BOOJUM!: A Geography Lesson You Never Knew You Needed

PAY ATTENTION!

There will be a quiz later. Okay, for decades I have heard a particular South Canadian geographical location mentioned, without knowing or caring where it was, up until this very moment: "Martha's Vineyard". There was a vague sense of it being in the north-eastern corner of the continent, which doesn't really narrow it down since South Canada is so freaking huge. Art!

Bottom port. The island was discovered, named and settled by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, named after his mother-in-law. It is part of the state of Massachusetts, and constitutes most of Duke County, which also incorporates the Elizabeth Islands and Chappaquiddick Island.

There you go, our geographical lesson for today over. Now you know where to find it.

The island is home to 20,000 permanent residents during the off-season but balloons to 200,000 in the summer when wealthy holiday-home owners come to stay. There are numerous hotels and inns on the island. Art!

Enter Steve Lehto, South Canadian attorney who specialises in Consumer and 'Lemon' Law, which I believe is about products of inferior quality being sold to an unsuspecting public. Steve himself practices in Michigan, not the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts, but has a Youtube channel where he presents cases that his subscribers send to him, and this one is about <drum roll trumpet call> TREE LAW! Art?

This case was covered by the 'MV Times', where 'MV' means - you may be ahead of me here - 'Martha's Vineyard'. A property owner in Menemsha, Mrs. Cottle, was suing her neighbours for trespass and illegally cutting down trees on her property. Said neighbours were the Nixons, who owned the Beach Plum Inn. Art!

There you go

The complaint - as they refer to it over there - was lodged in the Duke's County Court in 2019. Mrs. Cottle alleged that the defendants had deliberately cut down 136 trees on a half-acre of her property, in order to gain better views of the waterfront and harbour at Menemsha. She was suing the Nixons and the man who cut her trees down, Eric Taylor, for the full replacement cost of said timber being felled. Art!

You can see the felled trees above, which included beech, oak and locust species.

Steve interjected here with a detail from the 'Michigan Complied Laws 600.2919' that determined "It is unlawful to cut down or carry off tree's from another's land', and in Michigan, as in Massachusetts, you are liable to x3 damages if found guilty. Ooo-err Matron, and we've not even got to the assessed total yet! Again, Steve interjected there wondering how on earth you'd assess the value of a grove of trees; Conrad can tell him. You go to a certified arborist, who will examine the stumps, any felled timber, get possible photographic evidence and calculate a total.

The Nixons claimed that Taylor was staying at their hostelry as a guest and merely did them a favour by cutting down the trees on his own initiative and that their view of the harbour was already so splendid they didn't need anything cutting down. Art!

Never travel without one

This does not compute. For one thing, Taylor had to dismantle a fence to get onto Cottle's property, so he knew he was trespassing. For another, how often do you check into your holiday inn clutching a chainsaw and a can of petrol? because there's no way he cut down 136 trees with an axe.

The case was delayed by Covid and only reached mediation, not even court, in 2022. When presented with a potential fine of £3.6 million to restore the grove to pre-Taylor status, both he and the Nixons caved. It's not made clear in the court documents if this is the x3 total from an original $1.2 million or whether the defendants would be on the hook for $10 million if it went to court. Art!

A view worth millions

The deal was that the Nixons would pony up $1.5 million and Taylor would pay $1 million, covered by his insurance - which implies he had business insurance as a lumberjack and both parties were lying about intent and capability. Why not hold out for a jury trial and $3.6 million? Because, as I'm sure Steve would tell you, a jury's decision cannot be guaranteed to find for the plaintiff, and it would cost a lot more in legal fees, which might not be awarded back. A chicken on the rotisserie is worth two dodging around the farmyard.

There you go, justice served and geography elucidated.

ENOUGH! ENOUGH WITH THE OSCILLOSCOPES!

I fail to comprehend what the news algorithm is working on in order to pimp oscilloscopes at Your Humble Scribe. Art!

I remember Gavin, my old boss at Connexions, mentioning that Hawkwind, in their early years, used synthesisers that could only be controlled by an oscilloscope, as they had not yet been plugged into a keyboard, and in P

ANYWAY ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE!

A Correction And An Audit, Thanks To Adrian

Conrad was somewhat surprised to get a Comment on yesteryon's blog, as the valid ones - after deleting ones warning about the imminent Rapture or Vietnamese who-knows-what - only come to 40. I shall append the Comment from Adrian.

Very interesting about the water pipeline in Sinai, but I don't think that can be a 12" diameter pipe, it looks too small in that bloke's hands to be that size.

Well observed! I, too, had my doubts but this was the only photo I could find about pipelines in Sinai. No photographs even in the British 'Official History'. Let's reprint the photograph. Art!

Take a closer look at the pipe end. Art!

The resolution isn't great, but there doesn't appear to be the interior screw thread present at both pipe ends. Also, note the size of matey's hand against the outside curvature of the pipe. Art!

Now compare Conrad's ham-like hands, and we can guesstimate that the pipe is only perhaps 6" in diameter. Nor is that all. The pipeline was positioned to the south of the coastal railway being constructed from Kantara, and it's construction always lagged behind that of the rails. Check these out. Art!

Nowhere in the background do you see a railway, either fully complete or being worked upon by gangs of native labourers. Conrad is pretty sure this is a photograph of a completely different pipeline elsewhere in either Egypt or Palestine. Nor is that all! I like to be thorough. Art!

According to Youtube, this is a 12" pipe, getting ready for horizontal insertion and with puny humans for scale. You're welcome!

'Gallantry In Defeat'

Yes, another of Terence Cuneo's wartime daubs, this one depicting an event in the battles of the Gazala Line in mid-1942 in North Africa. Art!

June 1942

What you see is the last stand of 107th Battery Royal Horse Artillery, fighting a mixed bag of Teuton and Roman tanks by engaging them with 25-pounder field guns over open sights.

THIS SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!

These battles of the 'Knightsbridge Cauldron' were the absolute nadir of British tactics, operations and strategy in North Africa. Field guns like these ought to be miles behind the front lines, dug in with a screen of tanks and anti-tank guns well forward of them. I put the item title in quotes because whilst undoubtedly true, someone had blundered for this to happen in the first place.

You What?

Conrad freely admits he's a dinosaur for whom nothing exists unless it's written down, which is why I have a 2026 Diary, an A4 notepad and a 'Project Book' for hasty note making. Also, I cannot make heads or tails of this. Art!