No, We Are Not Swearing
Safe For Work, remember? Besides which, "Dog Buns" is the officially sanctioned BOOJUM swear. Now, we need to find a picture of a dam with a hole in it. Art!
Courtesy of the RAFs Giant Flying Mallets
That constitutes the first part of today's title. And for the second -
That cover illustration is partly lies ... there is only one 'Flying Saucer' , I'll have you know, and you only see the wires on a couple of occasions, and even then they're not very prominent, so yah boo sucks to the "Goofs" page on IMDB. They do redeem themselves by NOT having a blazing bolt of violet venom issuing from that Dalek ray-gun, as we saw yesterday. These Dalek ray-guns are a consequence of the film's budget, which at £250,000 was probably more than the BBC gave the television serial for it's whole season; the television Robomen had to make do with mere human weapons.
Behold the mighty stick!
Of course you know what's coming next, because Conrad has never gotten over that childish fascination with things that go BANG. So, those Robo-ray-guns? On the principle that the Daleks designed them to best deal with armour-clad cyborgs akin to themselves, rather than as anti-personnel weapons, Conrad feels they are more useful as demolition weapons. Allow me to state my case*. Art!
I think you can see my point about these weapons being good for demolition; that fellow being Robo-rayed to death there takes about five seconds to squirm off this mortal coil, instead of doing the exploding into a cloud of gore (that might have gotten them an "X"-rating, however) that you might expect. Living organic matter does not make good explosive material, it seems.
Yes, I can foresee your next objection; why not simply issue the Robomen with modest human firearms? Ah, because you don't see the Robo-ray-guns to their full effect; they have no practical range limit, so if you can see it, you can hit it. And if 'it' is hiding behind a wall, you make the wall go away first. Charged-particle weapons are like that, limited only by the horizon. Besides which, Daleks are terrible show-offs and would never overlook the chance to impress with their hi-tec killness. Art!
Conquers galaxies and also unblocks sinks at reasonable rates**
Of course, I might be over-thinking this again ...
Ah, Me
Your Humble Scribe well remembers that time when he mentioned to Bruce "I think I've developed a horrid sense of humour" and Bruce deadpanned in his reply: " 'Developed'?"
So, take it as read that Your Humble Scribe is a terrible person with a dreadful sense of humour - "Karma Police by Radiohead is hilarious!"-level stuff. However, at times I have to stand back and admire sheer comic quality. Art!
 |
"Field Guns In France" By Major Neil Fraser-Tytler
I've not bothered your eyes recently with any news from this intriguing collection of letters as written by the Major during the First Unpleasantness, which doesn't mean I've not been annotating it; I jolly well have and am only about 20 pages from the end. A couple of recent asides amused me, because NFT had not the slightest scruple about stealing in order to kit out his battery all the better; he and his men had arrived in France late 1915, with all their officially-issued equipment carried on a single, two-wheeled cart.
In preparation for a move north, the battery gets rid of it's surplus - " - lots were drawn for all our stolen Government property - stoves, tents, timber, paint, oil and tarpaulins" and remember this is the OC condoning such piratical behaviour!Thus
He also makes a very pertinent point about organisation, planning and preparation as the battery has to move 135 miles to Fifth Army HQ. "Not a moment was lost on the arrival of the battery each evening"
Thanks to these, which carried the cooks and billeting party ahead of the battery
Why does this matter? Because " - each minute gained meaning more rest for horses and men." is why. Not for reasons of show or looking good for the higher-ups; rather a patrician responsibility for those in his command (bluff Manchester lads for the most part). There is also a puzzling allusion to "Hun Shikar", which must have made sense in 1917, if rather less so nowadays.
"We've Got Watney"
It's a line from a Maddy Prior song waaaaaay back in the Seventies, where she lauds the pillars of This Sceptred Isle's pop culture at the time, including a reference "We've got Leyland", meaning Leyland the motor manufacturers, who were then rapidly acquired by the Dutch. Sorry, Maddy.
There was also "We've got Keegan" which refers to a ballfoot player, so we shall squash that one right there. "Watney" means a British manufacturer of beer and I know what you're thinking - how can they possibly fail? in this, a country with tens of millions of beer-drinkers.
Well, they managed it. They became a business conglomerate, and, in the world of business conglomerates, this means becoming vulnerable to other business conglomerates, so they were eventually conglomerated into another business, by a business conglomerate. I'm glad we got that clarified.
"What does that have to do with - well, with anything?" I hear your expostulated quibble (or, possibly, a quibbling expostulation).
Because, gentle reader, I am re-reading "The Martian" again, whose central character, narrator and hero is - Mark Watney.
"Did I leave the kitchen light on?"
And with that, Vulnavia, we are so well and truly done.
* You're going to have to, because, once again, whose blog is it?
** Time and a half at weekends and on public holidays
*** For instance, the 'centre back'. He's back? When did he go away? Did he travel in a Covid-compliant manner?
No comments:
Post a Comment