All Hail Commando Cody

No, I Shan't Use An Exclamation Mark Again

Two in one day would be rather over-doing it, and we're British here, you know.  Low-key.  Understated.  Art!

"Atom Heart Mother" anyone?

     As I was saying - and the band above are from the Netherlands, claiming to be an 'experimental acid metal' band, which probably involves a lot of feedback and trippy light shows - understated.

     You see, they took their name from a Republic Pictures studio serial featuring 'Commando Cody', and here the exclamation marks do indeed come into their own.  Art!

     This is a truthful poster as the serials were in monochrome.  You can see Ol' Code in the background with his - er - 'streamlined helmet' and an unusually large weapon.  Before we venture any further, WASH OUT YOUR SEWER-LIKE MINDS! and yes I used an exclamation mark.  I believe the chap in the space-suit - or what Hollywood's cheaper studios thought a space-suit ought to look like - is Retik, the Chief Bad Guy.  Art!

In colour for your delectation

     Your Humble Scribe has read the plot for this serial, and - you may be ahead of me here - surprise surprise, the Men From The Moon have nothing whatsoever to do with radar.  Or, Radar.  What they do have is an element supposedly superior to uranium, to wit 'Lunarium', which sounds as if it's a zoo for moon monsters.  

     Here an aside.  Yes, already!  There is a fantastic shot of the Moon from orbit in the film "Moon" (which is still to date the best film Duncan Jones has made), where we see the extent to which the lunar regolith has been mined for - no, not Lunarium.  Helium³.  Art!

     I suppose I'll have to eventually dig out the DVD and play it to catch that scene, which last for a second, at most.  Live in eager anticipation, gentle readers.

     ANYWAY back to the aside.  Helium³ is an isotope of helium, and it's reasoned to be THE fuel for fusion reactors, when we get them up and running.  It has been accumulating on the Moon's surface for millions of years and is just lying around for the first nation that feels like collecting it; so perhaps Ol' Retty spoke truer than he realised. 

     ANYWAY ANYWAY I refer you to "Watchmen", the graphic novel not the film - which did a pretty good job of filming something so inherently unfilmable - where Ozymandias make a sly reference to film serials such as RMFTM: "Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago."

I found the picture!
Also, note that Ozzy avoids over-emoting, hence - no exclamation marks.

     He has a point, because Ol' Retty explains his entire plan to Commado Cody, probably feeling a little sad that he has nobody as smart as himself to gloast to.  The perils of being an intelligent villain, you see ("The Incredibles" satirised this tendency to comic and dramatic effect).  Ol' Code inevitably escapes and is thus forewarned and forearmed, in the sense of bearing weapons not his ulnus.

     Okay, you've now seen what creative usage of a single film title can achieve.  To come in our next thrilling instalment of BOOJUM! - "Zombies Of The Stratosphere!"*

The Haul

Conrad won't bore you with the groceries he got in Sainsbos, except to point out that they still don't have any loose-leaf Darjeeling, and I am NOT going to settle for tea-bags, thank you very much.  I did pick up a couple of packs of Cinnamon, which is a good thing as we were running low.  Since I also got a ton of suet, there may be another Clootie Dumpling in the offing tomorrow.  Art!

     Those two at the top are only temporary members of my Book Mountain, as they're library books.  No, they didn't have either "Damnation Alley" nor "I Am Legend" so we may need to <wallet squeaks in anguish> buy them.

     Conrad is always interested in works about the Civil War - you see, South Canadians?  You see how disconcerting it is to assume that "The Civil War" refers only to a single conflict? - especially as it concerns possible wargaming scenarios.

     "Fox Killed In The Open" appears to be a privately-printed work.  The title refers to "Wavell's Thirty Thousand", and "Operation COMPASS", the British winter offensive of 1940 that rolled up the Italian Tenth Army in an incredible feat of arms.  Watch this space.

"The War Illustrated - Edition 185"

We're coming to the end of this issue, as Conrad is deliberately ignoring the Sinister coverage, because it annoys Putinpot so.  Art!

     This, ladies and gentlemen and those unsure, is a British 6-pounder anti-tank gun, which is surely not expecting bad news, or the photographer wouldn't be stood up behind it out in the open.

