We Are Living In The Future

But Of Course!
I hear you reply.  "The future, one second at a time, right?"
Wrong.  You see what happens when you assume?  You make mistakes.
     No, I do not mean literally, but metaphorically.  It struck me as I was looking at the Space-X Dragon capsule; this is 2020, our present.  How did people of the past see our present or their future?
     Okay, this is an opportunity to re-use an idea from our GIANT ANIMAL theme, namely "Land of the Giants".  Art?

This is the "Spindrift"

     How very quaint.  This is what 1970 fondly imagined 1983 would look like.  1970, YOU WERE WRONG!  

Still wrong!

     Just to satisfy my pedantic manners, let us have a look at what civilian passenger transportation in the aviation industry looked like in 1983, hmmmm?  Art!
            

     Reality is a little over-engineered, don't you think?
     I can now humanely stun two birds with one high-speed yet non-lethal plastic projectile, because that list of The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever has arrived at Number 31, and - Art?

"Space: 1999"

     Conrad has fond memories of watching this series Friday evenings, back in 1975.  So they left themselves with more wriggle-room that LOTG, yet here were are in 2020 and - the Moon is still in orbit.  Not that I'm going to pull a sad face at that; it's just we never got a Moonbase as big as that which Commander Koenig holds sway over.  Did they ever rationalise how Barry Morse vanished after the first season?  I suppose they were too busy wondering what possibilities that shape-shifting girl could bring to the table -

Plus they had those really cool Eagle spaceships

     Of course a lot of the plots were silly, even if the execution was excellent, but what else can you expect from Gerry Anderson?  Recall "TV 21"'s fantabulous artwork and inept storylines.  Also, there were frequently explosions - excuse me, EXPLOSIONS which every teenaged schoolboy knows are essential to move the plot along.

I bet it was a Friday, too

     If I were to carry on with this idea, I think the next film up would be "Akira", which had the tagline "It's 2017 and Neo-Tokyo is about to explode".  Patently, Tokyo is still there and hasn't been destroyed nor rebuilt as Neo-Tokyo.  Art?

NO IT ISN'T!

     Conrad seems to have missed the rampaging gangs of armed bikers turning the cities into urban war zones, too, or did lockdown put a stop to them?  So, 1988, you got the future wrong also.  Let me know if any dangerously powerful psychic mutants with anger management issues turn up, okay?
      Motley, go turn the calendar page over, I feel like being deliciously naughty and moving to June 1st ahead of time!

Meanwhile, In 1943
Conrad is enjoying Myles Hildyard's memoir of his wartime exploits, "It Is Bliss Here", as a member of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry.  If you bothered reading this blog over time then you'd appreciate Conrad's chasing up books about this regiment and it's members.
     Miles was one of the unfortunates sent to man guns on Crete, and was captured when the Teutons invaded.  He and colleague Michael Parish then escaped, and in conjunction with a couple of other soldiers and a Greek, managed to escape via boat to Turkey.

Myles' pad.

     General "Jumbo" Wilson (so-called because of his sheer bulk) wrote the very well-connected Myles a letter of congratulation, which never saw the day of light until Myles' book was published, and a good thing too, as it would have caused an uproar of outrage because of how it ended.  I shall quote some here:
"We are settling down in Syria now the Vichy French have gone at last, but I would very much like to be rid of the Free French as well.  Of all the despicable nations, I put them as low as any, and it is not to be wondered at that they collapsed as they did in the spring of 1940.  They trust nobody, not even themselves, and are as corrupt and deceitful as can be.  It is not surprising that De Gaulle chose the double cross as his emblem ..."

Myles to right, as an Intelligence Officer

     Oo-err, Matron!  Blimey, imagine the Axis powers getting ahold of that!

Back To Space
Perhaps "Back Into Space" would be more appropriate, for I refer to the Dragon capsule that docked with the International Space Station yesteryon, sent aloft on a SpaceX Falcon rocket.  Art?

Very Gerry! (Anderson)

     This is the first time in a decade that South Canada has used it's own hardware to send aloft men or supplies, since previously they were using Ruffian rocketry and capsules, which no doubt helped line Dimya's pockets with a rouble or two.  The Dragon is a private enterprise venture, coming out of Elon Musk's SpaceX company, which means that the future is beginning to look a bit more the way Robert Heinlein predicted, apart from that bit about slide rules.

Bad weather prevented a launch on Wednesday

Finally -
Nope, not going to explain about "slide rules" again, I've done it already.  Go and Google if you're curious.
     Right, I'm going to tie things up here by ending with Stromboli, which Myles describes passing en route to Salerno.  You may remember that the ending of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" ends in the bowels of Stromboli.  It's a volcanic island north of Sicily, which has been in a state of constant eruption for several millenia; a bit like the world's biggest grumbling appendix.  Art?

The volcano ejecting lava "bombs".  Kind of <ahem> Stromboli-des

     And with that, we are done!