Still Feeling Ruff

At One Point I Was Busy Hacking My Lungs Out
 - and Edna came over to sit on my lap and try to console me with a bit of face-licking.  Ten out of ten for effort, Edna, and five out of ten for the face-licking; Conrad not a fan of dogs slobbering over his face.
     Anyway, I am quite glad that I'm ill whilst being off work, dog-sitting.  Feeling this ill and having to be in the office for 08:00, having to be bright and cheerful and sound comprehensible on the phone - no thanks.
     At the moment I an listening to the "We Have Ways" podcast, featuring special guest Professor Dan Todman, who is a military historian.  I've read his excellent "The First World War: Myth And Memory",though I'm not sure if I actually have a copy.  I shall need to check my Military Book Barn list and see whether it's listed there.  Art?

An excellent read indeed.

     Dan has just had published his second work on Britain in the Second Unpleasantness, which Jim and Al are discussing.  At the moment they are going over British shipping, which was absolutely crucial to merely sustain the war effort, let alone gain victory.  Jim points out that with the convoy system, rather than a string of ships arriving in Liverpool, for example, 42 arrive all at once.  How do you cope with that?  How do you ensure that specialised refrigeration ships are available to carry meat from the Antipodes to This Sceptred Isle?  How do you plan for the liberation of Europe when you can't be certain how many of a convoy's ships will arrive and what cargoes go to the bottom?

The evocative cover of Dan's second volume.

       Now they're going on about how South Canada and Perfidious Albion negotiated, and where the give-and-take was, and how both sides deliberately played the other, which is something you expect from Perfidious Albion because - it's in the name.  Ah! And Dan has just mentioned David Edgerton, whose seminal and very interesting work has a direct bearing on all that's been mentioned so far.

Definitely recommended reading

     Motley, shall we get on our pogo-sticks and make like fleas?

'Threadbanger Versus The Liars'
Or, 'Another Person Busting "5 Minute Crafts" For Specious Duplicity'.  I should point out once again that 5MC are not out to show you how to do something useful or practical; they are out to get clickbait and make money and lie and fake repeatedly to that end.
     Here's how Rob deals with one of their 'life-hacks' that supposedly allows you to brush all the loose fur off your pets.  Art?

It's not that clear -

      - in this shot of "fur" that's come from a cat being stroked (please note it was a black cat).  In fact these are some feathers.  The lies begin!  Right, let's see Rob duplicate their rubber glove-and-hot glue Pet Stroker.  Art?

Daintily dotted

     Rob then selected a - hopefully docile and well-mannered - cat and commenced to stroke it with the glove.  Art?

     The cat enjoyed it's strokey massage.  Not one hair was liberated by the glove, and all the dotted glue pieces fell off when Rob took them off.  So not only was it useless, it can only be done once.   Conrad is angry!
     Bah!

I Did Not Expect That
As you should surely know by now, Your Humble Scribe is binge-watching "Limitless", the television series that followed on from the film.  I haven't yet said that I like the music to it, which is composed by one Paul Leonard Morgan.
     Surprise!  He's a Scottish composer from Glasgow, with a string of impressive achievements.  For one thing, the South Canadians asked him to compose a new Olympic anthem for them.

O, man up you whinging snowflakes!

     He did the soundtrack for the film "Limitless" and has scored both television programs and video games, so a talented all-rounder.  He also did the soundtrack for 2012's "Dredd", which immediately got me on-side and then some as you know I'm a big fan.  A chap to watch for the future.

Ask/Reddit
Conrad has to treat these Youtube channels with caution, as it's ridiculously easy to while away an hour listening to some entertaining and also horrifying theme.  One question asked was "Have you ever been somewhere that didn't feel right, and were proved correct?"
     Well, one respondent brought up the South Canadian burgh of Coatesville, which they said seemed very shifty as they passed through it.  Art?

Coatesville

     It's one of the poorest cities in Pennsylvania, which  overwhelmingly relied on the Lukens steel works for employment.  When the plant closed down, the town's fortunes took a nose dive and anyone who was able to moved out.
     There was also a huge simmering financial scandal about one of the high schools, which is far too juicy to be wasted on a couple of sentences here.  We will be back with that one in the near future!
     Conrad is of the opinion that whoever was driving through was seeing the poorest districts of the poorest city.
     Another respondent told of walking into a Chinese restaurant, where the atmosphere was very strained, although nothing was obviously awry.  Their waiter came to their table, gave them fifty pounds and asked them to leave immediately.  They did, and saw in next day's paper that there had been a battle shortly after, with four people being stabbed. Apparently considerate Chinese gangsters don't like to get bystanders involved in their feuds.

Like this but with meat cleavers.

Finally -
Tomorrow is Thursday and I believe Rosie and Phil are back up from London, so I assume they will be heading for Pub Quiz.
     Your Humble Scribe dares not join them.  The last time I did this, Edna made such a howling fuss while I was gone that the next-door neighbours rang Wonder Wifey - who was off on her cruise - if there was anything wrong.  Conrad got told off.

     And with that we are done!