I Almost Began With "Kerrang Kerrang"
Because it rhymes, if you must know. You may be rolling your eyes now, just wait until later ...
For Lo! we are returning to "Field Of Fire", that memoir by Jack Raab of his time spent as a gunner officer in the Second Unpleasantness, 50% of which is his either writing letters or gleefully receiving them. Art!
??? Art, have you been at the nuclear fuel rods again? Foolish entity, you know they give you both gas and hallucinations. Sober up! <throws large rocks>
Jack's weapon of choice
It was a portrait of Mister Spock by Frank Kelly Freas, if you must know.
ANYWAY we are back to Jack's diary. He writes on 12/08/1945 that "Japan has practically surrendered", which is probably connected with the dropping of the second atomic hoohoodilly on Nagasaki. He adds in another comment that a radio broadcast mentioned that the atomic bomb's yield could be boosted 2,000 times, giving a nominal yield of 2,000,000 tons of TNT equivalent.
Hmmmmmmmm. No.
The Teller-Ulam design for a thermonuclear warhead, which believe me can indeed reach a two megaton yield, didn't come out until the Fifties, so Your Humble Scribe strongly suspects that radio broadcast of Jack's was playing hard and fast with the truth. In direct consequence of the news, he also adds that their "S.E.A.C." drafts had been ordered to stand down. "S.E.A.C" stands for "South East Asia Command" which is where he and others were going to be sent after the end of hostilities in Europe, for a crack at the bally Japs. After being in the army for six years neither he nor his fellow officers were champing at the bit to get dressed in jungle green and suffer getting shot at, again.
Jack's weapon of choice rendered a "Short" by the Ockers
Jack makes dark prognostications about the future in light of these new breed of city-busting weapons: " I imagine this might easily start general disintegration and destroy mankind." His next line, though, begins "Excellent party - " so he wasn't that fearful of things.
Motley! Time to play Grenade Snowball!
Bitten By The Coincidence Hydra - AGAIN
There I was, listening to "We Have Ways ..." (a podcast, lest you be unaware) as Jim and Al held forth on the relatively unsung work of RAF Coastal Command back in the Second Unpleasantness. They skimmed over a few of CC's roles, and then Al mentioned the "Tsetse" variant of the Mosquito. Art!
Ironic overprint
Jim had never heard of it, and Al couldn't remember what the name of the monstrously large cannon was -
"The Molins gun!" crowed Conrad*, for we have featured it on BOOJUM! once or twice. In fact allow me to see if I can get a link - back shortly ...
https://comsatangel2002.blogspot.com/2018/02/biting-insects.html
There you go. Al cheated and looked it up on Google, but we knew about it already, so there. From slightly over three years ago, so it may be new to readers out there.
More Of "O"
In this case, we come to the second novella from a book Conrad possessed a very long time ago, going by the title of "The Wonderful O", written by esteemed South Canadian wit James Thurber. Art!
For reasons that remain obscure (a bet? a dare?) in this novel the letter "O" is forbidden, abolished and utterly discarded. By a gang of pirates, I seem to recall, if that litre of gin at lunch hasn't addled my wits. This leads to all sorts of problems, as in the case of one man who writes stories to read to his wife: his trenchant and poetic "Flamingo Stories" ends up as "Flaming Stries" and he gives up in disgust. Your Modest Artisan also remembers that the letter O ends up getting revenge on the pirates, forcing them to try digging through rock known as "Oolite" or "Dogger". For some reason. Be charitable, it's been at least forty years since I last read it.
Nightmare fuel!
I am not tempted to buy it and revisit the prose, especially as there was one bafoon trying to flog the Searle-illustrated paperback for £112. Maybe when libraries open again.
Hark The Shark!
Yes, we are back to those Antipodean dwellers in the abyssal deeps, a couple of whom are named 'lanternsharks', so clearly somebody knew more than they were letting on. Art!
Firstly, NO! they are not radioactive mutant monsters out to munch mankind mercilessly. They have evolved this bioluminescence as a defensive measure, as explained by a Belgian marine biologist. If there are predators below them that are looking upwards, then they won't see an outline or shadow; instead they will see a faint illumination consistent with the dim sunlight that reaches the depths these finny wonders dwell at. Thus predator swims on, fooled, and the lanternshark does a victory dance**.
Don't forget - Sharks - still our friends! Yes, even weird and creepy ones from the briny deeps. Show a little respect.
Sadly Not Badly
Usually by now Conrad is reading the Youtube rantings of Az over at "Heels vs Babyface" about the latest travesty that is "Batwoman", where he pretty much shreds it to bits - admittedly not very difficult - and gives the ratings figures. Episode Seven would have gone out on Sunday in South Canada (only another five to go!). HOWEVER Az very selfishly spent Sunday playing computer games, and none of my admittedly rapid Googling came up with any new reviews. Perhaps there will be yet another drop in the ratings by Friday and some valiant blogger endured 44 minutes of hell to post up the numbers.
Bitwoman
Finally -
No, you haven't seen many further comments on the "Official History of the Gallipoli Campaign Volume One" because it's on hiatus at the moment whilst I peruse "Armoured Guardsmen" by Robert Boscawan, and <checks> there's still 118 pages to go. This is one of the batch of recent books ordered from a note made from the bibliography of a work by John Buckley, a dangerous precedent given the length of some 'bibs' (as I affectionately call them). Art!
An iconic and much-used photo. That is Boscawan at port, standing up in the turret. You will, of course, get the benefit of my considered opinions about the work, O my yes indeed.
I think that's it, Vulnavia. Done!
* I enjoy a bit of pedantic valediction every now and then.
** Okay, yes, I am guessing here. Not a marine biologist.
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