Nice Weather For DUKWs

O I Do Amuse Myself Sometimes
Whether or not you out there find my puns and wordplay equally amusing is a moot point, because my opinion is the one that matters.
     Okay!  We have returned to the redoubtable Peter Caddick-Adams, professional scholar and soldier, and author of a tome dubbed "magisterial" by James Holland*: "Sand And Steel", which is about both D-Day, and the build-up towards it.

     This is a big book, over 1,000 pages if you include the Notes in my paperback edition, and I am not yet at 25% of the way through.  Anyway, I think we have already made a point about the enormous logistical backup the Allies enjoyed before, during and after the invasion of Normandy.  Ol' Pete makes a point about the DUKW amphibious truck that we here on BOOJUM! have highlighted ages ago; with thousands of 2.5 ton carrying-capacity trucks able to float out to sea, load, drive ashore, dump supplies and repeat the process, Allied logistics were not notably impaired by not having a major port to work from.  Art?

The DUKW is a  Sea Truck

     As Robert Citino has observed, logistics was something the Wehrmacht were rubbish at; they had at most 25 such amphibious vehicles in 1940 and were going to invade Perfidious Albion with such an arsenal - yeah right.
     You might want to judge the qualitative performance of the DUKW - "D" for year of service introduction i.e. 1942 "U" for "utility" "K" for "Killer Kommando Kangaroos" "All wheel drive" and "W" for "Dual-tandem rear axles" - because they carried on in various roles for another 30 years - 50 years in some cases.  
     Not exactly a war-winning wonder weapon, and I doubt anyone doing a "Top 5" of Bovington will ever select a DUKW, yet a vehicle that matters.  When the South Canadian's artificial harbour was destroyed in a storm on 19th June, they simply made to with DUKWs and managed fine.  By the power of Detroit!
     And because it's been pouring down all day long.



That Didn't Work!
Okay, last night I tried to make Syrniki, Ruffian cheese pancakes, with cottage cheese instead of the mysterious "Farmers Cheese", and it was an utter failure.  I used a mesh muslin bag to squeeze out some of the liquid, but it still came out as utter glop, not remotely like a dough at all.
     Consigned to the bin.  I shall have to go and really research what this Dog Buns "Farmer's Cheese" is.
     Watch this space.

It was almost this bad

"Pancake"
What a coincidental irony.  I have decided to give Pierre Closterman's "The Big Show" a re-read, and you know Conrad, I cannot look at a book in conventional order.  First I skipped to the Appendices, and skimmed them and O what's this?  An explanation of RAF codes, with a cheat-sheet of different ones, and there in large lettering is "Pancake".  Art?

Nice try but NO.

     "Pancake" was an instruction to return to your airfield, so the controllers might call out "Turban flight, pancake pancake" and the pilots would hurry back for tea and crumpets in the mess.  No pancakes.

     Ah, you know, the occasional cup of tea with a slice or two of lemon is really enjoyable.  I must not bolt it, though, since I am already a-swill with porridge.

More Of The Mysties
Thinking about it, the Mysterons - for Lo! it is them again and to whom I am referring - are a bit sexist in their statement at the beginning of each episode of "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons".  How does it go again?
     "We know you can hear us, Earthmen ..."  Art?

The rings of doom ARE IN YOUR ROOM!

     Well excuse me, inscrutable alien artificial intelligences!  You only excluded 50% of the Earth's population there.  Or - you're not cross with the women of Earth?  Again, that's so sexist.  And where were you during #MeToo, hmmm?
     Well that went off on a tangent.  What I really intended to talk about was a comic strip I discovered thanks to a website that reviews either old British comics or Gerry Anderson or both.  The author said that in the television series we never see a Mysteron so exactly what and who they are remains open to question - a conjecture he then shoots down, because the Mysterons were depicted in a comic strip in TV Tornado - Art?

A bit tetchy, aren't they?

     And those, gentle reader, are the Mysterons.  As the website author put it, sugar cubes from outer space - who kill a lot quicker than diabetes will, matey.


Conrad Can Get Behind This One - 
No!  Not to stab it in the back.  Really, what must you think of me!
     No, I refer to - obviously! - entry number 16 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of the top 50 sci-fi series ever, which is "Devs", a series I've never heard of.  Art?

Yup, the hairy one is from "Parks and Rec"

     It has a good pedigree, being from the mind of Alex Garland, the writer who has moved into making films, and jolly interesting ones, too.  After a brief skim of the episodes in Season One, it is most definitely a sci-fi show, unlike that boring eyestrain "The Handmedown's Tail" or whatever.  I did accidentally glimpse how the last episode goes, so I shall have to avoid it for a while until the information fades.  Yes, it is a series I can see myself watching, which will no doubt relieve Mister Garland mightily: the BOOJUM! seal of approval is not lightly given**.

Conrad unsure what this is - probably Evilllllll

Finally -
You may not have noticed, or you may, in which case SIT BACK DOWN! about the owl that was rescued from a well in the land of the Teutons.  It was an impressive well.  Art?

There has to be a joke in here somewhere -

     It was a rescue carried out with characteristic Teutonic thoroughness, involving the fire brigade and oxygen pumping and abseiling and animal advisers, and it had a happy ending with the distressed owl rescued and taken to a sanctuary.

Sitting pretty

     I have to go now but - there HAS to be a joke in there somewhere ...


*  Brother of the more famous Tom.
**  We hate a lot more than we like