A Bit Of Jiggery-Pokery

 For Lo! We Are Back On The Subject Of Jigsaws Again

I don't care if you don't like jigsaw puzzles, because once again whose blog is it?  Your Humble Scribe has managed to get nearly all the edge and corner pieces together, a total of 125 pieces.  Art?

     As you can see in upper starboard, there is a piece missing, and having trawled through 876 pieces I don't intend to bother again.  If it turns up, it turns up, and if it doesn't turn up then it must have been transmogrified into a pocket dimension where weasels are the ruling race and we will never get it back until -

     You get the idea.

     And that, gentle reader, is today's Intro.  Yes, it's a very short Intro.  I can be succinct if needed.  Motley, bring me a litre of Eton Mess ice cream - sugar free of course!

ROKing Your World

<adopts narrow-eyed stance whilst clutching a bamboo skewer>  Do I need to caution you about assertions of typographical error?  Because this piece of sharp wood is dying to make an introduction to your bowels.

     By"ROK" I refer to the Republic Of Korea, which is the good bit of the peninsula, and we can reproduce that hilariously satirical photograph - Art?

HAR HAR!

          Your Humble Scribe brings this up because he has been watching the hilarious "My Love From The Star", a ROK television program, and thanks to Netflix they have O So Very Thoughtfully brought up a list of other, related programs.  Which is -

Only the top row.  THE TOP ROW.

          Blimey.  That's seven television programs, and only in the category "South East Asian Historical TV Drama".  Who knows how many ROK television shows there are in total!

     Meanwhile the Norks have "White Heat Technology Tractor Drama".  Art?

Gripping stuff.

     It hardly seems fair, taking potshots at the Norks, since they are such easy targets, but I have no sense of fairness so I don't care.

A Nod To Mat Hartless And The Maverick Seven

You may find these young people being mentioned more in 2021, when their hot vinyl platter is due to be released*.  Conrad not sure if they brought on board an accordionist or not, as per his recommendation.  Everything musical is improved by accordions.
     Anyway, I - Art? do we have any clickbait pictures of -

Shelli at starboard.  And, yes, there are only 6.  Which leaves room for an accordion player!

     None of which has more than the remotest connection to what I wanted to write about, which was - LITHIUM WAFER BATTERY D- o wait it wasn't that.

     Ah!  Yes - from the Skeptoid webcast, where they delve into the historical origin of - griffins.  Actually, Shelli might find this interesting, as she is a big fan of mermaids and unicorns.  I realise one has a tail and the other a horn**; we are talking mythology here, pilgrims, not reality, so cut me some cryptozoological slack.  Art?

Griffin wants some tiffin

          Skeptoid's take on the griffin is that there were lots and lots and lots of coherent fossils over in what was then Scythia (from where the word 'scythe' is derived thanks to their weapon of choice), from which people then derived the completely wrong conclusion.  Art?

Close, but no cigar

     They saw 'skeletons' of four-footed animals with a large 'beak' and imagination filled in the rest.

     A fascinating conjecture.  Now, what about Herodotus and his giant ants that scurry about collecting amber?

Amber, Art, not nubile young ladies!  Amber!

     Herodotus, lest you misapprehend, has a bit of a mixed reputation.  He is known both as "The Father of History" and "The Father of Lies", which latter is a bit unfair as he was only reporting what he'd been told.

A Demi-Lune Is In The Room

A "Demi-Lune" being a variety of seventeenth-century field fortification, and if that lazy blaggard Art can put down his bowl of coal - 

Do two demi-lunes make a single lune?

     Conrad is quivering with glee as, trying to Google "rabonetts" yesteryon, he came across a free resource from - what's that?  <sighs at the youth of today> a very small cannon, firing shot not above a half pound in weight.

     AS I WAS SAYING, I came across an article from Bristol University, a thesis about the archaeology of fortifications during the English Civil Unpleasantness, which is right up my current street, except streets can't have currents, can they? so perhaps stream.  It runs to 372 pages and nearly 80,000 words so I have only skimmed it, but what a lucky find!

Bristol circa 1642

     Bristol, in the mid-seventeenth century, was England's second city (after London) and thus worth both defending and conquering.  In fact it changed hands three times and by the end of the Unpleasantness it's citizens must have been damning both parties to the devil.

     Ten minutes until nose-grindstone interface!

     Of course I made the mistake of looking at the BBC website, which, of course - obviously! - is bursting with interesting stories and sidebar links AS IT ALWAYS IS when my time is at a premium.

You What?

You may have heard yesterday about our government planning to mothball all the British army's tanks, because £££ - O sorry, no, in order to concentrate on cyberwarfare.  

     Conrad is both puzzled and suspicious about this.  What are the transferrable skills that a sixty-ton tank jockey can use in combating Ruffian troll farms?

Hmmmm.  Don't think "crushing them" will float.

     In fact, why wouldn't such work be given to GCHQ or MI5?  That would make more sense than mothballing our Challies.  And yes, one minister was bloviating about how the design hasn't been updated in 22 years - whose hands have been on the purse-strings and PREVENTING an update all this time?  Certainly not the tank jockey's.

     This is getting dangerously close to Politics, so I shall put a lid on my Frothing Nitric Ire.

      And with that we are done.  Done done done!

*  Vinyl is still a thing, right?

**  Tasteless jokes avoided.