First Of All
I need to add in another kind of 'Walker' that I made a note of yet never covered in the weekend's work, namely the 'Jaegers' of 'Pacific Rim'. Art!
It's an ingenious conceit: in order to deal with gigantic monsters invading planet Earth from an alien dimension/reality/cupboard under the stairs <delete where applicable>, Hom. Sap. comes up with equally gigantic robots, which are operated by a crew inside said monster machines. Conrad, bless his fusion-powered central pumping unit, would have gone for tactical nuclear artillery, because you don't get up again from a 10 kt blast and it causes less damage than a brawl between entities the size of skyscrapers, wh
ANYWAY that covers 'walkers'. Next, I had a cunningly-crafted two-part Intro that covered money and bills, except what mistake did I make? Yep, looking at my 'Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable" under 'Bill' and boy were there a lot of definitions present. Art!
Reader, meet Portland Bill. This usage of 'bill' refers to a narrow headland or promontory, after the mouthparts of a bird. Conrad cannot see the slightest resemblance to a beak but then he has no poetry in his horrid soul. Art!
This is Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the reason we're using a portrait as an illo and not a photograph is because he jitterbugged off this mortal coil in 1798, well before the daguerrotype came of age. He was fatally wounded when being arrested, after - waitforitwaitforit - having a 'Bill Of Attainder' lodged against him. Whilst this sounds as if it's a financial instrument used by merchant banks to indemnify arbitraged funds, it's actually a death sentence. Parliament would vote on the person being attainted, without bothering with the legal frippery of a trial, find them guilty and sentence them to death, all done and dusted in time to cut along to the bar and sink a few gin and tonics. Eddy was guilty of wishing to see Ireland independent, an attitude which tended to provoke King, Parliament and Loyalists into a fairly murderous frame of mind. Ooops. You'll be heartened to know that Eddy was the last victim/subject/item <delete where applicable> of a Bill Of Attainder. Art!
Back to Parliament we go, in the dim dark distant days before 1857, when a 'Bill Of Divorcement' was needed to be presented in the House for one or both of the partners to be allowed to marry if they had already been divorced. This was not only a lengthy administrative process, it cost a fortune to have it entered into House proceedings. To wit, £1,000, typically. As is obvious, verrrry few could afford this, and it's still a tidy chunk of change in modern terms. How much more so for a farm labourer earning half a groat per day! Art!
Now for the source of a phrase - 'Bill Of Health'. This was a document given from an official in port to the captain of a departing vessel. If it was a 'Clean bill of health' then all was hunky-dory, there were no infectious diseases aboard, they could arrive wherever confident in the knowledge that the matelots were in tip-top condition. On the other hand, if it were a 'Foul bill of health' then the port was stricken with various agues and plagues, and the mariners might be forced to drop anchor well away from land at their next port of call, lest they pass on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or similar. Art!
This is a 'Bill Of Lading' and the reason we're also seeing 'Layer Cake' is that it plays a part in the plot; the nameless narrator mistakes it for a 'Bill Of Loading', concerning a ship's cargo containing smuggled drugs. How we all laughed! Well, except for the drug dealer whose incoming cargo was intercepted by Customs, who then destroyed his flat in a fit of rage.
Formally, a BOL is a contract signed by the master of a ship ('Captain' to ye lubbers) agreeing to deliver a cargo that has been loaded into his vessel. He gets to keep one of these documents, the sender and purchaser also get a copy. Triplicated. Art!
Illustrating - or maybe billustrating - the concept of a 'Bill Of Sale'. This is where a borrower has left goods with the lender, with the explicit agreement that the lender can flog the goods if Matey doesn't beetle along with the money on time.
So many Bills, so little space and time.
Deer Me!
As with leaving more giant walking machines out of yesterday's blog, I neglected these clips from 'The 100' because the Intro was already at nearly 900 words. So much for worrying if there'd be enough content.
Okay, let us establish the scene. Five of our 98 survivors are trying to seek out Mount Weather, which has tons of unperishable supplies, and come across a buck deer for the first time ever. Art!
Stunningly normal, right?
Wrong. Finn steps on a twig, that old old cliché, and the noise startles the buck, which looks around in alarm. Art!
They all react with alarm at Two-Headed Deer as it gallops off. Well, Conrad suggests that they might have taken a lesson or two away with them after this encounter. For one thing, there are obviously mutagenic agents loose in the ecosystems, but not to the extent that they have killed off this buck - it's an adult male of fair size with excellent hearing and reflexes. So, there are radioactive risks, possibly quite tolerable for healthy adults with access to iodine tablets.
Here's One I Can Get Behind
There is a verrrry long and convoluted tale behind the missing episodes of the BBC's premier Dramamentary. 'Doctor Who', ranging from studio executives who detested anything remotely sci-fi-ish, to BBC staff stealing the cans of film tape after shooting had ended and the show been broadcast. Art!
The Doctor looking lugubrious
In recent years the Beeb has released several serials where episodes are missing, the 'gaps' being bridged by animations and the soundtracks, which have survived. Better than nothing, one feels.
To date there are 97 episodes missing from the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton era, and a statement from the BBC staffer who deals with archives, Sue Malden, hints that they know several missing episodes are in the hands of private collectors. Presumably to be returned after their deaths? The Mirror website lists a 'Wish List' of episodes that fans dearly want to see.
1 The Tenth Planet, episode 4, October 29, 1966 Final Hartnell show where he defeated the Cybermen for the first time.
The other three episodes are available, but this last one, where Hartnell transforms into Troughton, is the Holiest Of Holy Grails and people have been trying to track it down since the Eighties. Art!
Polly, the Doctor and Steven - keeping a low profile
The kicker would be if Elong Tusk bought them all for a million pounds each and donated them to the BBC. Stranger things have happened.
Are You Reading This, Bruno Pisani?
For those asleep at the back, Bruno is the Italian hiker, climber and mountaineer who regularly scales peaks in the Dolomites and vlogs about them. His vlogs are a sorbet of sanity in a woeful world, and his ever-optimistic and ebullient outlook is a tonic for the jaded.
You can tell he's no tyro by the amount of kit he carries, which he swaps over as he reaches the tree-line. Art!
A Brit ignored warning signs about rockfalls and landslides and 'DEATH FROM ABOVE' and boldly ventured into the jaws of death, or at least a mild gnawing from the teeth of terror. Since the local Mountain Rescue had to send a helicopter up twice to rescue him, he's facing a rather hefty fine. Ooops.
I bet he's not watched a single vlog of Bruno's, the bafune.
Edna is now sitting, blinking balefully, at my feet. I think it's time to go brew a coffee and make some dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment