NO! This Is Not About Drugs
WASH OUT YOUR FILTHY MINDS! you disgusting reprobates.
Conrad, in looking up "FLY" yesteryon, realised that there was a lot of mileage in this word and it's derivative phrases, so here I sit with Brewer's balanced on my knee. Of course one of the most famous iterations comes complete with "The Liberty Bell", so - Art!
Conrad ought to point out that a "Flying Circus" was a collection of planes flown by pilots with no fear of death who did aerial stunts. There was also Von Richtofen's Flying Circus, which was rather more deadly and without any hilarious animations. Art!
ANYWAY neither of those are anything to do with the SR-71 Blackbird, which was a fast jet in the same way a thunderstorm is noisy. Art!
This is one of that breed of aircraft that look fast whilst standing still. The Sinisters hated and feared it in equal amounts for reasons we'll come to. It went into service in 1966 and was only totally retired in the Nineties, which is a good lifetime for what was essentially a re-usable manned missile. You may recognise it in "Star Wars" with a silver paint job.
It was used to run daily reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam whilst the South Canadians were involved there, carrying a payload of sensors and cameras rather than bombs. The North Vietnamese fired hundreds and hundreds of Sinister SAMs against these overflights, to absolutely no result, partly because it flew so high - 16 miles, which is where today's title comes from. It could also hit Mach 3.5 in an emergency, which is 2663 m.p.h. and could thus outrun SAMs. There was no point in scrambling NV fighters to intercept because they couldn't fly high enough, nor could they match the Blackbird's speed.
They also made the Sinisters seethe with impotent rage, as they were used to fly just outside Sinister airspace using their side-mounted camera to take pictures of all sorts of interesting stuff that the Sinisters would rather the world not know about. Art?
Definitely a NNNNNYYEEOOOWWWWW moment.
Because they were flown to the limits of their capabilities, a return to base always required essential repairs, and to get one flight-ready from scratch took almost a full day. But then you could have fun baiting the Sinisters.
Motley! I fancy a pie. Go get twenty-four blackbirds.
More Of Malicious Compliance
Also an example of petty penny-pinching torpedoing a business. Okay, so Original Poster worked in an IT setting where he had to take and make calls globally on his phone, often starting at 04:00. His monthly phone bill came to $100 as an average.
Enter a new CFO (Chief Financial Officer) after OP has been submitting expenses for a couple of years. She did not like either him or his expense validation. Art!
She immediately instituted a new expenses policy designed to be so arduous that people wouldn't bother with it and simply stop claiming expenses.
Not OP. He went through the whole laborious process each month, which took up to 3 hours - when he wasn't doing any work. The other 15 people entitled to expenses also diligently filed their paperwork every month. Net savings to the business = $50 per month, across the entire globe. As against the week wasted in completing the forms. CFO loudly crows about a 2% reduction in phone expenses.
However - and you knew that was coming, didn't you? - every employee with a cellphone now became eligible for expenses, so the amount of reimbursement immediately skyrocketed. People began to use cellphones to call each other within the office; people without cellphones got them. The monthly expenses bill went from $1,500 to $1,000,000 plus because there were now 10,000 workers submitting claims for reimbursement. Art!
"The Sea Of Sand"
When last we left them, Albert had been discussing how a matter-transmission system had managed to arrive on Earth.
"No, Albert. One of their restrictions. You have to have a station established before you can send to it, or receive from it."
Any speculative transmission of a trans-mat beam into space would merely end up as dispersed Bhatacharjee radiation, an unfocussed beam of energy -
"Of course!" he whispered, triumphantly smacking his fist against the sandy floor. "A mid-point focus - it would all make sense!"
Albert wondered what his companion felt so enthusiastic about. In his mind's eye he could see millions and millions of rapacious alien monsters devouring whole continents, leeching all energy from the lifeforms on Earth.
Although, he wondered, why hadn't they already arrived? The Doctor's description of the bio-vores homeworld made it sound like a desert wilderness, a hellish environment they'd try to leave behind quickly. For some reason they had instead waited five thousand years before deciding to continue with their attack on Earth.
Alongside him the Doctor's mind ran along similar patterns. He reached a conclusion.
"How convincing can you be, Albert?"
Albert felt nonplussed. Convincing?
"I hope you can be very convincing, Albert, because I want you to go back with the Professor and both of you return to Mersa Martuba."
"What!" squeaked Albert.
Can you blame the lad?
"Crowdie"
Another unusual word from Josephine Tey's "The Singing Sands" which, given the context, appears to be a foodstuff. Art!
It is a variety of soft cheese made from cow's milk, traditionally Scottish and most usually made by the islanders in the Hebrides and the Orkneys. I'm afraid Inspector Grant didn't enjoy the crowdie provided for him at a meal as it was quite dry and tasteless. Which makes for more drama than if it were passable. Ol' Josy pokes fun at the 'Caledonian Hotel''s catering, with all the food coming from far distant lands rather than domestically as a tourist would expect.
Whilst Walking Into Lesser Sodom -
I have decided I like this nickname for Royton and will be using it in future. If anyone from Royton is reading this and objects THE EXIT DOOR IS THAT WAY.
There are many very large trees alongside Rochdale Road as it ascends Tandle Hill. They are sufficiently large that, were one of their branches to fall on your head, you'd be wearing a coffin on your next trip out. Art!
These tree surgeons had quite a little operation going here. There were chaps with STOP/GO signs keeping traffic from passing whilst Chainsaw Charlie on the cherry-picker got creatively destructive with the branches, dropping them to the ground where they were stuck in a wood-chipper. Conrad pretty certain that these trees are on private land and the property owners didn't want any legal claims for dead pedestrians.If it were council land surely Babylon Lite's services have their own tree surgeons?
Finally -
Conrad took Edna for a stroll earlier this morning, when it was only spitting. There's a persistent drizzle coming down now. The only benefit this kind of weather has is that it keeps other dog walkers at home, so there is less opportunity for Edders to demonstrate that, in her head, she is six feet tall and masses over a hundred and fifty pounds. No, Edna, just no.
