No! This Has Nothing To Do With Kameleons, Nor Chameleons
At this stage in an Intro I would usually go off at a tangent, and mention one of my favourite rock bands, The Chameleons, whom I saw umpteen times in concert back in the day when they were still a going concern. Art!
An absolutely storming single
No, I have no idea what the cover picture means either.
ANYWAY enough of what's not. Let us analyse the roots of 'Karma' because it certainly doesn't look to have an Anglo-Saxon root. It derives from Sanskrit, actually, which is a pleasant change from either Latin or Greek: "Karoti", which is nothing to do with root vegetables but rather means "Action". My Collins Concise defines it as: "The principle of retributive justice determining a person's state of life" and you can more easily fit it into Western philosophy as "What comes back to bite you on the arse". Art!
An excellent and succinct demonstration.
Okay, on to the meat of the message, a citric tale from Youtube's Reddit compilations, where the Original Poster might be better described as a Mishap Lightning Rod. First of all, their mother promptly disappeared after giving birth to her. Not a great start in life. She and her dad got along well until she hit age 14, whereupon Dad died. Strike Two. She was taken in by her aunt, whom I presume was her father's sister as her mother's side of the family seem to have been as willing to get involved with her life as her mother. Art!
Things got still worse for MLR, because her aunt did not have her best interests at heart, principally because her heart was a wizened, shrivelled and under-used organ. She insisted on MLR cutting back on expenses, such as food, and enrolling at a state school rather than her previous private one.
Matters came to a head when MLR hit 18, thus becoming legally an adult, and she was contacted by her father's lawyer, who informed her that Dad had set up a trust fund for her, to be accessed once she came of age.
Whoopee! right?
WRONG.
You see, the executor was <drum roll> - Auntie. What, did you have any doubts she'd turn out to be a villain? Come on, this is "Scooby Doo" level stuff. The account had long been emptied and, along with all the cost-cutting, had gone to renovating an apartment she'd inherited from grandparents. Art!
This kind of swanky pad
MLR was, to put it mildly, rather peeved* and a seething argument resulted, with her having to move out of Auntie's house, which she did.
BELAY WITH THE CRITICISMS ABOUT LITIGATION!
Off MLR went, her merry way leading her to college, a degree and eventually a well-paying job by the age of 25, so seven years after leaving Auntie.
Guess who turned up on her doorstep? No! not Vigdis Finsbogadottir. Auntie.
It seems she had taken out a second mortgage to redevelop her house into a resort, as MLR stated, but couldn't afford the repayments and was now desperate because she risked foreclosure and repossession.
O dear.
I did mention Karma, didn't I?
This is where Conrad jibs a little. What about the four-bedroom apartment? Surely she could rent, lease or outright sell it and pay off the second mortgage with those funds? Or had she done that already and blown the money? For the sake of the story we have to ignore that part. Art!
Auntie must have been desperate indeed, for MLR told her to eff off in no uncertain terms, including the fact that it wasn't too late to file charges for fraud and theft of the trust fund
Karma at this stage is applying the screws with satisfying tightness.
MLR updated 10 months later. Auntie had gone weeping to other family members, badmouthing MLR. This may have satisfied her ego but it didn't get her any money, since either they saw through her crocodile tears, disliked her in the first place or simply didn't have a five-figure sum to generously hand out.
That squeaking noise you can hear is Karma operating a full body-suit of screws, because MLR contacted Auntie and told her that she'd pay the mortgage IF AND ONLY IF she was given 60% ownership of the house. Art!
Imagine this 10 times over. Strictly metaphorically.
Auntie was highly reluctant at first until reminded that the statute of limitations for fraud, embezzlement and theft had not run out. She verrrrry reluctantly signed the deeds.
Remember that line above: "her heart was a wizened, shrivelled and under-used organ"? Well, the stress of having to give up 60% of her treasured resort house to the orphan she'd diddled over, with the prospect of still being sued, and being in thrall to every monthly mortgage payment, and just generally being a bottomhole, had a cumulative effect.
Two weeks after signing 60% of her property away she was found dead of a massive heart attack. Now MLR is looking to sign the paperwork that gives her 100% of the house.
Karma. A mighty-bitey bitchy-witchy beast. Art!
It could be a calmer chameleon
Prophet And Loss
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The big news - okay, middling news - is that - okay, rather muted news - it hasn't been renewed for a second season. From what I could make out, viewing figures were good (if fudged) for the opening episode, after which they fell off a cliff. This, then, is what happens when you put $180 million in a skip and set it alight. Yes, over $22 million per episode. <coughcoughkarmacoughcough>Not only that, the limited amount of TA merchandise has been withdrawn from sale. It is almost as if Disney were - embarrassed by it?
One thing about Deadpool films is that they don't take themselves seriously and Ryan is happy to poke malicious fun at himself all day long, and doubtless Wolvy, too, whom may have ended up being called "The Hackolyte" here.
I took these photographs last night and cannot remember what the cover picture is now, which is a function of being old and gin-addled, I suppose, which is pretty impressive as I've not had a single snifter since July. Art!
Ah yes. This is the Mayor of Dover, Alderman Cairns, unveiling the city's flag after four years of intermittent bombardment from Teuton very-long range guns from across the Channel. By September 1944 (don't forget, deliberate two-week delay in publication) all these guns had been either destroyed or captured. It's over, Dover!
Conrad Collates Comprehensively
As you should surely know by now, Conrad likes to annotate major books he's reading, all the better to remember exactly what was in them. To this end - Art!
676 pages with a Prologue. Wish me luck for the coming months!
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