(1555) Evening all.

19. Nothing is as it seems

18. Brits will get the joke

17. IYE at 904

16. Steve at 904

 

First of IYE’s new/old series The Baron … notes below the unembedded pic … the embedded bit is:

HERE

Wiki:

“The show starred an American actor, Steve Forrest, as John Mannering, an antiques dealer who drives a Jensen C-V8 with ‘BAR 1’ as the distinctive, personalised number plate. ‘The Baron’ is portrayed as an occasional undercover agent working in an informal capacity for the head of the fictional British Diplomatic Intelligence, Templeton-Green (Colin Gordon) assisted by Cordelia Winfield (Sue Lloyd) and David Marlowe (Paul Ferris).

By contrast, in Creasey’s original novels, Mannering is British and, after the first few novels, married. By transforming the character into an eligible bachelor and casting a Texan in the role, the producers decided that ‘The Baron’ would be nicknamed after the cattle ranch once run by his grandfather, described as being “200,000 acres [809.371 km2] 300 miles from Dallas”.

In the books, he is a reformed jewel thief (the first few novels describing Mannering’s “career” from his deciding to steal to his going straight) whose criminal ties served him well in investigating jewel, art, or antiques-oriented mysteries.

For the TV series, Mannering’s persona is depicted as absolutely straight with no suggestion of past criminality, a fact underlined by his being co-opted by British intelligence.”

JH: Secret Service? Oh well, absolutely zero criminality whatsoever … paragons of virtue in fact.

“In the episode “Red Horse, Red Rider”, it is revealed that Mannering had been a US Army Captain during the Second World War, serving in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program where he recovered art works from the Nazis. Following the war, he owned three antique stores and was a “charter member of the jet set”.”

Reviews were mixed, some calling the acting and technical side poor and uneven but this is a positive review by the Duke of Hazard:

”I know that my mark is nostalgia-influenced, but I really can’t mark down any of the 60’s ITC escapist adventure series as they were such a fun part of my childhood, watching classic shows like The Avengers, The Saint, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, The Champions, Man In A Suitcase, Department S, The Persuaders and this.

Yes, The Baron is a minor-league Simon Templar, a globe-trotting adventurer with an unlikely cover as an antiques dealer who invariably ends up in some foreign intrigue, yes, the production values are fairly low, with studio-bound sets and stock footage of international airports dropped in to futilely attempt to convince the audience the locations are authentic but it’s all shot briskly and efficiently, routinely delivering 50 minutes of easily digestible thrills and spills before the stirring theme music comes around again to signal the end (almost every ITC show and certainly the ones I mentioned above all had memorable theme tunes).

Steve Forrest, brother of Dana Andrews, lacks his sibling’s personality and charisma but otherwise makes for an acceptable, well-dressed, chisel-jawed leading man while Sue Lloyd provided the glamour, parading the fashions of the day with no little humour, although she invariably is reduced to playing the damsel in distress, no Emma Peel her.

The Baron is a somewhat derivative and fairly light entertainment and probably wouldn’t appeal much to anyone who doesn’t, like me, remember first watching it on a black and white TV as a child in the mid-60’s. But that child was me and decades later, I still can’t bring myself to criticise it too much for all its derivation and lack of originality.”

It was made by ITC to follow on from The Saint.

(0958) This will be an extended drops post until the first of IYE’s new/old TV series … as and when things come in. (1247)

 

15. Two more about bird choppers

DAD from comments:

14. The satire of AKH

https://akhaart.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-bunglerati.html

13. Another bringing together of two separate items

… and this:

The BlackRock connection and a nightmare for farmers

That’s one topic … now, digressing, looking at Kathy … she’s showing signs of Kate:

https://www.smalldeadanimals.com

… in that the lady bloggers are relying on the mainly men writers to carry the site, which is why I archived Kate to the Honour Roll. Now, to be fair, I also heavily rely on our patron droppers, as is obvious, but it does not mean I can rest on my laurels, go off on trips etc. … I’m essentially saying that I must still do a fair bit of the downrabbitholing, the basic investigative journo work … you lot would not wear it otherwise.

In a similar way, MMUTR has been in some pretty exalted places out in the real world but he still prefers the nitty gritty tech thing to the organisational side … thank goodness for us, say I. Now, I love Kathy’s site, I did love Kate’s … but … but … but … one must stay true to roots imho … same goes for musical groups.

12. Concerning archives

You may have noticed archives have been added to all WP sites, Jstack already having that … IYE:

“Something I’ve noticed on substack … if you go to header bar there’s “Archive”. That lists all the posts in order and there’s a further choice to see “Discussions” which is probably the next best thing to the comments thingy in the sidebar of ONO.”

Right, I’ve just been experimenting … I recalled that when ONO was stolen, IYE dropped some archives under that month in 2024. Seemed to me that if I posted an archives widget in the sidebar, that made things easier.

Also, I’ve tried a few ways to increase the number of comments displayed in the sidebar widget to 12 from 5 … no luck at the two WPdotcoms … but it worked at HQ.

(0816) Looks grey and bleah out there but no matter. (0900)

 

11. DAD adds to the earlier solar panel destruction item

My daughter, lives on Anglesey, reports…..

