The Drugs May Work -

Or They May Not

That's not the point, however, because they seem to be following me around.  You ought to recall yesteryon, how I was going on about opiate usage in the Victorian era, where you could lay hold of litres of laudanum with little bother.

     Here an aside.  Art!

    Conrad has read a couple of Ol' Tom's works, one a short story about an invisible "thing" that makes the narrator's life a misery, until it is captured and dies, which probably made it miserable.  Sorry, can't remember the title.  The other claim to fame that Ol' Tom has is being a druggie before it was a thing, and which he wrote about in the above work.  O how he loved his opium!  Then came along this novelty called "withdrawal", as the various phenomena associated with addiction were not well known in the early nineteenth century, and you can rest assured that Ol' Tom felt miserable during these times.

     It is also noted that, since he worked by candlelight, he had a clumsy and unfortunate tendency to set things alight, including himself*.  Thus there may have been other written works of his that never saw the light of day.  O well.

     Anyway, back to "France: The Dark Years" - no, nothing to do with candlelight, Vulnavia - and we are now onto that section dealing with the Resistance, and - what's this?  A sprig of the aristocracy called Emmanuelle Astier De La Vigerie, hereafter shortened to "d'Astier".  Art?

Starboard last sentence

     "He was a heavy user of opium -" DAMN YOU COINCIDENCE HYDRA! who on earth would have suspected anything about opiate misuse in a detailed analytical work on the French political and social issues of 1940 - 1944?  Conrad now suspects that he could pick up any of Enid Blyton's works and The Flopsy Bunnies would suddenly be revealed as major smackheads.

     I think that's about all we need on drugs, MI5 already have an unhealthy interest in what Conrad writes and we don't need more spooks crawling about on the roof.

     Meanwhile, back in "Bleak House" - O NOW Google decides to bring up an appropriate picture! Where were you two days ago?  ART!

     Here you have Mister Tulkinghorn, the secretive (not to mention sly) barrister who represents Lady Dedlock, paying a visit to the recently-deceased copier of legal paperwork, whom expired due to an overdose of opsherbetm.  Conrad recalls Lady Dedlock receiving a written communication at the novel's beginning, and immediately put two and two together.  There is a sinister secret at work in the background here, mark my words.

     And on that wrong note, let us move on apace.

Observing The Etiquette

One of the provisos of good science-fiction is that the writer changes only one thing about the world they have created, and then follows the ramifications that follow on from that, with characters attached of course - obviously! - as otherwise you've got an atomic toaster Handbook For Users**.  With "The Expanse", for example, you have fusion power.  Doesn't sound much but it puts the whole Solar System within Hom. Sap's grubby grasp, for better or (mostly) worse.

     So, "Battlestar Galactica" - do keep up!  Art?

     It wasn't apparent to Your Humble Scribe that this miniseries (about 4 episodes edited together, I think) came before Season One, making the first few episodes of that season a bit jarring.  So I've gone back to re-watch it, and yes, they have only one thing present that you we don't have today, a Faster Than Light drive.  Their weaponry is also just as advanced as Hom. Sap's - they have thermonuclear weapons, missiles and cannon; not a phaser in sight.

Another Dedlock, hmmm?

     This means less recourse to technobabbly deus ex machina along the lines of "use the iggly-woggly on the jibbly-jumbly to potrzebie the fnorpium" and so on (looking at a certain Sixties television show here).  Of course I still have to get through the last episode of "Lovecraft Country" yet, a bridge we will burn in due time.

A Little Musical Critique
Conrad's sense of malicious amusement comes back to roost, like vampire chickens, and Yes! Simon and Garfunkel are back in our artistic cross-hairs, a fate they ought to be used to by now - Paul, you can come out from behind the settee, you're not fooling anyone.  Today we take aim at "Bridge Over Troubled Water", so let the frighteningly logical analysis begin!

When you're weary, feeling small

Sorry, Conrad only comes in Economy Size, 6' 1" and seventeen stone

When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all, all

Hmmm, this is a recipe for optic irritation you know; perhaps wait until the tears are actually rolling down cheeks and that way no desiccated eyeballs?

Onions!

I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough

Very worthy.  Do they owe you money?

And friends just can't be found

You do owe money.  Hence the absence of friends, you sponger.

Like a bridge over troubled water

This bridge has troubles of it's own

I will lay me down

Hmmm so this troubled water is less than six feet in width?

Like a bridge over troubled water

Shoddy construction!

I will lay me down

<Grammar Nazi gland goes into overdrive>

     I think we'll leave it there, poor old Art can't take much more.  Someone get that man a hanky.

Finally - 

Well well Dinger Bell (played by the always excellent Idris Elba) - we finally reach Number One on the list of - no, no, Vulnavia, nothing to do with "The Prisoner" where Number Six was always banging on about who Number One was - on the list of "Top 50 Sci-Fi Television Show", and they chose the critic's favourite, an obscure Sixties program called "Star Wars" -

     - no, only joking.  An obscure Sixties program called "Star Trek", which, if Art will put down his dish of coal and coke -

     24th century technology yet not a seat-belt or crash-harness in sight <sighs>.  Best watched in the original Klingon, I am told.  It made stars out of William Ratner and Leonard Nimoue and there are probably libraries of references over on TV Tropes, not to mention all the films and subsequent television series "inspired" by it.  

     

     You didn't ask but you're getting my favourite episode depicted above.  A classic in every sense.

     And with that we are done!

*  Conrad sympathises with the "clumsy" bit.

**  Atomic toasters <gets a faraway look in the eyes> is there a patent for that?