A Bit Of Spring Cleaning

Not The Actual Physical Kind

That would be dull, boring and take up valuable time that could be put to much more constructive use, such as this blog, annotating a milhist work, watching the Hill Of DVDs, or perusing "The Octopus Murders" on Netflix.

     No, I mean the list of bookmarked Favourites in my browser, which has gotten longer and longer.  Art!

     There are a couple there which can stay for reference purposes, or because I use and peruse them on a daily basis, such as "Box Office Mojo" or "The Daily Beast".  Those long-standing ones need to be used and ditched.  So!

The Battle Of Rathmines: You may never have heard of this battle, and even well-read Conrad, who has consumed numerous volumes about the English Civil Unpleasantness (perhaps the most misleading title ever given to a conflict as it involved Wales, Scotland and Ireland) had only heard it referenced once or twice.  Yet it was an extremely influential battle.  Art!

     The political and military situation in Ireland was, predictably, complicated, with different factions forming or rejecting alliances.  By 1649 the Irish Confederacy had joined forces with the English Royalists in Ireland, which is probably a line you never expected to read.  They had effective control over much of the country beyond Dublin, and marched on the city with a force of 11,000 men.  The Parliamentarian commander in the city, one General Michael Jones (told you about the Welsh), had only 4,000 soldiers, but also 1,200  cavalry, nearly all of whom were experienced New Model Army veterans.  Art!

Baggotrath Castle

     Behold the Baggotrath! which was the target of the Confederacy soldiers, who took hours and hours to move against it, giving Jones time to draw his own army up in battle array.  The Confederate commander in chief, Ormond, then went back to his own camp to rouse the rest of his troops.

     Big mistake!  Jones, who does not appear to have been the kind of dilatory sit-around-sucking-teeth-and-seeing general that Ormond perhaps imagined him to be, promptly attacked and routed the Confederate forces at Baggotrath, which was bad enough.  He then sent his cavalry round the Confederate flanks, where they captured the artillery train.  The Confie's left flank abruptly collapsed and their whole army fled in retreat, suffering about 3,000 casualties in dead and prisoners.  Art!

     As you can see in the enlargement, Baggotrath Castle's position meant any artillery placed there would command the mouth of the Liffey and allow them to sink ships they took a disliking to -

     Which is kind of the point of the Battle Of Rathmines, because Oliver Cromwell and 9,000 men of the New Model Army were about to take ship and sail to suppress the revolt in Ireland.  They intended to dock in Dublin, which would have been impossible if the city had been in Confederacy hands with naval approaches covered by fire.  As it was, Jones' victory shattered the Confederate army and gave Ol' Crommy a free hand.
     There we go, one Favourite removed.  I have glossed over the background to this battle as it is complicated and confusing, nor do I have any detailed information about it, as history works on the English Civil Unpleasantness tend to omit Ireland as it makes things longer and more complex.

     <we will come back to this>

Because Conrad Is A Terrible Person

There is a chap on Twitter going by the handle of "R.G. Poulussen" who constantly uploads "On This Day" stills and short video clips, which remind the unwary that the Second Unpleasantness was an enormous, protracted affair.

     Unfortunately this also provides fodder for the obsessive critics who object to things that they perceive are wrong.  People like Conrad, in fact.  Art!

     He handily informed that this photograph is from March 8th 1940, in the French town of Saint Pol, which is important.  The uniforms, helmets and weapons were also used in the First Unpleasantness.  Conrad can point out that the British troops here - the ones wearing the Brodie-pattern 'soup-bowl' helmet - have gaiters rather than puttees, which means yes, it's Second Unpleasantness vintage.  Art!

     The photo is definitely staged.  For one thing, whilst the Tommies look grimly determined to sell their lives dearly, two of the French soldiers STANDING UPRIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN appear to be discussing which wine or cheese to have from their menu.  Neither gun has a 'Number Two', who would be present to help feed ammunition belts into the gun, break open new ammunition boxes to get new belts, supply gun oil or top up the evaporator tin.  Nor are the gun's tripods secured in place with sandbags; fired from an unyielding flat surface like this, the gun would judder around madly, throwing off the aim.  The gunner nearest the camera doesn't even have his sights up.  Nor does either gun appear to have any ammunition actually fed into it.  Art!

     This is from four years later and shows a genuine Vickers gunner in action, as also posted by RGP.

     It's the little things.

Conrad Is Mildly Horrified

As I have mentioned previously, Darling Daughter was up for Mother's Day, where she was fêted with food and drink, and because of her possibly moving, she escaped without being laden down with surplus goods.

     However! which is perhaps my most-liked word on the blog, when Your Humble Scribe mentioned watching "Space 1999" she drew a complete blank on it.

<gargles in horror>

Art!

     I'm afraid I summed it up as "The plots were terrible but the special effects were fantastic", which may not sell it well.  Conrad then realised that it's nearly 50 years ago that it debuted, so DD has genuine reason to not recall.

     It's the O-so-very-old-things.

"City In The Sky"

Ace and crew members of Arcology One are trying to find the 21st century equivalent of a needle in a haystack.

     The other watcher, Istvan, brought up an orbital map of southern Australia and displayed the Nullarbor Plain with the area defined by Christos outlined as a red square. 

     ‘Still a pretty big area,’ muttered Ace, chewing a thumbnail.  Istvan and Christos both nodded.

     ‘Two and a half thousand square kilometres,’ agreed Istvan.  Christos leaned back in his wicker chair and stretched a few cramps away.

     ‘Yes, pretty big.  Not only is it a great empty expanse of desert, but I cannot find any single indication that our uninvited guests are there.  Nothing whatsoever!’

     His annoyance and frustration showed in his tone.  There were no physical structures, no tracks, no roads or trails, no landing strips or signs of accommodation.  No infra-red signature, no radio or electromagnetic transmissions, no apparent source of the mysterious jamming.  Nothing visibly flew even when he knew that New Eucla had been attacked by aircraft. 

     ‘This is all recorded footage of Australia, Ace.  We’ve kept a very close watch on it since we intended to land there and never, not once, not in decades of watching, have we ever seen anything unusual!’

     ‘How soon till we orbit over them again?’

     Christos checked his watch.

     I'm sorry, I cannot help but hear " - no physical structures, no tracks, no roads or trails, no landing strips or signs of accommodation -" as being spoken by a crew-member in "Forbidden Planet".

Finally -

It would seem that the Oscars are tonight*, and Conrad confidently predicts that "Oppenheimer" will waltz away with a whole clutch of the statuettes.  Because it is Serious And Worthy.  "Barbie" may get a technical nod or two, as it is Shallow As Eff - as I have been informed, because there is no way on God's Green Earth that I will ever actually move eyeballs across it in a synchronised fashion.  

     Still, it seems to have beaten "The Marvels", which didn't even garner a Razzie.  I don't think there's an Oscar category for "Expensive And Bad", is there?  Apparently it did abysmally on Disney+ when it went to streaming, because there isn't a Category of "Films Nobody Asked For".

     Hüvasti!

     (Which is Estonian for "Goodbye!")

*  Written 24 hours earlier