“We got the red alerts. It was the worst weather I can recall – and we’re used to lots of wind here. We lost a few facia boards and electricity for a day and a half, but otherwise ok. A family I know had their neighbours roof come off and crash into the front of their house!”

10. Intelligence and competence

9. TDS

8. Memories of my nine hours on a trolley (gurney)

… following my Friday afternoon heart attack some years back:

The promise was to have a private room, which did allow me to see the dawn in there before I was booted out to the women’s ward … only to be relegated to the terminal cases ward … how did he get that then? Well, someone took a shine, obviously … thought it was my new friend, an orderly, Spanish girl, but think it might have been someone higher. That gal was a real friend during many of those hours … Spanish gals are go!

7. Perfect example of a weasel article

… plus other things to moan about after that.

This saved millions? It bloodywell did not … these frankenseeds are one season only, yielding globopsycho billions in funds as seeds need rebuying from Svalbad among other places. We went into all that in the stolen blog … the topic was Codex Alimentarius:

This inserting of innocuous looking lies in both heading and text is unconscionable. For a start, they’ve waited until memories have forgotten the real controversy, then in a sort of National Geographic about the wonders of the world (Atlas Obscura), they create a “controversy” over a lesser matter or else dismiss the original issue as coming to nothing.

 

IYE kindly supplies the solution to the issue of Tuesday’s Baroque, the Advent calendar, plus some fine relief from the litany of horrors out there right now. Also gives us the chance of a relaxed brekky.

(0602) Morning all, up and attem. At NOWP, next post will have a song attached … any idea which? (0639)

 

6. This one’s doing the rounds

5. Roundup of snippets sitting in the queue here

4. DAD at 904

a) Now try to come to terms with the fact that the person who posted this on X is Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission ….

b) Little by little the EV dies. South Korean companies are reconsidering their $54 billion investment blitz……

c) What is that quotation by George Orwell about telling the truth will become a revolutionary act? Pierre Manent causes hundreds of knickers to go into a twist……

(0232) Actually been up gathering and collating for an hour, here goes for Tuesday. (0348) Last shot at shut eye, folks, see you the other side (hopefully). (0351)

 

3. Tide is turning on these “vaxxes”

So much coming out now. Digressing … the pain for me in that item, as redactor/admin, was that I could not show the self-scrolling list as it would not embed in the blog with that topic (imho), thus the screenshot route at least gave the general idea.

2. Steve at 903

Four: Obama corruption, Colorado corruption on Tina Peters … also be careful on the Orange Country claim. More.

Three: Cabinet pics, Hegseth, Mayor Adams, Lara Trump, more.

Two: The Ukraine, Syria, Russia from Syria, much more.

One: Turning on vaxxes, ICC, AI, surveillance lists, more.

1. Information exchange

Last evening, I saw an item on X where some big MSM funder was apoplectic over Elon’s comment about us now being “the media” … at least the MSM being untrusted legacy media … useful for snippets but ignore their analysis like the plague.

In lieu of the MSM’s now rejected view on almost anything, what we’re left with is diffuse … there are some very good amateur pundits and then a continuum down to trash&troll. Trouble is … who’s whom … which is which?

Going back to first principles, we might start with a catalyst, a clip or snippet one of us saw:

It certainly did … they lost control of many of our minds … an increasing number of such minds, though we’re still a minority, the anti-globo-psycho, anti-Wokerati, anti-Karen, which underpins our politics.

My suggestion is that, when you meet any news snippet at all, immediately ask yourself:

• Who is this person, who funds this person, cui bono, whom is he/she part of, what are the hidden connections etc. etc.?

And to answer that, you need to delve … yes, ggl and bing are highly biased left, they almost all are … it’s today’s paradigm, zeitgeist, default position … and yet they can be “got around” by technique:

• Always seek the dirt first … enter some outrageous slur in search, see what comes up … you’re not going to take it onboard but it gives you other lines of enquiry.
• Always go to their About section, where they operate from, to whom they answer, with whom affiliated, how long they’ve been operating, who funds them?

Remember, chaps and chapesses … we’re only as good as our sources. I’m about to quote two iffy ones … one is The Slog where I’m still not sure where he’s at, politically … plus Atlas Obscura, quite Woke left, so beware of that. But as Andy pointed out, there are still stories there, pointers to explore.

Our model as an information exchange is the old journo one of always seeking the truth, the nitty gritty, what the bottom line is:

• Knowing it’s always constrained by Them’s interference and censorship ruses, plus our own safety … there are things we’re simply not going to put into the public domain about ourselves, unless it impinges on or colours our comment … we need to disclose that, e.g. who funds us?
• We’re not godlike … beware the narcissistic pundit who speaks of his/her “followers” … your reputation is only as good as the quality of your input today, measured against your previous.
• We go the way of all things, eventually, we’re a candle or beam from a lighthouse for now … for now, folks … then you must look elsewhere … same painstaking evaluation.
• Don’t rely on one source, e.g. us … have a range, a bloground or soc-med round … hut every single one needs delving into … what is his bias? Why? What’s his “thang”? Never take information exchange at face value.

I’m going to run this at OoL as well.