Just To Redeem Myself
For I failed to get those last two solutions in Wednesday's Cryptic Crossword <brief bout of sobbing> even if I did crack the Codeword in record time <drum roll and cymbal crash> and do you know I think we need the i-pod played via the giant monitor once again.
Talking of drum rolls, let's have a bit of clickbait art. Art!
For your information, that's Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, performing on their track "One Of These Days" which remains one of my favourite tracks ever. And it's nearly as old as I am*.
ANYWAY we begin this Intro because I'd marked a page in my Collins Concise at "Tambourine", because I'd seen one atop a speaker when the Mavs were playing, and it stuck in my mind because that's how my mind works**. Art!
It's defined as "A percussion instrument consisting of a single drumhead of skin stretched across a circular wooden frame hung with pairs of metal disks that jingle when it is struck or shaken." Yes yes yes, what I wanted to know is where the name comes from. Ah. Middle Flemish 'Tambourijn' meaning a little drum, which itself comes from Old French 'Tambourin' meaning a little drum. Or you could have 'Tabor', which is the earlier Old French for a small drum. Or -
- you could have Mount Tabor, the noted Biblical peak in Israel. One supposes you could go so far as to play a tabor on the mountain. Then you might want to have a go at Geoffrey Tambor -
It's hard to resist the urge to rap out a tarradiddle on his bonce, isn't it? And no, you can't carve a square yard of his skin out to make a Tamborine. That would be in shocking bad taste. Unless
NO! Again, shockingly bad taste.
Okay, enough Intro for one afternoon. I wonder if a track by The Drums will come up on the i-pod?
Meanwhile Back In 1943
Yes, a return to "The War Illustrated" and the late February edition. Don't forget, the articles tend to be at least a month behind the real date, so that the Axis weren't able to glean any useful information from them. Art!
Can you say "Staged" for the cover photograph? 'Make it look cheery and convincing, chaps, and I'll make you famous.' Plus a map of the Eastern Front, because the Ruffians get sniffy and annoyed if you don't mention them at least once, emo pansies that they are (this will upset Tsar Putin). Art!
The unglamourous yet vital work of the Royal Engineers. They are laying a road in the top picture, where either none existed previously, or was only a dirt track. The sheer volume of traffic a modern army requires meant that anything less than a proper metalled road would be ground to powder. You can see a mobile crane putting concrete base-blocks into position in the inset photo, and the finished product four days later. The REs got so good at building bridges that the Axis and then Teutons destroyed to slow pursuit that, really, they might as well not have bothered.
These are the captains of what the Maltese called the "Santa Maria Convoy", and which history buffs like myself call "Operation Pedestal". There were fourteen supply ships and a tanker with a massive naval escort; only five of the supply ships and the tanker got into harbour at Valetta, which was enough to keep the island fed for another couple of months. If someone did a treatment of Op Pedestal the studio heads would reject it as being unbelievable. A story for another day, perhaps.
Am I Still Seething?
But of course! However, expressing my rancour can wait. We are going to have another extract from "Tormentor". Hopefully filleted of all the swears. Let us proceed -
Monday
morning meant a cosy little chat with Rowell about Laura.
‘Ongoing review,’ was how Rowell
described it.
‘Fishing,’ riposted Louis.
‘Just verbal feedback about how
she’s doing.’
‘Adjusting. Her lectures are sound enough. Needs experience for seminars.’
‘That’ll come with time. Good.
Oh, I hear you’re mixing more with the staff. Not going soft on us, are you?’
‘I’d give you the finger if I
gave a toss,’ replied Louis.
‘That’s my boy!’ chortled Rowell,
ignoring the normal relationship between a Vice Principal and a lecturer. After all, where would he find another
lecturer with the attitude capable of dealing with the DTO class.
‘If that’s all? I have to go and mix.’
He did, too. The two scientists, Paula and Nige, were
waiting for him in a booked room over in the Science Block, one where they sat
behind a glass screened booth and communicated via microphone. Their lab assistant stood behind and watched
the dials and Louis. He presumed that
the third pair of eyes were to be kept on him, and avoid any kinds of trickery
during the experiements. Paula festooned
him with wires that led behind him, hooked up to monitors of various
sorts.
Nige Watts didn’t expect any kind
of results from the tests. As far as he
was concerned, the entire field of parapsychology was complete nonsense. None of the so-called “effects” were ever
replicated, if they ever existed in the first place. On the other hand, Paula did have a
fascination with areas like ESP. The
vicar’s hints about why he wanted a test made her curious enough to agree, and
now here Nige was, wasting an hour on Monday that he could have used marking
papers. The only unusual thing about
McMahon was his date of birth, February the Twenty Ninth, which made him
technically only eight years old.
Faintly amusing, if you liked an anachronism like that.
‘We’re going to bring up various
images on the computer monitor in front of you, Mister McMahon, and track the
electrical activity of your brain. Quite
straightforward.’
Science versus Luma. Who's going to win? Of course - obviously! - I know, and you lot will just have to wait.
Now The Rancour
Actually more like Now The Anchor, as we're going to be putting up another Underwater Photographer of the Year picture. Yes yes yes, we'll get to Conrad's Frothing Nitric Ire another time, do keep up. Art!
"Best Buddies" courtesy Dan Bolt
These freaky-looking fishes are "Yarrell's Blennies", whom Dan's diving companion discovered hiding in a rocky crevice. One excited wave over later and Dan got this picture. These fish are not common and favour very precise locales, often at depth, so Dan was fortunate indeed in coming across a brace of them. He said they were delicious he was lucky.
Finally -
Hmmmm I have only 400 steps on my Fitbit today, which is a consequence of it being Saturday - no work to walk to, you see. Given that the weather is actually decent FOR A CHANGE Your Humble Scribe had better volunteer to take Edna walkies, up to The Summit and back. That works out at roughly 2,000 steps. Onward and upward!
* Two hundred and forty seven at last count.
** "Works" is stretching a tad. It is more concise than "bumbles along in an inexplicable random fashion with many detours before destination"
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