The Morphology Of Eschatology

That Sounds Intellectual!
We have actually been pretty darn eschatological all along here at BOOJUM! without necessarily realising it, for, although filtered via a religious aspect, Eschatology is about the end of the world.  Which seems wrong in print thus.  Let us try again.  

THE END OF THE WORLD!!

     Much better.
     I am referring, of course, to "Persepolis Rising", Number Eight in The Expanse series of novels that I began reading a tad over two years ago.  Art?

These people

     Because it transpires that the Bad Guys may have been inadvertently dangling their coat-tails in the mud, and for quite some time, even when it seems they are on the very brink of victory -
     It won't be spoiling anything if I point out the elephant in the room: those entities dubbed "The Protomolecule Makers" (whom Conrad himself calls "The Engineers" as it's rather simpler to say) are long gone from the galaxy.  Two billion years gone.

They made some rings

     The Engineers were immeasurably more advanced than you lot Hom. Sap. is by the time their technology falls into human hands, yet - they're extinct.  Not a one left alive, even though they'd had two billion years to adjust to whatever befell them and come back.  So, TEITR - what wiped them out?  Because there are indications that whoever or whatever it is, is still out there.
     Anyway, the author (who is really a pen-name for two people) manages to create a second volume that follows the first, in what seems to be a series, though since the Wiki article on it is very sketchy, Conrad anticipates it's only just come out in hardback.  Yeah right.  Conrad is fairly sure these things come in bunches of three and we're going to need another year, at least, until the saga of "Roci and Everyone " is complete.
      I think we will leave it there for tonight.  Yes there is more to come.

Hurry up December!

     Gasp!  Motley, I was going to suggest we make chips, but we appear to have run out of potatoes - what a catastrophe!
Speaking Of Which -
"Catastrophe" was the answer to a clue in one of my Cryptic crosswords earlier this week, which occurrence naturally made me sit back and ponder on the word.  Greek origins, I suspected, and probably originating with a "K" rather than a "C".  And, what do we find when I go a-digging in my Collins Concise?
     "Kata" - Greek for "Down" and "Strephein" for "Down", which would make sense, as in now way is a catastrophe a good thing, unless it's something like "2012" or "Japan Sinks".

Japan, being a bit sink-y

     Which are entertaining enough as long as they're on the screen not happening all around you.  This so-called "Summer" in the Pond of Eden has minded some folks that the UK is sinking, and you know what?  They're not far off the truth.
"Tales Of The Riverbank"
We do like to mix it up here at BOOJUM! and, though we do like our tanks, atom bombs and zombies, we can be wildly whimsical as well.
     Hence the above.  This was a television programme from way back when, and we're talking decades and decades here.  It featured a trio of animals who lived on, and had adventures along, the riverbank.  Hence the title*.

So long ago, in fact, that it was in BLACK AND WHITE!!

     The kicker about this programme is that the heroes were all played by real live animals, which you would never get away with nowadays, as some huffing, puffing, tree-hugging killjoy would object.  Art?
            
 
     See?  They're all perfectly happy about performing.  These animals are seasoned troupers, professionals, experts in their craft - how can anyone object to this?  Do you want them to be unemployed and poor?  Do you?  WELL DO YOU**!
     On a more macabre note, when the series ended, all the animals were let loose and allowed to re-enter the wild, which didn't work out well for them, as - to cut it short - all of them died bar the Siberian gerbils, whom established a thriving colony.
     They did chicken out for the 2008 film***, and used puppets <hack spit>.

I'm Not Sure How This Will Play Out
My eye was caught by a sidebar on the BBC website, which is what they're supposed to do, I guess, so well done marketing people (I may track you down and punish you later, if my mercurial temper changes, marketing people).  Art?

Yay.  Wave your flags, chaps

     This is an unearthly assemblage of The Darkness and Feeder, who are both pop groups you have probably heard of, and if not, consider this your wake-up call.  The photograph above shows them as they prepare to storm the corridors of power rock out Reading er - compete in "Bargain Hunt".
     Conrad is not entirely sure what "Bargain Hunt" involves, presumably hunting for bargains (not wabbits, don't get confused), and may have in fact witnessed it on screen without paying any attention.  I rather worry that the fearfully over-acting The Darkness frontman Whosis Whatsit is going to do everything up to and including murder to get the better of the considerably less amped-up Feeder.

Sneery and cheery

     This competition comes under the heading of BBC Music Day, where lots of acts and performers perform music, which again is sensible and logical.  Whether it's pleasant or not is another matter!
Finally -
My work colleague Sarah is conferring with new colleague Jerome about how much they both hate spiders, which is a very logical and sensible reaction to the horrid little things.  As you know, Conrad is a big fat coward about many things, and that includes spiders, and the fear increases logarithmically as their size increases.  Though, unlike Sarah, I can quite happily watch "Eight-Legged Freaks" or "Arachnophobia", especially as they both have happy endings (SPOILER! The spiders all die) unlike that William Shatner-starring "Kingdom of the Spiders".  That - that I'm not watching.

No thanks!

          And with that, we are done!



*  This makes splendid sense.  "Tales of the Nuclear Reactor Cooling Pond" just doesn't have the same ring to it
**  Tree-huggers.  Hope they get splinters.
***  Do you see what - O you do.