Crossover Crux

 Yes Yes Yes -

Conrad is very well aware that "Cross" in Latin is "Crux", did you have any other staggeringly normal points to bring to our attention?  No?  Thank you so much, take a ticket and form an orderly queue*.  

     Okay!  I have just finished watching Season Two of "The Umbrella Academy", wherein our heroes redacted and redacted with redacted in redacted.  What a redacted end to the series!  The only problem is having to wait another year until the next redacted  season comes out.  O well. It does successfully portray Klaus as being an absolute bottom with one redeeming feature, that of redacted.  You knew he was a Brit, right?  Although they do subvert the trope by having Luther, the A No.1 Umbrella Academy stalwart, as portrayed by a Brit, too.

Luther gets the inspiration for Simian Mobile Disco

     I should point out that anyone not a Brit is a Canuckistanian, which is only a Brit-one-step-removed.  So!  Take that, South Canada, HAH!

     Which has a bearing on my riff about 'Crossover', because what do you use an umbrella for?  Why, for fending off 'The Rain', of course.  Lest you be unaware, this is a Danish post-apocalyptic series, wherein the rain of the title kills you stone dead immediately if it gets on your skin.  Conrad has seen much of Season One <code for "I can't remember exactly where I was up to"> and even remembers sending out an e-mail to colleagues at work that there were NO UMBRELLAS to be seen, at all.  Art?

Wet Dansk

     Would not Season 4 of each series be the perfect opportunity for a crossover?  The brash South Canadians being taught humility and a second language by the conservative Dansk?  With butter, bacon and a socialist medical welfare system?  As Luther et al punch <insert generic bad guys> into the stratosphere, a feat our endemically-weakened Dansk cannot manage?

    Perhaps not.  But it's nice to dream.

     Conrad also noticed that the end credits mention Dark Horse, a comics publishing company you may not be aware of.  Nice to see the duumvirate of Marvel and DC getting stiff competition.  Okay, motley, time to break out the dancing horses!

Let's Have Some Schadenfreude

Because Conrad is a horrible person, guilty of unspeakable offences, and he takes great delight in seeing others suffer misfortune.

     For Lo! we are looking at another film which haemorrhaged wheelbarrow-loads of money at the box office, namely "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'Engle.  Art?

How small can we go?

     There was a lot of sanctimonious humbug about the film, blathering on about how it was "empowering" and "feminist" and other such drivel, and it was the first big-budget picture directed by a black woman, yaddah yaddah. Well it was a soggy flop at the box office, losing £60 million, which is quite the thing to have on your curriculum vitae ("resume" for our South Canadian friends).  The critics were pretty unenthused, too, helping people stay away in hordes.  You can be as empownist as you like, if the film's any good, but when it has plot holes you can drive a bus through - nope.  Just no.  AND it had too much CGI.

     Conrad read the novel himself when young, rather than a young adult, and has vague recollections of stuff.

     Oh, and what was deservedly top of the box office when things went all wrinkly?  "Black Panther".  Now, there's a film Your Humble Scribe can get behind.  Art?

 - because you can never have too much Things Exploding

Talking Of Plot Holes -

Conrad finished watching "Avengers Assemble" last night, and a couple of things struck him.     Since it's been out for years, I will assume you've seen it already so don't come crying to me if the death of Nick Fury takes you by surprise.

     No, only kidding, he doesn't die.  Agent Coulson does, though.  Or does he?  That's kind of left hanging.  Does his presence in "Agents of SHIELD" mean he deffo survived?

Tragic, yes, but nothing to do with what I want to say
(Hey, perhaps he's one of a set of clones!)

     So, Loki deliberately get's captured so he can be taken aboard the SHIELD heli-carrier in order to deliberately provoke Bruce Banner via the Magic Pointy Stick into Hulking out and this will totally defeat all of SHIELD everywhere.  Or something.  Loki, your plan is excrement.  What if they'd slung him in pokey on Planet Earth?  There is that spiffy underwater prison, after all, and it'd be a shame not to put all those tax dollars to work.  What it an inquisitive Brucey took the Magic Pointy Stick apart?  Or if it was sent elsewhere for analysis?  Or Thor smells a rat and bashes it to bits with his Magic Heavy Metal Hammer?  And, as proven very adequately, The Hulk cannot fly, so all it takes is a little oil on the floor and - Ooopsie!

     Of course Loki gets to waggle his eyebrows dramatically and chew some scenery.  British character actor, you see.  

Mister Anger Mismanagement in concrete form

     Okay, I've been banging on about films long enough, that second point will have to wait.  I'm sure your legendary patience can handle the delay, gentle readers.

Finally -

Damn that extra line being added in!

     Anyway, you may remember this piece of civil engineering - 

Toddbrook Dam

     You can see the airlifted sandbags at upper starboard which were used to reinforce that portion of the dam that had been swept away.  There were no indications of how serious this was at the time, but experts now say there was a 50/50 of the whole dam collapsing.  In which case as I recall about 250 million tons of water would have hit Whaley Bridge and removed it from the map.

     Whilst temporary repairs have only just been completed, rainwater is pumped out of the reservoir as soon as it accumulates, which is quite rapidly because whilst This Isle is Sceptred, it is also frequently Wet.

     And with that we are o so very done!

*  Disorderly queues will be exterminated told off very severely.