2014 — 13 October: Monday
Harry Shearer's "News of the Godly" was particularly eye-watering this morning.1 This, on top of a blog entry on the (incomplete) history and (uncertain) future of data storage and a friendly FUD warning from good ol' IBM in their weekly Security Trusteer Rapport report on the shocking state of my very own system right here in River City:
But when wasn't it? Can one trust Trusteer? Were I ever to use either or both Internet Explorer and Flash I might be worried. I block Flash, and I don't use IE, so I'm not very.
Google Analytics, meanwhile, seems to be desperately concerned that 'molehole' isn't getting as many visitors as it could. A dire situation that (guess what?) can be fixed by me spending money with them on advertising.
Perhaps I should buy one of yesterday's Stress Mushrooms after all? I don't think so :-)
Breakfast instead, methinks.
Glancing back...
... shows me how often (some might say "shockingly infrequently") I have tackled the odour of (non-)sanctity in the immediate vicinity of my arch domestic Nemesis — the removeable plastic U-bend under the kitchen sink. (#1, #2, #3, #4.) Still, the last time I did it, at least I finally had the sense to label the pipework:
U-bend: clockwise loosens
As predicted, I did smile and congratulate myself on my wisdom in having done so. The post-cleansing rehabilitation process is being assisted by a fresh cuppa, and a parcel delivered by a Mr Postie ahead of the normal one, lest he be over-burdened.
Sadly...
... (given his death on 22nd June), there will now only be one more volume of this amiable chap's verse to look forward to after today's delivery:
I've just learned that there's a nightclub called "Fusion" in Kirkwall. It certainly wasn't there back in 1959 when I was there!
The drizzle is...
... taking its own good time to disperse. But what care I of drizzle? I have some video goodies to enjoy. This first pair — one yet to be seen, the other seen, once only, in 1978 — both play games with Time:
If I didn't know better, I might think that the marketing department of the Cruiser's latest little low-budget adventure decided to back away a little from its official title ("Edge of Tomorrow") opting instead for "Live Die Repeat" which strikes me as a built-in spoiler... but then I've never been able to fathom the workings of a marketing mind. "Red Shift" is based on Alan Garner's excellent, but almost unfilmable, novel, yet the chap who went on to direct "The Long Good Friday" somehow managed the trick.
As for this second pair?
I copied "Thunderheart" from my 1992 NTSC LaserDisc back in March 2004, but have decided it merits a 'proper' DVD (which, I'm delighted to note, is both anamorphic widescreen, and runs 5 minutes longer). Michael Apted was dealing with incidents that actually happened in 1973. "xchange" is a film I caught when it was broadcast nearly a decade ago, but there's something "iffy" enough about my DVD-R copy that it actually crashes AnyDVD. Hence this Dutch import.
Golly!
I've just noticed that Mark ("Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time") Haddon did the screenplay for my video title #1389: "Fungus the Bogeyman" — from which factoid you can deduce my progress through the letter "F". 25 of the 'effing' titles to go, though 17 of those are "Futurama" discs. I've also just noticed that it's twilight, the central heating is dithering about whether or not to switch itself on (I have the main room thermostat on 20C), and I seem to be hungry. Again. It's still wet out there, too.
Having been sent...
... a link to this piece on Nixon's Vietnam treason (le mot juste) it occurred to me that it had been 23 years since I last bumped up against the name Clark Clifford. Source and snippet:
According to Parry, LBJ wanted to go public with Nixon's treason. But Clark Clifford, an architect of the CIA and a pillar of the Washington establishment, talked Johnson out of it. LBJ's close confidant warned that the revelation would
shake the foundations of the nation.
In particular, Clifford told Johnson (in a taped conversation) that "some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I'm wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have
[Nixon] elected. It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country's best interests."
In other words, Clifford told LBJ that the country couldn't handle the reality that its president was a certifiable traitor, eligible for legal execution.
Fittingly, Clark Clifford's upper-crust career ended in the disgrace of his entanglement with the crooked Bank of Credit and Commerce (BCCI), which financed the terrorist group Al Qaeda and whose scandalous downfall tainted the Agency
he helped found.
In a note I wrote to my New York friend Carol in June 1991 (after reading most of a 3-part article by him in the "New Yorker" magazine) I had been forced to ask her: "Who's this self-justifying creep Clifford?" To which she replied: "Well, having read the Clark Clifford pieces, I asked myself the same question. He is an old statesman of the Democratic persuasion, who advised all the Democratic presidents from Truman forward. He does admit some errors, but I had the same overall impression."
Does anything ever change at the top? Probably not.
Turns out...
... I actually rather enjoyed "Edge of Tomorrow", tremendous tosh though it indisputably is. Think 'Groundhog Day' meets 'Source Code' with a dash of 'Starship Troopers' thrown into the mix.