It Is A Truth Universally Acknowledged
That, whilst the armoured fighting vehicles of most armies run on diesel, petrol or whatever witches brew an aircraft turbine consumes in the case of the Abrams, British tanks have long been powered by tea. Metaphorically, not literally - do keep up! Art?
This band of happy campers are having a brew in the desert wastes of
You can see the downside of this process. Getting out of your tin can to brew up does have the benefits of fresh air and stretching out the cramps, but it also makes you vulnerable to bits of metal whizzing about at speed. This problem was resolved with the Centurion tank, which had an inbuilt 'Boiling Vessel' inside the turret, powered by the tank's own electrical system. Art!
It was used in a strict order: first, you heated up tins of rations (now plastic bagged), before brewing your tea. It could be dismounted from the turret if on an exercise or behind the lines. Art!
It was long the envy of South Canadian troops, who would seek to scrounge from British tank crews for decades, until word percolated (!) from the ground up that it was an essential requirement and South Canadian tanks now include them. Art!
This upstanding young chap is a Loader in a Challenger tank, and here he demonstrates how to keep a tank crew happy. Art!
Here we see the dismounted Boiling Vessel. Done for practical reasons as doing this video inside a tank turret would be cramped and difficult. The text caption missed the bit where he says you can heat up the 'rat packs' a.k.a. ration packs. Art!
There's a spigot at the bottom of the BV to allow cups to be filled. Art!
Add powdered milk and/or sugar (sweetener for this old diabetic). Art!
Screw on lid and shake to bake your tea. Art!
One satisfied tank crewman.
I posted a much shorter explanation condensing the above on a Youtube clips about how Ukrainian tank crews being trained in the UK were impressed with the BV, and got a response from a South Canadian ex-tankie:
From the tereminology he's talking about an Abrams tank. Conrad is pretttty certain that the senior NCO's and officers in his formation would not have approved. Art!
CAUTION! Can be hot
Fairground Attraction
Okay, once again we are going to be dipping our long, mis-shapen toe talons into the slimy waters of Politics, so after reading this you may need to take a shower. Art!
Here we have Citizen Trump at his recent CPAC speech. As we have mentioned, he declared his run for Prez last November and will be expected to have rallies across South Canada to promote his platform - which seems to be 'I'm gonna get revenge'.
There are a couple of problems here, though. You may already know that Citizen Trump doesn't like to pay for things if he can possibly avoid it, hoping that anybody who sues him runs out of money or dies of old age. Thus, he still owes $2 million for the last times he went out on campaign, to the various metropoli (not a word you expected to see today) where he held rallies, principally for security and police attendance. Art!
If he doesn't pay up, he's not getting access to the big rally venues, which will confine him to places like fairgrounds. This will, of course - obviously! - prick his vanity.
I did mention two problems, and here's the second. Art!
Lack of attendees. At one of his rallies last years they had to block the exits after 15 minutes because people started leaving, not wanting to listen to the same stuff he's been spouting since 2020*. You need new material, dude. So, if he gets stuck with a 5,000 seater venue, he might actually fill it! Whereas, with a 25,000 sports arena...
"The Sea Of Sand"
The Doctor is patiently waiting, roped to the underside of a truck, hoping that the alien bio-vores come to salvage it.
Twenty Four: The Idea
The
only diversion that occurred was the sound of an aircraft, getting nearer and
closer, until it vanished to the west.
After that, nothing happened.
Whilst unable to check his watch or the half-hunter in his pocket, this
long period of tedium might have been thirty minutes or many hours.
Faint
squeaking and rattling warned and wakened him from a half-doze, incredible as
he found that. The strange noise grew
louder and nearer, until he could see a black chassis on squashed, semi-fluid
track pontoons. The sturdy limbs of a
dozen bio-vores appeared, dragging thin cabling behind them. These cables were applied to the car’s
bodywork and, jerkily, the Sahariana was towed slowly off.
Trojan Horse Part One Complete
A Bit Of Tree Law For You
I do apologise, I should have added this information to my post yesteryon about the incredibly selfish and stupid Karen who burned down her neighbour's apple orchard out of spite, because she didn't get free apples. Art!
One of the consequences for Karen was that she lost her house, and Conrad thinks he knows why. You see, we are entering the realms of <trumpets> TREE LAW! To the uninitiated, let Your Humble Scribe assure you that trees are extremely expensive items to replace. EXTREMELY expensive. An old, mature apple tree can be valued at £150,000. Then there's the value of all the fruit produced. Even if OP only had ten trees and we ignore the value of the apples, that's at least £1,500,000. To pay for which you'd need to sell your house.
Ouch!
Not Sure How To Title This One
A recent response to the original Youtube post came up, and reminded me that I'd also commented, seven months ago. I had read a title on Youtube from 'Ushanka Show', which is a channel done by a Ukrainian who lived in the Sinister Union, but who left and now lives and works in South Canada. He asked the plaintive question "Why do people keep asking me to say 'Moose and Squirrel'?"
Because of "The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle". Art!
You see, the 'and Friends' included another cartoon, 'Boris And Natasha', who were a pair of stereotypical Sinister spies. Art!
They spoke heavily-accented English, sufficiently so that Boris's surname, 'Badenov', was pronounced 'Bad-enough'. Doubtless the Sinister's embassy lodged a protest, but who cares.
Finally -
It's lunchtime and I'm peckish. The fridge is calling!
* The analogy of 'like a broken record' doesn't work any more
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