(1) “The Empire Strikes Thomas Kinkade” points to Jeff Bennett’s satirical improvements on “The Artist of Light.”
(2) American wizards have a completely different word for “Muggle” reveals Entertainment Weekly.
Next year’s Harry Potter prequel film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in 1926 New York, where the wizarding community uses another term entirely for people without magical powers.
In shifting the franchise away from the U.K., author J.K. Rowling — who also wrote the movie’s screenplay — is poised to introduce several new words into the Potterverse lexicon, and the most significant might be what Stateside wizards say instead of Muggle: “No-Maj” (pronounced “no madge,” as in “no magic”).
(3) And here’s a gallery of images from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
In Entertainment Weekly’s new issue, we go on the set and deep inside the chamber of secrets of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Here’s your first look at Katherine Waterston as Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein, Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Alison Sudol and Queenie Goldstein, and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski.
(4) More alleged secrets are spilled by the host of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert:
J.K. Rowling can’t stop revealing “Harry Potter” secrets, even though the last book came out over 8 years ago. It’s time for Stephen to take spoilers into his own hands.
(5) Adam Whitehead, in “A History of Epic Fantasy – Part 25“, courts controversy by asking about the Harry Potter series:
But is it really an epic fantasy?
That question has been asked many times before and has proven slightly controversial. The more obvious answer may be no: the books are set in the “real” world, with some of the action taking place in real locations such as London. Much of the story is set in and around a single location, Hogwarts, whilst epic fantasy is often based around a long journey or series of journeys across a fantastical landscape. Epic fantasy also usually features a large and diverse number of nonhuman races, whilst Harry Potter only has a small number of them, and all of the primary protagonists are human. Epic fantasy also relies on characters with diverse skillsets, whilst in Potter pretty much everyone of note is a wizard.
But there are strong arguments to the counter. The books may touch on the real world but most of the action takes place in original, fantastical locations such as Hogwarts. Also, the books make much of the idea of the world being similar to ours, but one where magic is real (if mostly secret) and the impact that has on government and society, making it arguably an alt-history.
(6) At World Fantasy Con 2015:
When Gene Wolfe interviewed Tom Doherty & we all interviewed them both. @WmReeve @Prittithings @alatalan #WFC2015 pic.twitter.com/JUHgPtJNQr
— Christine M. Cohen (@rileymarie42) November 8, 2015
(7) Also allegedly sighted at WFC by Adam Christopher. No context!
Well I don't know about you, but I love a good SFF street fight… pic.twitter.com/73V0IzGndI
— Adam Christopher (@ghostfinder) November 7, 2015
(8) Ethan Mills continues his celebration of Stoic Week at Examined Worlds.
Friday: Relationships with Other People and Society Stoics, Vulcans, Buddhists, and artificial intelligences alike are often accused of being emotionless and not caring about other people. In all four cases, this is a mistake (although in the case of AIs, it may depend on which AI you’re talking about). See my philosophical tribute to Leonard Nimoy for more on this point. As any sufficiently nerdy Star Trek fan knows, Vulcans actually have emotions, but, in many of the same ways as Stoics, they train themselves to move beyond being controlled by negative emotions and they cultivate positive emotions like compassion. Vulcans like Spock do care about their friends. The deep friendship that Spock feels for his crew mates, especially Kirk and McCoy, is unmistakable, as illustrated most poignantly near the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (whether Spock is a utilitarian or virtue ethicist is hard to say.)
Marcus Aurelius realized that cultivating compassion for everyone is often hard, especially when other people are obnoxious (as they so often are, even more so now that we have internet trolls).
(9) In “Guillermo del Toro’s Guide to Gothic Romance” at Rookie the director lists the Gothic romances that influenced him.
Do you ever wonder what goes on in the wondrous mind of director, producer, and screenwriter Guillermo del Toro? Yes? Same. Well, to chime with the recent release of his creepy, goth thriller Crimson Peak, Guillermo has curated a syllabus of the Gothic and Gothic romance novels, short stories, and engravings that influenced the making of the film. He sent us these recommendations with the following words: “I hope you enjoy some of these as fall or winter reads by the fireplace.” Before you post up beside an actual fire, here’s what Guillermo del Toro has to say about these Gothic essentials.
