Chuck's Luck

One Might Almost Say "Luv-a-duck"

Those not at least fifty years old, who don't have an history of reading British comics from the Sixties, won't make any sense of that.  It was used as a relatively benign exclamation by characters who, in real life, would have been turning the air blue.  Usually it came with "Cor!" attached at the front, and you'd often see it in strips like "Captain Hurricane", as used by Corporal Maggot Malone (I'm not making this up!).

     Hmmm Blogger not allowing the copied pictures to load.  O well, valuable exercise for your imagination.

Not very nice.  Who thought chocolate-flavoured beer was a good idea?

     Hmmmmm though it will allow the loading of photographs.  That above was the Beer Advent Calendar entry for December 20th, and Conrad had to force it down.  Dear brewers: adding chocolate flavour to anything does NOT automatically make it taste better, Yours, Conrad.

     Which has little or nothing to do with constitutional law as regards the monarchy, nor fish.  Yes, the two are linked.  No, Conrad has not been at the cooking sherry again.  

It worked!  
I was going to say, Captain Hurricane is clearly inspired by Captain Blair Mayne

      I just came across a fascinating story on the BBC's website about a Belgian challenge to fishing rights back in the Sixties.  Mssr. Depaepe, an accountant from Bruges, deliberately sailed into British territorial waters, dropped his trawler's fishing nets and was promptly arrested.  He was taken to the local magistrate's court and a trial ensued - which was quickly and quietly dropped.

     Canny Mssr. Depaepe, you see, had dug up a Royal Charter from 1660, created by Charles The Second whilst he was on the Continent in exile, which granted fishing rights in perpetuity to the Belgian fishing fleet based in Bruges.  Art!

Note that Latin uses "V" for "U".  "Carolus Secundus" is thus "Charles The Second"

     We have touched on Chuck in exile before; Prince Rupert had visited his court and hated the political intrigue and backstabbery that went on there.  Conrad wonders if the legal abandonment was quite as quick and capitulatory as the Beeb's article suggests, because don't forget Chuck and his invading Scottish army had been utterly spanked at Worcester in 1652 and he'd needed to flee the country with indecent haste.  Whether he could still be considered the King, or even a King, since he hadn't been crowned, is a moot point and one that lawyers would love to get paid millions of pounds to argue about.  Did he automatically become King when his dad got decapitated?  Did he need to have a coronation to become King?  What about Queen Henrietta?  And so on - and those questions would have cost you £76,000 if I were a barrister.

Chuck with fishing rod

     Funny how the English Civil Unpleasantness has a way of coming back and biting one on the gluteus maximus.  Being a cynical old hound, Conrad also wonders what benefits Chuck got out of his fishing charter, as it surely wasn't granted for any purely lofty moral reason, and he was always strapped for cash.

     Motley - how much do you weigh?  Unsure?  Then get on these scales*!


A Word Of Warning

Your Humble Scribe is typing this scrivel up in the evening of yesteryon, because he's not going to have any opportunity to do it today during the daytime, regardless of how early he arises.  For Lo! he is off to do the first day of two at the Oldham superstore branch of <coughcough>'s, which he has pledged.

You didn't think I'd actually show you, did you?

     They generously gave me the early shift, which still doesn't finish until 17:00, and I then have to walk to the bus station and catch a bus home, which will take at least forty minutes, and then I need to get changed and -

     You get the idea.  Given that Your Humble Scribe's most strenuous activity for the past 9 months has been walking to the kitchen to make a brew, the first day may kill me**.  We shall see if anything gets done for Wednesday.

"10 Overlooked Low-Budget Sci-Fi Films!"

Ah, they know how to push all my buttons.  When Conrad saw this on Youtube, OF COURSE he had to investigate further, especially as it seemed they mostly seemed to be from the Eighties and Nineties, when the VCR reigned supreme.  You streamers of the Twenty-First Century might have to go Google what a VCR was.

     ANYWAY

     Of course I made a list, because lists are one of the things that differentiate intelligent life from stuff that's only imitating it.  How do you flush out the evil shape-shifting alien imposter?  Tell everyone to make a list and the one that's just -

Cornflakes                        Cornflakes

Cornflakes                        Cornflakes

Cornflakes                         Cornflakes

Cornflakes                         Cornflakes

Cornflakes                         Cornflakes

Cornflakes                         Cornflakes

 - is the guilty party.  Works every time.  So what is the list?  I thought you'd never ask!

10: "Nemesis"

Yes, Conrad has seen this, many times, and owns a DVD of it, too.  It's low budget is apparent in some of the production values, but it's an entertainingly fast-paced thriller that actually addresses some serious issues as technology and humans increasingly interact.  When do you stop being human as you add more and more android prosthetics to your 'body'?  Or does that vanishing point never arrive?  If consciousness can be recorded, does that make you functionally immortal, or replaceable?

PLUS LOTS OF GUNS

     I may have to dig it out once I've seen more episodes of "Battlestar Galactica".  Don't worry, we'll come back to this topic, I don't want to spoil you all at once.

Finally -

We are nearly at the Compositional Ton, so only a short article here.  Conrad has just finished "A Soldier's Story" about RASC member Neville "Timber" Wood, who recounts a real Darwin Award attempt by one of his drunken friends in Belgium.  They were returning to billets, much the worse for wear, when his friend took a detour into a nearby field where a windmill was milling away.  Drunken friend grabbed hold of one of the sails as it came sweeping down to the vertical 'down' position, which carried him up until it was horizontal, whereupon he lost his grip and fell off.  Bones broken but alive - and probably sober and reflective, too.

CAUTION!  Learn from Don Quixote

*  It could have been worse, after yesterday it could have been about Finns

*  That had better not be clapping I can hear.