Of Course We All Knew That Already
I just wanted to cement my reputation for sheer maliciousness beyond all doubt.
Talking of cement, I am enjoying my "Pillboxes On The Western Front" by Peter Oldham, thanks for asking. He covers the pillboxes of Perfidious Albion and the Teutons rather than anything by the Belgians, French or South Canadians - actually I'm not sure if the South Canadians constructed any such thing. Art!
South Canadians wearing the British Brodie helmet, firing a French trench cannon
No results from a quick Google. I guess because when they arrived in early 1918 mobile warfare was in play, and in the summer there wasn't time to create an engineering infrastructure to build concrete fortifications, and in the autumn things had gotten mobile again. Ol' Pete points out that one of the problems both sides had was creating a fortification undetected, because you can bet yer boots both sides were watching each other like hawks and a pillbox under construction in the front lines would have brought down instant retribution. One solution was to build a concrete bunker inside an already present building. Art!
Perfidious Albion exhibiting - perfidy
Of course these get revealed if high explosive shells knock the camouflage off. You can't win 'em all.
Where were we? O yes, how horrid I am. Over a couple of months I have been traducing the CW show "Batwoman" without watching it, which might bring condemnation to your lips were it not for the fact that I watch a couple of Youtube channels where reviewers risk their sanity by watching it; I don't have the sanes to spare. Yesteryon I was pointing and laughing that the audience viewing figures had hit their lowest yet: 440,000. This is lower than the number of viewers watching those channels roasting the show. However, it was the raw, unadjusted data, and the adjusted figures are now out: 435,000 viewers, meaning that they lost just over 100,000 viewers in a week. Art!
Roy BATTY.
(Yes yes yes, he's a man, ignore that bit)
One wonders what the break-even point of viewing figures is, and how long it will take to reach that in the four episodes left, and whether the vaunted (well, vaunted by the CW) third season will really happen. Some commenters have lamented that other shows get cancelled with far higher viewing figures, whilst others <coughcoughConradcough> have posited that the whole thing is in fact a gigantic tax dodge.
Meanwhile - bring on the buckets of popcorn!
Motley - remember that gladiator training machine in "Spartacus"? Did you ever wonder what would happen if it was attached to an electric motor? Let's find out!
 |
| Conrad. Is bad. |
And Also VERY VERY ANGRY!
Yes, we are going on about a Codeword and it's solutions again. SIT BACK DOWN! for my Remote Nuclear Detonator stands ever ready, and do you really want to be reduced to a cubic yard of meat-smelling vapour? Needless to say all these came from a single Codeword and my Frothing Nitric Ire is such that I don't think we can fit them all into a single blog post. Let us, then, with gritted teeth, commence the tally.
"ONYX": What! WHAT? Are we now supposed to be jewellers? How fair is it in using letters 24 and 25 of the alphabet next to each other? <pause for blood pressure to subside>
"OVOID": What, now we're - no, no, you're thinking of Roman literature and the likes of Juvenal <sighs heavily> Art?
The poet OVID
(No disease jokes, please)
No, what we are talking about here is a geometrical form, which if Art can put down his plate of coal -
Kinda eggy
And doubtless derived from the Latin <hack spit> for "Egg" - "Ova".
"PHLEGM": Come on, admit it, how many times do you ever read this word in casual writing or hear in casual conversation? It was once supposed to be one of the four factors that created human personality. There were <thinks hard> Phlegmatic, Choleric, Ascerbic and Mathematic
"American Diaries" By Sergei Sputnikoff
I finished this work yesteryon and it is both entertaining and hilarious. If you want to see how someone from the Second World coped with Nineties South Canadian culture, this is the book for you. Sergei points out one major, major difference between his homeland Ukraine* and South Canada: Americans smile a lot. All the time.
Sergei smile-less
As he put it, back home if a stranger came up to you smiling broadly, the first reaction would be to check your wallet was safe and second to wonder what scam they were trying to pull. The camp director called him out over this lack of smiling, which Conrad thinks is vile cultural discrimination and (as someone whose face is not designed for smiling, either) feels your pain, comrade.
One other thing that Sergei recounted was how the various inner-city kids, from Chicago's poorer communities, all thought he sounded like The Terminator. Given that he was 6' 3" and solid muscle from weight-lifting, and NEVER SMILED, this is a pretty fair judgement.
Sergei with puny human wall for scale
The book is NSFW because there is swearing and sexual allusion, so not to be read by anyone under 18. I have seen a Youtube clip of Sergei with his daughter, who seems as South Canadian as South Canadian can be.
Shall We Bonestell, Michelle?
The answer is "Yes" because HA! Michelle does not exist, and if she did there would undoubtedly be friction with Vulnavia, who can get a bit jealous at times. The injunction is over and the charge of GBH was dropped to Common Assault, so she's good at the moment. Art!
"Descent to the Moon, 500 miles below (1959)"
Note how Ol' Ches has refined his 1951 ideation of moonships descending. Here there is the Main Mission ship - instead of three identical ships - , which now has a streamlined and atmosphere-capable launch vehicle atop it, as this is how the astronauts are getting back to Earth. In the background is a second stores ship, which will supply the mission once they both land. He is getting ever closer to the real thing of July 1969 just ten years away.
Finally -
Were I to say "Freeman On The Land" you would probably quail with horror, since this is pretty close to the "Sovereign Citizen" loonwaffle where people try to weasel out of paying taxes, yet still get to experience all the civic amenities.
Fear not! For we have been here before. British photographer Daniel Freeman travels the length and breadth of South Canada, taking evocative pictures of small-town America that Stephen King would love. He has been doing this recently, making sure to avoid having people in the frame, for maximum mystery and atmosphere, so let's have one of his pieces. Art!
Worth tracking down. Daniel, like Sergei, provides what Rabbie Burns once requested: "O wad some power the giftie gie us, to see oorselves as ithers see us."
On which cryptic note we are well and truly done!
* Conrad knew instantly where this was, unlike every single South Canadian.
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