The Overlook

No!  This Is Not About The Titular Hotel

As made famous, if not infamous, by Stephen King in his investigative journalism and by film-maker Stanley Kubrick in his documentary.  The Overlook Hotel was inspired by another hotel's location and build, the Stanley Hotel, except that one didn't come with evil spirits and a haunted maze*.  Art?

                                                        Here's overlooking at you, kid
     No, the overlook in question comes from being at a vantage of height in the picturesque French valley of Maricourt, where a bunch of British tourists had come to take in the view, chat to their French neighbours, and drop trainloads of artillery shells on any Teutons in the neighbourhood.  For Lo! we are back on the subject of "Field Guns In France" by Colonel Neil Fraser-Tytler.

A somewhat gaudy gun

     NFT (as I abbreviate his name) was in command of "D" Battery of the 150th Artillery Brigade, working as part of the British 30th infantry division.  The battery consisted of 4 x 4.5 inch howitzers, at the time only capable of firing high explosive shells, whereas the other three batteries in 150 were 18 pounders, who were supplied with shrapnel shells almost exclusively.  150 had previously been further south, on the north bank of the Somme River; the French, on the south bank, found it awkward and inconvenient to try and liaise over a river, so 150 had been moved into the Maricourt valley.  Art!

The tranquil Maricourt today

     The British and French around Maricourt had a significant height advantage, meaning they could see well behind the Teuton front lines, and what they could see they could hit.  They brought a lot of heavy metal to the table, too, as NFT noted brigade after brigade of artillery being brought into the sheltered lee terrain behind his brigade, ranked 200 yards apart and creating such an unbroken hurricane of noise that orders had to be written down.  With that height advantage, the Teutons could not see them to make any effective counter-battery work.

     When 30th Division made their morning attack, they over-ran the shattered Teuton defences rapidly, with little loss, and penetrated miles into the Teuton lines, alongside the French 39th Division.  And Surprise! this was the First Day Of The Somme, which is probably a contrast to the usual narratives you hear about that.

     British tourists relax in the sunshine

     We will come back to FGIF - O Dog Buns how we will!** - because it throws a light on what is better understood in retrospect.  NFT was writing his letters at the time, not thirty years later when he'd had the chance to reflect a bit, so he'd had no chance to <ahem> over-look them.

     Motley! Tea-tray surfing down the stairs starts NOW!

Largin' It Up

Well, if Thomas Malory is going to inflict his fifteenth-century English (NO! We will NOT debate linguistics or languages here, The End) upon Your Humble Scribe, then Conrad reserves the right to retaliate in kind.  Actually, Your Humble Scribe does begin to wonder what, exactly, that recent Guy Ritchie version put forth across the screen - but - <heavy sigh> that way lies madness*** - and it was so lambasted that one dare not view it, nay, not even as a forensic analyst looking at the - 

 Saracens.  Really.  It's in the book.

 But we diverge.

          The meat of the matter is, you see, that the Roman Emperor Lucius brings an army of no less than 110,000 to battle against Arthur and his armies in the territories of France and Flanders (be quiet, Colonel Tytler!), to which one has to reply - "In the late Renaissance era? with what logistics are these hordes sustained, egad?"

     Sorry, "Manna from Heaven" lacks the calories and does not feed horses

     Given that we are talking about the late thirteenth century (at a guess), logistics of this era simply cannot sustain an army of that size; it would be the eighteenth century's Age Of Enlightenment before such could be managed.  Once again, the Divide-By-Ten-Rule comes into play for these medieval playwrights pretending to be actual reporters of the Real Thing!

    Has Thomas Pynchon written another novel yet?  No?  DOG BUNS!  Doesn't he realise that we only have so much time before 1) the heat-death of the Universe  2)  the Yellowstone mega-volcano erupts or 3) the "Mole" (Gino Molari) takes over?

     Arise, veeblefetzer legions, and challenge the tyranny of tie-dyed embonpoint!

A Collage of College

NOTHING, I hasten to add, about that 'Electoral' one we've been hearing so much of recently - and as that broaches the subject of Politics, we shall say no more.  Hmmmmmmm, according to Wordcount, my writing standard is now up to that of "College Student", which is probably an advancement over "11 - 12 Grade" as Your Humble Scribe has no idea what this means in proper English.  And, parents, I really wouldn't recommend this blog to readers aged 11 and 12.  It might warp their sense of logic - although that's not necessarily a bad thing, right?

Hopwood Hall College - as featured in my zombie apocalypse MSS "Revelations"

Finally -

Conrad is going to have to bang this last item out pronto, because to his undisguised delight and relief, "Peppi's" the hairdressers is back in business and I've got an appointment to have my ragged locks shorn into neater form.  Peppi himself is semi-retired, so you can appreciate me appreciating him squeezing me in at 16:00.  Conrad is very much a creature of habit, you see, and since I've been going there these past twenty years, I'd hate to have to find somewhere else to get a trim.  I hope you therefore forgive us for being a couple of dozen words short of at the Compositional Ton.

And with that, Vulnavia, we are both off and done!

*  You do realise "The Shining" is a documentary, right?

**  For I feel vindicated, having just finished the terminally boring TOTWF.  And count your blessings, I could easily have the whole post about FGIF, were I not merciful.

***  Not the band, they've always been brilliant.