First on the list –
Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu This book defines the link between fairy tales and gothic romance. Uncle Silas is a convoluted, highly perverse mystery-thriller about innocence in danger, written by the master of ghost stories, J. Sheridan Le Fanu. It’s a dense but rewarding read, and it was crucial to Crimson Peak.
(10) Superman will make a (blurry) appearance on the next episode of Supergirl.
Consequently, Josh Wilding at We Got This Covered is a little bit crabby.
While it makes some sense that Superman would come and save the inexperienced Supergirl, the series really needs to find a way to take him off the board so he’s not continuously used as a plot device in future. If that’s not going to happen, then he should make an actual appearance instead of all these endless teases.
(11) Cedar Sanderson, “The Slow, Dark Eclipse of the Soul”, at Mad Genius Club.
It’s been a discouraging week, overall. First there was the article about SF writers coming into the genre without reading the classics of the genre. Then, when I started working on a list of classics available free (or very cheap) online to suggest to potential readers, I got a comment to the effect of ‘classics suck, they should die in a fire, and why should anyone read them?’
In the aftermath of that, which left me wondering why I was trying to make this list… I don’t make the lists to force anyone to read anything. I can’t – who am I? I’m not the teacher, or the… anything. I’m just someone who likes to create these lists of recommendations with input from others, and then they generate even more suggestions in the comments. I make lists to be beginnings, not endings. The hope is that someone will see a title they had never read, or had forgotten, and that strikes mental sparks in folks who have favorites they want to share, and so on. It’s about building up the genre, not tearing it down. I’d never say ‘you must read these books, and only these books, all others are anathema.’
As I was saying, I was still mentally mulling the whole ‘classics suck!’ thing over in my head, when a minor controversy erupted over writing book reviews. When, if ever, is it ok to be critical in a review? Should we put ourselves in a position where we say ‘well, that author is on my side, ergo I must never say a bad word about his work?’ Well, no, I don’t think so. Nor do I think that the occasional critical review is a bad thing – as long as the review is analyzing the work, not the author, and leavened with the good along with the bad. That’s how I do it. But it’s discouraging to be told that we can’t present a critical view of a work, simply because of who the author is.
(12) Fans are so smitten by the idea of an illuminated toy lightsaber that’s sturdy enough to bash around that they have fully funded Calimacil’s Kickstarter and then some – raising $46,889, well beyond the $38,259 goal.
The challenge was to build a lightsaber made of foam for safe play. To integrate light, we had to enhance the foam formula we normally use to build our products. Moreover, we had to develop a new technology into the handle to enable both light and sound. Thus our journey began, and we successfully achieved the creation of a fully immersive foam LEDsaber!….
The LEDsaber can communicate with a smartphone through Bluetooth. With that communication enabled, you will be able to customize the light effects of the blade. Multiple choices of colors are available: red, blue, green, orange and more. Even more, you can create various visual plasma effects on the blade….
Calimacil has no intention to commercialize the product using any kind of trademark associated to Disney. For the purpose of the kickstarter campaign we use the term LEDsaber.
(13) A lot of people post about their pets passing away, and I empathize with their sadness and loss.
It’s rare that someone can communicate what it was like to be in relationship with that animal, as John Scalzi has in “Lopsided Cat, 2000-2015”.
(14) And I therefore place next a BBC video in which an “Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station” –
A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died.
Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on the pipes after recording a message about research scientist Victor Hurst, who was involved in astronaut training.
It is thought to be the first time that bagpipes have been played in space.
(15) Internet English – the language in which “honest” means “brutal”!
The Force is awakening soon – and we have an honest look at the trailer for the movie that everyone’s already going to see anyway.
[Thanks to Mark-kitteh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Hampus Eckerman.]
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@Soon Lee
I have a few qualms about the bit which seems a little insulting to new writers (especially given the Puppy tendency to claim that once an idea has been done at all then doing it in a different way is just unoriginal), but the segment you pulled out is very good. Particularly since Treasure Island was the first book that got me really excited as a kidlet. 🙂 Quite refreshing to read a MGC essay which isn’t infuriating.
