Animaniax

I Am Using That Spelling -

To avoid any potential repercussions if Warner Bros find out about BOOJUM! and decide legal sanction is the only way.  I am not talking about their cartoon series, so there, but it does give me an 'in' and allow use of their likenesses.  Art!

Most of the cast

     You will, of course - obviously! - notice that Pinky and The Brain are missing.  I think this is because the studio got a Cease & Desist order from the Attorney General's office, citing concerns about being a bad influence on children; apparently aspiring to World Domination is not a good life-goal*.

     ANYWAY this is, in reality, another story of South Canadian manglement in action, taken from Quora and Original Poster Bruno Garcia.  He worked in a small animation studio with a team of very tight buddies (this is important) doing editing, sub-titling, animating and so forth.  Their boss, who was also the owner, was a typical bottomhole who had no idea what his employees actually did, just assumed that they were a bunch of slackers who were costing him money. Art!

Narf.

     So, in what he undoubtedly thought was a genius move, he informed them that, going forward, the company would not be paying fixed rates, but for each piece of work done.  Everyone sat down and the rates were worked out.

     Surprise!  The wage bill doubled.  Boss tried to backtrack but nobody was having it, this way they all benefited and, as was pointed out to him, he'd better learn to start planning better.  Art!

     Inevitably, being a Bottomhole Boss, his next move was hiring people on a fixed salary so he could lower his wage bill.  The animation team, being close (remember?) and of one mind, all walked out on him.  Doubtless the plan was to get the cheaper staff to shadow the originals, then fire the originals once the newbs were up to speed.  Not only did he end up with both feet in his mouth, he'd shot himself in them already.

     Ooops.

     BB had to beg and grovel to them to return and complete the projects they'd started, or he'd lose contracts that he had no way of fulfilling.  Having him over a barrel they got 2x their previous rates, then, when their projects were completed, walked out on him.

     Ooops again.

     Sixth months later BB's company was out of business.  There you go, from profit to bankruptcy in eight months.  Well done, BB!  Art?

How Not To Read The Room

We shall be skirting close to the poisoned edge of both Politics and Current Affairs, just with a bit of a BOOJUM! edge to both.

     You may be aware that Peter The Average made a signature speech yesteryon, in his Address To The Nation.  It was a two-hour rehash of guff he's brayed about before, and the audience realised it.

     You've heard of 'The Walking Dead'?  This lot were The Sitting Dead.  Art!

     You can clearly see several of these people have given up the will to live.  I wonder how many of them were playing 'Buzz-word Bingo' in their head?

Speaking Of Gin -

Don't quibble, someone somewhere will be talking about gin.

     Okay, Wonder Wifey went off to collect a parcel from the Collect + shop, and then popped into Bethesda church's 'Beehive' sale, and brought back the following for Conrad.  Art!

     This is a 'Ginfusion' jar, along with two small containers of - things.  One is flower petals and the other is an undetermined yet aged-looking berry, both contents of which are going in the bin.  I've already got flower-petal tea to work with, and tonight's the big shop, so I shall be collecting exotic fruits and spices to add to the jar.  The filter on top means that nothing ends up in your snifter.  Conrad, ever the epicurean**, has already sussed that citrus fruit and cardamoms are a suitable flavouring.

"Flamingo"

Conrad read about a character having an embarrassed face as pink as a flamingo recently, and of course - obviously! - because he is a pedantic hair-splitter of the very best kind, wondered where the word came from.  Art!

     Weird design.  Okay, the origin has it's roots in Portuguese, which in turn acquired the word from Provencal (thus French) and before that Latin <spit hack> and 'Flamma' meaning 'Flame' as well as the Germanic suffix '-Ing' meaning 'Descent from.'  You can see their point.  Art!

"The Sea Of Sand"

Our small band of intrepid human survivors have been trying to kit themselves out with lethal weaponry.  Which isn't hard, they're sitting on a supply dump.

‘He just doesn’t like death and killing, Roger.’

          The young officer eyed Sarah, wondering if she was pulling his leg.

          ‘Nor do I, especially as it might be me getting killed to death.’

          This nadir in the conversation ended when Tam came over to ask if the radio was still U/S?  Roger went off with the Geordie NCO to try, once again, to get in touch with a higher formation.

          Sarah climbed up alongside the Doctor.

          ‘Don’t sit in a brown study all day!  What ails you?’

Making a visible effort, her companion and mentor turned his gaze from the horizon, looking sombrely into her eyes.

          ‘I heard your comment about death and killing, Sarah.  It does pain me to resort to violence, all the more when it is so extreme.’

          ‘We don’t have a choice!’ retorted Sarah hotly.  ‘Those bio-vores will wipe us out and go on to infest the whole planet!’

          The Doctor said nothing, merely staring sadly at her.

          ‘Besides which, we still haven’t got a way to get your home-made bomb into the trans-mat site.  And it might not go off if we did get it there.  And there’s still the greedy monsters left on their homeworld, all ready to come back here.’

     Ah, yes, those are a few of the technical problems to hand.  Don't worry, the Doctor is on the case!

Ol' Tolky And Architecture

Rather than focus on enormous statuary or towers or excavations, allow me to pivot and point in quite the opposite direction, to The Shire, where there is a pronounced absence of such architecture.  Art!

     Typically, we see hobbit dwellings as being subterranean, although there are other structures out in the open air, such as mills and public houses.  There are no defensive walls around The Shire, nor forts or watchtowers, as they simply have no need of such constructions.  This is for a couple of reasons: for one, The Shire is perfectly happy existing within it's own borders, not interfering with any other races or territories, and yes they are a bit insular; for a second, it's existence is not well-known.  Even Sauron was unfamiliar with it.  A third reason is that the Rangers, or Dunedaín, are ever watchful upon it's borders, and anything remotely like a threat is gently encouraged to move elsewhere at the point of a sword.  Art!

     A fourth reason is that it's rather off the beaten track.  I challenge you do find it in the picture above.  And lastly, hobbits, much like Conrad, are mostly motivated about the contents of their larders rather than political trouble 'Down South'.

Finally -

I say, it's brightening up a little outside!  It was miserably wet and cold when Edna and I went walkies this morning.  Probably not a good idea to sit and read in the back yard, as hypothermia can be enervating.

*  None of this is remotely true.  Did I get you going, though?

 **  O, okay, greedy then.  There.  Happy now?