By The Pricking Of My Thumbs -

Something Wicked This Way Comes ...
O, silly me, I was looking in the mirror.  Today Conrad is going to finally add in one of the stories from "Struwwelpeter", which he has threatened often enough that you're probably a bit blase about it now.  Art?

First published 1844

     First of all, HE LIES!  The author, that is, probably because if he told the truth nobody would have bought this dreadful volume.  The title page is rendered thus:

MERRY STORIES AND FUNNY PICTURES

     These stories are not at all merry, and the pictures are quite upsetting.  Anyway, onto the cautionary tale of "The Story Of Little Suck-a-thumb".  I shall add in the initial verse, just so you can see what I mean.  

One day Mamma said "Conrad dear,

I must go out and leave you here.

But mind now, Conrad, what I say,

Don't suck your thumb while I'm away.

The great tall tailor always comes

To little boys who suck their thumbs;

And ere they dream what he's about,

He takes his great sharp scissors out,

And cuts their thumbs clean off—and then,

You know, they never grow again."

     WHAT THE HECK!  
     I honestly had no idea.  Nor do I suck my thumbs.
     Anyway, you can see where this is going, can't you?  Conrad, daring the fates, goes back to sucking his thumbs, whereupon -

This was funny and merry in 1844, apparently

     After suffering traumatic amputation of both his thumbs, his mother comes home to find her son has been mutilated, and her response is basically "Meh".  

"Ah!" said Mamma, "I knew he'd come

To naughty little Suck-a-Thumb."

     It seems that good parenting was rare in 1844.  Not even the offer of a bandage, Mamma?  Sheesh.  You seem to have learned parenting from Mister Spock, not Doctor Spock.
     Being brought up on a diet like this, is it any wonder that the Teutons wanted to do bad things to the rest of the world for so long?
     Motley, I feel like - what?  What are you cowering for?  The Child Catcher?  From "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" scares you?  O honestly!  Conrad saw the film as a child and was not remotely bothered by him.  The Cybermen, on the other hand, scared the wee out of him.

Look, he has sweeties, he MUST be alright!

Conrad quivers in fear.

     Let us move on before fear causes me to hit the wrong keys on the board.
"Ineluctable"
Another word that popped up in my mind as I was crossing Oozewood Way, whilst I was walking Edna - Con - er - Your Humble Scribe is now up to 7,591 steps in case you were wondering, and 3.45 miles walked - which is kind of par for the course, as there's nothing to do but ponder deeply on the ways of the world whilst dog walking.     It comes from Latin, of course, the root being "Luctari", which means "Struggle", and thence to "Ineluctari" which means "To Escape".
     The word itself means "Inescapable" and perhaps the best quote about this is from the Twentieth Century's smartest man.  Art?

Young Albert, before the White Hair phase

     "Each step is the inevitable consequence of the preceding one."
     Okay, okay, there is no "ineluctable" in there but the concept sits behind it.

Back To That List Of 51 Sci-Fi Books
Because Con Your Humble Scribe likes to go back to common themes, as it removes some of the onus to be creative, as we* are working against the clock here - I have "The Rocketeer" to finish watching and more annotating of Stuart Hills "By Tank Into Normandy", not to mention that James Holland novel.  Art!

Sandy

      This is indeed "Dune", which Conrad didn't read until the late Seventies, and he had no problem turning the pages because HE STILL HAD HIS THUMBS.  Your Humble Scribe was familiar with the cover art by Bruce Pennington, which, if Art can -

Factory crawler, ornithopters and Fremen

     Bruce is more effective when evoking landscapes rather than hardware, where there are few illustrators to better him -
     Which is going off-track again.  Anyway, this is a very good novel, with a benchmark world-creation that few have managed since.  Not only do you get to experience the desert planet Arrakis, you also appreciate the politics of the wider galaxy, for Lo! there are politics.  David Lynch's film made a valiant stab at having a go, but the length and complexity deserve a television series of several hours duration.

Look whom it influenced!

And Back To The BBC And What Sci-Fi Predicted
I was rather dismissive of their first post as it was rather wide of the mark ("Jules Verne did not invent Apollo 11").  Their second is a lot closer to home in both senses of the word.  Art?

     Ah, from "1984", that touchstone of dystopia.  One imagines that, had the Sinister Union survived, it would pretty much resemble an horrid palimpsest of Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984".  In fact, at this moment, Tsar Putin is probably wondering how he can get a camera on every street corner in order to <thinks> "preserve democracy", which will be spoken with his fingers crossed behind his back.
     As for that metric about a camera for every 14 people in London?  Serves the Southron jessies right.

Finally -
Conrad is watching "The Rocketeer" for the first time in decades, because he felt like it.  Of course, they ineluctably cast a British actor as the villain, because Hollywood.  I may post some screenshots of the initial flying stunt work, as it looks especially dangerous.  It may not have been, since that's what stunt people are employed for, but it's the look that counts.  Art?

Things exploding!  It gets my vote

     I think I had a particular theme in mind when I began this "Finally -" but have forgotten what it was - AHA!  No, it was that the splendid South Canadian character actor Ed Lauter, whom Art can depict -

Ed, plus hat

     - was unusually depicted as a Good Guy, as he is normally cast in the Sleazy Minion With Questionable Fashion Sense roles.  Give it up for the under-rated Ed!

    With that, we had hit Battle of Hastings Compositional Count - 1,066 words - so I think we are DONE!


*  The collective staff of BOOJUM! that is.