Thinking

I Was Stupid
I can admit it now.  Yesterday, shortly prior to leaving the house for work in the cold, wet, dark, dead morning, I carelessly passed the comment "How will First Bus screw things up today"?
     Well, well, well.

That distant orange blur is, in fact, a bus

          Of course, since there was little traffic and few passengers, the 409 was late.  Only a few minutes, however, which is practically on time for First Bus.  No, the sting in the tail of this tale was at the city centre bus stop off Lever Street, where an announcement had been taped to the bus shelter.  I shall endeavour to get a picture of it tonight.
     Due to the roadworks on the A62 northbound, it announced, and a diversion route unsuitable for buses and other large vehicles, the 83, 84, 181 and 182 would all divert at Queen Street, travel north on Rochdale Road and rejoin the A62 further on. 
     Conrad predicts delays.  Long delays.
     I shall keep you posted*.      
     Oh, and whilst looking up BOOJUM!'s prior references to First Bus Spokesdemons, I came across another post from 2018, where there were even more bus shenanigans.

http://comsatangel2002.blogspot.com/2018/02/its-not-conspiracy-theory.html

     Therein the link.
     Motley, break out the shotguns and clay pigeons, for I have a whole load of incipient ire to work off.


Prof Ann Reardon's Quest Against Qurap

The Prof is a food scientist who wages a one-woman war against a tidal wave of toxic tat over on Youtube, promoted by "Lifestyle" channels that put up faked videos that claim to be both fashionable and true, when they are neither.
     The one that follows below is nothing to do with food and comes from the execrable "5 Minute Crafts", who create fake videos for money.  Art?



Yes, that is a hot glue gun being squeezed onto a toothbrush -



 - and then the mouth.

     WHAT ON EARTH?!  It should go without saying, but DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!  REALLY!  JUST DON'T!
     Conrad has experience of hot glue guns and their hot glue; if you get the hot stuff on your fingers straight out of the gun, then My! it smarts.  Not for long, as it cools off verrrrry rapidly.  So, it may be that the idiot in the clip is trying to brush their teeth with cooled glue, which is the same as rubbing them with a piece of plastic, or just a bare toothbrush.  What kind of hack this might be is not made clear, because if they brush before the glue cools off, they are going to have burnt gums.      Ann was just as flabbergasted as I was.  It would be hard not to be.  Overall this is an idea just as stupid as bleaching strawberries - but that is a story for another day.


More Of My Mate Matania
If you have been following these updates that I chuck in from time to time, then you will know that Fortunino Matania was an Italian who emigrated to This Sceptred Isle, and who was renowned for his skilful and swift portrayals of combat in the First Unpleasantness.  Let us have another of his interior portraits for "The Sphere".  Art?

The Arditi in action

     In case you ever cross swords with someone who sneers at Italian martial ardour, bring up the Arditi.  These were the Italian equivalent of the Teuton Stosstruppen, specially chosen, trained and equipped to storm Austro-Hungarian positions. You can see them in their special rig, though what you can't see is their innovative sub-machine gun, the Villar-Perosa, which, if Art will put down his plate of coal -

First in the field

     These chaps packed hand-grenades, daggers, flamethrowers and light 37 mm cannon in addition to the above, and they were rightly feared and hated by their Austro-Hungarian opponents.  This picture is, I think, from late 1918 when the AH's overall position had collapsed and when they were being pursued
     Over to starboard I think you can see some British soldiers, one of whom appears to be throttling his opponent with his bare hands.  The British in Italy were regarded with utter horror by the AH, who seemed to think they were all eight feet tall and ate babies for breakfast**.

Here I must apologise for not making proper notes last night, as I was listening to more of Ask A Korean!"'s list of the top 50 K-pop stars, but didn't write down what I thought of them.  I did dismiss one as "A slushy balladeer", that much I do recall.  But whom!

Back To That Sci-Fi Bucket List
Okay, I'll admit it, I was naughty on Monday, and bought a couple of books from the list above.  Not going to tell you which until I finish them and then Deliver My Judgement.
     Anyway, here we go - Art?

A Droog

     Yes, I have most definitely read it.  Fascinating to see a pop culture influenced by Mother Ruffia, with barbarous renditions of borrowed words like "Droog" (for "Mate") or "Glazzies" (for "Eyes"), though Your Humble Scribe strongly suspects that it will be a little while longer before this happens in real life.  The curious title is from Alex's musings at the end of the novel, where he fears the Ludovici treatment will change him into something odd and un-natural - " - like a clockwork orange."
     Next!

Nope

     Blimey, the plot summary for this one on Wiki sounds complicated, and that's only with a hasty skim through it.  I may have read one or two of CJ's other works.  Did she write "Downbelow Station"? because I read that many decades ago <Googles> yes she did.  I remember that one with a certain fond regard, so Ol' CJ may yet get my custom.  Knowing that will doubtless make her day go better.
I Only Need A Short Item Here To Hit The Compositional Ton
Okay, cast yer glazzies over this pseudo-panzer that I brought up quite randomly by Googling "Volkswagen Tank".  Art?

Behold!

     Your Humble Scribe believes this to be either a joke, or it's a mock-up of a tank so the de-tanked Reichswehr could practice without having any of the real things.  The profile does resemble that of a Panzer I, which was barely a tank.

     And with that, we are done!


*  Do not expect fluffy bunnies and sunshine.
**  Ha!  As if.  They were only seven feet tall.