The Flare Path: Postponed

Would you mind awfully taking that milk off the boil, ironing those antimacassars, collecting this prescription, and feeding Blohm and Voss for me (there are some dead mice on the second shelf down in the fridge)? I'm ludicrously busy today, so busy in fact today's Flare Path has ended up shorter than a Brewster Buffalo with a calcium deficiency. Below the jump is a foxer and nothing else. Return at 2100hrs GMT and the reason for my blue-arsed fly impersonation will become clear.

The Flare Path Foxer

Last week's mercurial talents were Rorschach617, Syt, Shiloh, Stugle, mrpier, AbyssUK, AFKAMC, iainl, All is Well, and billy_bunter. Blast from the past Electricfox gets a special FP flair Point signed by crooked cartographer Gerry Mander for working out who secured Roman's vote in the May 7 general election.

(Theme: mercury)

a Fedje in Norway (nearby, mercury freighter U-864 met its end)
b The emblem of Witchland in The Worm Ouroboros, a novel set on Mercury
c Manifold pressure gauge (manifold pressure is measured in inches of mercury)
d A syphilis sufferer (Mercury was one of the earliest treatments for the disease)
e Gloster Gauntlet (powered by a Bristol mercury engine)
f Bloodbones, a Jackson/Livingstone Fighting Fantasy book starring Captain Cinnabar (Cinnabar is a mercury ore. Livingstonite is a mercury antimony sulfosalt mineral)
g KRETA armband (the Axis assault on Crete was codenamed Operation Mercury)
h 3D Ant Attack (published by Quicksilva)
i William Eugene Smith (photographer best known for his WW2 images and his photo essay on the Minamata poisonings)

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Defoxing. The Basics

More often than not foxers are collages with a hidden theme (past themes have included Robin Hood, golf, Swan Lake, the assassination of President Garfield, the Suez Canal, and Janice Joplin). Once the majority of collage components have been identified in the comments section, it's usually not long before some sharp-eyed lateral thinker spots a link and guesses the theme. Everyone's welcome to play, but arrive late and chances are you'll find nothing but scraps of fur and the odd whisker left undefoxed.

(All answers in one thread, please)