DISASTER AVERTED!

It Was A Close Thing, Mind
No, we are not talking about two airliners narrowly missing one another in the skies over Heathrow, or a busload of nuns coming to a screeching halt just before the cliff edge, nor yet an EOD technician cutting the blue wire with the timer display at 00:00:04 -
     This was a disaster on a somewhat smaller scale: the imminent exhaustion of my loose leaf Darjeeling tea stocks.  I had a small tin that was ordered from Ahmad Tea last year, enough for a week if it was eked out sparingly, and that would have been it.
    Enter an unusual urge for Your Humble Scribe: tidying up the cupboard with my kit contained therein.  Art?

Before

     Whilst cleaning and clearing out the top shelf, I came across an unopened packet of Sainsbury's Fairtrade Loose Leaf Darjeeling, "Best Before 2017", but a desperate man is willing to take chances.  Plus, the foil pack was still intact.  Enough tea to keep me in brews for a month!
     I know, I know, more "Minor tremor in Tunbridge Wells" than "Small earthquake in Chile"; so what, it's my tea situation and it matters to me.
     Motley, I found some sweet chilli sauce with a BBE date of 2015.  Have a glug and see what you think, hmmm?

Saved!

Celebrity Factoids
We don't usually bother with celebrities here on the blog, as most of today's versions are merely publicity prostitutes with no discernible talent but a good agent.  However, Conrad does like to mix it up and wrong-foot you from time to time, so -
     Were I to say "Albert Einstein" you might not think of -

Albert Brooks

     Ol' Al pretty obviously changed to his stage name because he was probably fed up of the jokes, and had been since age nine.  What's less well-known is that his older brother, Robert, played the part of "Super Dave Osborne".  Art?

SD himself

     Conrad remembers seeing clips of Super Dave on a Clive James show, way back when.  SD's "schtick" (is that the right word? - I'm going for the authentic South Canadian thing here) is that he's a supremely inept stuntman, whose stunts inevitably go horribly wrong, leaving him terribly injured - Art!

Ouch: disaster not averted

     Albert and Robert were the sons of a comedian, one Harry Einstein, who was probably relieved that son number three, Charlie, went into the advertising industry.
     Later on, we shall examine Basil Rathbone ...

"Arena"
No!  Not the BBC arts program that had a terrific intro sequence, simple but very striking, with music by Brian Eno -

See?

     Rather, that episode of "Star Trek" I was wibbling on about yesteryon.  Today I would like to - yes yes yes the only time a green-skinned alien doesn't try to snog Captain Kirk - I would like to look at Mister Spock and Lieutenant Lefkowitz as they join Tibby next to the Cestus Three arsenal  -


     Leonard Nimoy is clutching his tricorder prop here, as it begins to smoke alarmingly, and Conrad wonders exactly how dangerous this was in real life as there are only so many ways to generate smoke, and I can't think of any that are harmless.  Don't forget, both Leonard and William ended up with permanent ear damage thanks to being too close to explosions in this episode.
     There you go, that's real life taken care of.  Now, let's have all three of our heroes  together -

Note absence of red shirts

     This is the point where Lefkowitz reckons the Gorn are behind a rock formation about 1,200 yards away <pauses momentarily to RELISH WITH GLEE the fact that imperial measurements have survived into the 24th century).  He also seems familiar with the mortar and rounds that Tibby has dug out of the bunker.  "Pretty close for one of these jewels" he observes, as the trio huddle away from the muzzle blast.  They don't take cover beyond that, so not that close, matey.  No worries or concerns over radiation, either, so those rounds must be merely (!) high-explosive of an extremely powerful kind.  They don't have any form of fuse, so they must arm in flight after a short delay, just in case they drop short.
     Of course, I could be overthinking this ...

"computer says yes"

"The Flash"
Because Lo! we are back to "Rolling Stone"'s list of the top 50 sci-fi shows ever, and Conrad was rather surprised to discover that this is a recent show, beginning in 2014, and not the old one from the Eighties (I think) of which I have seen the pilot and perhaps a single episode.  Anyway, Art!

In it's seventh season

     So, they must be doing something right, if you lot keep coming back to it.  Conrad might have to check it out and see what the fuss is about; I wonder if it's available on Netflix?  And how they rationalise having wiggly gold things over his ears.

See?

Finally -
I have mentioned Operation EXPORTER a couple of times in the past week or so <code for I can't remember when and can't be bothered to check) and it struck me that I don't have any single work that deals with it exclusively.  "It" being the British and Commonwealth invasion of Vichy French-held Syria in June 1941.  I recall some well-observed accounts in Alan Moorehead's "African Trilogy", which points out the irony of a campaign that took place in The Lebanon and Syria, not Africa.  I think there are details in Barrie Pitts' "The Crucible of War", however that volume is hiding in the book pile in the book cave, thus not easily reachable.  I bet there's an Osprey about it, and I might pay up to £10 for a second-hand copy.

Al

     As a matter of fact, I do have a book that details clashes between Perfidious Albion and Vichy; does it refer to this clash of arms?  I shall have to dig it out.
     Of course all this preamble means you, gentle reader, are going to get to hear about Operation EXPORTER in some detail, whether you want to or not*.

A map.  Obviously.

*  Tee hee!