Our Kitchen Is Instagram Famous
In which we mark the completion of building work while on the road. Plus I discuss if Richard Burton is a better spy that Sean Connery.
When was the last time you opened your Instagram account in the morning to be presented with a photograph of your kitchen? For us, it was while we were on the road last week.
Just before we left for our two-week DragonCon/ArmadilloCon odyssey we left our contractor at the condo with a final list of punch items that needed doing in order for us to consider all the renovation work completed.
At the top of that list was installing the dishwasher and waste disposal in the kitchen. So it was a surprise to see our completed kitchen posted on our contractor’s IG account with a before and after picture.
That was followed a day later with a note that all the renovation work was now complete. What a great feeling to walk into our new home on our return and not be surrounded by building work after nearly three months of sawing, hammering, painting, etc.
Of course, we are now starting the open-the-boxes phase of our move. Two inevitable questions accompany each ceremonial box opening:
Why on earth did we bring this with us?
Where are we going to put this?
Now excuse me while we figure out just where to put the espresso machine…
Alan
Other Stuff
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Brabazon Bits
Copy editing of the main part of the book is now done, and we have moved on to the appendices.
Following the events at Aerospace Bristol last week to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Brabazon’s first flight, I’ve also been contacted by a handful of folks with Brabazon connections offering to share notes and photographs. It will be interesting to see what new information might pop up in the coming weeks as we start to compile the feedback from our group of early readers.
Podcast Procrastinations
In the latest BOND VS SPY MOVIES podcast, Jarrod and I return to 1965 to rate and contrast Thunderball and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.
Connery vs Burton. Fleming vs LeCarre. Bermuda vs Berlin.
You can find out who came out on top HERE, or by searching for the On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast network on your podcast platform of choice.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2024 - “The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel” by Douglas Brunt
Author Douglas Brunt states that engine pioneer Rudolph Diesel has been left underappreciated by history for his creation of what today we would term a disruptive technology.
He sets out to build a case for Diesel via a highly researched and well-presented biography that tells Diesel’s rags-to-riches story. Presenting a surprising and compelling picture of an altruistic man who championed a humanist global view of the world and designed a new power source designed to run on bio-fuels that could be grown by farmers and enhance rural life.
While Diesel clearly enjoyed the money and fame that came his way, he was also conflicted by the usurpation and manipulation of his invention by big business, the military, and oil interests.
All leading up to his mysterious disappearance from his cabin on a cross-channel steamer en-route to England in 1913.
At this point the book takes a dramatic turn from well well-researched biography into unsubstantiated conjecture-driven conspiracy theory as Brunt presents his view of what he thinks happened to Diesel.
Which instantly undermines the credibility of everything that has gone before.
Our online bookstore at Bookshop.org is fully up to date with the books read so far in 2024, so you can pick up copies of any that interest you, while also helping out local independent bookstores .
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues our look at June 1969 with issues published in France, Germany, Italy, and Lebanon
This week’s spotlight is on France, with a cover by an uncredited local artist. It’s an unusual ground-up viewpoint with Batman dominating and a tiny figure of Superman high in the background. It’s not often you see this, especially on a title that is ostensibly foremost a Superman book. Normally if the two heroes are on a cover they tend to have equal prominence.
Where on the Web is Alan?
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See you next time
Alan J. Porter
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