Articulate

Conrad Hopes This Is The First Word You Think Of When Reading The Blog

After that, you can add "Bizarre", "Stupid" and "Nonsense" if you like.  Just as long as "Articulate" is in there first.

     We are now going to risk an incursion by the ever-present Steam Locomotives, who could sneak up on us with ease given how foggy it is tonight; however, Your Humble Scribe has discovered that TRAINS are more complicated then he imagined and wants to share some of this new-found data.  Art!

     This, ladies and gentlemen and those unsure, is an "Articulated" locomotive, which is to say one that can swing about on it's bogies in a manner the conventional locomotive cannot <conventional locomotive goes into a sulk>.  There are various different patterns of Artic. Locos, and although I generally avoid pinching images from Wikipedia, their schematic is very clear and concise.  Art!

     To what end are these various arrangements employed?  I thought you'd never ask!  They allow the locomotive to take turns that are sharper than a normal locomotive could risk, without getting derailed.  There is a definite limit to how sharp the curve can be on a railway before the train is going to leave the tracks.  Art!  Another example!

     This South Canadian beast is another Artic. and the wheel description 2-6-6-6 tells you so; you can see the first 3 underneath all that plumbing, and the second 3 behind them (the reciprocal 3 being on the side you can't see).  I bet you've never given a single thought to rail curve versus derailment risk before, have you?  Now that you know it's a real thing, your train journeys in future will never be the same.

     Come here, Motley, for I wish to test what make this length of railway track is by dropping it on your <substitute for a> foot.  9 or 16 pound (per yard length) and you'll be fine.  75 pound and we might need to call an ambulance.  Art!

Atompunk or what?

A Palpable Hit!

"What's Conrad doing by quoting Shakespeare, for leaven's sake*?" I hear you quibble.  "For he loathes the Barf of Avon mightily."

     Correct.  I was quoting The Doctor, if you must know.  Art!

Root versus Dalek

     From that classic of the Pertwee era "Death to the Daleks", where a roving Dalek, being nosy as all of that species are, encounters a 'root' originating in the Exillon's city.  This root is highly aggressive and packs a power-laden punch that leaves the Dalek in bits**.  The Doctor is witness to this japery and comments as above.
     Which has about 0.001% relevant to a Youtube video I was watching, and if Art can put down his Mara Corday scrapbook -

     YES! WELL DONE SIR! RIGHT ON THE BUTTON!

     I refer, of course - O so obviously! - to his correctly stating "Frankenstein's monster" rather than the usual sloppy misattribution merely to "Frankenstein", which, as one who has read the novel actually thanks for asking, irks the spit out of Your Humble Scribe.

     What was he commenting on? Ah. Yes.  Er - something about the persimmon harvest in Novi Pazar?

Evolution

I realise by using this word that the Biblical literalists will choke on their tea and shortbread, suddenly realising that the blog is nothing to do with Lewis Carroll and nonsense verse.  Sorry about that, and remember - the Heimlich Manoeuvre is your friend.

     You see, Conrad was intrigued by a line of thought he came up with in outline for Sunday's second post, about the cover illustrations of pulp magazines from the Thirties to the Fifties, and their conventions.  One that I came across was a splendid example of the genre.  Art?

     Conrad definitely NOT using this as the default picture that comes up on Facebook!  "Star of Treasure", hmmmm.  Not a name I'm familiar with, nor does the name "Charles W. Harbaugh" ring any bells, and it's probably a pen-name to boot. Okay, I did a bit of Google-fu and that above is not the entire cover, so lets have the real thing, please, Art.

Not just "Wonder" but "Thrilling" too.  Your cup runneth over.

     This one ticks all the boxes.  Stern, square-jawed, clean-shaven WASP male with ray-gun?  Check.  Grotty alien monsters (apparently a species of carnivorous seals)?  Check.  Sleek streamlined spaceship?  Check.  Hapless, helpless and also  glamourous alien (yet startlingly human-looking) princess not wearing a lot, and who needs rescuing?  Check.
     If the cover illustration is for "The Veil Of Astellar" then I've still never heard of it, although Leigh Brackett's name I am familiar with.

     You were expecting a man, weren't you?  We may come back to Leigh, she did interesting work.

A Taste Of Britain

I have seen a Youtube video of various British dainties being fed to callow and unsuspecting South Canadians.  Unsurprisingly, none of them took to Marmite very much, because it is genuinely either love or hate, with no middle ground.  There was mystification at why the "Digestive" biscuit was thus named, since as one person put it, that made it sound like a medicine.  I have seen a recent Youtube comment that mirrors this.  Art?

     These biscuits are indeed delicious, and Conrad has to avoid them like poison, for their principal constituents are flour, butter and sugar THANK YOU SO MUCH DIABETES all baked together into - <I must stop tormenting myself>.

     Many years ago Your Humble Scribe lived not far from the Mcvitie's factory in Stockport and when the wind was in the right direction you got the scent of digestives being baked.  How glad I am not to live there now! <dammit stop tormenting myself...>

TAUNT ME WITH WHAT I CANNOT HAVE!

Finally -

Have to hurry and get this up to the Compositional Ton, as there is a fascinating video by Legal Eagle on Youtube that I was watching before starting on BOOJUM!  I won't go into details as it consists of both Current Affairs and Politics, and is about that recent election thing in South Canada.  Legal Eagle does a forensic breakdown, in his capacity as a practicing attorney, of Certain Legal Issues.  One thing to take away from it that I can pass on is that Rudi Giuliani, that old guy with glasses and not much hair, is on a retainer of £15,000 per day.  So since the e<coughcough>n took place, he's made £400,000.  Not bad if you can get it.

Ambrose Bierce would be 163 this year

*  Less serious than 'heaven's sake' and much yeastier

**  Good.  Fascists on rollerskates.