November 2011
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Did you remember?
(The fifth of November)
October 2011
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A breach in domestic security
We recently were made aware of this recipe card; it appears that the scullery staff may have been pilfering incoming communiqués. Please be reassured that in-house security protocols have been thoroughly reviewed.
Bolognese Machiavelli 1. Arrange to have garlic and onions cast into hot oil. 2. The carrot and celery you must divide against themselves. Ground beef, too, shall turn upon...
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From the dispatch bin, re: Canada
“4. There is a long tradition in Canada of thinking that Canada just cannot do high-tech projects by itself — that the laws of nature somehow forbid it, and hence that anyone proposing such an impossibility is a charlatan. This belief is fundamentally irrational, which makes countering it with rational arguments very difficult.”
We of course disagree - but the sentiment, and its...
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Stapp's Ironical Paradox
Formulated by Colonel John Paul Stapp, it states that “The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle.”
(Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?)
September 2011
7 posts
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Ian Fleming's Adaptability?
No further details available at this time:
…”the officially accidental death in 1941 of a Japanese cryptographer in that country’s New York consulate on the 38th floor of Rockefeller Center, one floor below the offices occupied by Sir William Stephenson (a/k/a “Intrepid”), in which a scaffolding broke through the window and the Japanese man was bludgeoned to death...
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Kentucky Royalty
What do:
Jimmy Durante
Betty White
Pope John Paul II
John Glenn
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Dale Evans
Hunter S Thompson
have in common? They are all Kentucky Colonels. This organization may or may not be a quiet front for the advancement of certain unseemly agendas - or it may be as it claims, a charitable foundation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_colonel
(As a post-script,...
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Maximal Utility is a Kind of Elegance
British Army pick-axe handles must, by regulation, be exactly three feet long, for measuring in the field. Furthermore, such handles are an official issue duty baton in said army. We assume sans pick-axe-head.
Memo: we appreciate the kind words in our absence and, rest assured, have now resumed normal operations; further inquiries shall not be required.
May 2010
3 posts
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Hiking to Flatbush
Item the first, The New York Times, January 19, 1914:
IN 100-MILE TUNNEL HIKE. Reporters to Explore Tube from Ramapo Mountains to Brooklyn. KINGSTON, Jan. 18.—The first underground hike from the Ramapo Mountains to Brooklyn, a distance of more than a hundred miles as the crow flies and still further as the worm crawls, will be undertaken to-morrow morning by a party of nine men. The trip is to...
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Utah Law Designed to Facilitate Embassy Parties
“Utah law limits the sale of full strength (heavy) beer to bottles and cans not exceeding one (1) liter. Thus, the State does not stock or sell heavy beer in kegs, and full strength beer may not be dispensed on draft. (Accredited foreign diplomatic missions may possess and dispense their own heavy beer from kegs under certain...
April 2010
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Oak Apple Day approaches
Genius of the res-to-ration / aid our own re-su-sci-tation!
(a pointer to Pepys’ diary entry for such a day would be a welcome addition to our discussion)
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The latest cable from our man in Harare mentioned that lately he’d been coming across a number of US $2 bills in his day-to-day activities. After inflation necessitated printing Z$100,000,000,000,000 notes, the finance minister suspended their currency and declared only South African rands and US dollars would be legal tender. While they won’t admit it, it seems that the Federal Reserve has been...
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Benford's Law & Vote-Rigging →
“In any fair election, a certain percentage of votes are illegible or otherwise problematic and have to be discarded. When people commit fraud by adding extra votes, they often forget to add invalid ones.”
Pardon the interruption in service; a certain Gin Situation has precluded regular updates.
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The Ramos Ginn Fizz
Ahh yes, the ‘crew-served’ drink.
In the golden days of cocktails (that is, before Prohibition), your better bar would employ a staff of perhaps dozens of boys for the purpose of shaking these drinks. The egg white allows a certain emusification to take place - provided at least five minutes of steady, hard shaking is undertaken. A minute and a half is generally recognized as the...
March 2010
17 posts
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That strength which in old days / Moved earth and...
An excellent reading of Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses by Sir Lewis Casso: http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/ulysses.m4a
Text to be found at http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2191.html
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Saber Scar 'Must' Again in Germany
Berlin (UPI) Feb 13, 1963 The saber scar is back as a status symbol in West Germany. Revival of the university dueling societies, once a symbol of Teutonic nationalism, has become so widespread that students are split on the issue and some educators are calling for an examination of post war higher education. The societies have become so popular that more than 46,000 students, or about a third of...
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A Thief of Time - Russia Discontinues Two Time... →
Pardon the delay; our time spent as a variety of Sergeant-Major at the local Mecha-Construct Exhibition and Competition prohibited prompt communication.
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Modern Tech vs The Past (a tongue-in-cheek... →
The gentlemen at CNET UK advance the theory that not all ‘progress’ is as beneficial as it appears to be. We heartily agree.
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The Alameda-Weehauken Transcontinental Burrito... →
“Every four seconds a ‘slug’ of ten burritos, white with frost, ratchets into the breech. A moment later it flies into the tunnel with a loud hiss of compressed gas, and the lights dim briefly as banks of powerful electromagnets accelerate the burritos to over two hundred miles an hour. By the time they pass Stockton three minutes later the burritos will be traveling faster than the...
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Diplomatic Immunity
Wikipedia tells us:
“The Burmese Ambassador in Sri Lanka in 1979 shot his wife as she got out of the car after seeing a player in a night-club band of whom she was enamoured. As recalled by Gerald Hensley, then Vice-Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Sri Lanka; Hensley was based in Singapore and accredited from New Zealand as High Commissioner to Sri Lanka as well.
The next morning the...
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February 2010
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