Donnie Dark

No!  This Is Nothing To Do With The Film

Conrad knows what you're thinking, and you're WRONG.  You were thinking that this was a bizarre and elliptical reference to the film "Donnie Darko", which he has seen and wasn't very impressed with.  Of course, including this in the Intro now means that we have a genuine reason to include a picture of it.  Art!

     In fact Conrad can't remember anything about it, except that there was an aircraft accident?  And of course Horror Harvey, the bubonic bunny.

     No, this Intro is an fact to do with another Donnie, to wit: Citizen Trump.  Don't worry, we will leave Politics out of it.

    A you can probably tell from the way we speak about him, neither Conrad nor BOOJUM! are any fans of his, so let's get that admission out of the way first.  One of the notable things about DJ Tango is that he is constitutionally incapable of keeping his flapping piehole shut.  After losing a civil suit for defamation and battery, what does he do but go on television the next day and REPEAT THE DEFAMATION.  He is now being chased for an additional $10 million on top of the original judgement of $5 million.  Art!

Awwww, what cute little tiny hands he has

     He also likes to vent wildly on his 'Trumpf Social' as he once called Truth Social - which David Pakman never tires of replaying, cruel chap that he is - with all sorts of exaggerations and outright lies, frequently resorting to ALL CAPITALS to show how angry he is.

     However, please notice the difference when he graced a Florida court recently to be arrested and arraigned.  He spoke not one word.  This is so remarkable Conrad is fairly sure his attorneys had attached an electrical clamp on his tongue, worked by remote control, in order to prevent him from speaking.  Because that would have led to perjury and contempt of court charges within minutes.

     Also - Art!

Don't look at his eyes!  Don't look at his eyes!

     This is Jack Smith, the Special Prosecutor who had Trump arrested about his theft and retention of documents.  He, too, was present in the court room, and he turned his gimlet laser stare on DJ Satsuma for the whole hearing, a gaze that Agent Orange never dared to match.  Can't blame him, having Hatchet-Face Harry boring into you for forty-five minutes is probably rather nerve-shredding.

     David Pakman, who describes himself as a relatively left-wing South Canadian, and whom is thus probably firmly in the centre of the British Tories by comparison, had a perceptive analysis up on Youtube of the timelines of the trials forthcoming for Donnie.  They are going to be overlapping each other; this theft of documents case is going to go forward quite soon, and is thus going to be happening at the same time as the Georgia-voting Grand Jury votes to indict.  Then there is the January 6th insurrection trial, and the New York civil and criminal cases, too.  Not to mention E. Jean Carroll's defamation and battery case, which Donnie is appealing; thus the appeal will be heard in early 2024.  Art!

Dave.  Great Noo Yawk accent.

     Dave's assertion is that all this overlapping legal woe is highly likely to make Donnie's 2024 bid to be Prez rather hard to sustain, if he has to be off in court every other week to plead or present.  That's just the logistics; quite what voters will think about all this legal drama is also open to question.  Donny says that it will benefit him, but he also says that black is white, up is down and Pi is 3.14*.

     True to form, he's just been interviewed on Fox News, and what he was saying is potentially actionable in court.  One supposes that he rejected the ACME Patent Electrical Tongue-Clamp this time.  There's a reason three of his lawyers resigned recently.

It's Spelled 'Laser' Not 'Lazer'

Because it's an acronym of "Light Amplified by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation", that's why, and 'Lazer' is too similar to 'Lazar'.

     Because Your Humble Scribe had another of those words pop up in his head: 'LAZARETTE'.  Something to do with a hospital ward resembling an accident in a butcher's shop?  Art!

     That's a lazarette at the back; 'A small locker at the stern of a boat', and this is one of those words with a dual use, since it also refers to a hospital for infectious diseases, especially leprosy.  The Latin <hack spit> for 'Leper' you see was 'Lazar'.

     The Teutons of First Unpleasantness vintage also co-opted dogs into providing medical services, where they were known as 'Lazarette Hunde', and if Art will put down his plate of coal -

     They could be trained to carry medical supplies to wounded who were out in No Man's Land, safe in the knowledge that if their opponents were British, they'd never shoot a dog.  The French ...

First Day's Working From Home

It was great!  I rolled out of my festering pit at 08:15, got dressed and had breakfast, clocked the news headlines, re-pimped the blog and sat down to start work at 09:00.  Instead of having to set the alarm for 06:55.

     Nor did I mind going past 17:00 by seven minutes, because once I logged off the phone, there I was at home already, instead of getting in at 18:30.

     The only down-side is that my Fitbit steps are low.  I can live with that.

"City In The Sky"

I have a short interregnum to add here in it's entirety, as I didn't want to break it up and spoil either the continuity or the content. 

Air Traffic Control

Airservices Australia

Adelaide Airport

Adelaide

South Australia

8:15 a.m. (9:15 p.m. GMT)

 

     Air traffic control is a delicate business, unforgiving of mistakes.  Aircraft do not remain in the air inherently.  When coming in to land or take off, they rely on an overview and instructions from their local air traffic controller, who has to keep track of flights in order to safely and efficiently direct them.

     The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System in operation at Adelaide was trying to deal with a flustered and annoyed pilot, speaking from the cabin of a Qantas A380 Airbus.

     ‘Qantas Two Five Seven, I confirm that there are no other aircraft within five nautical miles of your present position,’ intoned the controller, for the third time.

     ‘Adelaide, have we been in close proximity to any airborne heavy?’

     ‘Negative, Five Seven.  The nearest track on TATS is a 737, at three thousand metres elevation above your position, five nautical miles distant on a bearing of one zero eight degrees.’

     The pilot didn’t speak to the controller, instead calling to another crew member on the flight deck. 

     ‘Qantas Two Five Seven, do you wish to report a near miss?’ asked the controller, becoming impatient at the pilot’s strange behaviour.  He couldn’t devote much longer to a pilot having a fit of hysterics.

     ‘Adelaide, be advised we experienced severe air turbulence as of three minutes previously.  We have regained control but it was touch and go.’

     ‘Thank you for the notification, Five Seven, we will notify inbound flights.’

     ‘Ah – also, be advised that the turbulence was caused by the passage of what must have been a rocket or missile, travelling too fast to see.  It left a pressure contrail easily the width of our aircraft.  Qantas Two Five Seven out.’

     The controller looked at his screen in bewilderment. 

      No, there were no aircraft near Q257. 

      In fact there hadn’t been any aircraft near Q257 for at least fifteen minutes.  No radar traces or warnings of missile launches.  It was morning, sun up, visibility good and nobody had reported any rocket, missile or aircraft gone astray.

 

     Earth wasn’t to know it, but the Lithoi had arrived.

     The Lithoi are the real villains of the piece here.

Finally -

I see Glasto is on again this year, and the lucky beggars attending and performing seem to be lucky with the weather - at least so far.  There can't be events more dispiriting or miserable than an open-air music festival stricken with the rain of a traditional British summer.

*  I like to spell it 'Donny' on occasion as apparently this melts his pan.