Obscured By Clouds Or Overcome By Fumes

 What Can A Prog Rock Classic And A Punk Melody Have In Common?

Conrad had better fill you in on the background here.  Best not to make assumptions, hmmm?

     Okay, "Obscured By Clouds" is a soundtrack album by Pink Floyd, to a film nobody's ever either heard of or watched ("The Valley").  Art!

     Lots of instrumental work, FYI.  "Burning Bridges" is especially relevant here, for reasons that will become clear soon.  Okay, that's half the title explained.  "Overcome By Fumes" is a corking punk single by the band Rudi, of which Conrad only remembers one line - "The fumes are on the winning side" because DRUGS ARE BAD.  Art!

A message to you -

     What's the connection?  Well, if it had been a real fire, instead of a fire drill, then Your Humble Scribe would have experienced both titles.  There was a fire alarm, you see, which began at 09:40.  This disables our phone lines and puts out an extremely loud - but very polite - warning, meaning that even if the phones were working, you'd not be able to hear anything less noisy than an air-raid siren.  It went on for thirty minutes before abruptly cancelling.  Surprise surprise, when The Naughty Boys went down stairs to have a craft fag outside, The Dark Tower's head of security was stricken to see them. It seems that we on the 18th floor had been completely overlooked and should have been evacuated.  What else can I think of that's relevant?

     Tasteful, that's us.

Back With Bonkers Be-telling

I've just decided that 'be-telling' is a word, regardless of what you and the world think.  So! on with our Romanian gypsy folk tale.

Then the girl departed to her home. And she slept and arose in the morning, and did her work that she had to do. And night came, and she took her spindle and went to the old woman in the hut. And the other girls came, and the young sparks came, and each laid hold of his sweetheart. But the pretty girl looks at them. Then the young sparks gave over and departed home. And only the girl remained neither a long time nor a short time. Then came the girl's young spark. Then what will the girl do? She took heed, and stuck a needle and thread in his back. And he departed when the cock crew, and she knew not where he had gone to. Then the girl arose in the morning and took the thread, and followed up the thread, and saw him in a grave where he was sitting. Then the girl trembled and went back home. At night the young spark that was in the grave came to the old woman's house and saw that the girl was not there. He asked the old woman, 'Where's Nita?'

'She has not come.'

Then he went to Nita's house, where she lived, and called, 'Nita, are you at home?'

Nita answered, ['I am'].

'Tell me what you saw when you came to the church. For if you don't tell me I will kill your father.'

'I didn't see anything.'

Then he looked, 1 and he killed her father, and departed to his grave.

     Hmmmm it seems as if someone had a touch of the green-eyed monster, nicht wahr?  Nita has trust issues.  I bet she got a surprise when she encountered her 'spark' sitting in his grave, though Conrad - hair-splitter par excellence - would like more detail.  Surely people passing by the cemetery would notice an animated corpse sitting in an open grave?  Has the author mistakenly used 'sitting' when 'lying' would be more apt?  If matey was in his grave how did he know Nita had come a-looking*?  Plus, she obviously doesn't give two hoots for her dad, all she had to do was fib a little but O no, not she.  Then she allows Sparky to get back in his grave.  How very considerate of her.

     I think that's enough logic-light story for today.

Here's A Short One

In stark contrast to the above. Art!

Yes

     Yes, indirectly.  This is the James Webb Space Telescope.  It can, potentially, resolve the atmosphere of distant planets and detect if there is water vapour present.  H2O is taken as a sine qua non for life, so not a guarantee, just a big green tick.

"In The Dark"

This one may also be short, as we return to the BBC's themed photographic exhibition"In The Dark".  Conrad has no idea what's next, so this is a learning experience for all of us.  Art!

Courtesy Eira Smith

     Hmmmmm. Venice at night.  "Atmospheric" said the source.  Creepy and probably smelly, too, judges Conrad.  Fancy having Sparky join you in that floating coffin, madam?  Just don't look at his feet.

Whilst On Matters Marine, More Of The Sea

"The Sea Of Sand" that is.  So not really marine.  If you recall, a right shower of variously-clad troops in a wild variety of British and captured Italian vehicles had arrived at Mersa Martuba.

‘B***** me!  A woman!’ called one man, pointing to Sarah.

          ‘Never seen one before, Smalls?’ commented a loud voice with a Northern Ireland accent.  ‘Get your disgusting selves to the latrines, quickly now.’  There were no more comments about Sarah’s gender.  Instead a short, stocky, moustachioed man wearing the insignia of a sergeant emerged from the clouds of dust around the convoy.

          ‘Sorry, Miss.  Men a long time without members of the fairer sex,’ he said, in a thick Irish brogue.  ‘Sergeant McSween.  If any of the men - ’ and he indicated the vehicles with a sweep of the hand ‘ - give you any trouble, any trouble at all, please tell me.’

          ‘Oh!’ replied Sarah.  Oh indeed, she realised mentally.  As a single woman out in the middle of the desert, in the middle of a war, she was indeed a rara avis.  ‘Right.  That’s alright, Sergeant.  Thank you.’

          ‘Miss,’ he replied, saluting her and vanishing back into the hanging clouds of dust.  A small gaggle of men could be seen gathering together amidst the vehicles, being covered in slowly-falling dust and pointing to various directions of the compass.

          ‘Who are this lot?’ asked Sarah.  ‘More of your Royal Army Service Corps chums?’

          Roger shook his head.

          ‘No, “this lot” are J Force.  Variously known as either “Jolyon Force” or “Jackal Force”.  Whoops, there’s Captain Dobie.  And Captain Jolyon.’

          A straight-faced and obviously unimpressed Captain Dobie came marching up to the group of officers, who were now smoking and swigging from canteens.  An officer so covered in dust that he seemed to have been rolled in flour gave a nonchalant salute. 

          Feeling her journalistic instincts kick in, Sarah edged closer, the better to hear.  She turned to nudge the Doctor, only to find that he’d disappeared again in the diversion caused by J Force arriving.

     I wonder what he's up to?  Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting instalment!  Or not.  See if I care.

Sliding More Than Gliding

I think we can have another photograph from "The War Illustrated", so if Art will get off his waffle-patterned behind -

     The editor is being disingenuous here, as the Allied glider-borne assault on Sicily was not far short of a disaster.  As the gliders crossed the Med they also crossed over the naval part of the invasion force, which promptly opened fire on them.  Many were cast off much too soon by their towing aircraft and ended up in the sea, leading to a lot of drowned paratroopers.  And those that did manage to land were scattered all over the place.  It was not an auspicious beginning for Allied glider operations.  The advantage of a glider-borne force is that they can bring heavier weapons with them - heavy machine guns, mortars, Jeeps and the like - and a 'stick' of men will all land in the same place at the same time, rather than being scattered by wind and wuthering.

Finally -

Good news or bad, I shared a link for yesteryon's BOOJUM! with a few colleagues on our Team Chat, after a bit of gloasting that I've got a lot of Ruffian viewers.  Who are hopefully not the FSB making notes of my shockingly irreverent nicknames for Bloaty Gas Tout.  I've come up with another one: Tin Of Pu.  Because he is one.  Art!

This will be reappearing, trust me

*   Wellllll she is female, so nosiness comes with the territory