@Stevie
I’ve put it on the list, I promise! I’ll get around to it eventually, but (aside from the flu jab which I can hopefully get out of the way reasonably easily) the list is quite long and has to wait on my cope levels recovering from the last round of tests and things. Health is like buses, problems all come along at once…
In Australia by law sausages have to contain at least 50% meat and can’t have fat more than 50% of the weight of meat(600gm meat > 300gm fat). The rest has traditionally been bread crumbs(although many suggest it is more likely wood shavings based on knowing he stinginess of their local butcher).
Personally I don’t mind people laying cultural claim to things, so long as it doesn’t deny anyone else’s. Sausage rolls? Go ahead!
As a Canadian, we have stolen all of our late night food from others. Pizza and Middle-Eastern fare and hotdogs dominate, along side the 24 hour McDonalds. Oddly, the best sausage rolls are available in the west end of Toronto at the Ukrainian bakery.
One of the nice things is to hit up a hotdog cart late at night, and choose between the half dozen sausages they have available.
Hi all! I’m back from visiting my family and somewhat recovered from it. I enjoyed reading posts and comments from Nov1-today. Your comments had me cracking up although I think you overfed a couple of the trolls.
Hard scifi & pronouns – wow did people have opinions.
Enjoyed the thread on refs for Nicholls on “classic” books for “younger” people to read except for the trolling gatekeeper.
The longer discussion/set of post leading to Cedar’s latest post have been interesting. I used to have a few lists for books if asked then I met Goodreads and thought it would fill that spot better. Lost my lists and turns out Goodreads only works if you set the lists up right. LOL
Doesn’t everyone tell the teacher/professor when they won’t read a book and why? I’ve had to write a few essays on why I wouldn’t read the assigned book as well as read and write about an alternative book.
Snugs and so true. I have a long list of things I need to take care of now that I’m back from traveling.
Dex, Kitchener Waterloo now has shawarma poutine. It’s awesome.
But Dex, that’s not true–you’ve got poutine!
I went to the grocery store today and observed the sausage selection in the butcher case. There were hotdogs, but also several kinds of bratwurst (cheese-stuffed, beer & onion, raw), Polish sausage, kielbasa (which I thought was the same as Polish, guess not), Ukrainian sausage, a dark bison sausage with dried cherries and walnuts, boudin blanc, chorizo (tube and non), breakfast sausage (free-form), and merguez. The salamis and such are kept elsewhere.
I am not sure why I care about this. In any case, I got some bratwurst.
In reference to reading lists: Yes, there’s some notable gaps in my Masters reading. Practically the whole 18th century, all that Rousseau, somehow I just lost that page… dog ate it, I guess…
Filers, I hope you can help me with a problem. My 9 year old nephew took a golf ball to the eye thus weekend, and as a result of bleeding and swelling within the eyeball, he is forbidden not only from all physical activity, but from all activity that involves eye movements. So no reading, no television, and no video games for at least a few days.
I am looking for recommendations for engaging children’s books-on-tape, or whatever they call the product that audible.com sells. He is currently reading the Harry Potter books, has enjoyed the Wimpy Kid and Timmy Failure books, and likes dinosaurs and ninjas. My gut feeling is that books with a larger cast and sound effects might go over better than just a single reader, but he is used to being read aloud to.
He has access to iPads and such, so if it can be bought online and downloaded, great!
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. He’s 9 hours drive away, so I can’t help his family out in person… @.@
@LunarG:
If the kid’s a Doctor Who fan, Big Finish has absolute gobs of material. Full-cast audio dramas, usually with the television cast in the big roles. It does pitch somewhere above the usual nine-year-old bracket, but if he’s ready for the later Harry Potter stuff, it should be fine.
Thank you to everyone who has offered their input on sausages. It has been educational. 😉
I have solved my problem by never expecting anything labeled “sausage” in the UK, OZ, or NZ to be spicy, and by generally avoiding those items in said locales to avoid disappointment — which is fine, because those countries have other tasty items which are well worth sampling. (OMG! Tender kangaroo and crocodile and lamb are to die for! And I f*cking love ostrich!)
@ LunarG on November 8, 2015 at 9:14 pm
Off the top of my head:
Diane Duane’s Young Wizard books are all available in audio versions.
Also Diane Wynne Jones’ Chronicles of Chrestomanci, and Howl’s Moving Castle series.
Our own Wombat’s Castle Hangnail and Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew as well.
