Can You Jig It?

 Yet Another Jigsaw Pun

Mind you, I've not done any more to it since last time I posted.  Maybe later tonight.  If so, you will get a picture.

     Next, we are going to be discussing a view from a hill.  No!  Not the song by The Chameleons, nor yet the ghost story by Montague Rhodes James (which was made into a rather disappointing BBC program), but Edgehill.  Art?

Edgehill

     However, we're not simply talking about a picturesque location in the countryside, nor the present day.  No, I am referring, of course - obviously! - to the Battle of Edgehill, about which Your Humble Scribe is reading about in Peter Young's book of the same name.

     This was the first major battle of the English Civil Unpleasantness, taking place on the 23rd of October 1642, and was critically important for several reasons.  Art?

A speculation

     Okay, reason number one:  It was the last chance for a single battle to decide the outcome of the war.  Reason two: the levies fighting were mostly volunteers, who lacked military training and experience, and their performance would be indicative of how battles would be fought.  Reason three: if it came to a clash of arms, then any hope of a negotiated peace was out of the window.

     We have a pretty good idea of each sides "Order of Battle", that is, which units were present and whom commanded what.  In terms of how up-to-strength these units were, we are lacking information, and there is little to show the details of how they were deployed on the battlefield.  One of the difficulties of studying events of 378 years vintage!  

What it may have looked like

     I shan't go into the whole thing - go get Peter Young's book if you want details.  Suffice it to say that both armies were drawn up as convention would have it, cavalry on both flanks and infantry in the middle; it's unsure exactly where the cannon were.  The King's army stood atop a hill, with the Earl of Essex and Parliament's army standing still on lower, level ground and since he didn't advance on the Royalists, they advanced on him.  They Royalist cavalry charged and routed the Parliament cavalry on both wings - and then very foolishly continued to harry the fleeing horsemen.  This pursuit carried them miles away and into Essex's baggage train, which they plundered and burned.

     Meanwhile, the Royalist infantry were getting a right shoeing, especially when Parliament cavalry units amongst their infantry charged.  The King's infantry were forced back, both sides losing heavily, until darkness fell and put an end to things.

" 'pon my worde, wee mus fyte for ourr lace and hatts, gentlemen."

     That's one of the great things about seventeenth-century English; it was still a language looking for definition and you can pretty much spell things any way you want. 

     Anyway, the outcome was a draw, and neither side felt up to resuming hostilities the next morning, so it stayed a draw, which was the worst possible outcome for the whole country, as war dragged on for four years before heading to Ireland and then Scotland.  The last shots were fired in 1652, in Scotland.  The King might have won a stunning and decisive victory if his cavalry hadn't been so impetuous, and someone has probably written a novel about the England of 1975 where the Royalists did win.
     Motley!  Play some U2.  Because - they have an Edge.

A Big Ear

No!  We are not talking about Noddy's pal after a bit of Van Goghing or Reservoir Dogging.  Astronomy, dude, astronomy.

     I may have covered the Kraus "Big Ear" radio telescope before, though if so it was years ago and I cannot be bothered to dig around and find out.  Art?

With puny house for scale

     This thing was enormous.  As they liked to boast, bigger than three football fields.  A signal would come in, hit the angled receiver, be bounced off the curved reflector and into a pair of 'horns'.  It is most famous for receiving the "Wow" signal in 1977, which if art will do the honours -

Wow indeed

     Big Ear had detected a signal from space.  It lasted for 72 seconds, which is how long the telescope could pick up a transmission thanks to the rotation of the Earth.  It has never been repeated, despite people looking at that patch of sky again and often since 1977, and comes from a region of space that is pretty much just empty space.  Any kind of suggestion, apart from it being aliens, has been comprehensively shot down.  Big Ear has been unable to help since 1997, when it was demolished to - er - make room for a golf course.  Because golf is so important in interstellar exploration.

     What we need now is a Big Eye - and when the James Webb Space Telescope get into orbit, that's just what we'll have.

With puny human for scale

     

Bendis Recommends -

The next on that list of comics B.M. Bendis recommended was "Isola", which, inevitably, Conrad had never heard of.  It is a fantasy about a queen, who is treacherously turned into a tiger by her evil scheming brother.  Said brother does not last long, since he is slain by the Queen's female head of security.  Art?

     This slaying proves to have been a bit over-hasty, as it turns out that only the brother can undo the magic and restore Queeny to human form.  Cue an epic journey to Isola, gateway to the underworld, where they hope to raise the shade of dear dead brother and thus reverse the spell.
     Conrad likes the artwork <"O noes" squeaks wallet> so maybe we shall see when it's safe to go into Gomorrah On The Irwell again.

Finally -

I need to finish this off quickly, it's past Beer O'Clock and we're nearly at the Compositional Ton.  Some tea would be good, too.

     O, how about yesterday's Interesting fact?  Art!

An example

     I showed my colleagues a sample Codeword, with 112 squares.  If you filled in one square per second at random, it would take 90000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 million years to complete it.  26 raised to the 112th power.  Now, doing one this afternoon, I got it in 18 minutes, which includes the time taken to fill in the squares with the two letters given.

     We are now DONE!