"We Fear Change"

If You Take Nothing Else From Wayne And Garth -
Remember that phrase, for it rings true of Your Humble Scribe, who has just had a bash at the new Blogger iteration, and who didn't like it very much.

Some changes you can't avoid.  Dude.

  For one thing, the Trebuchet font comes out exactly the same as the Times font, which is like waking up one morning and finding that Ripper, your faithful Doberman and pride of the Killer Kennel Klub, has transmuted into Tiddles, a picky ginger tomcat.

Quite possibly Tiddles.

     And this new Blogger format will arrive in late June, like it or not.  
     Okay, time to wheel on the Giant Rats!  I still haven't found that strip from "The Victor", and it doesn't feature in the various illustrated shortcuts that your go-to website about that comic has listed.

http://www.victorhornetcomics.co.uk/victorpage1.html

     That's the link, lest you mistrust me.  There is that other website with all the compilation stories, numbering in the hundreds, that would take hours to trawl through <drifts off into musing absently> - which would be a terrible thing!  And I'm still not going to link it, as Conrad is distinctly wary of it's legal status.  Art?

Despite the shot, Leela is wearing clothing.  You pervs.

     Of course, a rat this big in real life would collapse and expire under it's own body weight.  Even if it sat in a comfy chair and went nowhere, it's metabolism would require it to consume an exponentially increased amount of food, given the increase in surface area to volume ratio.  It would have to sit there and be fed trayfuls of food to avoid starving to death.
     Conrad doesn't subscribe to the "It Was A Rubbish Doctor Who Monster" either, given that it gets mere seconds of screen time, and is mostly in darkness, and nobody at the time had ever conceived of VHS and repeat viewings.  Art?

Ratty.

     Now, I will see you a Giant Rat, and raise you one Giant Mole.  For yes, Conrad has had a whip through "The Menace In Pit 19".  Art?

Artwork by the incomparable Ron Smith

     Don't be fooled, this mole is a ferocious homicidal monster.  Also, a rather quaint look at the old coal-mining industry as it used to be in the Sixties.  Public Service Broadcasting approve.
     And I found an illustration of the Giant Hedgehog story, so you can stop backing away slowly and removing sharp objects from arm's length.  Art!

     OH WOW!  Having found out what the strip was called, I've now found a forum which details the first episode of this terrifying tale of titanic <thinks> Tiddles.  Okay, okay,it's not a cat; you try coming up with a word beginning with "T" that defines a hedgehog.
     Well, I was going to continue on about "The Steel Claw", since I found a compilation with his Origin story.  "Was" - we're already 500 words in and I think we've had enough comic nostalgia for a while.

A teaser

     
Them Canny Ruffians
Conrad does occasionally take a gentle swipe at our Slavic brethren, usually to provoke Dimya and make him cry - he is a giant wuss on the sly, you know, which state secret would get me sent to the gula - prison for years and years.

"Dimya had grown to hate Conrad.  HATE him!"

     Anyway, if you recall Your Humble Scribe was rattling on about "Life On Mars" last week, which he might go back and watch.  Or not.  I'm fickle like that.
     Well, the Ruffians took that idea and ran with it, coming up with a series called "Dark Side Of The Moon"*, where a Moscow City Police officer is hit by a car in 2011, and wakes up in the body of his father, also a policeman.
     Except it's 1979, during the full flow of Communism.  Art?

O I say!

     That would be an eye-opener for an individual who grew up after 1991 and the Sinister Union going toes-up.  It was apparently a whacking big hit and spawned a second series, with all the questions seen in LOM - is he completely off his chump?  or in a coma? or has he really travelled over 30 years into the past?

This is what the Sinister Union got O so very right - big, imposing peaked hats.

     The idea sounds very intriguing to Your Humble Scribe, whom as we already know is interested in Slavic culture (and cooking), so I shall be keeping an eye out for it on Netflix.
     O go on, Dimya, here's a hanky.

Air Crash Conspiracies Part Three
We've already had Fritz Todt and General Sikorski - now let's look at Dag Hammarskjold.  Dag was Secretary-General of the UN, twice, and was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  His aircraft crashed in Northern Rhodesia in 1961, killing all onboard, as he was travelling to try and sort out the horribly messy and bloody war going on in the Congo at that time.  Art?

Dag, pre-crash.  Obviously.

     Because this event happened in a remote part of what is now Zambia with no eyewitnesses, the conspiranoid loonwaffles all came out of the woodwork and have been braying loudly about it being a conspiracy ever since.  Those variously being blamed at one time another were: the CIA; MI6; the KGB; Belgian mercenary pilots; mining companies; South Africa, and there must be some Grand Unified Conspiracy nutter out there who blames all the above lumped into one.  Art?

"Evidence suggests -" begins the article

     " - that it was shot down," which is an innuendo-laden way of making an assertion without having to provide proof.  Bullet-holes or cannon-shell holes?  Explosive spall?  Expended ammunition?  None found.
     Really, these swivel-eyed loons!  What will they think of next**?

Finally - 
I only hope my porridge hasn't solidified into a solid lump as I type these lines.  That's the problem with microwaving it; the cooking process continues after you remove it from the Mystery Oven.  Well, Your Humble Scribe also has a pot of tea present, so if need be I can thin the porridge out with some of that.  Improvisation!

Just because it looks cool, in case you were wondering

*  There's enough material on rock music and the Soviet Union to do several blogs on nothing but.  Though I won't torment you that much.
**  "Think" used with poetic licence.