Blackburned Out

To Coin A Phrase
If you weren't already aware, Your Humble Scribe has been reading "The Guns Of War" by George Blackburn, a Canuckistanian artillery officer during the Second Unpleasantness.  In his Introduction he tells the reader not to expect adventure, rather a slice of life that consists of high-intensity conflict, physical weariness and an exhausting lack of sleep.  Art?

Ol' Geo in later years

     Also in the Introduction, Ol' Geo has some very harsh words to say of those whom criticised the British American's drive to close the Falaise Pocket in summer 1944, and who used words like "slow", "cautious" and "clumsy".  In fact Ol' Geo is so scathing that, were one of these critics to dare appear in front of him, you strongly suspect he'd clobber them.
     There will be some amongst you who are currently saying "Oh!  Did the Canuckistanians fight in the Second Unpleasantness?"
     Yes they jolly well did!  There were 5 infantry divisions, whole squadrons of aircraft and the Royal Canuckistanian Navy as well, and right up until the fag-end of the war, they were all volunteers.  Art?

The British Americans manning a 3.7" anti-aircraft gun

     This meant they were all highly-motivated and, consequently, got all the tough jobs.  Ol' Geo's narrative has the Teutons he was opposite fighting fanatically up until April 1945, when the war had clearly been lost a good six months earlier.  No doubt James Holland and Al Murray cover this pointless carnage on "We Have Ways", which I'll keep an ear open for.
     Incidentally, Ol' Geo's 25 pounder guns never fire shrapnel shells: only ever high explosive or smoke.  It seems that the 3.7" AA guns as seen above were used instead to fire air-burst shells, possibly because they gave no warning of being about to arrive.
     Enough technical detail!  Motley, bring on my dancing shoes!

More Stumbling
I was joking about the dancing shoes, as Conrad is so woefully inept on the dance-floor that he'd be grateful for two left feel.
     Anyway, gentle reader, remember me burbling on about how there is a distinct sub-culture of Lego builders, who post time-lapse videos on Youtube of their constructions?  As well as those who aspire to build truly gigantic bespoke structures, which I illustrated yesteryon with Wayne Manor.
     I mentioned the Sandcrawler model to Lee, who informed me that another Lego afficionado had built Saint Pancras Station in the little bricks, which - because I am an anorak and dinosaur combined so it doesn't exist unless or until written down - I made a note of.  Art?

The real thing

     Mr. Warren Elsmore decided to replicate this building in Lego, the mad, impetuous fool!  It required 120,000 bricks and who-knows how much time, and the end result is this structure -

The front

     And we have to have a shot of the rear, because you can't tell too well from the above what it looks like.  Art!

That's Warren, looking mightily pleased with himself.

     If there is a time-lapse of this monster being built, I'd still expect it to last a good 20 minutes or so, because if you were placing a brick every second in real time, it would still take 33 hours to put together - that's without pausing to eat, drink, sleep or go to the bathroom.  If you did it as a job of work and sensibly only did 8 hours a day, that's still 4 days duration -
     Clearly, some people have entirely too much time on their hands*.

Back To Unpleasant Things
Conrad was ruminating on the fate of Nazi war criminals Klaus Barbie and Ferdinand Schoerner.  The former was a repulsive Nazi sadist who managed to not get arrested by working for the South Canadians, who in turn spirited him away to Bolivia.  There he was quids-in with the local dictators, until a democratic government arrived and promptly extradited him to France, where he died in prison aged 77, having spent 8 years in jail.
     Schoerner was another brute in uniform, who definitely killed more Teutons than enemy soldiers, as he had an aversion to putting his delicate skin at risk.  The Sinisters caught him in 1951 and he subsequently spent the next 12 years in prison, before being released and dying in 1973.

What they left behind

     My assertion is that this odious couple were best punished by letting them live on after 1945, because, as devout Nazis, they had to live every day with the knowledge that the Third Reich had been utterly destroyed, that their Fuhrer was toast, that the Sinisters sat in their capital city and that lots of Jews were still alive.  They doubtless didn't see any of this coming in 1939!  Just imagine Schoerner, living in obscure poverty, having to put up with a democratic regime in power in West Germany, and the Sinisters ruling East Germany**.

You see?  You see what you did!

"CHARD"
This was an answer I worked out in this morning's Codeword, which was pretty easy, actually, thanks for asking and allowing me to display my modesty.
     Anyway, I had no idea what "Chard" was, though it had to be something.  Hello Collins Concise!
     "A variety of beet with large, succulent leaves and thick stalks, also called "Swiss Chard", used as a vegetable."  Art?

Aha.  Gotcha.

     Name probably originates from the Latin - AGAIN WITH THE ZOMBIE LANGUAGE! - "Carduus" meaning "Thistle".
     There we go, now we are all better informed, if not exactly wild about eating a vegetable that sounds as if it were badly burned by mistake.  Bad chef!  Naughty chef!
     They also had "BEATNIK" as an answer, which is less appetising yet.  Either a member of the Beat Generation (such as authors Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs) or any scruffy git with long hair and poor dress sense, it seems.

     And with that, we are done!  (Lunchtime, you see)


*  Unless he makes a living from it, in which case that's okay.
**  Tee hee!