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Topic ID: 120
#0, (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-01-14 at 02:32 AM
LAST EDITED ON Mar-09-19 AT 08:09 PM (EST)
 
Annotations by Gryphon
Annotations by Phil
Annotations by Anne

[10] Familiar Spirits - This title is doubly-loaded - one for finding people of a similar spirit, and the other for family spirit, the relationships that go into making such a dynamic.

(It's also the expansion of the traditional shorthand use of "familiar" as a noun, as in a witch's familiar.)

[59] a buzzcut, intense young man - This is none other than Mr. Tezuo Nishimura, last seen performing similar miracles of shop setup for Ben Stark over in Bubblegum Crisis: The Iron Age. (Well, he's not the same one, but... you know.)

[188] SCM logotype -

First adopted in 203 ASC/SY 2322, with the introduction of the Galactic Standard language in Dìqiú.

[224] RFQ - Request for Quotation, the document soliciting bids for a project.

[267] old-fashioned glass doorknob - This is absolutely not a Marvel Cinematic Universe Arc Reactor, and Tony Stark had absolutely nothing to do with helping Skuld build it.

(Actually, it was Don Griffin)

Here at Eyrie Productions, we believe in recycling. That's the same prop as from the arc reactor activation scene in BGC: The Iron Age. :)

[276] silvery-white face of her Lens - The circumstances of Korra's lensing(s) will be covered elsewhere, someday Soon™.

[436] "What would Aang do?" - Also a line of popular tee-shirts in the more holistically-oriented youth culture in the United Republic. ("What Would Korra Do?" shirts are more for the extreme-sports set.)

[519] Fire Lord Zuko - This would be Zuko as he appears in the "Old Friends" poster from San Diego ComicCon.

(TLOK Book 1 artbook, page 143.)

[578] Aye-Aye and me - Aye-Aye is an aye-aye spirit, one of the many denizens of the Spirit Wilds of the pre-Avatar era, and became a close friend of the first Avatar, Wan, ten thousand years ago. Since spirits are immortal within the Spirit World, he is still around in the present day.

[585] We have tea in his tea house - As seen in The Legend of Korra Book 2, Chapter 10 ("A New Spiritual Age")

[588] a departed soul - General Iroh (35-130 ASC, 2154-2249), firstborn son of Fire Lord Azulon, had a long and storied life, including liberating Ba Sing Se from the Fire Nation occupation in 100 ASC - though he rated his greatest accomplishment as helping to guide his nephew Zuko (later Fire Lord) to become the man he truly could become. A deeply spiritual man (at least after the failed siege of Ba Sing Se), on his deathbed he decided to send his spirit-soul to the Spirit World (instead of Valhalla, which he didn't know existed), in order to aid others who might travel there (and to set up his own tea shop for the spirits). It was only later that he learned of Asgard and the other afterlife Realms there.

[590] afterlives - The astral planes are sort of an adjunct to the known afterlives, filling in the gaps between Midgard and the other Realms. People from the various Realms can project into the local astral planes, but cannot usually affect things there or use them for true travel -- only in rare cases, like the Spirit Portals of Diqiu, can people enter the astral plane and manipulate it more directly. Over the millennia of spirit residence in the Spirit World, it has become more like a faerie realm, where the native's emotions, and that of visitors, can end up shaping their 'reality'.

[690] Cirrus J-5 - The standard-issue jetpack used by the New Avalon Police Department's Aerial Enforcement Division, also known as the rocket cops. An updated version of the Hughes Cirrus X-1, as seen in the 1991 Rocketeer movie.

[725] OK, you asked for it - As seen in Le Droit du Dragon.

[875] Always a pleasure! - Hitomi's surname and Kuo's catchphrase are a composite reference to the way Dr. Yukio Hattori was always characterized in the cheesy Food Network dubs of the original Iron Chef.

[909] Moverdisc - Hey, remember SelectaVision? Nobody else does either, but they had something kind of like it in Dìqiú once.

[1087] Agni VI - Built in 202 ASC for Minami's great-great-grandmother Asami, the Agni VI's name commemorates the Agni V, the spacecraft which took the Phoenix Flight crew to Yue.

[1104] a trimaran configuration - The Mirai is visually inspired by the US Navy's USS Independence (LCS-2), the lead vessel of a class of littoral combat ships.

This follows naturally from the designs of ships of the Legend of Korra" era, including the United Republic and Water Tribe catamaran-hull battleships and shipping magnate Varrick's outrigger-equipped yacht.

[1123] Mirai - Perhaps unsurprisingly for both a significant product of Future Industries and a member of the Sato dynasty, the name is Japanese/Kokugo for "future". (In the Fire Nation, the company itself is called Mirai Jūkōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha, "Future Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.")

[1146] like shipping containers - They are shipping containers. The modular freight system in common use in Dìqiú has different standards for container dimensions.

