Woe

Technically

It means, of course, to be in distress, and is from Old English (which is pretty Teutonic in nature), viz: "Wae".

     I raise this as a word because my friend Richard - the one who lives in the middle of nowhere's middle of nowhere, not the one in Spain - is canvassing opinions and ideas about next year's wargaming event that has long been known as "Crisis Point".  Art?

Gridlocked rush-hour in Storrs

     Except for 2021 it's been rebranded as "Spirit Coin" and, yes, I see what you did there, Richard.  The venue is still the central hall of Dungworth Community School, which, if Art can but put down his bowl of coal - 

Once again, without all the squealing infants, ta

Assembly hall to port

     Richard has invented the fictional islands of the Woebetide group, which are located north-east of Madagascar.  They are inhabited by the three Woebetideus tribes, with several Arab trading settlements and villages, and France and Great Britain both have a proprietal eye upon them through their merchant trading organisations.  Also, that plague of the region in the 21st Century, namely pirates, were also starting to appear in these waters.  So that's at least five different factions, all of whom are likely to have a pop at each other.

     So, Richard is intent on putting on a game set in the early eighteenth century, using Too Fat Lardies "Sharp Practice" rules and 28mm figures, and given that the event is a good 11 months away, he wants some input from us prospective gamers.  Working out a background for the islands and the different factions, non-playing characters, interesting local wildlife, exotic plants and the like.

Proof I'm not making it up

     Yes, yet another Richard.  There will be another Richard at the event, too, just to confuse you.  Now, I must away and research the early eighteenth century, and see what strange and disturbing things it sported.  Exotic plants, hmmmm?  I wonder, I wonder - would the game be helped or hampered if it's found that the Manchineel, or "Death Apple Tree", grows in the interior?  <goes away pondering dark and sinister thoughts>

Don't deal - with the manchineel!

     I say, motley, would you like some fruit?

Can You Overdose On Popcorn?

Conrad is merely curious, certainly not trying to challenge you, because I was reading another Reddit thread about the concessions stands that attempt to vacuum money out of your wallet at the cinema; the principle is that the cinema makes very little money from each ticket sold, and thus relies on selling baskets of popcorn and buckets of soft drinks.  Art?

Damn you, diabetes!

     The poster said that there was no bar on the vendor sampling the product they were selling, because whilst they might gorge on popcorn or ice-cream for a week, after that they were utterly fed up with the stuff and grew to loathe the sight of it.

     All the same, Conrad feels that in the alternative universe where he is not stricken with diabetes, and got a job at Vue even after winning the lottery because then he gets to see all the latest films for free, he would be able to keep binging on every concession product going for months.  Months, I tell you*!

      

     

How To Be DANGERous!

Leave an open beaker of Arsenic Trichloride in the laboratory, that's how.  As you might guess from the name, this chemical contains arsenic, which immediately makes it dangerously toxic.  It is a liquid at room temperature, liable to give off toxic fumes which will KILL YOU DEADLY.  Despite having been dubbed, bizarrely, "Butter of Arsenic", you'd better not spread it on bread, as it will kill you if ingested.  It will also cause severe chemical burns to the skin, but don't worry - it'll kill you long before you need worry about unsightly scars a la Taylor Durden.  It may cause cancer - but nobody's sure, because people coming into contact with BoA tend to die pretty much instantly.

Dem bones

     Lest you be perturbed by the toxicity of this stuff, and wonder why it exists, it is an intermediate in the production of organoarsenic compounds, which tend to be poisons used agriculturally or industrially.

     DANGEROUS**!

The Dangers Of Being A Bumbletuck: Part One

A lesson from ProRevenge on Youtube's ask/Reddit channel.  Our Narrator (hereafter "OR") had moved to a new school and was being harassed by a bully he dubbed Mike.  Mike was, frankly, a creep, who continually tracked down the OR to insult him, to the point that his friends were beginning to get freaked by his behaviour.  Since OR never reacted, Mike appeared to get fed up of his game and stop -

     Apparently.

     The next Monday, the post box at OR's house, which sat at the end of a very long driveway out in the country - think Storrs with a South Canadian accent - had been knocked flat by a car.  Art?

A South Canadian peculiarism

     The family shrugged it off to some drunk driver and the OR put it back up on a new wooden post.  It happened again on Tuesday, and Wednesday - in fact for two weeks, though not at the weekend, ten times in all.  OR had been documenting this abuse with photographs and reporting it to the police; he now decided to take revenge.

     At the weekend he dug a 6 foot hole, filled with with concrete, put a metal water pipe in the concrete, filled the pipe with concrete, then put the mail box back on top.

     You can guess the rest -

     One of Mike's friends finds the OR at school on Monday and loudly berates him for trashing Mike's car.  It transpired that Mike had indeed hit the pole and completely wrecked his car at 05:00, having to have it towed home.

     It gets better - if you're the OR - or worse - if you're Mike - but that shall have to wait until tomorrow, as we are done DONE DONE for today!

*  Of course, the incipient heart attack brought on by ballooning to 25 stone might be a buzzkill.

**  Just so we're clear.