TROSH

Egad!
I've only just posted on Facebook about how the evening has flown by, and in a heartbeat another 10 minutes have scurried past on fairy feet.  And this is with Conrad finishing his work at 16:10 without having an hour and a half's journey home.
     Admittedly - sorry, what's that?  Yes yes yes, we'll get to "TROSH" in good time, hold your horses/put your car in neutral and engage handbrake/apply anti-gravity hover function in your flying saucer <delete where applicable> - admittedly I did do several crosswords and a couple of Codewords -

Conrad, looking guilty at something.

     - hey, I've got to keep my mind supple and exercised! and read more of Adam Tooze, and made a big pan of sort-of stew with buckwheat groats, and sorted out my gaming table (reorganising the armies, don't you know) - so, I've been busy.
     Here an aside.  Your Humble Scribe is not one of those sad people who work for an age, retire and then keel over dead from boredom two weeks later.  As I've said before, if there were 25 hours in a day (watch out for this in the EU soon) and I didn't sleep, there'd still not be enough time.  Art?

Because I have so many spoons to sort - no - hang on, that's not right -

      Art, stop confusing an old man.  

Because I have so many books to read - yeah, that's better.

     Not just that lot.  Art? - and careful now -

Back when there were fewer

     This is the Official History of Perfidious Albion in the First Unpleasantness, and of course I have lots more now, and need to read them in chronological order, as they were purchased all out of sequence.
     So that's my spare time until 2025 all spoken for.
     Alright, alright: TROSH.  It sounds rather like an invented expostulation, doesn't it?  The kind of swear that Judge Dredd would utter because Rebellion dare not put real curses in 2000AD.
     Ah - okay, I cheated a bit.  Sue me.  It's an acronym, properly punctuated it would be T.R.O.S.H. and it stands for "The Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes".  Art?

     It was a series of television programs back in the early Seventies, and - obviously! - Your Humble Scribe saw it mentioned in one of the listings magazines we had back then, and probably a trailer, too, which was sufficient for the thing to be indelibly fixed in his mind.  Right at the bottom next to the box art for Airfix's 1/72 scale Crusader tank -
     - which brings another aside.  Don't worry, we shan't take long.  Art?

Pay close attention

     Note the European camouflage scheme.  YET IT WAS NEVER USED IN EUROPE!  I suspect this depicts a training exercise.
     Back to our regularly scheduled broadcast/the usual scrivel/shark fanfiction <delete where applicable>.
     TROSH was an adaptation from a collection of short stories that had featured in the print media of late nineteenth century and early twentieth Perfidious Albion.  Art?

Thus

     Some of these author's creations were more popular than Conan Doyle's consulting detective at the time of their publication, though their time in the spotlight was fleeting.  Ah the transience of the Muse - sic transit gloria mundi*!  Rather to his surprise, Conrad is very familiar with one of them - "The Horse of the Invisible" by William Hope Hodgson, as it was one of a collection of his short stories about that detective of the supernatural, Carnacki.  The second episode, which is one I remember an advert for, was about the blind detective Max Carrados, and Conrad is curious about how he solves crimes.  Art!

Max the mighty mystery maestro, mumbling.
(Well, he might be.  Prove me wrong!)

     No, Vulnavia, a highly-developed sense of smell will not cut it as a plot device.  
     Anyway, Your Humble Scribe's chosen reading genres are military history (as you know so well), science fiction and <small trumpet fanfare and a single drum roll> murder mysteries, and dammit, I am now extra-specially curious.
     Hmmm.  Well, we took a long time to get there, didn't we?  I also found another blogger whose dealing with interesting television shows so you're lucky I got this far.
     Motley!  You'd better have your best running shoes on, these landmobile sharks are hungry!

"Gun Jesus" With A Gun, And Then Some
Ian McCullom is the impeccably well-mannered compere of the Youtube channel "Forgotten Weapons", who has tested and fired surely every firearm known to man.  Once he'd run out of small arms he moved on to larger stuff - heavier metal, you might way, and hence he was demonstrating the French Puteaux 25 mm (sorry for the metric) anti-tank gun.  Art?

One can understand the nickname

     This thing is great, it's like a giant-sized kid's toy with all the bits you have to unfold and unclip and twirl to get it functional, apart from the bit about being designed to, er, kill people.
     I put this item in to be able to link to further images of the French 25mm anti-tank guns, and also to quell some of those "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" insults that get bandied about by the ignorant.  We shall come back to this topic, it has some legs.

More Of Polemos
Any recent reader will know that Conrad has been apprenticing himself in Prospective World Domination by having a go at a ruleset for the English Civil Unpleasantness, called "Polemos".  This was quite successful, Your Humble Scribe having, we hope, learned from his mistakes.
     Thus the various bases have been assembled, ready for another encounter.  Art?

     The naked state of most bases becomes apparent here; perhaps, given that it is a Bank Holiday weekend, I ought to paint and texture some more of them.  One does have standards to maintain.
     For the next game I have decided to stick with the bases I've already named and classed, as it's easier.  Also, this will be a defensive battle, where the King's loyal (and, following the battle of Lower Spleine, rather battered) warriors are holding a line against the army of Lord Essex, who rather outnumber them.  It will be interesting to see if the inherent advantage of defence can overcome numbers, and I'll try to reduce the glaring difference between the Royalist and Parliamentary leaders.  Even though it didn't help Ol' Chas last time.

This is what a-waity, matey

Finally -
The weekly shop is tonight, so before I go I need to pester Konrad - work colleague, not me being peculiar about self** - about any trademark Polish herbs and spices that they use in cooking.  Him being Polish.  I didn't just pick his name at random.

Polski Sklep!

     Hearty looking stuff, isn't it?  Your Modest Artisan is minded of a comment by Rosie about Teuton cooking - " - all pig and stodge".  Comfort food, in other words.

     And with that we are so very, very done!




*  Yes yes yes, I know I hate Latin (the zombie language).  That doesn't mean I can't use it if I want to.  Fickle, that's me.
**  No more than usual, anyway.