Let loose the recalcitrant grapefruit!

Marking is over! It's done! I can now be boring on a variety of subjects, not all concerned with tabulating marks onto a spreadsheet and scowling at the trend evident in the marks. It's a worrying trend but one that mustn't be dwelled upon. You know who you are, people out there. Grumble grumble, apple pies at twenty paces, giant chocolate flakes up the nose, mutter gripe. Still, if attention must be paid to anything then it would be to preparing the next module instead of premature self-criticism and self-loathing; That can be saved for when there's ice cream available in large quantities.

Sunday, today is Sunday, and that's a really awkward day. For one thing, it is the Church and State ordained day of rest, as imposed upon a largely non-churchgoing or other-faith population. Church and State being intertwined is one of those things that is very hard to swallow if you're an impatient soul in a world of madness and hurry. When I was little Sundays were interminable, the only bright spots being the opportunity to read as much of the day away as possible once 'The Avengers' or 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' had finished on Channel 4 in the morning. There's something very potent about 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' on a day when the government had closed down as many things as it can due to religious or maybe public health reasons. Is it possible that I've never mentioned 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' here on the Quirky Muffin? On the other hand Sunday was always awkward as it is the day when rest and recreation is practically prescribed by all. What, you want to do something? Really? Are you sick?

Back to 'Voyage': In retrospect the pre-eminent science fiction shows of the 1960s were 'Star Trek', which liberated the genre from being manacled to horror, and 'Voyage' which degenerated over time and interminable meddling from either Irwin Allen or the network into the quintessential 'scary monsters and aliens invade the Earth' idiot show. And when I say it degenerated there is no mistake about the word: It bombed creatively from a serious black and white show into one of the fluffiest and corny monster shows to ever grace the screen. There is actual visible shock on the faces of the super-professional lead actors Richard Basehart and David Hedison with each down twist in the show - which would be terrible if each down twist didn't make it ever more hilarious! 'Voyage' was the show that went down, down and way on down to the pit of lunatic meddling and then did a conga line at the bottom just to show it had no shame!

Oh, Sundays you were so hard to get through. Looking through the television channels (all four of them!) would always put you in danger of stumbling over 'Songs Of Praise' or 'Points Of View' and not even the temporary respite of 'Ski Sunday' would guarantee more than half an hour of freedom! Why didn't we go out for more walks? I don't know. Only Sunday mornings were fun, and maybe because all the people who might be offended would supposedly be at ceremonies and worship. It's little better now, of course, except that we have the Internet and DVDs in this timeframe and worse television. I miss reruns; They were the best part of television when they still happened on the main channels. Blast you, extra channels for making everything more expensive and hard to see.

Can you imagine that anyone would pay money to show 'Voyage'? A show where literally the view wouldn't be surprised to hear the 'Let loose the recalcitrant grapefruit!'? Oh, I wish they'd done a story like that. Bring back the shlock, people, we need it!

O.