Sorry For The Cliche

You Know The Sort Of Thing -
"Here's a picture of my dinner because I'm so awesome that everybody needs to know every little thing I do in excruciating detail -" which you can translate as "I am being desperately sad across 5 varieties of social media."
     What I wanted to say was what a disappointing vegetable spinach is.  Art?

Evidence

     You buy a pillow-case sized sack of the stuff, only to find that it boils down to something the size of a large teabag.  Conrad feels cheated somehow.

Yeah, yeah, I thought you'd show up sooner or later

     That's all I have to say for the moment - you'll have to excuse me, there's a small whimpery dog at my feet.  What can I do for you, Small Domesticated Wolf?
     Nothing, apparently.  She just likes to wind up the Large Oddly-Shaped Dogs in her life.
     Whilst on the subject of food, if that sloven Art will get his act together -

     I bought a new bottle of mustard yesterday since I couldn't remember if we had one already at home.  As you can see from the above, we did indeed have one, which was 3 and a half years beyond it's BBE.  Whilst normally Your Humble Scribe treats the BBE as something to completely ignore, this case was an exception.  Plus it was nearly empty anyway.
     Right, motley, time for a frappe lime juice with a cocktail cherry, then we can pretend the weather is warmer!

The Dogs Of More
It's getting worse!  Sorry no camera so no pictures, but on our 35-minute sojourn this afternoon to THP's Rotary memorial and back home, there were no less than 14 dogs being walked.  All of which Edna needs to avoid.
     This morning we went walkies whilst it was raining, which kept the number of wretched dog-amblers to a minimum; although I did mistake one old dear in the distance as one of this species, until we got closer and the "dog" turned out to be a large handbag.
     O well.  The light was poor and my eyes are old.

It might happen -

Bitten By The Coincidence Hydra - AGAIN!
If you recall, Conrad was going on about another door-stopper of a novel yesterday, this being "Infinite Jest", which actually sounded quite interesting and along the lines of <a moment's silent respect for> Thomas Pynchon.
     What crops up an hour later on The Flop House Facebook page?  A thread about that very same novel, and whether it's worth committing to reading it, given how long it would take.  Art?

     Opinions were mixed, not least because many commentators had read it when it came out - in 1996 - and given the 23 year gap felt their teenaged enthusiasm might no longer sustain them.
     Please excuse me whilst I get a pair of pliers; one needs a tool to remove the Coincidence Hydra from one's rear-end, given it's bite strength.

Speaking Of Cultured Things -
Let us return to that Beeb list of 10 very long novels you have avoided reading (some for very good reasons).  Let us begin -

7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1,296 pages)

     Given that title, of course Conrad has read it, and seen the Sinister-era film, too, which is a bottom-number so long it comes in two parts.  I do remember taking umbrage at a couple of Tolstoy's central conceits, which irritated me for the whole novel, although it's so long since I read it that I've forgotten what specific problems they were.

     Anyway, if all you know of Ruffia is Tsar Putin and his gangster cronies, WaP is a worthy corrective.  I bet Herr Schickelgruber hated it.

Sergei Bondarchuk's 1966 version*
(One wonders how this got past the censors)

8. The Stand by Stephen King (1,344 pages)

   Surprise!  No, I haven't read this, though I have seen the original television series, which begins well as it has "Don't Fear The Reaper" over the opening credits.  Given that, I wonder if the novel is worth having a go at.  You know, this may be one for the near future, since I have a birthday book token to use ... 

No, I don't know what's going on either

A Little On Logistics
As mentioned in passing yesteryon, Conrad is reading "Last Man Standing", about the experiences of an Australian soldier during the Second Unpleasantness in North Africa.  As of the 25th June 1942, his division, the 9th Australian, is in The Lebanon (as it was known then) in Syria.  
     This is one of the critical periods for the armies of Perfidious Albion in the Middle East; they have to buy time to reorganise.
     So!  Herb (our central character) and all his pals in the 9th mount trucks just after midnight on the 26th June, taking only 4 days to cover 1,600 miles and arrive at the front lines before the enemy does.  

Thus

     This takes over 500 vehicles, in convoys that are each 60 miles in length, which consume vast amounts of petrol, and is an indication of 1) The importance of logistics in transporting 16,000 men as a complete division (Rommel could only dream of doing this) and 2) There were no fuel shortages on the Allied side (again, only a dream for Rommel).
 
Finally -
I've had this one in the pipeline for a while and, dammit, I'm finally going to use it.
     As you may be aware, the South Canadian publication "Popular Mechanics" is a font of stories about technology, and has regular updates under the "Defence" category.  One of these consists of the following as illustrations.  Art!

Daesh "tank"

     This is what happens when you run out of proper tanks.  The Daesh took an armoured recovery vehicle and plonked stuff on top of it, creating what they called a "mobile battle fortress" and what everyone else called "dogfood".  Given the height it could be seen coming literally a mile away, so when it ran into a ditch and stalled it received the benison of an anti-tank missile.  Daesh = 0 Rest of the World = 1


     And with that we are done!


*  Sorry for another "See what we're eating!" picture