The Tautology Of Time

Yes, Back To Chronological Loops

Excuse me whilst I finish listening to Inhaler and "Cheer Up Baby".  I'd not heard of this band before Monday, until they cropped up on someone's playlist at the office - probably Alan's since his taste and mine seem to be similar.

     Here an aside.  He described, in passing, what must be one of the most Single Bachelor Cuisine ideas ever: a baked potato with a Pot Noodle filling.  You know Conrad, ever curious and driven by his stomach.  Big shop today <nods and winks>.

     Anyway, Inhaler.  Art!

When even a Blunt sword is dangerous

     We can have that because "Edge Of Tomorrow" is a time-loop film.  And it gives me an opportunity to make a terrible pun.  Sorry, Emily.

     Where were we?

     O yes, time-loops.  I did scout ideas from the rest of the family about other possible films or stories on this theme, because five heads are better than one.  I do have one of my own recall: "The Time Travellers", which I have seen.  Art!

     This one involves scientist experimenting with a time-portal that allows them to step into 2071 AD, where nearly all civilisation has been destroyed by global nuclear war.  Then the portal vanishes.  Ooops.  They manage to construct another, and go back in time to seconds before originally moving through the portal.  They then realise they've mucked up time and go through the portal again 100,000 years into the future.  This triggers a loop that speeds up and -

     - the film ends.  Pretty bleak.  Art!

     Moving sideways in time, it's an electric line - no, sorry, those are the lyrics to "Silver Machine" by Hawkwind, aren't they?  Moving to a different medium, there is the short story "A Little Something For Us Tempunauts" by the incomparable Philip K. Dick.  Art!

     This is a genuine child of the Cold War, with South Canada and the Sinister Union both engaged in a race to travel through time - the Sinister's name for their time-travellers is 'Chononauts', IIRC.  In this bleak - that word again - narrative, the US tempunauts manage only a few days travel into the future, and one decides to sabotage their 're-entry' back to the start date and point, in a somewhat nihilistic gesture, because the result is an infinitely-repeating time-loop.  For the whole universe.  

     On a slightly lighter note (not that it's particularly hard to be lighter) there is "The Key To Time" from the BBC's premier dramamentary, 'Doctor Who'.  Art!

     There you  see The Doctor, The Key itself and the perfectly delicious Romana PUT YOUR TONGUES BACK IN YOU SLOBBERING PERVERTS which is actually a contraction of her real name, which is extremely long.  At one point in "The Armageddon Factor" the Doctor manages to gimmick The Key to temporarily protect himself and Romana from attack, by throwing the bad guys in their armed starship into a time loop.  Art!

Guys, Bad, Two of

     The thing is, the time loop keeps stretching longer the more it runs, so it behoves the Doctor and Romana to get about their business quick smart, since if it runs long enough they'll get nuked.

     Okay, so we've had film, novels and television.  What media is left to plunder?  Why, comics of course!  Art!

     Yes, good old "2000AD" and here we have a story where the esteemed Doctor Dibworthy is trapped in a loop, forever inventing different methods of time travel, at first thanks to the inspirations of ripples in a cup of tea.  The next method is studying the serendipitous - not a word you expected to read today - wrinkles in a lump of crumpled-up paper.  Good luck, Doctor Dibworthy.

     There seems to be a lot more time loop material than I realised, which means you might be getting even more of going round in circles.  Good thing?  Bad thing?  Meh thing?  Only you can tell!

 There seems to be a lot more time loop material than I realised, which means you might be getting even more of going round in circles.  Good thing?  Bad thing?  Meh thing?  Only you can tell!

 There seems to be a lot more time loop material than I realised, which means you might be getting even more of going round in circles.  Good thing?  Bad thing?  Meh thing?  Only you c

     Ooops!  Had our own little loop there.  Sorry*.

More Of That Exigious Crossword

Just testing.  It's about the most opposite of exigious you can get.  Our next oblique clue - actually it makes 'oblique' look 'incredibly obvious'.  "An epithet for husky fellows, That stand, all robed in green and yellow (5)."

     You're not going to get this one, trust me, so we'll just get on with the solution, which is: AWNED.

     Ah,  No, got no idea.  Collins Concise no help.  Google?

     GOT IT!  The 'green and yellow' refers to grain before and after it ripens, and 'husky' refers not to the dog, nor to being roughly-spoken, but to the husks of grains.  Look up AWN.

     Blimey, that was an effort.

"The Sea Of Sand"

Our gallant band are busy shifting literal mountains of crates in order to get at supplies the Doctor needs, slow hard work.

‘You can’t lift this stuff with your bare hands,’ he warned, producing a pair of stout, battered leather gloves.  He passed a pair of crowbars to Tam and Doctor Smith, indicating how far they needed to shift the outer boxes in the stack.

          Tam found that Doctor Smith was far stronger than he looked, able to help shift wooden crates surprisingly easily, which gave the tough Geordie cause to pause and wonder.

          ‘What made ye chuck petrol over that nose-goblin?’ he asked, wanting a diversion from the slow, hard work.

          ‘Petrol evapourates rapidly and especially so in a high ambient temperature, and the latent heat of vapourisation, when applied to the epidermis of a non-excretory individual – ah.  Sorry.  In English?  The “nose-goblins” don’t sweat, Tam.  They have a very efficient system of keeping their body temperature in balance, probably based on a super-dense capillary  network.  Liquids like petrol, or after-shave, or even whisky, would dramatically destabilise that balance when they evapourate from the skin.  The “nose-goblin” goes into shock.’

          Tam nodded wisely, grateful for the slightly simpler explanation.

          ‘You’re a bit of a Renaissance man, Doctor Smith,’ announced Lieutenant Llewellyn, busily hauling chains on the one-ton crane and panting in rhythm whilst doing so.  ‘Biology, atomic physics, neurology, improvised weapons.’

     Ah yes, flattery, that's always a way to get round the Doctor.

Not A Problem Any Longer

One of the difficulties at catching the bus home from my recent temp job was that the bus stop was outside Tony's Fish And Chip Shop, and directly opposite the Blue Diamond Chinese restaurant and just across from the Sajaan Indian restaurant.  Consequently you'd get cars parking up in the 'Bus Stop' markings to go get their scoff, making it awkward for the bus to position itself.

     Then there were the recent diggings-up of the pavement, which reduced the space for parking even more.  Art!

     But no longer a problem!

Finally -

Your Humble Scribe did not fancy doing the weekly shop last night, not after only getting home at 19:45, so it's due to be done tonight.  Thus I need to go down to the kitchen and see what we lack and what we need and what we want - which are not the same things.

Chin chin!

*  It did up the word count, mind.