I’d bet there’s a good bunch of Tolkein.
Yes, Rev. Bob: Definitely Big Finish stuff!
Possibly Welcome to Nightvale, though give it a listen to see if you think it is too much.
(It would have worked with my kid, but mileage varies.)
I hope he’s doing well.
I meant to remember to say that earlier, but the whole raised-by-wolves thing, I forgot.
LunarG: My 9 year old nephew took a golf ball to the eye thus weekend, and… he is forbidden… from all activity that involves eye movements. So no reading
Poor guy. That sounds incredibly painful — and then to hit him with the Double Whammy Of No Reading.
I hope that the pain goes away quickly, and that he heals (and reads again) swiftly.
Tasha Turner: Doesn’t everyone tell the teacher/professor when they won’t read a book and why? I’ve had to write a few essays on why I wouldn’t read the assigned book as well as read and write about an alternative book.
Er–no, everyone doesn’t. Trust me. You are forgetting that one of the common motivations for skipping an assigned book is “Because it’s hard and I don’t want to do that much work!” Any course of action that might result in equal or greater work (writing an explanatory essay, reading and writing about an alternate book) is to be avoided.
And yeah, sometimes the student finds it difficult to tell the teacher “I hate this book,” because the student believes that the book is something that the teacher actually likes. I make a habit of telling students my own emotional responses to books when I assign them–as in, “this is the most boring and irritating book ever written, but unfortunately it influenced everything that came after it, so we have to read and discuss it.” Case in point: Richardson’s Pamela . . . gack.
Southern? You can’t fool me. Everyone knows the Earth ride on the back of a giant turtle. There are no people down there.
For us a hot dog is specifically a sausage served in a split bread roll. And generally the blandest possible sausage imaginable.
While I respect the perspective this comes from, as an American I have to say that a hot dog (or, as it was originally known, a frankfurter) is a thing in and of itself, and a good hot dog is a pleasure. For the vegetarians among us, I can say that the Field Roast brand frankfurters are very tasty. (They make very good pigs-in-blankets.)
Doesn’t everyone tell the teacher/professor when they won’t read a book and why?
I remember telling my high school junior-year English teacher “…yeah, I’m not doing this assignment on this book.”
Him: “You realize I have to give you an F, in that case.”
Me: “Yeah, that’s cool.”
(This was the teacher where, for the “do a report on an art movement” assignment, I chose Dada. I did mine in three parts. Part One: a hundred or so keywords about Dada, which I printed, cut out, and placed in an unsealed envelope, which I handed in. Part Two: my bibliography, which I printed on iron-on paper (although I didn’t reverse it for readability) and ironed onto a shirt which I wore to class. Part Three: “I will not be turning in this part.”
He gave me a B+, which I interpreted as “Clever, and I recognize you did the research, but not clever enough for an A.”)
LunarG: Sympathies for that poor boy!
Neil Gaiman is an excellent reader, if you can find a copy of Coraline. Otherwise, alas, I have no easy suggestions – my only recent audio experiences are the decidedly adults only Kevin and Ursula Eat cheap Podcast, and mainlining the Hidden Almanac (By the same duo) mini-casts. (I’ve gone from the start to January this year in the last two weeks.)
_________
I didn’t *read* the last act of Hamlet while we were studying it in High School (I have since), but I had seen it acted out at least once (Plus the strongly abridged movie version), read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at least once, knew from discussions what happened — and my boyfriend of the time (a theatre nut then and now) pretty much literally taught the play to his class in the teacher’s stead. (As in, even other students admitted it went “Okay, we’re discussing Act II, Scene II – B., what do you have to say?”) I always wondered at myself for that.
Logically, it made no sense. I believe I finished In Evil Hour, which I hated with fierce passion, in the same year. And while it took me a bit of work to get started, I was used to and even enjoyed reading Shakespeare. I just felt I already had it all down pat. (I was a bit wrong, but not enough to show in essays).
I failed to finish some books in University too, but because I loathed what I did read. I would always START one.
(And My Demi-Wri-Mo count stopped at exactly 5,000 today.)
@JJ,
So in the USA, “sausage” implies spicy, whereas elsewhere, sausage is ground-up meat in a casing, of which “spicy sausage” is a subset. When I want to describe a spicy sausage, I don’t call it sausage, but would specify e.g. chorizo or merguez.
