"The Killers"
You might be somewhat bamboozled, since it's a very ambiguous statement. You might, for instance, assume that I was talking about the band and their debut album 'Hot Fuss', which in turn is not to be confused with 'Hot Fuzz'. Art!
Although, tangentially, there are quite a few killings in HF, meaning that there are killers, too, which is a rabbit warren we shall have to explore one day. Art!
The album in question and of course - obviously! - this isn't what I mean, or it would be a very short Intro.
Then again, I may be referring to one of a brace of films going by the same title, both based (somewhat loosely) on a Hemingway short story. I've seen both of them and both have things to recommend about them. Art!
I didn't realise before doing a little digging on this film, but this is Lancaster's film debut. He plays Ole Lund, the double-crossed ex-boxer who gets mixed up with the conniving and thoroughly duplicitous Kitty (Gardener), a woman who is bad all the way through. The film is told in flashbacks, revealing why Lund didn't bother to resist or even flee when informed he was going to be killed. Art!
The 1964 iteration, in colour, with Angie Dickinson as the femme fatale. Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager play the hit men, far more prominent in the plot than the ciphers of 1946. Inteerestingly, this film was Ronald Regan's last as he retired from acting to go into politics, an inversion of Lancaster's debut. This time the doomed victim is played by Cassavetes, and the two hitmen again find out his backstory in flashbacks. Art!
BUT NO! Neither of these are the killers in question. Sorry to disappoint you. Art!
The title is literally true. Welcome to the world of the 'Button Man', a fictional but frighteningly plausible scenario where wealthy 'Players' bet on Button Men, armed killers who get to lose a finger if they fail in The Game. The art is by the excellent Arthur Ranson, although for some reason that's not his work on the cover. In this book we meet Randolph Perkins, a recluse living in a cabin in the woods, alone save for his dog.
Except that this is actually Harry Exton, ex-Button Man, who 'retired' from The Game after being one of the best ever killers the Players ever recruited. The Players don't like one of their minions getting out of their shenanigans, and conspire to send 13 killers after Harry. Oops.
Still, not the killer we're after. Art!
Now, I am going to revisit another television show, that we used in order to fulminate about the Codeword solution GEISHA, namely "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Art!
"The Karate Killers". The title references THRUSH operatives who - you may be ahead of me here - kill using karate. The plot concerns a method of extracting gold from seawater, the process of which is in the charge of the four daughters of a pioneering scientist. It's actually two episodes edited together to make a feature-length film. Conrad remembers seeing it at Film Club whilst at school, and a hoot it was.
Incidentally, it is possible to recover gold from seawater, except it's so fantastically expensive that the value of the gold recovered is minimal.
Surprise! not the killers we're looking for. Sorry. Art!
Nappy and Illy with a Japanese filly
Art!
We are finally getting somewhere, and that somewhere "The Stone Killer", a 1973 thriller starring Mister Stone Face himself, Charles Bronson. The plot concerns a Mafia don's plot to recruit scads of ex-military in order to kill off rival Mafia clans in an absolute bloodbath. Art!
One of the more interesting characters is played by Stuart Margolin, who quotes about his enlistment "I'm a thirty-year man, I joined up the day after Pearl". The next year he could be seen as the weaselish and utterly spineless Angel in "The Rockford Files", a complete contrast.
Now that we've reached the right killer and the word "Stone" in our typical laborious and wending fashion, I'll add in another phrase from my Brewer's:
"To cast the first stone"
Meaning to be in the lead for criticizing or disagreeing with another person. Taken from that best-seller The Bible, and 'John 8:7', where he castigates those wishing to stone a woman for her sins: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." You can bet your studded leather sandals that having an array of men hurling stones would rapidly slay said sinner. Art!
Hmmmm not sure what's going on with the AI Art Generator, that's the third time my laptop has frozen trying to use an image created by it. Time for a new AI Art Generator, one feels.
Back To The 'Daedelus;
I briefly mentioned about the vlog that decided me in Subscribing to the Youtube channel 'Spacedock': "Five Realistic Interstellar Designs", and the first one up is one we've looked at before, 'Daedalus'. This thing is a monster. Art!
Those massive spheres contain the hydrogen and helium fuel for fusion, and producing those isotopes in sufficient quantity is an epic task in itself, which Spacedock acknowledges. Art!
A huge factory on one of Jupiter's moons, to process the He³ being mined from the atmosphere of Jupiter, by giant floating processing plant. It's anticipated that it would take twenty years to harvest the required amount of helium, which is before the Daedalus has flown so much as a centimetre. Art!
Transit time to the Barnard's Star system would be 50 years, and the Daedalus isn't designed to decelerate and stop there; instead the mission would be a fly-by, utilising a swarm of small drones that explore and beam information back to the big boy, which in turn transmits the data to Earth.
Pain In The Provinces
More of manglement in Mordorvia, and thanks to 'Jason Jay Smart' for compiling data on the problem of regions in Ruffia running out of money. We already mentioned Arkhangelsk having less than three-thousandths of it budget left with four months of year to go. Art!
Saratov
The oblast of Saratov has abruptly cut the sign-up bonus from ₽3,000,000 to ₽400,000, a drop of 80% which is not going to inspire any of the greedy or stupid to join up. Especially since cash-strapped regions are now retrospectively reducing the sign-up bonus for orcses already at the front. Ooops.
Also, the Saratov oil refinery has just experience 'kinetic sanctions' and will be unable to prop up the budget. Art!
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| Disco inferno |
More Of Bitter Bierce
I initially mis-typed 'Biter', which is just as applicable as 'Bitter' when dealing with Ambrose Gwinnet Bierce, South Canadian man of letters. Another of his citric dictionary definitions.
"Hangman (n): An officer who produces suspended animation"
I want another definition.
"Happiness (n): An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another."
Art!
Someone's Fee-Fees Are Going To Be Hurt
BOOH is going to be in a very bad mood shortly when his tariff impositions come under legal scrutiny as to whether they're legal or not. Even if they rule in his favour, he will sulk at first having been judged, and then be insufferable for weeks. If he loses he will throw his toys out of the pram plus a temper tantrum and play the victim. Art!
Ladies and germs, meet the Scorpion, one that has it's sting at the front. The vehicle is technically a 'Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked', meaning it was a light scouting tank, not a main battle one. It was designed to be air-portable and only weighed 8 tons, and two could fit into a Hercules. It had very low ground pressure, which served it well in the Falklands. They could go like stink, hitting 45 mph on flat ground.
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| BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM AGAIN! |
And with that we are done! DONE!
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