If That's Not A Word It Is Now
Plus I get royalties if it turns up in a dictionary.
Dog Buns it's hot! Not only have I changed into shorts, I've dug out my desk fan and opened both windows in my mancave. Plus the door is left ajar during work hours to ensure a flow of fresh air, which also brings with it the risk of Edna detecting the postie approaching The Mansion and barking non-stop for thirty minutes. Art!
Yes, it feels as hot as the scene depicted in this Chris Foss illo for 'The Drought', another hilarious comedy by J G - no, sorry, another arch-misery tale of angst and anomie by J G Ballard, who was only happy when he was dejected. Did you know that he was familiar with Cyril Godbert from their days in detention at the hands of the Japanese in the Second Unpleasantness? You might know Cyril better as 'Peter Wyngarde'. It see
ANYWAY my first bit of detective work involves My Coyly Un-named Employer. This sensible approach to their name and brand is a tradition I have maintained for the past 12 years; you will only find out who they were when I no longer work there. Is this relevant? It certainly is! Art?
You see, as of Friday last week we had an emergency remote staff-meeting, the first time anything like this has happened in my 2 years working for MCUE WHICH IS NOT THE 'MARVEL COMICS UNIVERSE EXTENSION' thanks. We were all told to review Data Protection policies, then undergo a Data Protection Training Module, and what's this but an e-mail from one of the bigwigs about - you may be ahead of me here - Data Protection.
Clearly, someone has made a major boo-boo. Quite what it was has not been clarified; there are rumours that an employee made a Tik Tok video featuring client information ABOUT THE BIGGEST NO-NO OF ALL NO-NOS. This is beyond stupid; in all large organisations there are teams of HR people who trawl social media to find out if their large organisation is being slandered or traduced. If you happen to be employed by said large organisation then that employment will immediately cease to be. I have personally know 3 people who were fired for Data Protection breaches; this is not a theoretical threat. And why MCUE remains MCUE. Art!
My detective skills don't run to tracking down information about the facts of the case, but I am a patient
These are the DVDs from that "The Great War" boxset I bought last year, which turned out to be from 2013, released no doubt to chime with the centenary of the First Unpleasantness arriving. The brand marque at beginning was for 'Alba', but the end credit scenes were most illuminating. Art!
So, this appeared to be a re-packaged release of a - French? - film, with the title filed off in order to make it seem like the real South Canadian thing. 'Jean Aurel' was my in here, and it led to - Art!
"A film you will never forget" - unless they change the title, hmmm?
Yes, it's a French documentary from 1963, so a good 50 years old before the centenary release. It was very well-regarded at the time and even got an Oscar nom.
Conrad redeems previous failure. One-all. Whilst on the military theme - Art!
These are the 'Soviet' counters from that 'Modern Battles" collection I bought, and there seem to be rather a lot of them, considering that the total number of counters for each game is 200. Each of those counters has been painstakingly blu-tak'd to that sheet of A4, in numerical order, too. My rock'n'roll lifestyle strikes again, hmmm?
Then I recalled the display of all the counters on their sheets, under their game title and nationality, with a warm fuzzy feeling at my detectiving skills. Art!
So, the counters are from TWO games, not a single one. Well, I can use that sheet of Soviet counters as an interim for when I create another A4 sheet with all the respective counters for 'Bundeswehr' and 'Yugoslavia'. Just think, these games were published in 1977, or 59 years after the events of the First Unpleasantness (see above for more details), and here we are in 2025, 48 years after their publication.
Conrad now up two-to-one. Though still hot and sweaty.
Operation Market Harden
Ha! Sometimes I amuse even myself. No, this is not about Arnhem. Rather, it's about Big K. and his third anecdote about companies in Ruffia having problems doing business, thanks to the strictures in the economy. Art!
"Inside Russia" described the travails of a market research and public polling company in Mordorvia, Company C in his list. Like Company A, Company C, a well-known and respected business, has - no business. None at all. Normally in the business cycle, other organisations contact Company C in January to invite tenders. Not this year. As the economy in general is so bad, all concerned are cutting costs, and market research is one of the first things to get cut as it's not a core part of businesses. Not only that, Company C has enough capital to keep going for two months. After that the lay-offs begin.
SO MUCH WIN!
"The War Illustrated Edition 207 29th May 1945"
Back to the central montage pages. Art!
Excuse the page. Here you see the wreckage of a Teuton fuel train, caught by bombers or fighter-bombers whilst in transit, with one of the ruptured tankers still smoking. The location is Stederdorf, near Uelzen, if that helps any. Art!
I think it does, actually. You see, the British were heading for Denmark and the Baltic, in order to prevent the Sinisters from getting there first, so this would be a waypoint en route.
Note the mess that the bombs or rockets - or burning fuel - have made of the trainless tracks, which look like they were laid down by a drunken work crew in blindfolds.
Once Again, Conrad He Points And Laughs
Yes, I'm a terrible person, go sue me. Art!
But hist! for there is yet more to come! Art?
I doubt he admits any such thing, to be honest, and they want you to click and see what he either admits or actually says. The very definition of click-bait, which is very bad form when other people do it. Art!
I am currently typing this on Thursday, May 1st, which is the month Elong Tusk is supposed to be quitting DOGE and returning to Tesla to pay attention and try to sell more cars, in between mainlining bath salts and slug pellets. I wonder if these headlines or graphs will look any less different and volatile in June? Time will tell. If I were the Tesla Board of Directors I don't think I'd want Kaptain Ketamine anywhere near my business.
Good job we have plenty of popcorn in The Mansion.
Another 'You What?" Moment
I did see this in the sidebars and puzzled over it for a moment before moving on and creating other deathless content. Since it's still up I'm going to put up a picture of it. Art!
The most obvious question, is, of course - obviously! - where do you plug it in? Allow me to listen to the clip and get back to you. Art!
These are 'nurdles', another novel word for Your Humble Scribe. They are a precursor to end plastic products, and if lost at sea they cause long-term havoc; when in the water they resemble fish eggs, so fish eat them. When ashore they look like sand fleas, so birds eat them. Art!
They are very awkward to remove, so young Josh here has developed a vacuum used to hoover them up off the sands. Very worthy. Take a bow, Josh, and so will I.
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