Nice to have you back, Tasha.
@ LunarG
Sorry to hear about your nephew. Hope he recovers fully. I’m sure other Filers are more current on great kid’s stories. Maybe check into some entertainments/toys designed for vision impaired children?
LunarG: how horrible.
Does he like Doctor Who? If so then have a look at bigfinish.com
Sausage can be mild, but it at least has pepper in it. Most sausages are in varying levels of spicy, though the really fiery ones are thanks to our friends in Latin America, and here I’ve got to go back to the Mexican supermarket again. Your Iberian and Eastern European sausages all go by their proper names, though. A hot dog is not a sausage, though it has the same shape.
People have been skipping the assigned reading as long as there has been assigned reading. Once Mr. Cliff invented his Notes, there was very little reason not to skip it when you bogged down partway through. But never count on the movie version, and never admit it to the teacher.
LunarG: So sorry about your nephew’s eye injury.
Audiobooks aren’t my expertise, but there are a lot of free, downloadable radio productions. If I recall, James Davis Nicoll has identified many sources of sf&f episodes — perhaps he will see this and put up a link to his article(s). And in the meantime, there’s Google.
As a life-long resident of the US, I have *never* heard sausage associated with spiciness. Neither in the midwest nor the west coast. It seems to me to be something peculiar to the region JJ is from, and I advise him to use caution when visiting other parts of the US, as well as all those other countries he mentioned.
@Xtifr & a few others: Ditto; sausage to me doesn’t imply spiciness. I eat sausages and rice regularly, and I’m a spice wimp – yet I have plenty of variety to choose from.
ETA: Er, I should say, I live on the East Coast of the USA.
LunarG: How horrible! Hope it gets better.
BBC had some great radio dramatizations of books. The Hobbit and so on. And seems like a good time to listen to the original Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
Xtifr: As a life-long resident of the US, I have *never* heard sausage associated with spiciness. Neither in the midwest nor the west coast. It seems to me to be something peculiar to the region JJ is from, and I advise him to use caution when visiting other parts of the US.
Yeah, nah, I was born and grew up in the midwest U.S. — lived there for many years as an adult (years which I have tried, only partially successfully, to wipe from memory), and when I went to the grocery store, if something said “sausage”, it was either a ground mince with spices added, or ground mince with spices added shoved inside link casings. In no case was meat labeled “sausage” there ever anything less than at least mildly spicy — even if the spices were just flavorful herbs and garlic. If there were no spices in it, it was ground pork, ground beef, or pork or beef hot dogs. I have found the meat in the Pacific Northwest grocery stores to be the same.
It’s all good — as I said, I’ve adjusted my expectations, and now I just avoid anything labeled “sausage” in other countries, unless I know for certain that it is not just going to be bland meat. There are always plenty of other tasty options to try.
Lexica: as an American I have to say that a hot dog (or, as it was originally known, a frankfurter) is a thing in and of itself, and a good hot dog is a pleasure.
I appreciate that you’ve added this qualification, because it’s true: on a few rare occasions, I have been fortunate enough to have a “real”, high-quality hot dog — and those put the usual garden-variety, grocery-store American hot dogs to shame. They are not inexpensive — but the cost is definitely worth it — especially when the dog is complemented with onions, dill relish, and mustard.
Audiobooks from Full Cast Audio available on Amazon/Audible.
Aimed primarily at younger readers, and beautifully produced. Bruce Coville is the man to thank for these.
Whether “spicy” is your preferred descriptor or not, what a sausage can’t be is bland. Something that is legitimately called a hot dog can be very, very good, but it’s not what’s known as “sausage” in the US.
No celery salt? Heathen!
As I remember, David Lodge’s Humilation game was also cited in a certain 1978 fanzine that I once quoted in a con talk:
Meredith-Approved Ticky Box™
To me, the mark of a good sausage is that one doesn’t need to dress it up. Just give it a decent bun and chow down.
A hot dog, on the other hand… well, there you’ve got some options, as long as you start with a decent dog. Can’t do much if the meat don’t work. I most commonly opt for a double-stripe of ketchup (and some cheese, if available), but if I really want to do it up right, I need some barbecue sauce. A little of that on top of the dog, add your chili and cheese, and then you’ve got something. Works best when steamed, of course, so the cheese has a chance to melt and the bun’s nice and soft…
@Tasha
Good to have you back!