     The 6-pounder came as an hideously unpleasant surprise to the Axis in North Africa, as it could knock out any tank they had, bar the Tigers later encountered in Tunisia, and even they were vulnerable to a lucky shot.  At the range we see above in a Normandy lane, it would give anything, including a Tiger, the colander experience.  Art!

     Those are the shells, clipped to the gun-shield for quicker usage.  Note how large the shell casing is compared to the projectile; this is why it had such a high velocity and did such damage when it hit.  By this time in July the anti-tank gunners were starting to get APDS (Armour Piercing Discardable Sabot) rounds for 6-pounders, which made any Teuton tank vulnerable from 1,000 yards off.

     As you can also see, the 6-pounder had a low profile, meaning it was harder to spot and thus harder to hit, and a crew could (just!) manhandle it around a position to change the direction of fire.  The British had hundreds of these guns and the South Canadians thought so highly of it that they made a version of it under licence.  They, horribly, mis-named it the "57 mm anti-tank gun" because they jibbed at using IMPERIAL PROUD IMPERIAL measurements.

"City In The Sky"

Davros, the head of Arcology One, is paying a visit to 'Washington', one of the two American Bernal spheres.

     Davy took a deep breath.  Visiting Washington always made him feel awkward; if their paramilitary culture had helped them survive, it also made guests feel out of place.  He was also beholden to the Vice President.  With Pangolin out of commission for weeks and Dart 3 not suitable for reusable sphere-to-sphere transit, Arcology One had needed to plead their case for what amounted to a bus trip in outer space via M3.  His requirement for discretion also meant trying to influence the Veep by inuendo.  Waukegan’s stolid matter-of-fact approach to everything made this difficult, as did the necessity of communicating laboriously via signal laser thanks to the jamming.

     Now, sitting in the blindingly white, aseptic meeting room under the scrutiny of Orbital America’s highest official and his “scribe” who probably doubled as personal spy and ninja bodyguard, Davy felt incongrously sweaty and foolish.

     ‘I had to meet face-to-face to avoid eavesdropping.’

     Waukegan’s heavy brows contracted.

     ‘Damn!  You mean the Chinese sphere is still active!’

     Davy coughed in embarassment.  As expected, a touch of paramilitary paranoia.  Damn!  If only California had been the senior sphere aloft!

     ‘Ah – no.  Not at all.  Eavesdropped from Downstairs.’

     The Veep sat back in thinly-veiled surprise.

     ‘Downstairs?  There’s nobody with the ability to - ’

     ‘Mister Vice President, I know who’s been carrying out the jamming.  The same peo – ah, the same agents who blew up our shuttle in mid-air, and the one that got down to Australia.  The same peo – agents, agents who started the Great Northern War.’

     Way to work up to it, Davy, stout fella!

This Is Getting To Be A Habit

Yes, the Ruffians lost another Su-34 this morning.  One wonders how many Su-34 aircrew are now turning up in front of their squadron's Medical Officer with a 'sudden-onset serious illness'.  Notably the Ruffians haven't put up another of their now-much-rarer A-50 'Mainstay's.

     Also, 'Sharky' on Twitter posted a photograph of a - I suppose you could call it a 'drone-dropped munition'.  Art!

     Yes, that's a now-shredded tyre on a Ruffian truck.  No, it didn't fall apart through being a cheap Chinese knock-off.  No, the rasputitsa didn't destroy it.  No, it wasn't consumed by a horde of mice (the orcs live in filthy conditions that encourage vermin).  Art!

     This is the culprit.  It's formally known as a 'Caltrop' and used to be a weapon deployed against cavalry on the battlefield.  As is apparent, it is a four-spiked device that always has one spike pointing upwards however it falls.  They will cost pennies to make and cost the Ruffians thousands of rubles in replacement tyres.

     And no, you can't drive a four-wheel truck on only three tyres.

Finally -

Hmmmm six o'clock in the afternoon and it's still not dark yet.  We shall soon be upon They're Stealing An Hour From You Day! which definitely merits an exclamation mark.

*  Perhaps.