Top 10? Not Again!

Recall Yesterday
That shouldn't be too hard, unless you've already been at the cooking sherry, in which case there is no hope for you.*
     Yesteryon I went banging on about an Alan Moore comic creation entitled "Top 10", the concept behind which is that, in the city of Netropolis, everyone has a superpower.  The comic dealt with the gallant police of Precinct 10, who have to deal with the crimes and criminals that result from such a reality.  Art?

Sic

     I don't apologise for revisiting in detail, because I wanted to whet your appetite as mine had been.  Imagine my sorrow when I ambled into Travelling Man and enquired about it.  Not only did they not have any copies of same - it's now out of print.  So they couldn't even order me a copy <sad face>.  Nor was that all.  Remember "Low"?

Thus

     That valiant chap behind the counter did his stuff and declared that Issue 23 hadn't yet been published; once it has, then Issues from 19 to 23 will come out as a trade paperback, probably in the autumn.  So, whilst I might be able to find Top 10 on Abebooks or E-bay, there's no short-cut for Low.
     So there we have it.  Or, rather, don't have it.
     Now, motley, we are going to duck-tape you to the bottom of this Challenger tank and see how long it keeps you in place whilst the assault course is traversed!


"Passchendaele" By Nick Lloyd
Ol' Nick a touch too sanguine about how victorious the Teutons were, methinks.  Their experience at Third Ypres (the official name) was just as ghastly as the British & Commonwealth one, and they had less to show for it afterwards.  The whole campaign was thoroughly hated by the Teuton stubble-hoppers, thanks to the ever-present mud and equally present British artillery.  Art?

A vista of mud

     An endless rotation of German divisions went through the salient, arriving, getting chewn up over a few days and then rotated out again, with many divisions having to endure the process twice.  One unfortunate division - not named and I would need to do a lot of digging to find out which - went through the salient three times.  In this case, three times definitely not a charm.  This cumulative wear and tear on the German army meant it was never the same again.
     One statistic that Ol' Nick uses with effect concerns the amount of artillery ammunition consumed by the Teutons.  Before Third Ypres they considered firing off eight trainloads of ammunition as a heavy expenditure.  On one day in September they fired off thirty trainloads, and if we assume that Perfidious Albion was firing back twice as much, that's ninety trainloads of shells fired in one day.

One of the guilty parties

     I shall forbear coming up with my own conclusion as Nick hasn't reached his own, yet, so we shall be polite and wait until finished, which won't take long.
     The literary equivalent, one feels, of a trainwreck: horrible but fascinating.
    
For Your Information, I am taking a time-out from The Metro's Cryptic Crossword, as there are still 3 clues left that I haven't got.  This means leaving well alone until the older mental constructs associated with all three have decayed due to time, as the only way to solve them is to go in without a pre-conceived notion.


     Which worked (words written an hour later) 

Conrad gloating in exultation.
(Trust me, this is as smiley as he gets)

Aha!  I Found The Quote -
You know, the one from Syndrome, when he's indulging in a whole lot of gloating and boasting (and not coming over especially well).  Let us have it exactly -

And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. *Everyone* can be super! And when everyone's super...

[laughs maniacally]

Syndrome: ...*no one* will be.

     You know, for someone so intelligent, Syndrome can be exceedingly dim at times.  I say this because I have been giving some serious thought to this very issue.  Art?

Matey, about to be minced.

     First of all, can you imagine governments across the world allowing his inventions to be sold freely?  Governments take a dim view of their common citizenry at the best of times; a citizenry awash with superpowers would challenge for control of the country, even if they were well-intentioned.
     However, governments are also venal, grasping, greedy entities that love to wallow in money above all else, even more than a bacon sandwich.  So there will be limited access to the Syndrome SuperPower  Suite.  But!  There will be Rules.


     1)  Age restrictions.  Nobody under 21.  Full stop.  No arguing.
     2)  Do you have a criminal record?  Then no.  In fact, if you even squint at the SSS, you will rapidly decorate the inside of a prison cell.
     3)  Innovative pricing structure!  meaning prices begin at an arbitrary £10,000.  And that's the lowest cost, for <thinks> a pair of Syndrome SuperPower Shark Shoes.**

Syndrome SuperPower Shark Suit: a steal at £150,000

     4)  Police vetting.  You will need to fill out 87 forms and have the Police examine your life with microscopic care, for months and months.
     5)  All SSS equipment must be handed back to The Authorities when the owner reaches 60.
     6)  Annual mental health testing.
     7) Entrapments.  Just to test you and see what you really get up to with your Syndrome SuperPower RhinoMan Suit.***


     As you can see, Ol' Syn's naïve belief that his highly dangerous technology will be "vended about like cordials" is spectacularly misplaced.
     Of course, I could be overthinking this ...


Finally -
Personally, I found that the last episode of GoT last night was a bit too cheerful, happy and laughy for it's own good.  How lucky am I that we ought to now have access to the third episode of "Chernobyl", which is a stern corrective for anyone with a positive world view.  The most horrifying thing about it, though it is a dramatic reconstruction, is that the events it is based on are very, very real.

The immediate aftermath

     Part of the problem was the Sinister mindset: "It's Sinister technology being run by Sinister scientists, so it is, by default, perfect and infallible" and then twisting reality to fit this view.
     I know that sounds a bit like Politics <hack!  spit!> but it's from the mid-Eighties, which makes it History.
     We may will come back to this.

Here to cheer you up.

*  Given that it is 07:30 in the morning.
**  I've no idea what they do, but - they do sound cool, don't they?
***  Is there really such a thing?

I had to ask, I had to ask ...