<pauses to wait for polite appreciative applause, hears only silence, moves on, crushed>
The real-life background to the literature of Charles Dickens.
Wow! I sound like a proper literary critic and all. Watch out that I don't throw in a few pseudy terms as well -
Anyway, back to "Martin Chuzzlewit", because we left off yesterday after I had laboured at length to build up a mise en scene from that novel.
The real Eden |
Here an aside. Ol' Chas thought he was merely poking fun at the South Canadians, which he was, though his "fun" could get a bit peppery at times when commenting on slavery. The South Canadians did not remotely appreciate his mild satirical confection and were much given to wrathful responses, proving that they can dish it out, but can they take it?
Angry American (Badger) |
It isn't New Orleans, quite, as the maps above prove, yet our city of interest was indeed on the borderlands of the South, hence today's title. Cairo lived or died at the whim of the Mississippi or Ohio Rivers, and since it was only barely above sea level, it died pretty frequently. Not until a levee was built around the whole town, a good 30 years after it had been founded, did the risk of being drowned become less of a threat than taxes. After a brief heyday when it serviced river traffic, Cairo has now sunk into a terminal decline, and seems to be regarded as a ghost town.
Close enough |
No noisy neighbours |
Okay, time to see if the motley can escape a pack of Robot Attack Squirrels!
Here a brief aside. The original post of "The Big Queasy" suffered a formatting failure this morning when I re-opened it, so I had to copy the whole thing and paste it here, into a new Queasy. So - you are reading a clone ...
150 Years Of The Periodic Table
This was a couple of days ago, though here at BOOJUM! we laugh at clocks, and calendars, and other such time-corseting nonsense, so you'd better just suck it up and pay attention.
The Periodic Table!
The rascal in question |
Dmitri, being all Mendelevy (Surname probably a derivation from "Almond") |
Anyway, back to the periodic table. Conrad can recite quite a few of them there elements without resorting to a key -
Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Chlorine, Argon, Potassium, Calcium, Scandium, Titanium, Vanadium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Gallium, Germanium, Astatine, Selenium, Bromine, Krypton, Rubidium, Strontium, Yrconium, Zirconium, Niobium, Molybdenum, Technetium, Ruthenium, Rhenium, Palladium, Silver, Cadmium, Indium, Tin, Antimony, Tellurium, Iodine and Xenon.
Those in red I looked up, but it's not bad going. I stopped there because otherwise you'd all be accusing me of padding the word count.*
Ferocious Fluorine! |
Badgers!
Conrad was unaware that there is a South Canadian - er - "version" of the badger that we in the Allotment of Eden love so much we make shaving brushes from their fur. I discovered this last night whilst constructing the early part of this screed. Art?
They're not wrong ... |
Calling that ball of fur, fangs and fury a "Badger" ought to be remedied with a little more punctuation, i.e. "BADger".
Dog Buns! The formatting problem has followed me e'en here, the swining software. Everything is dodging and dancing across the page.
Apparently the South Canadian badger does NOT make a good pet, being that they are known for their aggression, persistence, aversion to strangers, ability to dig out of penned enclosures, expensive to buy, smelly (related to the skunk, you know) and able to totally kill you.
"I owned a South Canadian badger" |
"I, too, own badgers. But the cuddly European variety" |
Finally -
Oh my days! (as the young folks here at work say). Last night I came across a couple of continuity errors in "Kelly's Heroes", which delighted my shrivelled little soul. During their set up for the attack on the Teuton garrison of Claremont, Crapgame and Willard are humping a .30 calibre Browning - with no ammunition belts or boxes.
The pair in question |
Evidence! |
* Which might be true. Or not.
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