[1202] jennamite mine owner - Jennamite is a naturally-occurring crystal found in the Earth Kingdom, generally around Omashu (though deposits can be found elsewhere). It combines properties of a mineral and sugar rock candy, both valuable and edible, and has the unique property of growing when exposed to a living being's bioelectric field. Nobody is quite sure how it does this. Due to the difficulties incurred by mining by hand, a productive mine can be a very lucrative operation if managed correctly. This mine owner, therefore, combines the properties of a diamond mine owner AND a sugar plantation owner!

[1340] navigation instruments - The skills and equipment required for celestial navigation have not been front-line stuff for mariners in Dìqiú since the Ri Wu era, but Mr. Zhi is an old-school sailor and has mastered them anyway.

[1386] like many of her illustrious ancestors - Starting, of course, with the great Professor Asami Sato, who could toss an Equalist gimp over her shoulder without missing more than one sentence out of the editorial in the Xinqiliu Review.

[1411] standard time signal - "At the sound of the third chime, the official time in Ba Sing Se will be exactly one-thirty." Ping. Ping. Pinnnng.

There is also something like the Shipping Forecast in Dìqiú, but it doesn't air on the same frequency as the EKR evening mellow jazz programme.

[1493] usually that means something really bad is happening - Really, this is true. If Korra loses her ponytail, $#!T's going down. If she loses her ponytail and sidelocks? If it's not the end of the world yet, it has the potential to become so if things don't resolve quickly.

[1552] peculiarly well-equipped - "Oh dear, again?"

[1583] the Chameleon Bay Company - Founded as a trading company to link the far eastern hinterlands of the Earth Kingdom by sea to the more populous regions of the south and southwest, in the days before efficient overland travel through the desert heartland of the country; nowadays better-known as a chain of department stores, but they still have a sizeable merchant marine.

[1651] Water Tribe winter gear - Elaborated from both canonical Water Tribe clothes and those of the real-life people who inspired much of the look and feel of the Water Tribes, the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic. The amautik (with its uniquely maternal configuration) is drawn directly from the latter, and Corwin's "hunter's parka" is much more like the utilitarian real-life version than the stylishly fitted "fighting parka" Korra sports on TV (and Utena also has here). Technically, the shorter style is an anorak (and is referred to as such later in the story), but in this scene people would probably have assumed I was calling them trainspotters. :)

For examples of the amautik: http://amautibaby.com/

(And boy do I wish I'd known about these when my kid was young enough to fit in one!)

[1729] not the 'point of order' thing again - "Republic" pai sho is roughly akin to mao, the horribly annoying, largely unplayable card game that was trendy for a while at WPI in the early '90s, and which essentially seemed to be a cross between gin rummy, fizzbin, and a drunken brawl in the Taiwanese national legislature.

[1820] Pangniqtuuq - Except for Senna (named after Korra's canonical mother - whose name might be a reference to Sedna, the Inuit sea goddess, but that is mere speculation on my part), all the South Pole place names mentioned here are actual place names from the Canadian Arctic, though no similarity between the actual settlements and their fictional namesakes is intended; the real Nanisivik is no longer even inhabited, much less the capital of anything.

[1917] Quruuin - Kejna developed the habit of converting Corwin's name into Tukisi phonemes as a kind of pet name when he was a toddler, because for some reason it amused him immensely.

[1983] not the South Pole's biggest fan - Last year's National Geographic Society holiday catalog had a photograph of a snow- encrusted red panda as its cover illustration. The poor guy looks so utterly unimpressed by the whole affair... well, see for yourself.

[2282] a big, hearty man with a rich, booming voice - Brian Blessed circa 1980, basically. Or Brian Blessed now, come to that, it's not like he seems to age.

[2401] in the first year of the Chun Tai era - Or the last year of the Ri Wu era. It's all relative when you're the person who caused the change of era.

[2453] Space Sword - Sokka's Meteor Sword was lost in a way that implied it would be virtually impossible to find again at the end of the Avatar TV series, but I figure, since when did various members of that cast care that a project was virtually impossible?

[2514] no such thing as an orphan - These matters are extrapolated, as with certain notes about Water Tribe matrimonial standards last time, from the way things were done among the Inuit before European contact.

[2564] column of light - This is the light from the Southern Spirit Portal, which Korra unsealed in 171 ASC (2290). The spirit energy that escapes from the portal excites the upper atmosphere and produces even-more-stunning than normal aurorae.

[2623] Nanuq - Also romanized Nanook (a spelling that's probably more familiar outside the Arctic), the paragon of polar bears is another figure of great mythic significance to the Inuit.

[2660] parageneticists... have theories - For instance, it's pretty obvious that Nanuq and the Labrador Retriever Spirit have a thing.

