with any regularity then you know your humble scribe is ever mocking people who post pictures of what they had for lunch on social media.  After all, who's interested in a cheese and ham baguette?  Call me when you dine on coal garnished with hydrofluoric acid and broken bottles, washed down with hydrazine.*
     This is by way of a tangential admission that I do something broadly analogous: posting pictures of Books That I've Bought.  But but but!  How can you not fail to be fascinated by books?

Biblioporn

     Here an aside.  I have recently ordered the last text volume missing from my "Official History of the War: Military Operations"'s first printing:  Volume IV of "The Campaign in Mesopotamia".  This means I need to ponder whether to continue and get the Appendices, too, because - er - because I am a completist?  Then there are the extra volumes published in the late Eighties, not forgetting the mapsets.  After I've completed whatever I decide to collect there's still the "Official History of the War: Air Operations".

Mr Edmonds, what wrote lots of 'em

     Where was I?  O yes, my haul of today.  Art?

Ooopsie.

     Okay, that pink volume is The Hummingbird Bakery's "Home Sweet Home" recipe book.  I already have one of their books, and the recipes are somewhat more elaborate and complicated than other recipe books, although the end justifies it.
     I nearly missed "War of the Century" because only the spine was visible, and the price label sat squarely on the "W", meaning I initially thought it was going to be about "Cars".
     It's based on a television series of 20 years ago, which Conrad not only watched, he taped and watched many a time subsequently.  The subject matter is unremittingly grim, and a stern example of what evil humanity can inflict upon itself.  Stalin also comes out of it smelling like an ocean of ordure.  Hitler by definition probably couldn't have a worse reputation, unless we discover his secret Puppy-Torturing Diaries.

Adolf, how could you!

     Dog Buns!  I am typing this whilst lying on the bed and Jenny is trying to walk on my keyboard and obscure the view.  Time, I think, to take her downstairs and investigate what supplies of beer we have.
     Okay, motley, take this grenade with the pin removed and keep it - YOU LET GO AND IT'S NOW ARMED WITH A THREE-SECOND FUSE!**

What Happened Next?
An anecdote from "The 18th Division in the Great War", which is what they used to call it back in the day as an Event Of Great Magnitude, not because they really thought it was terrifically wonderful and all.
     So, it is mid-1918 and the armies of Perfidious Albion are poised to capture the city of Albert and surrounding towns, which includes Marcelcave.

Marcelcave 1918: a fixer-upper and then some

     A solitary French woman is caught by the HQ staff of the 7th Queen's, lurking close to the British lines, where she was absolutely forbidden to be.  Apparently her sick mother was in Marcelcave, and she had to get there to visit her.  She had a pass, but no papers; when searched she was found to have 700 francs on her, and Marcelcave was behind the Teuton lines.   She was taken by a clerk to the French and he had to keep a literal hand on her all the way there, as she tried to escape at every opportunity.
     Neither the 7th Queen's nor the 18th Division found out what happened to her.  Conrad, however, can make a pretty good guess: she was executed as a spy.  The M8s are pretty ruthless in wartime, as I have said, and they operated on the principle of Better Safe Than Sorry, which means there's no 'presumed innocent', just 'guilty' and 'really, really guilty'.

Mata Hari gets the chop.  It's not the 7th Queen's spy, but you get the idea.

Revisiting Rivendell
Yus, the big fat old man (with impeccably trimmed hair, mind) has been re-watching "The Fellowship of the Ring", which can be said to have come of age in 2019, seeing as it was made 18 years ago.  It made £550 million at the box office, and heaven only knows what that total is now, what with DVD sales and streaming and television rights.  Part of my reason for re-watching is that it was all filmed in New Zealand, and my Pub Quiz partners are headed down that way, as Rosie's brother lives amongst the Polite Australians.  The production team's location scouts were busy, competent people: you wouldn't believe the differing types of landscape they found in what is a rather small island nation.

Pippin: brave but very stupid.

     I don't really have anything profound to say about it, only that it's great fun and transcribes a lot of Tolkein's work very creditably.   

     Well, I think that's enough words of wonder for tonight.  I do have pizza and beer to finish in front of Edna, after all.  No!  I'm not taunting her - I'm teaching her <thinks> self-restraint.  Yeah, self-restraint.


*  That is, your surviving family can do so.
**  I'm lying - it's a dummy training grenade.  Tee hee!