Bear With Me, This Is A Bit Meandering
Here an aside - which must be a record in terms of how soon - because the word 'Meander' (which means to wander all over the place rather than get to the point, which is practically the definition of BOOJUM! as this explanation proves) has an interesting source. It goes back to the Latin <hack spit> 'Maeander' which is itself derived from the Greek 'Maiandros' - a river in Asia Minor. Art!
No, Art - hang on a minute -
Here an aside to the aside. Yes yes yes I can do that, it's my blog. I was looking for any kind of click-baity illustration of 'Meandering' and came across this map of Middle Earth superimposed on a map of South Canada. What you might call a palimpsest and no I shan't explain what one is. It's a really good idea, showing how far both Frodo and Bilbo Baggins travelled in their quest both east and south. Bilbo stuck to the northerly latitudes, whilst Frodo and Sam got down into the tropics. You can see how far their journey took them, and all on foot. And as other folk on the thread commented, it seemed peculiarly apt that Florida = Mordor. Art!
Okay, this is the River Meander, now in Turkey, so they've renamed it Menderes, which rather sounds like a South American despot - President-for-Life Menderes or he was until he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head twenty-seven times.
"CRUX": I did warn you this Intro was going to be all over the place. It's one of those words I was thinking of fulminating about when ranting and raving about Codewords yet decided not, because it does get used occasionally. "A vital or decisive stage or point, OR a baffling problem". Your Humble Scribe recalls M. John Harrison using the term "fervid crux" when describing the MIEV bombardment of Alpha Centauri in "The Centauri Device" which is enough of an excuse to include a cover shot. Art!
Now, because Conrad's mind is incapable of sticking to one train of thought for more than five seconds, I also began wondering about another word combining "U" and "X" namely "NEXUS". Ha! That fooled those expecting UXORIOUS!
Defined in my Collins Concise as: 'A connected group or series", from the Latin <spit hack> 'Nectare' meaning 'To bind'. Art!
"Secret Treaties" by Blue Oyster Cult
It's a bit hard to make out there, but that last track, "Astronomy" has a line in there "It's the nexus of the crisis" which is not a word often used in songs.
Then of course - obviously! - there's this chap -
This was definite space opera with great artwork and a cast of wild and wacky characters, not the least of which was Horatio Hellpop who becomes the superhero Nexus. The whole story is far too involved to go into here. Conrad, because of his immense good taste, has a lot of the 80 published issues. Can't go back and re-read them yet, I remember too much of them.
And there I think we have it for today's Intro, a definitely meandering one.
"IBIS"
If you don't travel by bus and use the First Bus app, then the fact that they have an authentication code that changes daily will be news to you. Conrad cannot show you a photograph of said code because it's on the phone itself. Art!
The canny rascals ensured that there's no valid codeword in there. It's always a four-letter word with 456,976 potential combinations. Presumably they screen out the swears and nonsense.
Well on Sunday the codeword was the title of this item. Art!
These are large wading birds with a long, narrow beak, whose name has come down to us via Greek <hack>, Latin <spit> from Egyptian 'Hby', which is not where I expected this to lead.
Back To 'Barriers'
I have technically reached the end to this exhibition of photographs put up by the BBC, although I did skip a couple as they were pretty dull and a
ANYWAY let's have the picture. Art!
Courtesy Emily Renshaw
A visage only a mother could love. This, gentle reader, is Rita. The photographer put that the wicked wire fence was preventing her from getting her snacks, so, madam, why didn't you just drop them over the top or hurl them through a gap?
More Of "The Sea Of Sand"
If you recall, The Doctor had sped off to the dig at Makin-Al Jinna, leaving a moody Sarah Jane kicking her heels. She decides to take a trot into the desert ...
Men! she scornfully sneered. Especially these men – behaving as if she
were some spun-sugar princess who might faint if she heard bad language. The Doctor was no better – he’d gone sneaking
off and driven away in a lorry before she caught up with him. Lieutenant Llewellyn merely told her the
Doctor had gone to see Professor Templeman, before rushing off himself to
arrange sentries.
So here she was, on her own. Not even the TARDIS to take refuge in.
On a whim, she clambered up a pile of crates with
Italian writing stencilled on the side, trying to spot any sign of the familiar
old blue box.
Nothing, in all directions. Heat haze, dust, sand. And the inevitable, irreconcilable sun,
beating down. Sarah felt the truth of
the verb, the heat here did hit you like a physical force.
She tried to recall what the Doctor had told her
about the HADS, and about the TARDIS’s ability to manoeuvre in time and space in
a non-linear fashion.
Well, it might turn up tomorrow, or not for three
months.
Sarah looked at the landscape more closely. There were dips and hollows, deep cuttings,
potholes, depressions – more than enough places to conceal the TARDIS, their
mutual escape route. If it had landed
out there, then simply standing here and looking wouldn’t reveal it. She ought to go out and look herself. Perhaps she ought to inform the Doctor – and
then again perhaps not, considering that he wasn’t actually at Mersa Martuba to
be informed. She couldn’t tell any of
the garrison why she was really going to go searching in the desert, and no lie
that came to mind would be compelling enough to persuade the suspicious
soldiery.
"I'm off to search the desert for an indestructible time-travelling vehicle that looks like a police box, and why are you looking at me like that?" Hum, no, I don't think that would go down well. Mind you, if SJS goes sneaking off, nobody will know she's missing ...
Not What You Hear Everyday
Conrad is going to put up a screenshot and a link, because everyone needs more bagpipe in their lives, especially an item as musically capricious as this. Art!
And here the link:
(1) Star Wars Theme on Bagpipes - YouTube
It's less than a minute long so you can take that much time out of your busy day to listen to uplifting noise.
Finally -
Good lord aloft, I'd quite forgotten it's my birthday! 61 years old, and I mean 'old'. Not as bad as 62, which is what I was convinced I was, until Wonder Wifey corrected me. I blame the gin.
Well, Edna's going potty downstairs, which means Degsy must have arrived, so I shall have to go turn into a pumpkin. I think. I blame old age and gin.
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