The Bridges Of Madison Countea

Still Making A Nonsense Of It -
To quote Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, late of the Scots Guards, creator of UNIT, damn his impeccably-polished shoes!

Some bad guys are about to have a very unpleasant day

     Which has nothing to do with what I intend to bend your ears about, which is INSPIRATION.  HG Wells had the Second Unpleasantness starting due to a raspberry pip, and we've nearly had a Third Unpleasantness due to flocks of geese, and of course Sir Isaac was driven to scientific discovery when that Braeburn got him on the napper.
     Conrad is stuck close to the doors at work, and the noise they may when closing mirrors that of a sound effect from Star Trek, The Original Series*.  

Cult it may be, classic it is

Which led me to check out the sound effects present on the Enterprise's bridge.  There are a lot, although they are generally muted enough to be background and don't interrupt conversation.  Have a go at this yourself sometime.  There's a whole palette of sounds they created especially for the series, although I think they did nick one from "The War of the Worlds" 1956 iteration.
     Now that's over, let the motley totter forward!

Just A Thought
How would you shave a weasel?  "Extremely carefully", is the instant and obvious retort.  Given that you felt the need - nay, the desire - to shave your weasel, Conrad would recommend resorting to professional veterinary care, so they can sedate the little feller, and only then would you be able to depilate your life companion**.  After that I think you'd need to knit them a coat, because with their high metabolic rate and surface-area-to-mass ratio, they are likely to suffer from hypothermia.

     Later add-in: I cannot find any pictures of shaved weasels, so it's probably not just dangerous but illegal, too.

Conrad: raised by weasels

"The Strain" By Guillermo Del Toro And Chuck Hogan
Aha!  Take warning, for there be SPOILERS ahead, matey.  Ooh arr. Also, Jim lad.

     I trust that the warning about SPOILERS has hit home.  Given that, I will stop talking like Robert Newton's Long John Silver.
     We are concerned with the novels here, definitely not the televisual version as they part company after the first book.  Okay, in the novel, the Allotment remains practically-vampire free; apparently we blew up the Chunnel, then hunted all the leeches down and destroyed them.
     GAPING PLOT HOLE!  GAPING PLOT HOLE!

Say hello to a duology

     Our heroes go through purgatory in order to obtain a portable pocket nuke - the Ruffian equivalent of a Special Atomic Demolition Munition - which lacks a detonator, and then have to hunt down the Master's point of origin etcetera etcetera.
     The Royal Navy has four fleet ballistic missile submarines.  Our heroes would have been better advised to contact the Allotment and target the Master's bijou New York residence with a 500 kiloton Trident warhead.  A bang like that would stop him in his tracks, pretty definitively.  Then again, it would be a pretty short trilogy.
     Ooh arr!

Who Are You And Why Should I Care?
As seen on the side of a bus - "Digital FM - Ronan and Harriet!"
     Actually I don't think there was an exclamation mark***, but the whole thing was so disgustingly smug it ought to be there.  Who are these people? 
     No, that was rhetorical, I don't want an answer because I don't care.  I take it these are the kind of celebritutes who crop up in the pages of The Chip Wrapper^?
     Go very far away very quickly!

Death Valley.  Far enough.

     Here an aside, because I got notification from Facebook about a post from several years ago, gloating about Steve Penk selling-on Revolution Radio.  This bumbletuck bought the station and immediately changed the music format, making it what was unkindly yet accurately described as "Radio 2 with adverts".  The DJs all walked out on the spot.  There was a brief uptick in listeners, then it fell back to practically what it was pre-buyout, when the owners (the M.E.N.) were mismanaging it badly.  Penk eventually gave up and sold it on.  So much for him "taking on the big boys"!

I Strongly Suspect -
Haven't checked, as that would take an effort, but your humble hack is pretty firmly convinced that the Special Boat Service and the Marinenjagerkommandoen both train together to tackle incidents aboard the North Sea oil rig community.  The MJK, as you ought to know if a regular reader of the blog, are the Norwegian special forces dedicated to marine activity - it's in the name.  They are rough, tough lads (and lasses) who have seen active service in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force there.

     There it goes again!  The Star Trek door squeak!

     It's unlikely that people with ill intent would try to take over an oil rig, but it pays to be prepared.  Jeg skal rote deg! as the MJK say^^.

Bad guys, take note

*  The only series, as far as purists like myself are concerned.
**  You monster!
***  Exclamation MARK, not "point".  Take note.
^  A.k.a. The Metro
^^  "I will **** you up.^^^"
^^^  Only teasing.  **** = "Mess". 

