A Whole Lot Of Balls

Firstly - WASH OUT YOUR FILTHY MINDS!

Secondly, we are talking Lego here, and an event called the Great Ball Contraption, which Conrad came across earlier this week for the first time.  The idea is to use a version of Lego that's actually old Fischer Technik in a new dress, and ferry a whole horde of balls around a circuit.  Art!

     That above is a relatively small one, because when these people get going in numbers, the results are both impressive and difficult to show in a single picture.  Perhaps if we cattle-prod Art hard enough -

     Lots of balls being shifted over many, many 'modules', as they call them.  Conrad is going to have to get one from a Youtube channel and picture all the modules in sequence as they move balls around.  No word on the videos Your Humble Scribe watched about how long it took to build, and how they fixed stuff that didn't work properly first time around.

Three modules

     Motley!  Would you like some ice-cream*?

A Nautical Notion

Ahoi prietene! which is Romanian for "Hello friend!", for no other reason than we can.  Conrad was listening to "We Have Ways -" podcast, which is now up to Episode 230, not bad for a podcast where they had no idea if it was going to still be on air a few months later.  

     ANYWAY Jim was explicating about the Axis supply lines to North Africa during the middle years of the Second Unpleasntness.  Art!

     The Allies' air and naval supremacy meant that Axis shipping was gradually sent to Davy Jones Locker, biggest ships first, so that by the end they were forced to use vessels that were much too small for purpose, imposing severe strain on their logistics.  This detail had quite escaped Conrad, so thank you to Jim.

Brotherly Hate

Conrad, as you should surely know by now, is a subscriber to "Ushanka Show", the tales of life in the Sinister Union as retailed by Sergei, who lived there for 24 years.  Art!

Sergei wearing an ushanka

     Here an aside.  Some Western left-wing fantasist was lamenting the passing of the Sinister Union in the Comments, saying how wonderful it had been and wasn't it a shame that it had gone, and wasn't it terrible how people had to cope with misery and poverty -

     "Uh - I lived there," explained Sergei.  "We survived."

     What the Sinisters didn't like experiencing or having to explain was conflict between themselves and their Socialist allies.  The Hungarians and Romanians, for example, were always at daggers drawn over who owned Transylvania.  During the Second Unpleasantness the Hungarian Honved (army) stayed in Hungary, keeping a wary eye on their real enemy, the Romanians.  Not the Sinisters.

     And then we have the Poles.  Art!

Someone doesn't want to be here

That guy is contemplating something wicked

     Sergei was relating the tale of Polish troops' activity after an enormous Warsaw Pact exercise in 1982, which had simulated a Third Unpleasantness.  Bear in mind that Solidarnosc had recently arisen in Poland at Gdansk, and the Sinisters were both angry and worried about this event. Art!

Troop train

     The local KGB in Ukraine reported that Polish troops had been trying to make the locals beg for Evilllllllll Western Confectionery -

CAUTION!  Poisonous to socialists

     The attitude of these Poles was so unhealthy that the local KGB recommended mobilising the Militsiya to keep a very close eye on them, until they had left the Ukraine.  Which was done.  No love lost between Socialist brethren, it seems, and indeed, after the collapse of the Sinister Union, Poland sprinted into NATO so fast that there were Challengers on the border before Tsar Putin could invade.

How to scare cats the Dimya Putin way!

    One internecine conflict the Sinisters didn't like to acknowledge ever happened (BECAUSE THEY LOST IT LOST IT LOST IT!) is the Russo-Polish Unpleasantness of 1920.  The Poles are blamed for starting it, because they had re-occupied bits of The Ukraine that had belonged to them in the past, and the Sinisters hadn't been able to crush them whilst their Civil War was raging.  Then - they attacked!  At first things went their way, until the Battle Of Warsaw, where their invading horde was utterly crushed and defeated and THEY LOST IT LOST IT LOST IT!

Poles with captured Bolshevik banners
(Did I mention losing it?)

     Interestingly enough, one of the instructors with the Polish forces (whom had lots of French kit) was Charles De Gaulle, whom we have encountered before in the First Unpleasantness and during that wargame Richard organised at Christmas.  And there you go: Ruffians and Poles, poles apart, so to speak**.

     
Conrad Is ANGRY!  ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY!
As usual, the culprit is the last Codeword I worked on yesterday, because there ought NOT to be exotic and foreign words present, or even exotic foreign words.  For example - "KULAK".  What On Earth!  Conrad got it, of course, because he's exceptionally clever and also knows what a Kulak is.  For your information, one of the allegedly "rich" peasants as classed by the Sinisters in the Twenties, which meant they had two chickens instead of one, the Evillllll Neo-Capitalist Swine!

Rush-hour in the village

     I think you can understand my barely-suppressed rage.  Next!

     "HAIKU": <here imagine a shrieking explosion of rage from Conrad> I nearly used the WTF exclamation instead of my usual "What On Earth" but we remain SFW, if only barely.  Really!  How can you justify adding in JAPANESE words in an ENGLISH Codeword!

Get a lifebelt

      I think you can understand my barely-suppressed rage.  Next!

     "ABETTALS": Now you're just making things up.  Whoever heard of this word, even if it technically exists?  'I say, did you hear about those abettals?" is a phrase used by exactly no one, and I don't think there will be any relevant entry on Google.  Art!

You tried, Art, you tried

Finally -

Conrad is now watching the second series of "The Mandalorian" and had to watch from behind the settee as Mando, Baby Yoda and Frogmella all endured terror at the hands feet legs of the giant scuttling spiders  yeeeesh not Conrad's favourite creature ever.  Art!

End credits artwork
(some good stuff in there)

*  What?  You were expecting some sinister torture involving 

**  Ouch.  Not apologising, though.