@LunarG
I’m not much for audio books, and my favourite one from when I was younger (The Blood-and-Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak by Margaret Mahy) doesn’t seem to have been released as a download yet. 🙁 I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful. I agree with Hampus that the radio productions of Hitchhiker’s Guide are generally considered very good. I hope your nephew recovers well and with a minimum of stress.
@JJ (re sausage)
Oooh, okay, I get it. Right, firstly: Avoid breakfast sausage and probably things just labeled ‘sausage’ because those are usually lightly seasoned. You’d probably be fine with Lincolnshire sausage (oodles of sage) and a few other regional variations, but basically you want to look for sausages with a descriptive word in front of them because that usually means seasoning and lots of it. It won’t be spicy-hot usually, but it will have lots of herbs in.
A sausage, or sausage meat, at a minimum has to include salt – that is the origin of the name and its local variations, “sal” being latin for salt, a sausage-making a form of food preservation
All other spices and flavourings are optional.
There’s a sausage which is basically a very mild Lincolnshire sausage – they’re called Boston sausages but only, as far as I can tell, because the shop that makes them is in Boston (Lincolnshire Boston, not USA Boston) – but is made with such good quality meat that it tastes brilliant. I’d recommend it to almost anyone, but if JJ wants heavily seasoned sausages then true Lincolnshire would definitely be a better option. 🙂
In my WoW guild, there have been quite a lot of people from Denmark (you meet one Dane, and soon after you know, like, every single one on the server, they run in packs) and some of them are very sniffy about British-style sausages. Apparently a good sausage ought to have more than 100% meat and nothing else will do!
@LunarG: The poor kid. I hope you can help find things he will enjoy while healing.
No salt required. My MIL was on a low salt diet and we made sausage with no salt. She loved sausage gravy and biscuits.
@LunarG: Ouch! So sorry.
@LunarG
Audiobooks for kids that I really enjoyed:
Thor’s Wedding Day
By the Great Horn Spoon
The Wizard of Oz
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Also, I think the Brains On podcast is interesting. It’s sort of Science Friday for kids.
JJ sez:
Okay, when you say “spicy” do you just mean that there are added flavors (which may be herbs, garlic, etc.)? Because I think most people, including my also-Midwestern self, use “spicy” to mean “hot.” I think this has been a source of confusion.
David Langford: So much for Cedar’s Viewing With Alarm about young pros not Reading The Classics. Even back in the ’70s, pros, old and young, weren’t necessarily Reading The Classics.
Further recommendation for audio – the original Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (both series).
Yes, spicy to my ear usually means has had chilis or peppers or some other *hot* agent, not “Is stuffed full of sage and basil and garlic. I would never use “spicy” to describe turkey dressing, but the best turkey dressing is usually chock full of herbs and spices.
I usually use savoury to denote ‘non-hot but full of herbs’. Or I name the herbs if I can ID them. (my palette is middlin’, I don’t have a gourmand’s sense in the slightest.)
@LunarG no recommendations but may he have a speedy and complete recovery and family and friends have the strength to keep their sanity through this difficult time.
So many thanks to Reverend Bob, Lauowolf, JJ, Lenora Rose, junego, nickpheas, Mike Glyer, Hampus Eckerman, Lis Carey, Meredith, Peace is my Middle Name, Jim Henley, World Weary, Nicholas Whyte, Tasha Turner, and anyone I may have missed for your kind words, positive thoughts, and suggestions. All of them matter to us! Everything ought to heal properly, if my sister can keep him still and quiet and not using his eyes in a darkened room for a week. Easy peasy, right?
I had not thought of radio dramas at all, BBC-produced or otherwise, and I had not heard of the Brains On Podcast.
Lis, that link is going to his Mom, grandparents, and anyone else looking to get him get-well gifts. And I might even be able to thank Bruce Coville in person this spring, as we usually both attend Smith College’s ConBust (which, by the way, I highly recommend — very professionally run, despite being student organized, and with a participant demographic trending heavily female and QUILTBAG.)