Business As Unusual

Nothing New Today
As I don't finish at work until 7 post meridian, and then intend to do the weekly shop, there is no prospect of posting BOOJUM! until after 9 post meridian, so instead here's a collection from years past.


2013

https://comsatangel2002.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/hasty-but-tasty.html

2014

https://comsatangel2002.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/eating-for-charity.html

2015

https://comsatangel2002.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/there-is-no-i-in-team.html


2016

https://comsatangel2002.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/organ-entertainment.html

Harry Potter And The Deathtea Hallows

A Bit Of A Stretch, Mayhaps -
Although I was thinking of going with "Harry Teapotter and the Philosopher's Scone", and may do so in future.  Hey, if it brings in the idly curious, so much the better.  Whether they ever come back after seeing the scrivel that constitutes BOOJUM! is another matter entirely.  After all, being puzzled, scared and amused simultaneously is not everyone's - er - cup of tea.

Not sure what a cup of tea's cup of tea would be

     I did actually watch HPATPS last night, and then, because I am thorough (or sad, possibly both) I went through the Trivia section on IMDB.  No, not the Goofs, not yet - still ploughing through those for "Kelly's Heroes".  What did strike me was the degree of influence Ol' J.K. had in controlling the film - she wanted an all-British cast, and got it.  She refused to have the films compact several books together, and she refused to have any done as animated features; the studios, you see, were worried about their initially cast child actors growing older, although perhaps someone ought to point out to them that this is what happens in real life.  She also wanted Maggie Smith and Robbie Coltrane cast, and - no surprise here! - she got them.

She didn't want Louis Jourdan

     Given the amount of clout Ol J.K. has in the fillum industry, what follows below will be extra amusing.  She appears to have equal clout in publishing, as those later works of hers are inches thick; one guesses that the editors didn't dare prune any of it.
     Well, time to take the stabilisers off the motley and push it out into traffic.

Shakespoke
Ha!  That muted hum you can hear is Windbag Willy a-whirling in his crate.  He must be up to about 45 r.p.m. by now.  One of his saying is "Brevity is the soul of wit", which is why BOOJUM! attempts to distract you with no more than 750 words per post, although this is exceeded if I get on a creative roll.
     However, Bill neglects his own advice.  Take this quote from "Hamlet", which in itself moves us significantly closer to count.  Ahem!

"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! ".

      I rest my case.  Ol' J.K. might have padded it out a bit, but your humble scribe would have simply put:

"Man, eh?"

     I was already resting my case, so I'll rest it a bit more.

Me, resting

     Now, let's proceed a bit further.  Next!

"Frailty, thy name is woman - "

     - hang on, I thought it was "Vanity"?  "Frailty", "Vanity" and "Shopping" pretty much define women, right*?  Oh, very well, we'll go with "Frailty".

"Frailty, thy name is woman."

Ha!  O Bill, that's a good one.

The women I know are tough as old boots,

The emotionally resilient termagant brutes*.

     I think we'll slink out of the room now.

Thank You Brian Eno
Yes, that Brian Eno, the inventive music chap.  He came up with an album entitled "Another Green World".  I don't have it, although I've seen the cover artwork.  Art?

Sweetness and light!

     Anyway, this sprung to mind after I peered out of the windows on the eighteenth floor of The Dark Tower, except because I am grim and grey and so was the day, it morphed into "Another Grey World".

Death and despair!

     Sic transit Gloria Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell.  Home to Morrisey, and now you know why he is the way he is.

Hair-Splitting Pedantry Ahoy!
Typically, once I acquire a hugely impressive, and impressively huge, Crossword Companion, I whiz through the Cryptic Crossword and thus don't need to use it.
     This has nothing to do with "Kelly's Heroes" and the Goofs page over at IMDB, and again, it's interesting to see what folks who see things that aren't there have missed when it's IN FRONT OF THEIR ROILING SCROFULITIC EYES.

They never fire the damn thing, either

     Okay, when we first see Kelly's reconnaissance outfit, they have a half-track (which we discussed yesterday, remember?) which appears to have an anti-aircraft mount in the back, and it's busy blasting away at the heavens.  This is obviously inaccurate, as on a dreadful night like this, no aircraft would be aloft.
     Secondly, for a reconnaissance unit, having an M3 half-track armed with a 105 m.m. howitzer is rather unlikely.  Recon units go and nosey around, they avoid combat if they can - and Little Joe makes this point over the radio***.





*  I shall get into trouble for this BUT I DON'T CARE! For am I not evil**?
**  Yes.
***   A bit more emphatically than me, which is justified under the circs.