The Taste Of Triumph

Which Is Not To Be Confused With 
 - the triumph of taste, since good taste here at BOOJUM! is a rara avis indeed, and we'd probably not recognise it if it did turn up; and if it did turn up we'd probably eat it accompanied by water biscuits and cream cheese with chives.
     Anyway, what I'd like to concentrate on this morning is my majestic triumph at Pub Quiz.  Yes, this goes back to Thursday; however, leaving it this long means it's no longer a Current Affairs issue, as you know we here try to avoid that sort of thing.

The pub in question

     So, let us review the questions and answers, as I sincerely doubt I'll do this well again and I am reluctant to let an opportunity to do some gloasting slip by.

The Panoply Of Pub Quiz
17)  Trees felled in which season make the best log cabins?
My  answer = Spring, which was wrong, apparently it's Winter.  Oh well.
(No illustration as I got it wrong)
20)  The Welsh Grand National is held at Aintree - True or False?
My answer (actually Phil's since he is the sporting expert) - False

Something to do with horses, I believe

7) "Because I'm worth it" is the advertising slogan for whom?
My answer (actually Rosie's answer since Your Humble Scribe knows absolutely nil about perfumes) = L'Oreal.

Smellies et al

4)  In the comedy television series "Little Britain", Lou pushes the wheelchair - True or False?
My answer = True, which was complete guesswork.

But still a point!
(The slightly creepy Lou, with Andy in the (un-necessary?) wheelchair

16) The Goldeneye, Koh-I-Noor and a bunch of other stuff I didn't have time to note down so you'll just have to imagine them - are what?
My answer = diamonds.  This one I knew.

Allotropic carbon

5)  Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General came to a sticky end, in that he was hung.  True or False?
My answer, again guesswork = True.  And it was!

Obviously, before colour printing

14)  Which U.S. state's name is derived from the word "Snow"?
My answer, again actually Phil's since he took Latin in school, was "Nevada".  Derives from the latin for snow, which is "Nevis".

Snow?  In Nevada?

6)  The 1994 World Cup Final was held in France.  True or False?
My Answer, once again courtesy Phil, = False.  As if I'd know the slightest thing about ballfoot!
8) Cleopatra died after being bitten by a cobra.  True or false?
My answer, which I knew knew knew, was False. 'Twas an asp did her in.

About the most SFW I could find.
(The others were all Elizabeth Taylor baring cleavage"

     I think that's enough of my gloasting for one morning.  Too much of it can stir folks to jealousy.  Don't worry, you will most certainly be getting the balance of the Q and A, and probably tomorrow.
     Now, motley, the fire brigade need to test their special ultra-high powered pump for dealing with high-rise fires, and they need a test subject, so we volunteered you.  Yes, naked.  The water temperature?  Well, it was standing outside all night long in that tank so about one degree above freezing?


"Obeisance"
Yes, another whinge about the Codeword compilers in the MEN.  Not on my behalf, of course - I am so enormously clever that of course I get them all correct all the time - but I don't like to think of the poor unfortunates out there who have to cheat and look at the answer pages. That is - er - I was told there are answer pages.  Not that I've ever seen them, so I wouldn't really know <thinks - quick, change subject!>
     What does it mean?  To be deferential to; tugging the forelock; bending the knee, that sort of thing.  From Old French, ultimately, and "Obei", meaning exactly what you think it means.  Art?
       




The Battle Of The Build-Up
For Yes!  We are back to the subject of Normandy post 06/06/1944, and yet another reason why the Teuton hordes didn't manage to overwhelm the Allies in the long aftermath of the landings.
     Let us wheel on the Allies' secret weapon.  Art?

Herr Schickelgruber, take a bow!*

     By this time in the war, Herr Schickelgruber was a borderline junkie, getting stuffed full of various pills and potions in order to keep going.  Typically, he would keep conferring with all his minions on matters of incredible detail until almost dawn, then retire to sleep the day away, before getting up in the evening to repeat the process.  As "The Longest Day" notes, on D-Day itself he was irrecoverably in the land of Nod, having taken a sleeping pill, and thus had 0% influence on the sway of things.  Had his lickspittles and toadies dared to wake him, one shudders to think of the decisions he would have made in his semi-stuporous state.**

How to scare cats the Herr Schickelgruber way!

     One of his less sensible decisions in Normandy was to have the Wehrmacht fight bitterly for every inch of ground, making the battle an attritional slog.  This was great for the South Canadians, who could afford it - Perfidious Albion rather less keen.  However, it also meant the Allies fought for weeks under the gunfire umbrella of their warships offshore, such as HMS Warspite.  Art?

"Someone on the receiving end was about to have the bad hair day to end all bad hair days."

     The only protection against a half-ton artillery shell howling in from the above was not to be around when it landed, or you were dog-food.  Thanks to Herr Schickelgruber, this kind of endurance test went on for weeks, when the Teutons could have simply traded space and pulled back.
     Nor is that all. O no!  When the Teutons should have dug in and held on grimly, why, Ol' Schick decided it was time for mobile warfare again, which ended up with the battle of the Falaise Pocket and the destruction of the Teuton army in France, bar what could scuttle away over the Seine.
     "Der Grosser Fuhrer Alle Zeine" is a Nazi fanboy phrase the faithful used to describe Ol' Schick: "The Greatest Leader of All Time".  Yes, indeed - but for which side?***

Berlin 1945: a whole city as a fixer-upper

    
     Having hit the ton, I think it time to sit back and look at the City of Grey out of the office windows for a while, and to ponder on the intimations of human mortality.


     Later!








*  Do you see wh - O you do.  Never mind.
**  "Invade Atlantis!  Don't argue, I'm the Fuhrer!  I'm infallible!" <falls over chair>
*** There was a rather grim, not to mention treasonous joke about this.  The war over, Hitler crawls from the wreckage of the Reich Chancellory and salutes the nearest Allied soldier, stating:  "British agent Z14652 reporting in - mission complete!"