That's A Valid Spelling Because I Say It Is
Any arguments and the Remote Nuclear Detonator gets a workout, okay? It needs one as I've been very, very abstemious with the world's Codeword compilers over the past few months, which has doubtless allowed them to think they can get away with anything. Not so!
ANYWAY I wanted to use this Intro to demonstrate that karma is not a concept to be lightly dismissed. Art!
Allow me to define the term, and also incidentally up the Word Count a little. "Sanskrit, meaning 'effect' or 'action'; in Bhuddist philosophy, the name given to the results of action, especially the cumulative results of a persons deeds'. The Bible puts it another way: "As ye sow, so shall ye reap".
Today we are going to relate a torrid tale of trauma as annotated from another Youtube Reddit montage, this one going under the title of "What terrible thing happened to someone you know, which they 100% deserved?". In these instances, this was emphatically bad karma. Art!
A little background about South Canadian education. Students start High School in 9th Grade, usually at age 14, and continue to 12th Grade, when they leave for college or life at age 18.
In this case, the Wrestling Abusive Bully, abbreviated to WAB, and his hangers-on had been picking on Narrator's Other RelativE (his sister), hereafter NORE, and had been for years. This involved levels of abuse that necessitated NORE going on Independent Study at home, to avoid the bullying. The school did nothing about it, because WAB was a sports star in wrestling, and South Canadian schools are verrrry reluctant to call their sports star cash-cows to account. Sad but true. Art!
WAB had learned all his ethics and morals from his trailer-trash family, which is to say none; they treated him as a cash cow in waiting who was going to make them rich rich rich. Or at least well-off.
Karma dictated otherwise.
WAB and three of his bottomhole companions were all drinking together - this is in 11th Grade at 17 so illegal underage drinking, shock horror where is their moral compass? Being hammered, they decided to steal the keys to one of their mother's BMW and then steal the car, and go out wazzing about at silly speeds on the highways and byways.
Now, I'm sure you think you can guess what happened next. Art!
Just not in the way you imagined. Their BMW burst a tire when they were passing a truck, and they crashed, killing all 3 of WAB's minions. WAB himself survived, barely, because Karma had not even begun with him. He suffered extensive brain damage and was unable to speak; he was paralysed from the waist down; he was confined to a wheelchair. From bully to basketcase in one fell swoop, all at age 17.
It gets worse.
Remember how WAB was going to bankroll his family? He still managed to, in a kind of "The Monkey's Paw" fashion, since he got a six-figure settlement from the tyre company, thanks to that blow-out. Defective tyre, you see. All I see is Karma prolonging the agony.
You may guess where this is going. WAB, being a near-vegetable, had given Power Of Attorney to his father, whose first purchase was a Hummer with a gold grill. Art!
For WAB. Who was paralysed from the waist down and in a wheelchair and who could not drive. Yeah right.
In less than a year WAB's father, whom he seems to have acquired his personality and behaviour from, had blown the six-figure settlement money, left his wife and moved in with a pregnant stripper, whose infant they named after WAB (who would be 18 by this time). Narrator says this sounds like a bad soap opera episode but is completely true, and we will take their word for it.
It gets worse. WAB had to be moved to what Narrator called a 'Rehab centre', which is a tad ambiguous, as this can be a centre for physical rehabilitation for people with physiotherapy needs, or - a cold-turkey confinement for junkies. He deteriorated there, probably because he had absolutely nothing and nobody to live for, and was dead by 20.
None of the student body was sorry about what happened to him or his minions. In fact many had been hoping and praying for just such an outcome, so WAB's final years would have been very lonely. Art!
NORE, on the other hand, finished high school whilst remaining on Independent Study, graduated, is now happily married and a child psychiatrist living in a great big beautiful house. Revenge is a life lived well, they say, except WAB and his minions aren't even around to experience schadenfreude.
Excuse me, Edna is making whimpering noises that indicate she feels it is tea time. Let us adjourn to feed the squeaky pup.
"F.P. 1 Does Not Answer"
Another item dredged from the depths of my mind, going back a good 45 years. Your Humble Scribe remembered the title "F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht", which is what the item title means in English. Art!
It was made in 1932, thus being one of the last Teuton films to be made before Herr Schickelgruber came to power and every form of entertainment had to be in his mould. The film is from a novel, written by one Kurt Siodmak, whom one could write an entire Intro about, so interesting and faceted was his life.
ANYWAY AGAIN the film features the interesting concept of a mid-Atlantic artificial island - F.P.1 - which enables comparatively short-ranged aircraft to cross The Pond. There were 3 separate versions, filmed in Teuton, French and English, the better to appeal to different audiences, a commercial endeavour that Herr Schickelgruber would see off. With him it was Teuton Or Nought.
There you go. We now know more than we did yesteryon.
"The War Illustrated Edition 209 22nd June 1945"
Hopefully an illo a little more interesting than the tablefest of the Casablanca Conference in the last blog. Art!
As Field-Marshal Alexander telegraphed to Winnie in London, "We are masters of the North African shores". The total above is overstated, yet not by a lot: the actual total is more like 260,000 prisoners, both Teuton and Italian.
Make no mistake about it, this was a colossal strategic defeat for the Axis. With North Africa secured, Malta was instantly out of mortal peril, and convoys could be run the length of the Mediterranean with air and naval cover from shore. This meant the enormously long voyages via Cape of Good Hope were no longer needed, shortening and simplifying marine logistics. Suddenly the southern shores of France, Italy and Greece were all vulnerable, to say nothing of the islands of Sardinia, Sicily and Crete. Plus the Axis were now down a quarter of a million troops. Art!
An 'Evergreen' moment.
The tank is a South Canadian M3, extensively used by the British in North Africa, even if it was under-gunned and under-armoured. Because? Because it went like stink, up to 50 m.p.h. if you abused the engine over flat ground, and it was dubbed the 'Honey' because it refused to break down like British tanks did, and could be thrown around like a sports car without the tracks coming off. By this date they were being used like an armoured car on tracks.
The Fools! The Meddling Fools!
You may recall Conrad commenting on Guillermo Del Toro's perhaps never to be completed film of "At The Mountains Of Madness", which concerned a doomed Antarctic exploration team and what they found under the ice. Art!
I have spoken. If Hom. Sap. ignores me, don't come complaining when human civilisation collapses under an assault by the Elder Gods, and your house value plummets significantly.
Oooh! Here's Some Books To Read After They Open Up That Pyramid
Art!
You may have to speed-read them, I can't guarantee how long the Northern Hemisphere will survive.
Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural edited by P.C. Wagner and H. Wise
Never heard of this one, I may have to consult 'Abebooks' and see what it's going for.
The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
"Lovecraft wrote some really terrifying stuff." opined John, and he's not wrong about this one.
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
I think I started this one and got a fair way into it, but it was so long ago Conrad's aged and calcified brain cannot recall the details.
Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss
This is a true-crime story I am going to take pains to avoid, as it un-nerved John when he read it.
Right, off to Abebooks we go!
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