A Pie You Can't Eat

Not Unless You're Desperate
And have a weapon like a crossbow or shotgun.  Plus you would have to know all about plucking, because I am talking about the Magpie here.  Art?

CAUTION!  Not to be eaten raw

     I did wonder this afternoon, as I was walking Edna, why the magpies I could see swooping around were called "Magpies", and the derivation sounds rather tautological.  The "Mag" bit is a reference to "Margaret" as this is the name for a gossipy woman, although personally Conrad thinks this narrows the field rather -
     Anyway, the "Pie" part is supposed to derive from the Latin "Pica" for "Magpie", which came to us via Old French as "Pie", and the magpie was called Pica because it was thought to eat anything.
     Is that clear?

They are plotting to rob a bank*

     My next question was a little more pertinent: are magpies edible?  It turns out they are, though the adults don't have a lot of meat on them and are rather chewy in texture.  That being so, you could try soup or a slow cooker, couldn't you?  Or if your culinary skills run to it, a pie.  So you could have a magpie pie.  Or, if you added some nuts, you could have a Pican Pie.
     Motley!  Break out the mobility scooters, for I feel a Wild Ride coming on!

You What?
There are things that confuse Your Humble Scribe, such as why the ballfoot game is so popular, why pineapples exist, and Strictly Come Dancing.  Also, if Art will put down that nuclear fuel rod -

The "Psychic Sofa Readers Wanted" advert, not Steven Zaloga or Reddit stories

     I think I might have a couple of works by Steve, whom is an acknowledged expert on the Eastern Front during the Second Unpleasantness -
     "Psychic Sofa Reader" is a phrase that simply defies logic.  Let me see what a quick bit of Google-fu reveals -
     Yep, sounds like a scam.  You have to register with them to use the service and get people to ring you, then they take money off the reader, because greed, and they are apparently expensive as well.  But of course if you're psychic then you knew that already.  According to a couple of ex-readers they ring and hassle readers to log on and chat, and their middle-management will ring to harass if your numbers and revenue aren't high enough.

A sofa.  Just so we're clear.

     I think the sense of "sofa" implies that you're working from home, as some reviewers complained about children playing, dogs barking, construction work being undertaken, doors being knocked upon, people clearly doing domestic work - "O how can they concentrate!" is the remonstrance.
     If you are psychic, then James Randi will pay you over a million dollars to prove it in a lab, so you'll be glad to know you can cut out PSR and go straight to wheelbarrows full of cash.

"I Am Not Okay With This"
Okay, one thing about dogsitting, it has allowed me to binge on Netflix, and having worked my way through "Limitless" I have now watched the first series of the above-named show.
     There will be SPOILERS here, so don't read on if you've not seen the show but intend to, or if you're part way through it.

SPOILERS GAP AS MENTIONED ABOVE.  PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

     Okay, the series revolves around Syd, a seventeen year-old girl who lives in a very dull and uninspiring part of Pennsylvania.  Nothing ever happens, her dad committed suicide a while back, she doesn't get on with her mom, she's confused about her sexuality -
     And she's developing telekinetic super-powers.  

Dina and Syd

     These start small, beginning only with imposing a nose-bleed, but at the end of the last episode, she causes someone's head to explode; it has become clear from an audience standpoint that she only manifests her powers when very upset or angry.  Only kind-of boyfriend Stan knows anything about her abilities, after he baited her into using them.
     So where does it go from here?  Conrad is unsure, but he liked the first season and hopes it gets at least another one, because at only 30 minutes per episode it definitely doesn't outlive it's welcome.

The endemble

     It comes from a comic book, in much the same way that the series I watched in November did, and now I can't recall it's name.

I Fetch Echt
Conrad apologises to you, gentle reader, for resorting to teh Interwebz for his definitions today, since both my Chambers Concise and Brewers are upstairs.  This is a pretty poor excuse, which is why I'm apologising.
     Anyway, I recall reading in a work years ago where they stated that Character X was an "Echt" fascist, a word I'd not come across before or since, so it's not in common usage, and I'd never looked it up until today.  It comes from German, and is one of those occasional words they have that conveys a lot of meaning in a small package**.
     It means "authentic and typically".  Let us have an example.  Art?

"It was an echt chili"

    And it was, since I followed the Classic Chili recipe in the cookbook.  I have to confess to ducking out of eating any more of it today.  There's still enough left to feed four people.  Art!

     Here's a pie you can eat, which I did.

Finally -
We occasionally feature weird ships on the blog, because marine engineering and design is a much-misunderstood science, with a bit of art thrown in for good measure.  Thus we have this - Art?

Zubr Class LCAC
(with puny APC for scale)

     This is a Ruffian military hovercraft, designed and intended to mount amphibious assaults on hostile shores, and of course (gigantomania!) it's the biggest one there is.  The one in the picture you see there is actually Greek, as the Ruffians were in such desperate need for £££ that they were quite happy to sell 4 of them to the Greeks.  The CIA is ever so thankful, chaps.
     There was a bit of a row about them back in 2017 when Tsar Putin announced they were going to start building more straight away.  The dockyards promptly said this would be impossible for at least 4 years due to an entire lack of stuff.  And probably £££, too.

Discharging a cargo of marines

     Still, the Tsar got to make his pronouncement, so everybody was happy, apart from the dockyard managers, who will now probably be doing a decade in a gulag somewhere.

    And with that we are echt done!


*  The myth about magpies stealing shiny things is just that - a myth.
**  "Schadenfreude" I'm looking at you