щасливого Різдва!

Which, Of Course - Obviously! - Is Ukrainian For "Merry Christmas!"

Because it's that time of the year when people chow down on mince pies, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake and brandy butter TAUNT ME TAUNT ME WITH WHAT I CANNOT HAVE <ahem> as well as turkey and sprouts.  Not all on the same plate, need I mention.

     ANYWAY I'll get to the presents later, right now I've been watching "Slow Horses" Season Three's first two episodes.  Art!

Can't get much slower than this

     You can't get too attached to any of the cast, as they are likely to get bumped off or disappeared by the end of season.  Why, Jack is still pining for the mysterious 'Sid' who appeared in Season One and vanished half-way through, her real identity still unknown.  Art!

Played by Olivia Cooke FROM OLDHAM

     Which, naturally, has nothing to do with the rest of this Intro.  I just like sending you astray.

     ANYWAY let's have a nice succinct tale of manglement, with a distinct touch of hubris to it, set - as these things so often are - in South Canada.  Where the 'Domino's' pizza chain is in fact a franchise, not a nationally-owned chain.  To be a little clearer, if you run a franchise, you pay a fee to the actual brand owner and are contractually obliged to run within a set of guidelines as you manage day-to-day operation of whatever it is.  They're a lot more common than you realise.  Art!

The ones we tried here in the UK tasted akin to the box they came in

     Original Poster (on Quora) stated that in the 9 stores his franchiser owned they  offered discounts, especially for the specials that were on offer, bringing the price down from $17 to $13, and they would inform the customer of this discount.  The Foolish Franchiser (hereafter FF) decided that in future discounts would only be offered to customers who had a coupon, which were mailed out every so often.  Art!

     This was not a smart move, as both the franchises above still offered a discount when customers rang to place an order, reducing the cost by $4.

     Sales immediately plummeted as customers rang, discovered there was no discount and instead rang Papa John's or Pizza Hut to get their savoury, savoury money off.  O and their pizza.  Don't forget that.

     After seeing sales and profits fall off a cliff, the FF brought back specials and discounts, which was far too late as nobody bothered to ring Domino's any longer, so sales remained at the foot of the cliff, in bits.  Not very poetic I know.  Accurate, mind.  Art!

     This is what FF was paying himself monthly before OP, seeing the writing on the wall, left.

     Well!  Who knew that Domino's corporate auditors and scrutineers would get on FF's case, thanks to his less-than-stellar performance?  They did, though.  In fact they forced him to sell his franchised stores to another franchiser with better business sense, and his net worth went from $17 million to nil.  According to OP, FF ended up working at a Costco stocking shelves.  Probably on $10,000 per annum.

     That, gentle reader, is the Greek concept of 'Hubris' writ large for today.

The Extremely Slow Consumption Of A Conserve

Probably not a 'conserve' as there is no fruit or peel in it.  You can duke it out in the Comments on this one.  Art!

     It was fine once I'd scraped a bit of mould from the surface.  Yes yes yes it's full of sugar, that's what keeps the micro-organisms at bay, and thanks to Conrad being abstemious*, that's why it's lasted so long.

Just Throwing This Out There

I won't bore you with the details of the Youtube channels I follow, especially those that deal with the Special Idiotic Operation, apart from mentioning this one.  Art!

     

     This is "Anders Puck Nielsen", from whose first name and surname you may be able to guess is Scandinavian.  Correct.  More precisely, Danish.  More precisely still, he's an Intelligence Officer in the Royal Danish Navy.  His English is excellent, certainly far better than any of you out there can speak Danish (unless you are Danish or live in Greenland).  He doesn't post very often, and his vlogs are short, but! O my are they pithy and relevant.

     I will be watching this one later.  After "Slow Horses".

"City In The Sky"

Ace, ever on the lookout for a bacon butty.

     Ace’s conscience prompted her to protest weakly when Solly’s wife, an equally tall, thin Nigerian possessing an air of poise and who made a boilersuit look elegant, swept out of a building with trays of snacks and toasted rolls.  When she returned with a carafe of iced water, the young woman felt like crawling under the table.

     ‘Really, I don’t need all this, honestly.’

     Two pairs of sombre eyes regarded her for at least a second until her embarassment at having put them out was overcome by her hunger.

     ‘Where can Terry and I get a bed?’ she asked after clearing her plate, twice.  ‘I know you’re overstaffed and there’s a shortage of accomodation.’

     ‘We would - ’ began Solly’s wife, before Ace anticipated her and broke in.

     ‘Davros!  Doctor Davy – he’d know, wouldn’t he!  Can you Tab him?’

     Solly tried, and got the “Occupied” signal.  He tried again five minutes later, and got the same repetitive beeping.

     ‘I’ll go and visit him,’ explained Ace brightly.  ‘Kensington, right?’

     She didn’t get beyond the twilit edge of Broughton; Solly hailed her and came after to explain.

     ‘I’ve just got a Tab from Ewan.  They’re bringing Terry over to you.  Davy is busy – a medical problem.  We can put up temporary bedding for you in the common area.’

     Ace shrugged.  Oh well, less travel for her.  She couldn’t deny she was tired.  Jumping around continents and planets and orbits for days on end did play tricks on your body’s internal clock.

     I wrote this long before I met 'Fifi', as Fisayo called herself.  She could have served as a model for Solly's wife.  Just for your information.

More Of Matt

Whilst having a bit of a run on Lego items, let me re-introduce Matt Benner, Lego artist extraordinaire, who has built not one but three Star Destroyers from the obscure "Starry Wartz" (sp?) franchise.  The one he opens up to reveal an extensively detailed interior has 35,000 parts to it, which I know is the detail you love most of all.  Art!

Sausage-fingered Conrad looks on in awe

     Conference Room and Sith Chamber.  Conrad uncertain if there'd be any kind of discussion permitted if Ol' Vadey is knocking around the bridge; he seems to be more a kind of 'Do as I say or you die horribly' kinda guy.  Art!

Big pointy bit gets removed
(This is the actual bridge)

Next level down revealed

Games room, shower, domestic cleaning appliances
Armoury, CIC, medical bay

     Note compacted TIE fighter and shuttlecraft.  Blimey, how ingenious is this guy!  Art?

Shuttlecraft with fins unfolded

     Matt explains that he didn't use any plans or designs to create this behemoth (the 'Tyrant'), he just went ahead and built it.  Consequently it is i) Very heavy and ii) Awkward to physically move, and would probably not be taken to another convention.  He didn't mention how long it took to put together.  Many days, I would guess.

Finally -

O go on then, a bit of present presentation.  Art!

Nine packs of sugar-free sweets

Boxed in

    I shall probably need to drink the beer in order to render myself ready to consume Pork Scratchings.  So not to be consumed until 31/12/2023 - 30 days dry to date, thank you for asking.

     That's all for this particular orbit around the sun.  до побачення!

     Which is, of course, Ukrainian for "Goodbye!"

*  Diabetes and all that.