Don’t say I never got you anything for the holiday.

What’s that? You didn’t ask for old Tumblr gifsets? Whoops. Sorry about that…

(14 October 2015)

“Most mortals on Earth
With smoke live in strife
And many a beauty
Is smothered alive
Great London itself
The Emporium of the World
With clouds of black smoke
Is constantly furled
Smoke begot chimneys
Chimneys beget smoke
Soot, fires, and filth
All prevented by coke.” ”“ James Burke, Connections

“The Long Chain” is the seventh episode of the original Connections series, and it’s one of the most densely packed with material. Freighters to coal tar to quinine to dyes to fertilizers to polymers.

It’s also blessed with this bizarre little sidelight so I figured I’d share it with you fine folks. It’s not often that Mister Burke downright pokes fun at an historical figure like this, after all.

Picking a segment from the back half of this episode is going to be a daunting task

(27 October 2015)

“Very big-deal people, the Junkers. They’ve got the government in their pocket. So, none of that cheap American wheat gets into Germany where the population is rocketing and they need food. Okay, everybody can eat rye! Uh uh. The Junkers are exporting it all to make money.” ”“ James Burke, Connections

(A quick lesson in auf Deutsch: Their J is pronounced like our Y.)

I had a hard time picking the second set from this episode; originally I was going to use the preceding bit to this segment, but I couldn’t resist the “bread” joke. So here you are. Be grateful. You almost got the “blew it” handkerchief gag.

I’m probably going to add “that’s what I thought I said” to my little collection of reaction gifs, come to think of it.

At any rate: That’s another one down, three more to go on the Connections tour. We’ve finally finished off “The Great Chain.” Next up we shall “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry.” I don’t think I can make the famous one-take rocket launch Thermos flask bit work in a gifset, but I’ll come up with something. Stick around, won’t you?

(Edit: I have repaired the typo in the 5th image. Sorry about that!)