If you ask just for a sausage roll before noon in Scotland you may receive one of three things:
An actual sausage roll, ie pork sausage in flaky pastry
A link sausage roll, pork or beef links in a morning roll (bap)
A sliced or Lorne sausage roll, just what it says a square slice of mixed beef/pork sausage meat again in a roll. Canadians may know of this as square sausage.
Most likely you’ll be asked for clarification.
Also spicy I’d normally think will have some capsicum heat to it, spiced on the other hand would imply more cinnamon or ginger like warmth.
I use the term flavorful for many things I cook that aren’t spicy/hot but which I’ve used many herbs/bulbs/things to add flavor to meat and/or vegetables.
Even in the kosher world we now have flavorful as well as hot/spicy sausage such as Italian (garlic/basil/oregano/etc), Chorizo, and now I’m drawing a blank*. Over the last 5-10 years there has been an increase in the kosher and vegan/vegetarian communities for pork food alternatives.
*brain fog hits hard impacting Googlefu for at least a month after traveling. One minute I have whole thoughts and the next I barely remember my name. Bah
Wouldn’t it be simpler and easier on the grey cells to just to set up about Android app that uses TV Tropes as a reference database? Then they can find out not only whether a given idea had been used, but house overused it is.
“Your idea, “Time Traveller becomes his own ancestor” has been used 58 times before. Click here for references.”
Your idea “Brave warrior has to fight both the alien menace and Earth’s own conniving politicians” has been used ….loading…..WARNING! FILE TOO LARGE FOR DESTINATION FILE”
The whole read the classics thing seems to go off the rails in a lot of places.
Some older stories are still perfectly readable, still fun, and people still read them and still have fun with them.
Some of them less so, of course.
The term “classic” itself is problematic.
The question of whether any one work is a classic, or merely an outdated piece of shlock, is always good for hours of debate.
At the most basic level, I think, if you have to force or shame people into reading it, it probably isn’t a classic.
And no one has to read anything, frankly, simply in order to legitimately read and – yes – discuss current works.
For example, anyone can read The Martian and enjoy the heck out of it and have perfectly legitimate opinions about it.
But a reader who can then also place it in the great line of heroic engineer competence porn will end up having more of a conversation with the work itself, and with other readers, than if they think this is the only thing like this ever.
Sort of the way reading Harry Potter with a head full of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Diane Wynne Jones, and Diane Duane gives one a different feel for it than reading it with none of that background does.
It doesn’t mean a naive reader can’t enjoy it, or that their thoughts about it are invalid, just that a reader with a broader background will, for example, be able to appreciate it in the context of a tradition in a way someone less widely read cannot.
Heck, a person can read Kowal without having read Austen, though it would be a sort of a shame.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean anyone is reading anything wrong either way, just reading it differently.
An author can even write competence porn, or YA fantasy, with no awareness whatsoever of their antecedents (though I tend to think a person would be likely to produce a better work with some awareness of the genre).
— Would Star Wars have been as much fun without its homage to the 50s serials?
Someone who doesn’t know the field doesn’t know about all the toys there are to play with.
It doesn’t mean they can’t play, just that it will be a poorer game.
But if someone wants to be making claims about the very nature of the genre itself, well then they really ought to be familiar with at least the works they claim are classic.
For one thing, it will save a lot of embarrassment.
For another, and this is just logical, reading widely to gain a broader knowledge of the field might shape judgements differently than merely reading to seek examples to prove a theory already held.
I am now curious as to where on the sausage spectrum fall the “beer and onion sausage rolls” that have recently appeared on Old Chicago’s menu (a US chain of taproom restaurants selling tasty pizza, pasta, and bar food). Other than “delicious” I mean. They were definitely delicious. They came with a red/marinara sauce for dipping, which I found utterly unnecessary.
The word “sausage” as I am accustomed to using/hearing doesn’t necessarily require a casing. It’s common to find packages of “bulk” sausage, which is to say, spiced/herbed/seasoned ground meat sold by the pound rather than by the link.
The thing about “strong female protagonists scares readers away” puts me in mind of the comic showing a man and a woman at a public gym, both of them working out, the man side-eyeing the woman and thinking, “Gross! I would hate to date someone who could beat me up,” and the woman looking ruefully at the man and thinking, “Me too.” (Link absent because my Google Fu is failing me here.)