Conrad Is ANGRY!

O So Angry!  Furiously Angry!

About what, you ask?  Something will come along that irks me to perdition, until then it will have to be the Codeword compilers.  I have a backlog of mordant meretriciousness to retaliate against, which will no doubt reassure those of you fed up with BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM or "Charley's War".  Your Humble Scribe has no idea how long this invective Intro will be, just that his blood pressure is suffering and this will resolve it <smacks Remote Nuclear Detonator very hard ten times in succession>.  Art!

Conrad is easily this angry

     QUIFF: I ask you, a five-letter word that begins with 'QU' and this is what we're supposed to calculate it as?  My Collins  defines it as 'a tuft of hair brushed up above the forehead' with a date of origin as the nineteenth century but no explanation as to what it's derived from.  

    So, I did a bit of internet digging, and there are two possible sources: the French 'coiffe' meaning 'hairstyle' or the Dutch 'Kuif' meaning 'crest'.  Art!

'Kuifje' in the Cloggers language

FETA: AGAIN with the foreign cuisine!  Really, these compilers test my patience, which is never very tolerant at the best of times.  My Collins explains that this is a 'white sheep or goat's cheese, popular in Greece'.  This time they do have an origin: the Greek phrase 'turi pheta', where 'turi' means 'cheese' and 'pheta' means 'a slice'.   Yes yes yes BUT DON'T INCLUDE IT IN CODEWORDS! Art?

CRUX:  Derived from the Latin <hack spit> for 'Cross', and my trusty Collins defines it as 'a vital or decisive stage or point', or 'a baffling difficulty'.  Art!

     The word tickled my memory and here we have the Honoris Crux, a military award of the now extinct South African apartheid regime, instituted in 1975 and vanished (or vanquished) by 2003.  I thought it better to have a concrete entity rather a rather fuzzy abstraction.  Art!

FATWA: WHAT?  We're supposed to be experts in Arabic now?  <sighs and hits the Remote Nuclear Detonator again>  My trusty Collins - which is getting a real workout today - defines this as 'a religious decree issued by a Muslim leader'.  Art!

     This is Salman Rushdie, proudly showing off the novel 'The Satanic Verses'.  Why is he here?  Because Ayatollah Khomenei, the poster child for humourless intolerance, declared a fatwa on him, which meant Rushdie has been in hiding with police protection.  Not a fun experience.

JOCOSE: You what?  Come on now, have you ever heard of this word before?  Conrad has and will explain shortly, after I type out the definition from my Collins, as I'm sure this adjective is unfamiliar to you.  "Characterised by humour'.  The derivation is, inevitably, from Latin <spit hack>, 'jocus' meaning 'joke', from which the zombie language 'jocosus', or 'prone to jesting'.  Art!

     That's Sunny Jim, Para Handy, Dougie, and MacPhail, the crew of the Clydeside 'puffer' 'The Vital Spark', aboard which, and ashore of, they have various scrapes and misadventures.  In one story they are docked in one of the innumerable small ports and harbours that abounded in the West of Scotland over a century ago.  Their owner has lost track of their exact location and the crew consider it fair game to not inform him where they are, for reasons.  Dougie, the First Mate, sends a message in a bottle, declaring "All hands quite joco -" which is his way of mangling 'Jocose'.

GEISHA: MORE foreign languages!  Recourse to my Collins informs that: "A professional female companion for men in Japan, trained in music, dancing, and the art of conversation".  Note nothing whatsoever to do with hanky-panky you slobbering perverts.  Art!

     From that  epic cross-cultural episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", namely 'The Cherry Blossom Affair'.  Those fans have a solid steel frame and make handy disguised clubs, for your information.

QUANGO: This one made Your Modest Artisan positively bristle with ire.  In case you're unaware, it's an unholy acronym derived from 'Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation. HOWEVER my Collins does list it as a whole word, with no periods.  "A semi-public government-financed administrative body whose members are appointed by the government".  Art!

     A 'quango monster' because the alternative is unbearably tedious.

     Since my blood pressure has now returned to normal, and the Remote Nuclear Detonator has done sterling service, that's enough of Conrad being furious for one Intro.

More Miasmic Mutterings From Mordorvia

Thanks again to 'Joe Blogs' for covering this topic, which again derives it's data from official Ruffian sources, making the vatniks accusing him of fabricating it  look silly and, frankly, rather pathetic.  Art!

     Mechel carries out coal, other types of mining and steel production, employing 50,000 workers.  They are now closing down any mines operating at a loss.  Overall operations have been reduced with increasing losses over 2025, because coal exports have tanked, global prices are down and domestic demand has slumped.  Some of Mechel's smaller subsidiaries are so badly off they may go bankrupt.  

Cold War Warriors

Yes, it's back to Bovvie, formally known as BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM.  You didn't think you were going to get away without more TANK did you?  Har!

Art!

Chieftain with Darling Daughter for scale

        Here we have one of the British army's more formidable Cold War tanks, the Chieftain, in keeping with the practice and tradition of tank names beginning with 'C'.  It mounted a whacking big 120 mm gun, firing far bigger shells than any other Cold War tanks amongst NATO or the Warsaw Pact.  The overall profile is actually a lot lower than it might be, because the driver has a reclining seat, making the front hull almost flat.  This means the glacis is far more likely to deflect a shell,  and if not then there's a foot of armour to penetrate.  The emphasis on the Chiefy was on firepower and protection, mobility being far less important.  It's hard to shift 55 tons at any great speed (see the Tiger for details).

     Here we have a Teuton Leopard Mk I, one of the Teutons own-designed tanks that espoused mobility and firepower over armour, a contrast to the Chiefy.  They were a contemporary of the Chieftain and Warsaw Pact tanks like the T72, and were more comparable to the T72 in terms of firepower and armour.  In fact, on NATO exercises the Leopard would play the part of the Warsaw Pact tanks.

One From Earlier

As you should surely know by now, Conrad copies and keeps pictures that might provide an item or two, and here's one that I think got lifted from Facebook weeks ago.  Art!

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     'Zero-X' as depicted by Mike Noble's fantastic penmanship.  Lest ye be unaware, this spaceship was featured in one of the 'Thunderbirds' films and proved to be popular enough with viewers and fans that it got it's own strip in 'TV 21'.  The crew generally roved about the Solar System exploring other planets and moons, although they did venture to other stars on occasion.  At lower port you can see the remote-controlled 'Lifting Bodies' detaching for return to Earth and future re-use.  Conrad is not sure how the returning Zero-X managed without the aerodynamic nosecone, which gets jettisoned once outside the atmosphere.  Answers in the Comments please.

Of Course It's Chaos 

     Of course they lie to Putinpot.  I've explained about 'Dictatoritis' before.  Briefly put, all the stupid people who stood up to Putin are now dead, in prison or exile.  So are all the brave people, and so are all the stupid and brave people.  So, what's left is a residuum of spineless doormats who know the best way to avoid the Tsar's wrath is to only tell him what he wants to hear.  Which is definitely NOT the truth.  A disease whose symptoms have dogged every dictator since recorded history.

She Looks A Bit Stern

Art!

     Meet Inge Ruginiene, Lithuania's Prime Minister.  She maintained - 

Inga Ruginiene says she is taking the "strictest measures" over the balloons, used to transport cigarettes from Belarus.

     She looks like she means business!  

And with that we are done!