The Unbearable Lightness Of Being A Truculent Termagant

Yep, The Lowest Common Denominator Didn't Work -

So now we're going for the very highest most abstract philosophical shizzle imaginable.  Just be grateful you're not getting a lecture on "The Affectionately-Imagined English In The Works Of Thomas Pynchon" or "The Titan II Missile And Why The Sinisters Were Scared Of It".  Art!

     Well, pretty obviously because it looked as if the Devil himself was lighting the blue touchpaper, and it had a whopping 9 megaton warhead, that would have damaged Saint Petersburg if it hit Moscow.

     Just imagine, they put a man in a capsule on top of that thing and sent him into orbit.

     ANYWAY truculent is defined as "Defiantly aggressive, sullen or obstreperous" by my Collins Concise, and of course we have to define 'Obstreperous' because we are infinitely recursive here at BOOJUM!: "noisy or rough, especially in resisting restraint or control".  And who is the poster child for all these qualities?  Art!

Ol' Laser-Eyes himself

     As for 'Termagant', well, yes, you might think it's a distant cousin of the albatross or Manx shearwater, but no, it's not.  "A shrewish woman or scold" as per the thirteenth century definition, but this is the twenty-first century so we can apply it to the male of the species as well.  Lucky me.

     Hmmmmm you know, one of the perils of reading a dictionary is the risk of coming across other interesting entries that have nothing whatsoever to do with your original entry, much as with the 'Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable', where it is ridiculously easy to get side-tracked so badly that you crack it open at 13:48 to look up "Fly a kite" and you're still reading it at 14:39 on "Threadneedle Street"

     ANYWAY 'Terbium Metal', in case you were wondering, and even if you were not, is any of a group of related lanthanides, including Terbium, Europium and Gadolinium.  I know, I know, 'The Lanthanides' sounds like an island archipelago just east of the Dodecanese, conquered by the Italians in their war of 1912 against the Ottomans -

By some wild coincidence in Ukranian colours

     Apparently the lanthanides were named after the Greek for "To be hidden", so one ought to pronounce it 'LAN-THAN-EYE-DEEZ" to sound correct.  There is a whole subset of these elements, but let us only look at the three named above.

     'Terbium' is named after the Swedish town of Ytterby, because it was a Swedish chemist who discovered the element in 1843.  Yes yes yes, Yttrium and Ytterbium are both named after the town, which seems a bit greedy if you ask me.  Art!

     'Europium' is of course named after Europe.  'Gadolinium' sounds like a character from "Lord Of The Rings" but is named after the scientific chap Johan Gadolin, who was Finnish - hmmm and thus probably quite up to being a LOTR character.

     Well there you go for this Intro, a whistle-stop tour of nuclear missiles, the Italian Empire and chemicals.  Very high-brow.   No naked men gambolling beneath a shower formed from a barrel of water.  Sorry, ladies.

More Of Monetary Misery

Not gunna lie - as Darling Daughter is wont to say - this title could apply to countries such as Cuba or Lebanon, who are failing daily at being a proper country.  Things in Cuba are so bad they are thinking of calling in the Mob to run them again.  Art!

Ruffia or Cuba?  Only you can decide!

     Also miserable are the figures for Ruffia.  Joe Blogs, vlogging Youtube stalwart that he is, put out another digest of disaster, except the figures he uses are FROM THE RUFFIAN MINISTRY OF FINANCE, not guesstimates from third parties.  Since these are the official Ruffian figures, they may well have been 'massaged' to look better than they actually are.  And they are actually disastrous.  Art!

The suburbs of Moscow

GDP: Defined as 'The market value of all finished products and resources' which doesn't take into account things like expenditure.  From 3% growth in 2022 this has now shrunk by 2.2%.  So a drop of 5.1%, down from the predicted growth in 2023 of 1.2%.  The IMF and World Bank estimates for this total can be ignored, as they merely parrot what figures Putin provides them with.  The OECD, on the other hand, calculates data independently and reckons on a drop of 2.5% in 2023.  This is not good, lest ye be unaware.  If you want an analogy, imagine trying to drive into work, except you're in reverse gear and end up miles from nowhere in the countryside.  At night.  When it's raining.  Art!

Stalinist architecture stronk!

O Look Another Old Book!

Not all of Your Humble Scribe's aged tomes are to do with military history.  Here's one with the characteristic faded edges of old, cheap paper.  Art!

     Who can forget the glory days of the 'Flour Advisory Bureau'!

     Well, probably everyone, as this edition dates from 1971.  Conrad was still in short trousers then. 

     ANYWAY an interesting collection of ideas from Mags, who protested at being described as a 'celebrity chef' and much preferred the title 'Home economist'.  Conrad, who as we all know is ruled by his stomach, will be investigating some of these recipes once he's gotten the 'Ukrainian Stew's out of the way.

Talking Of Food -

Your Modest Artisan ventured forth once again on the Wild Mushroom Risotto, as prodded forward by Wonder Wifey, and it proved to not have been a fluke or beginner's luck.  Art!

     Shiitake and Chestnut and Baby Button mushrooms in lieu of the Polish assortment that the chap on Market Day retails.  The secret is half a small bottle of wine, which lends a bouquet to the dish; adding the 2 pints of stock in gradually over time; mixing in a couple of ounces of grated Cheddar, which makes the whole thing gel together.  Also our new saute pan, which firmly resisted any inclination of the whole thing to stick and/or burn.

"The Sea Of Sand"

If your outlook on life has been perverted and degraded by this Fan Fiction tale, don't worry - it's coming to an end.  Plus, you need to get out of the house more if you find this scrivel a problem.

The Doctor watched in horrified fascination as the alien slowly moved forward, growling and waving it’s proboscis.  He drew in his breath, ready to shout and divert the alien’s attention.

          Instead, Sarah thrust her hand forward.  There came a hiss, a fine spray squirted into the air and fell on the alien, which shrieked appallingly, backed away and then ran full speed at the far wall of the building’s interior, coming to a sudden and abrupt halt when it hit the wall.

          Carefully, the Doctor approached the motionless body.

          ‘Hmm.  Quite dead,’ he commented.  ‘Shock, endothermic imbalance or impact trauma.’

          A pair of footfalls in the building heralded Sarah and the Professor.

          ‘Sarah!  How happy I am to see you!’ exclaimed the Doctor.  ‘And you, too, Professor,’ he added when the latter coughed diplomatically.

          Sarah held up a small glass bottle with a spray top.

          ‘Chanel Number Five,’ she remarked ruefully.  ‘The last of it, too.’

          ‘Remarkably brave girl, that,’ blustered the Professor.  ‘We came to see what had kept you, Doctor.  Miss Smith insisted that you must be in trouble to be away for so long.’

          The Doctor shook his head.

          ‘Matters elsewhere kept me busy.  Which reminds me - ’

     Conrad is not keen on perfumes, they tend to give him migraines, so I sympathise with the bio-vore.

Finally -

Well, I finally had to bite the bullet and purchase more data for my Digital Devil's Device, because otherwise I couldn't buy an e-ticket for First Bus.  Now I need to look up Ukrainian casserole recipes, having bought some soured cream and chorizo in Sainsbo's in preparation.  Slava Ukraina!