O Pernicious Muse!

One Of The Problems Of Writing A Blog Like This -

Is forever having to generate content, especially in the Intro, which is by practice and intent the longest part of BOOJUM!  Since I'd not had the opportunity to walk Edna in peace and quiet - the assembled household went walking her today - there was no pondering on a subject for 20 minutes, so I shall instead put up a click-baity picture and then go off on a previously-written idea.  Art!  Click-baity picture, please.

     Wild, hmmmmm?  Conrad is unsure if that giant green head is the source of the tentacles or if it's an artistic metaphor.  The skull is an obvious symbol of death, and they also seem to be illustrating the u-boat versus Allied shipping battle that raged across the Atlantic in the Second Unpleasantness.  Or are they proposing that some of the sunken ships were caused by Giant Green Tentacle Heads Of Death?

     A little more prosaically, Henry Kuttner, August Derleth and Robert Bloch are all well-known authors.  The rest?  Not so much.

     ANYWAY I now want to shift abruptly back to "Billion Dollar Brain" and the film version thereof.  Art!

     The BBD of the title is a computer, which, given that the film was made in 1967, probably has computing power considerably less than that of your mobile phone.  It's task is to co-ordinate a network of agents, saboteurs and resistance fighters within the Sinister Union's Baltic republic of Latvia.  Art!

     There are hundreds and hundreds of these noble warriors, all pledged to rise up and overthrow their puppet government when General Midwinter - Art!

"The General was having a bad day"

 - mounted his invasion.  

     Hmmmmm.  Nope.  It turns out there is no such network, one of the General's more senior minions has been creating them from scratch and keeping their supposed wages for himself.  Art!

"It's how I could afford this very expensive rifle."

     Naturally, when the invasion is launched, it goes completely wrong and is utterly wiped out.

     What does this have to do with anything?  O I thought you'd never ask!

     You ought to recall that Your Humble Scribe wrote recently of The Bay Of Pigs, another failed invasion attempt, where a ridiculously small invasion force thought Cuba would rise in revolt against Castro the minute they landed.  This did not happen, and Conrad wonders how the CIA acquired the information that it ever would.  Did they actually canvass opinion?  Which would be risky but would at least give them a statistical basis to work from.  Or just guess and cross fingers?  Did their sabotage and subversion budget end up buying beach-front condos in Miami?

Or a few of these?

     Hmmmmm it's almost as if this reminds me of something contemporary ...

Look At This And Be Jealous!

It being Father's Day, Darling Daughter was chauffeured up from the darkest depths of Northenden (which is in the south, just to be confusing) to The Mansion, and she came bearing presents.  Art!

     A new teapot, which I promptly christened.  It holds over two pints of liquid and pours quite well.  All I need now is another tea-cosy for it.

Not With A Bang But A Simper

For yes, we are back onto the final two entries in the BBC's themed photographic exhibition with the theme 'On The Water'.  Frankly they were a disappointment after the previous free-diving one.  We can't have it all, however much we might, so here they are.  Art!

Courtesy Jane Elle

     What on Earth? only begins to scratch the surface.  Art!

Courtesy Sarah Bailey

     Another underwhelming image.  Well done.  A leaf.  On the water.

     Enough!  Let us move boldly on!

"The War Illustrated"

On to Issue 157, where there is a cover illustration in the traditional TWI re-touched colour.  Art!

     FYI this is Wing Commander Guy Gibson (VC) briefing HRH The King about the Dambusters raid he had just taken part in.  There was no need to indicate who was who back in 1943, but modern audiences need a pointer.  HRH is to starboard.  Art!

Obviously no photos exist.  This looks close enough.

     Next we have another of the TWI strategic maps, which doesn't show any active front-line fighting in North Africa because the Axis had been completely destroyed there.  Art!

     As you can see, with the Allies in control of Tunisia (and Malta) they had the range to cover an invasion of either Sardinia, Sicily or the 'toe' of Italy.  The problem for the Axis at this point is that they don't know which is going to happen and have to plan for the worst possible contingency - all three at once.  Operation Mincemeat, the use of a fake Royal Marine officer with his lifeless body being laden with clues to an invasion of Sardinia, is one off-shoot of this strategic situation.

Back To "The Sea Of Sand"

As you recall, the TARDIS has been redirected at the whim of the Time Lords, who haven't bothered to inform either The Doctor or Sarah about the why or wherefore, or even the when.

Stopping the pacing, her companion looked at her with a dark, almost forbidding look.   

‘Sarah, what do you know about the society of Time Lords?’

‘Oh, now you’re asking!’ replied Sarah, half-amused.  ‘Not much.  They don’t like to interfere with other cultures, I remember you telling me that.’

‘Very true.  Things have to be catastrophically bad for them to interfere directly.  Now, why do you think they tolerate a maverick, an exile, a free-booter like myself, hmm?’  He softened the inquisitorial tone of his question with a small smile.

The Doctor knew very well why the insular and superior Time Lords on Gallifrey tolerated his temporally-footloose existence; he made an excellent proxy when they needed to meddle in someone else’s affairs.  Using him, willingly or not, as an agent of intervention meant that they maintained their proud boast of “non-interference”.  Giving him the minimum amount of information about a situation meant he had to discover the peril himself.  Less liability of temporal contamination, the Time Lords would say; less work for themselves, the Doctor would reply.

‘Well – because you tend to get into hot water.  And that means they don’t have to?’ ventured Sarah.

‘A palpable hit, and close enough,’ declared the Doctor.  ‘Let us see what we have been let in for.’

‘K9!’ called Sarah, wanting their mobile guardian, sentry, computer and laser along, just in case.  ‘K9! ‘

     Sorry to any K9 fans, he/she/it doesn't see any action in this story.

Finally -

Today I learned what 'Canoli' are, for real, and not my misunderstanding of what they are.  They came up on screen in "The Offer", where Al Ruddy offers some to Francis Copolla, who scoffs one up immediately, and then returns for the whole box.  Art!

     Conrad had been aware of their existence, but thought they were a kind of soft roll filled with a savoury cheese sauce.

     Apparently not.  They are loaded with ricotta and mascarpone and icing sugar, and are definitely sweet enough to potentially risk Conrad having a diabetic coma just looking at them.  Well, all the scenes and times in other films and television series where people have guzzled them out of the box begins to make sense now, because that's not what you'd do if they were a hot savoury that had been carried around in a box for three hours.