A Hansom With A Transom

Oooo Matron!

Actually that should be "Matron's" as it was a crossword clue, but I couldn't resist the urge to evoke all those 'Carry On' films.  "Matron's beam? (7)" was the clue, and the answer was of course TRANSOM.

     Conrad, of course, could not simply leave it there.  O no.  Where does the word come from, and do we have a picture?

     It has long roots, going back to Old French and "Traversin" meaning "Traverse" and from there to Medieval English and "Traversayn".  As explicated above, it has come to mean both the dividing piece of horizontal structure that divides a door and an upper window, and the upper window itself.  I believe our South Canadian cousins call it a 'fanlight'.

     And so to the Hansom, which you will doubtless have seen if you've ever seen a Sherlock Holmes film, or the proper television series set in late nineteenth century London, none of that modern drivel.  Art?

Hansom in foreground, transom in background

     As invented by Joe Hansom.  This was a highly-evolved design, low-slung for safety, light enough to be pulled by a single horse, and nippy enough to negotiate traffic in The Modern Babylon (or London, if we're being formal).  The name "Hansom Cab" is an abbreviation for convenience's sake of 'Hansom Cabriolet', as the design resembled the light French carriage of that name, which differed in having a folding top.

     Of course, that meant I had to look up "cabriolet", which is French for "Little  skip" because these wagons had a light and bouncy gait to them. Nowadays the term 'cabriolet' is used for a class of car which possesses a fold-away roof.  Art?

     Yes, all very impressive until someone gets a blown hydraulic gasket -

     Anyway, back to the Hansom Cab.  The design was immensely successful and infested the streets of The Modern Babylon by the thousands, and was taken up by all the sensible European nations, and indeed by the South Canadians, too.  They didn't go entirely out of service until the Twenties, when the automobile arrived on the scene in large numbers - which is another music from a different galley.

     I say, Motley, that brings to mind phrases involving "horse-whipped".  You stay there and I'll go rummage in the cellar ...

You Read It Here First

Here a little background detail about BOOJUM!'s creative process.  Because Your Humble Scribe sits next to the window, one of the constant inputs pre-Covid was the ever-changing procession of bus posters advertising films.  All that went out the window <no pun intended> once Coronavirus made it's presence felt, and bus posters haven't been updated for months and months, as there were no cinemas playing films that required promoting.  Until now -

     Conrad has seen buses flashing by with this poster artwork present, and wondered what it was, as no film of the name has come to my attention.

     And it's actually a computer game.  Starring Mister Niceguy himself, Keanu Reeves.  Wowsers.  These things have progressed a lot from Asteroids, haven't they?  Your Humble Scribe keeps a considerable distance from computer games, as they have the potential to completely eat up your spare time and leave you still playing at 01:37 when you need to be up at 06:00 for work.

     It took them 8 years to finally release it, apparently.  One wonders if the mise en scene is informed at all by 'Johnny Mnemonic' or "Neuromancer" and Sterling or Gibson?  You can let me know in the comments as I am not going to be following this one up*.

<there will now be a short break as I seek out more tea>

     Actually it was quite a long break as I took advantage of the sunny skies to take Edna for a trot; what a contrast to yesterday's miserable chilly downpour!

"Field Guns In France" By Colonel Fraser-Tytler

Yes, I am still annotating this work, and am up to page 90 of 252, in case you were wondering, and even if you weren't.  The format is of letters that NFT (my nickname for the author) sent home during wartime, describing what he's seen and been doing.  In a longer than usual one sent home after 01/07/1916, he explained in some detail his battery and brigade's actions leading up to what is incorrectly termed "The First Day On The Somme".  As the aching, sweating, deafened gunners (and their Teuton victims) could tell you, it began on 24/06/1916.  For weeks before the infantry attacks went in he and his detachments were strengthening their positions, stockpiling ammunition, registering targets, and then shelling them like blazes.

British tourists sending glad tidings to their Teuton brethren

     "D" Battery, NFT's own command, was sandwiched by two French howitzer batteries, with 12" howitzers.  The French commander of one remarked to NFT that he'd done two tours of duty at Verdun and that never, ever, had he witnessed the kind of shelling that was being delivered on the Somme.  NFT cannily remarked that the Teuton artillery response was fairly feeble and their infantry defences thrown into utter confusion; had there been a rapid follow-on from Perfidious Albion their opponents might well have collapsed.

     Perhaps, perhaps.  Don't worry, we'll be coming back to this topic, O Yes Indeed**.

Whilst On Matters Martial

Conrad unexpectedly found a video on Facebook that is of a type he's seen before: an expert in a particular subject reviews films dealing with said matter and rates them for accuracy (and possibly awesomeness).  This one was from a chap who taught jungle warfare in South Canada, and he was reviewing films featuring The Jungle.  Art!

     You're not really selling that glamourous military lifestyle there, matey.

     He did have an entertaining and valid take on "Tears Of The Sun", mind you, when we see Bruce pop up in an ambush - 

     Hmmmm yes it does rather stand out, doesn't it?

Finally -

Yes yes yes, I'm on leave today and tomorrow and Wednesday, but you're still only getting ONE new post per day.  Because I like to have a lie-in and it's not as if any of you have to pay for reading the finest scrivel in the world, is it?

*  Unless I do.  I'm unpredictable like that.

**  I can see you positively quivering with anticipation.  Or is it fear?