Still Seething With Rage

As Usual

It is, after all, my default setting.  

     Before we go any further, allow me to investigate where 'Seethe' comes from.  A quick guess would aim in the direction of French - ah no, Old English,  or Anglo-Saxon if you like, "Seothan" meaning "To boil, to make froth" which, since we are talking about my Nitric Ire, is pretty apt.

Seething Wells.  Yes, it's a real place.

     What am I apoplectic with rage about today? O I thought you'd never ask!  It is the M.E.N. Codeword of course - obviously!  

"JINGOISM": Ah yes, meaning 'aggressively patriotic' and a word that went out of use about sixty years ago.  I recall George Orwell using the word 'jingo' to describe those who foment wars and other aggressions, whilst staying safely at home in the basement.  And perhaps John Wyndham.  As I said, WHAT? ARE WE EXPERTS IN OBSCURE OBSOLETE JARGON NOW?

George; literary genius, less good with moustaches

"SOU": You what?  ARE WE NOW EXPERTS IN FOREIGN NUMISMATICS? (not a word you ever expected to read today).  For those not in the know, a 'sou' was a French coin of low denomination, which has long gone since they're on the Euro now.

Close enough

"CHIC": ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  IS THIS CODEWORD TO BE ENTIRELY IN <long sequence of swears redacted> FRENCH?  IF <dies from rage>.

     <hastily ressurected> I think you can feel my pain.  Be warned, I've just gotten the Saturday edition of the M.E.N. so we may be revisiting this territory quite soon.  Motley, bring me the whetstone and a couple of cavalry sabres.

Back To "Prometheus"

Yes, yet more Darwin Award-winning behaviour from the stupidest collection of clever people ever.  Okay, SPOILER ALERT.  Even though it's been out for ages.  Are we good now?  Then I shall proceed.  

     Remember that idiot android David?  The one who casually infects a crewmember with icky black glop, without having the slightest idea what it will do?  Good grief, did Isaac Asimov die in vain?

D.A.V.I.D. (Dangerous And Violent InDividual)

     Untrustworthy, unreliable and unscrupulous, he's a real keeper.  Not only does he have no regard for human life, he has none for himself, either.  His official title is "David 8", which has to be an insight into how incredibly casual these androids are about staying alive*.  Whose head gets ripped off first when the alien Engineer is brought out of his beauty sleep?  That's right, David's.  Serves him right.  

<insert bad joke here>

     You would think a super-smart android would defend itself better.  "I built him from nothing!" boasts that walking walnut Weyland.  Well, you didn't do a very good job then, did you?  Have a Darwin for your troubles.

"The View From The Turret" Quiz

Conrad stumbled across this Youtube channel a while ago, quite by accident, where there's a regular quiz of ten questions about military history.  You are trusted not to Google for answers, which left me at a disadvantage.  

I can inform you that I got Question 1) From which country do "Goumiers" originate? - Morocco.  They were the frankly scary colonial troops who fought for France in the Second Unpleasantness, and heaven help you if you were the opposition, as concepts like "The Geneva Convention" and "Prisoner" were merely a lot of noise to them.  Art!

As tender and forgiving as a teak truncheon

     I also got Question 3, which was a succession of brief shots of a tank, which Conrad immediately recognised as a Churchill Mk. IV.

     That was it.  I guessed at Question 8 - who was the first Roman to defeat Hannibal?  Er - Scipio Africanus?  I'll look it up now.  Yes, correct!   Go me.  No idea about Question 10 - who was known as "The Dog Meat General"?  I shall now cheat and look it up.

     Hmmmm.  Interesting.  We shall be coming back to that.  Art!

TANK

More Of Dan The Man

Daniel Freeman, that is.  You remember, that chap hailing from Perfidious Albion, who goes tootling across South Canada taking pictures of small-town life.  Art!

Ignore the reflection!

     There's definitely a story about that armchair abandoned on the pavement .  Domestic disposal?  Stock over-run?  Possessed by evil spirits and awaiting exorcism?  Yeah, that sounds like a Stephen King short story right there.  You couldn't get away with that on the streets of Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell; someone would urinate on it, then it'd be covered in graffiti and then set alight.

     O er yes the picture.  These look like shops that have been turned into domestic residential housing, and what a splendid view one gets of their occupants thanks to the extra-large windows.

Tee And Indeed Hee

As mentioned yesteryon, we decamped to visit Darling Daughter and Quiet Tom in verdant Northenden, and were lucky with the weather, which remained bright and sunny.  Unfortunately it also brought out the hordes, who were ambling and rambling around the local park, so we remained in DD's back garden.  Art!

     Tom, as you can plainly see, remains refreshingly beard-free, thanks to needing a snug fit for his gasmask**.  Their next door neighbour had a batch of bird boxes and feeders high in their shrubbery - 

   High because they have a dog, which tried to terrify us by barking and simultaneously wagging it's tail.  When it left off, the birds took up the noisy refrain.  You can't see the racket in that picture, for which apologies, but good lord aloft the greedy little rascals were LOUD.  Crows also kept us under a weather eye.  Conrad not sure why; Degsy looking shifty perhaps?  Art!

     I also gifted them another book, which is set in medieval times and might thus provide inspiration for their LARPing, which may get underway again in the summer.  It's hard to tell from this angle, yet there's about 100 part-work magazines in that bag, from two different publishers.  I have left them at DD's so that Colin, Tom's dad, can pick them up when they visit today.  Nope, I didn't warn him, so he can't say "No".  Hence the Tee Hee of this item.  Sneaky, aren't I?

Oozing with sneak

     And that's us done!

*  Mention that group and you die.

**  Or PPE.  Practically the same thing.