O So Supărat! Supărat To The Max!
You will, of course - obviously! - recognise the Romanian for 'Angry', which rather surprised me, as the Italian for 'Angry' is 'Arrabbiata', and now I understand why that spicy dish has that moniker, and the Latin <hack spit> for 'Angry' is 'Iratus'.
Here endeth the language lesson for today. You can come out from behind the sofa. Art!
Meet the Remote Nuclear Detonator, the evil big brother of my Remote Nuclear Tormentor, because in this Intro I am going to be dealing with insolent and abusive Codeword compilers. You and they may both have been happy sitting in a state of non-RNT or non-RND, assuming that Your Humble Yet Irked Scribe had given up fulminating on their ridiculously obscure or foreign solutions.
NOT A BIT OF IT!
Today I'm going to run through a list of the solutions that have tweaked my Tantrum Gland, getting them out of the way all at once. I will be using my 'Collins Concise English Dictionary' for definitions, surely the most utilitarian of all Christmas presents evah.
FEINT: 'A mock attack or movement designed to distract an adversary, as in a military manoeuvre.' It comes, for once, from the Old French* 'Feindre', meaning 'To pretend.' Art!
To hide the secret redeployment of the Canadian Corps for the August 1918 Battle of Amiens, the British Army staged a convincing feint near Ypres, Flanders. A small Canadian contingent, including two battalions and wireless units, operated there to deceive German intelligence
It's also used as the ruling between lines on paper, which is considerably duller. Art!
Conrad is perfectly familiar with both uses thanks to my profound knowledge of military history and my A4 notepads. You might have struggled.
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| Hark hark. Sark. |
Not to be confused with the Belgian city of Liége, which is distinguished by the accent.
HANG ON HANG ON HANG ON!
In Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Unification II," Spock identifies achildren's toy (a dreidel-like device) brought by D'Tan as bearing "the syllabic nucleus of the Vulcan language"
Very nearly SYLLABIFY
FRIZZ: I am not convinced that this is proper word <checks> okay, okay, it is in my CCED, so I'll allow it. "To form or cause the hair to form tight wiry curls or crisp tufts." O! Once again from French - 'Friser' meaning 'To curl'." It still seems excessively slang in nature to Your Humble Scribe. Art!
The normally hot Taraji Henson gets caught in a wind machine. I think.
ERSATZ: Have we done this word before? I have a feeling we have - another recollection from the inky depths. Let me check. AH! Yes, but it was seven months ago - hey not bad in remembering that long back Steve**! - so I am going to cheat and merely copy the item wholesale.
ERSATZ: Another word borrowed from Teuton. Thank you so much, compilers <hammers Remote Nuclear Detonator repeatedly> "Made in imitation or artificial" from the Teuton 'Ersetzen' meaning 'To substitute'. One example of this was the Royal Navy's cruel and malicious blockade of the Teutons during the Second Unpleasantness, which forced them to substitute roast acorns for coffee or some such local substitution scheme. Yuck. Art!
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| Made from twigs, spit and ground cockroaches. Possibly. |
I think that's enough of my frothing nitric ire for one Intro, as I've got another eight Codeword solutions to denigrate, which would take up the entire blog were I to type them out. Maybe in March. I bet you can hardly wait.
All The Single Ladies
Conrad will be glad when the Special Idiotic Operation dies on it's bottom and Putinpot is dragged screaming and crying to the ICC, but until then I continue to post on Twitter.
Further to that, Conrad is no oil painting. Art!
I think that's large enough. No need to scare small children and nursing mothers. The thing is, I keep getting Followed by single ladies on Twitter, which you might think is welcome flattery for an aging curmudgeon. Yet they all seem to be from MAGA and thus big fans of the Sagging Sepia Senile Sackbut, reposting nonsense like that below. Art!
It's blatantly obvious to anyone who reads BOOJUM! that I loathe and detest Donold Judas Trump, so why on earth are these ladies Following me? I'm not on Twitter to gain a following, so they're not going to get Followed back. Perhaps - perhaps they're just big fans of Thomas Pynchon and The Comsat Angels?
If All Flesh Is Grass These Must Be Bamboo
Which, as any fule kno, is the tallest species of grass there is. Forgive my tortured analogy. What am I wittering on about? O I thought you'd never ask! Art?
You see, I have been watching the fifth season of 'Stranger Things', and will avoid posting any spoilers for those of you not yet acquainted with it. Art!
Conrad couldn't help thinking how much older the cast look. The first season was set in 1983, and this one in 1987, so yes, you'd expect them to look a little more mature. It wasn't until I checked the date of the first season broadcast that things fell into place - 2016. TEN DOG BUNS YEARS AGO!
By all accounts this is the last season, and yes they ought to put it to bed, going out on as high a note as possible, because once again the cast age in real time not Hollywood time. I have spoken
Typing This On The 4th Anniversary Of The SIO
That is, 24th February 2026. I like to get ahead of schedules.
ANYWAY AGAIN I just thought to update you on this geezer. Art!
This is Igor Konashenkov, the official orc MoD spokesman for the SIO back in February 2022, and who was chirpy and upbeat when presenting the official narrative. For the first three days. After that, as Big K. observed, he became much more sombre. He stopped giving briefings late 2023 and reportedly resigned from his post in May 2024, in order to spend more time with his bottle of vodka.
Now, I am going to post a couple of graphs courtesy of the very excellent 'Covert Cabal' over on Youtube. Art!
Total 10,626 Total 2,119
Net loss over 4 years = 8,500. FYI, the T-55s are at least 45 years old, and more probably 50 or 60 years old. The T-62s ended production 6 years before the T-55 and again, are at least 50 years old. The T-64s have not been resorted to much because of their awful unreliable engine, which have not been improved by being stood around outside for 35 years, nor by their autoloader, which tended to load crew arms and legs into the gun breech. The T-72 has been used up to the tune of 2,000 because it was a reliable, decent model that could be upgraded and wasn't as long in the tooth as the previous three tanks mentioned. The T-80 is nearing extinction as they are no longer being produced, due to being a lot more complex than the T-72 and when that 134 are gone, they are gone. Art!
As was
In reality, there are a lot fewer than 2,119 tanks available, as all the good, mediocre and poor ones have already been salvaged, repaired and renovated and what is left would cost more and take longer to renew than making a new tank from scratch.
Being aware of this might be why Igor felt the need to breakfast on a pint mug of 100% Standard in the morning before quitting altogether.
Hmmmm we are well over Count so I'm going to stop here and watch more weirdness unfold in Hawkins. Chin chin!
* And not Latin, hoorah!
** Steve: responsible for memory here at the blog.
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