A Ragout And Out Success

Yes Indeedy, For I Am Greedy
But we all knew that already, didn't we?
     It is a small custom of Conrad's that, when he has been abandoned by the rest of the family for a protracted period, he cooks up something hearty in the slow cooker, and yesterday I did a Ragout, hence the title.  Art?

The evidence

     You don't really get a sense of scale there, as it's a whacking bit crock pot, but there's enough stuff in there to satisfy six people, or two Conrads.  I had it last night and jolly tasty it was, too, with Edna gazing longingly at every forkful as it travelled from plate to mouth.
     Winter weather food, you could describe it, and you'd be right, as our climate here in the Pond of Eden has once again reverted to type: high winds, rain and ten-tenths cloud cover.  I hope we get a window of at least Not Raining this afternoon, as I am honour-bound to take Edna walkies and it's a pain to try and towel her reluctant self dry after an excursion in an immersion.

Thursday, absent rain

     Enough about my cooking activities!  Well, almost enough: Facebook was taunting me earlier this morning with a post from 5 years ago, proudly displaying an iced cake I baked THAT I CANNOT HAVE.  Thank you Facebook, thank you so much.
     A little more about me.  Normally on a Saturday morning I lie abed until late in the morning, then slob around in dressing gown for an hour before shambling downstairs to make breakfast and a pot of tea.  Not so at present, for I have Dog Alarm Clock to get me up.  Which is a good thing, since it allows me to makes more of the morning.*

Kind of

     Wow, Edna was very fast asleep - she missed her chance to bark at the postie!  I shall just go see what's been delivered, which means the motley gets off scot-free today.

More Of "Where Eagles Dare"
You know, the film follows the novel pretty closely.  Both also move along with sufficient speed that you don't notice some liberties being taken with reality and plotting.
     Early on, Admiral Rolland, the head of MI6, makes a rather gloomy statement about some random intelligence glitches and then bewails that the Teutons have completely penetrated Allied Intelligence.  Art?

The lugubrious-looking admiral

     This is where we part company with reality.  Ol' Al is making this up out of whole cloth.
     "Tell us why, Conrad, tell us why, for you have piqued our interest!" I hear you cry.
     Oh, go on then.
     The sad fact for Teuton espionage was that their pre-Unpleasantness network in Perfidious Albion was totally and immediately rounded up on the day war broke out.  Done.  Dusted.  MI5 not sleeping on the job at all.  After that, they tried to smuggle various agents into the Pond of Eden, who were either immediately caught and executed due to their bungling incompetence (yes, really), or who were immediately caught and hastily agreed to become double-agents, or who cocked a snook at the Teutons and went voluntarily to the Brits.  There were no Teuton agents on British soil who did not work for the "Twenty Committee", feeding back utter bodge to their supposed masters.

Yeah, that

     Sorry for destroying your image of the Sinister Super-Spy, and incidentally shooting down Ol' Al.
     The situation vis-a-vis Perfidious Albion was rather the opposite - they had people queuing up to spy for them, all across occupied Europe, and there were the odd Teutons who would do the same.
     Of course, I may be over-thinking this .....

The Stargazer Fish
Ah, how tender and romantic that sounds, eh?  To paraphrase, we are all of us in the water, but some of us are looking at the stars.  
     Not, however, to be confused with 'Stargazy Pie", which is a completely different kettle of - er - fish.  Art?

The pie in question

     I believe it's so-called because the fish-heads are all looking upwards and outwards, or perhaps because they're arranged in a star-formation?
     Anyway, back to the Stargazer Fish.  Doubtless you have visions of some limpid piscine portrait of pulchritude.
     WRONG!  Art?

Your stare is more skeletal than starry, mate.

     These horrid little things are ambush predators that will leap out at their prey from their hide on the seabed.  They also have poison spines, and a few species can also electrocute their prey, for the full trifecta of terror.  Thankfully they are indeed little, or a considerable number of paddlers would be missing hands and feet.

Shocking.

     I think these have future potential as motley-molesters.  How glad I am to have found them!

<looks out of window, weather still grim, makes apologetic eyes at Edna>

Speaking Of Whom -
I do beg your indulgence, as this bit of BOOJUM! has a prospective audience of one; two at best.  That being those who are not able to be here, since they are off skimming o'er the briny deeps in the Caribbean. 

<looks out of window, weather still grim, frowns with touch of envy.  Edna sound asleep>

     Anyway, the little scamp expects Your Humble Scribe to drop everything and play with her when she feels like it, which is both pretty frequent and intrusive.  Art?

     That is a stout ball of cotton rope, with a short handle attached.  It used to be a long handle, until - teeth.  This is actually quite an easy game to play - as long as you can catch the rope, as madam often dances out of the way - since all you have to do is sit there and do the tug-of-war.  My patience and arm strength can manage for five minutes, unlike madam, who would happily go on for twenty.

Finally - 
We only need a short article here to hit the ton <thinks> - ah!  How about another weird aircraft?  The Horten Flying Wing.  Art?
              
                                    Theory                                                               Reality
     The Ho229 was intended as a light bomber, then as an emergency fighter, and was jet powered.  The Wehraboos witter on about it's war-winning wonder weapon abilities, such as how it was the first stealth bomber, and it's performance, etcetera, etcetera.
     In fact testing showed it had no stealth characteristics at all, only three were built, of which one was an un-powered glider, one crashed and fatally injured the pilot, and the third was acquired by South Canadians before it got finished.
     Still, it does look odd.

The remains of V3

*  If I repeat this a lot I may come to believe it.