Nope, Nothing To Do With Guns
Nor treacle - which they mis-name 'molasses' over there - nor raccoons nor totem poles either.
No, I refer to a South Canadian custom of placing small coins on railroad tracks so that trains can drive over them and deform them in interesting ways. Art!
It's illegal yet so is speeding and how well has that worked?
ANYWAY it also reminded me of a Reddit story about a woman so mentally dense that her brain must have been made of neutronium. Picture the scene: there you are, driving your two-hundred ton locomotive hauling five thousand tons of mixed cargo, you the driver and your conductor. You are approaching a level-crossing when you notice a car stuck on the tracks.
Ooops. As you may have guessed, five thousand tons of train will not halt as a car would. Klaxon blaring, emergency braking applied, HQ notified by radio -
Very definitely after
At this point the locomotive's wheels lose traction, as you notice the woman and her child stood between the car and your train ARE NOT MOVING. She is holding up a piece of card as if it will protect her from five thousand tons of train, WHICH CANNOT STOP.
At this point saner passers-by intervene and drag both idiots off the tracks. The train hits the car and turns it to porridge, eventually stopping a couple of miles down the way. A very shaken driver and conductor race back, only to encounter the Karen with her sign stating that trains can stop on a dime, the drivers hit cars on the tracks only because they relish destruction.
She also announces that they've been there all day and to prevent people from stopping her, she and her son have been placing coins on the rails - see first paragraph. By this time the police have arrived and the train driver goes ballistic as he realises why he lost traction; all those soft metal coins on the rails.
Karen's big idea was to physically stop a train so her son could ride in the cab.
Not only did he not get to do that, she was arrested and did prison time for trespass and child endangerment and had to pay a whacking big fine and got no insurance pay-out for her car. Give her time and she will win a Darwin.
O and lest ye be tempted yourselves, bear in mind that coins can also be propelled off the rails like bullets and just as the car inevitably comes off worst in encounters like this, so too will you and your soft squishy body. Art!
Do not be that person
There you go, everyone is now wiser than they were five minutes ago.
"In The Dark"
Seriously, I never bother to look ahead of time at these exhibitions the BBC lays on, so I'm as surprised as you are by what's visible. Take today, for example. Art!
Courtesy Patrick Dixon
Pat states that he caught a frog crawling within the innards of a rusty machine in the garden. Not sure how this is classed as 'Dark' unless he cooked and ate the frog? Or perhaps he pressed the starter button and instantly made the picture a lot more colourful*?
Back To The Sea
"The Sea Of Sand" that is. As you should surely recall, Sarah was passing the time with an Ocker soldier who had to hurriedly moderate his language in the presence of a lady.
‘A “trans-mat”?’ repeated
Roger, his look of disbelief not fading.
‘A generic term for the device,’ explained the Doctor. ‘From “Matter-transmitter”. He felt he’d explained things rather well.
‘You must be stark, raving mad,’ commented Roger. ‘And you must think I am, too, to believe
that.’
Ah. Perhaps the
explanation hadn’t been entirely successful.
‘Let me try again,’ and the Doctor’s tone carried something
that stopped Roger from moving away in despair.
‘The two pylons form the gateway, if you will. Any object placed between those pylons could
be sent to the receiving station, instantly.
There would be no trace left of the object – say in this case a person
from your archaeological dig. Gone entirely,
and so fast you wouldn’t notice it happen.’
Roger squinted.
‘Why didn’t everyone disappear, then? We’ve all passed between those pylons, lots
of times.’
The Doctor grinned.
‘Because they aren’t always active! That site is powered geothermally, you
know. I took readings out there, and
beneath each structure there will be a long thermostatic spike, drawing energy
from the earth. That’s why the buildings
are never cold. It also explains the
energy drain I detected.’
 |
| Close enough |
Conrad: Still A Bit Seethey
Just done another Codeword with nothing unusual or exotic about the solutions, which is great for speed of completion but which generates absolutely nothing in terms of blog content. I realises I may have overdone it a little with the Remote Nuclear Detonator.
"The War Illustrated"
Ah yes, edition 161. The pictures here are mostly to do with the occupation of Sicily. Art
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More Jocks, identifiable by their tam-o-shanter. And no, Conrad has no idea where the name comes from. Further, saying 'Your beret looks weird, mate" would probably be followed by a punch and mutterings about 'Sassenachs'. Incidentally, the vehicle you see there is the ubiquitous Bren Carrier, which carried everything to be found in a modern army in addition to the Bren. Think of it as a Jeep-with-tracks.
Conrad is typing this whilst keeping an eye on the heavens outside, with wry acknowledgement of his getting absolutely soaked on his trip into Royton last week. Seriously, a complete change of clothes was needed once back in The Mansion. The clouds are breaking up, admittedly, yet not sufficient to be able to go walkies in a tee-shirt. British Summer Weather, meaning it could be coming down in sheets within the next ten minutes.
Finally -
You may be aware that Conrad usually makes up a big batch of stew of a Sunday afternoon, so that he can re-heat and eat it for lunch and thus not waste time throwing together a meal at the last minute. This week I'm definitely going to feature those Banana Blossoms and may take a picture of same to wow you all with. I have seen pictures of them battered with breadcrumbs and fried as a vegan alternative to fish - I wonder if Darling Daughter has tried them yet? Art!
Curious
* I could go on but people are starting to wince
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