The other leading theory is that the spirits of various animals made it a hobby of possessing other different 'normal' animals in the Material World during the era of the Lion Turtles (a creature possessed by a spirit will take on aspects of that spirit, and if done too long become permanent or even fatal), and that matching viable hybrids produced from these activities reproduced and became common, driving out the other species. Why the spirits engaged in this behavior in the distant past is something nobody's really willing to ask of them, and the spirits in question seem to want to forget the whole thing happened in the first place.

[2701] the ancient movie - Robert J. Flaherty's 1922 silent film Nanook of the North: A Story of Life and Love in the Actual Arctic, a flawed but important early documentary. (The title character is a person, not the Great Bear Spirit, but that wasn't his real name anyway - one of the flaws I mentioned.)

[2753] they rushed toward the common - This is a collective personality trait also shown by the people of Tomodachi, who tend to form orderly spectator formations at the appearance of battling daikaiju rather than flee in terrified mobs.

[2769] Tenzin International - Formally Tenzin Republic City International Airport (IATA: TRC), the largest and busiest of the three airports which serve the greater Republic City area.

[2832] the Falling Dark Festival - Inspired in part by the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and similar harvest festivals around the world, although in most of the South Pole there's not really a lot of "harvesting" happening at this or any other time, so they have a somewhat different reason for holding it.

[2860] cider beverage - South Pole cider is made from the juice of the earthapple, also known as the appletato, which is hardy enough to be grown in a few coastal parts of the country.

[2865] semi-abstract smiley-face icon - As seen adorning a pro-bending fan on page 80 of the Legend of Korra: Book 1 artbook:

[2964] the sculpture depicted Korra - The pose for Korra and Naga in Karana's sculpture is based on an illustration from a Legend of Korra San Diego Comic-Con banner:

(Also, this picture contains a good view of her fightin' anorak. Which sounds like it could also be the mascot for some arctic college's sports teams.)

[3324] arctic hen with hot sauce - The sauce is very similar to sriracha.

[3781] "Stardust" - Probably the 1938 Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall version.

[3836] "To Zanarkand" - I was listening to this track when this scene was being proposed and written (and, in fact, as I write this note!). It is the main theme of Final Fantasy X, though the version played is the full orchestral one from the Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy tour. Zanarkand is a city of dreams in the middle of the sea, a setting you would not be surprised to find in the Spirit World.


#1, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by BZArcher on Jun-01-14 at 02:23 PM
In response to message #0
<59> a buzzcut, intense young man - This is none other than Mr. Tezuo Nishimura, last seen performing similar miracles of shop setup for Ben Stark over in Bubblegum Crisis: The Iron Age. (Well, he's not the same one, but... you know.)

I was actually really happy to see him appear! I know he's about the bittest of bit characters, but I liked the way he came out in TIA.


#2, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by DaPatman89 on Jun-01-14 at 03:30 PM
In response to message #0
>[2860] cider beverage - South Pole cider is made
>from the juice of the earthapple, also known as the appletato, which
>is hardy enough to be grown in a few coastal parts of the country.

One wonders how this would be rendered in french, given that the french for "potato" already translates as "earth apple". My guess would be "pomme de terre de terre".


#4, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-01-14 at 06:00 PM
In response to message #2
>>[2860] cider beverage - South Pole cider is made
>>from the juice of the earthapple, also known as the appletato, which
>>is hardy enough to be grown in a few coastal parts of the country.
>
>One wonders how this would be rendered in french, given that the
>french for "potato" already translates as "earth apple". My guess
>would be "pomme de terre de terre".

Pomme de terre littéralment.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#3, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by JeanneHedge on Jun-01-14 at 05:54 PM
In response to message #0
LAST EDITED ON Jun-01-14 AT 05:55 PM (EDT)
 
>[1651] Water Tribe winter gear - Elaborated from
>both canonical Water Tribe clothes and those of the real-life people
>who inspired much of the look and feel of the Water Tribes, the Inuit
>of the Canadian Arctic. The amautik (with its uniquely
>maternal configuration) is drawn directly from the latter, and
>Corwin's "hunter's parka" is much more like the utilitarian real-life
>version than the stylishly fitted "fighting parka" Korra sports on TV
>(and Utena also has here). Technically, the shorter style is an
>anorak (and is referred to as such later in the story), but in
>this scene people would probably have assumed I was calling them
>trainspotters. :)
>
>For examples of the amautik:
>http://amautibaby.com/mombaby/
>
>(And boy do I wish I'd known about these when my kid was young enough
>to fit in one!)

Now that is seriously cool! From reading the info page, 2-, maybe 3-year-old size and what weight the other person can carry on their back appears to be the size limitation. Near the bottom of the page is a photo of a (presumably) mom kneeling down and hugging an excited kid wearing red. The caption above the photo is "Pam". That kid appears to me to be bigger than that, but maybe not.

Regardless, I repeat - that is seriously cool :)


Jeanne


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.jhedge.com
1st Courier of the Heavenly Prophets for Tianxia
"Never give up, never surrender!"



#19, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by juniper on Jun-05-14 at 03:46 PM
In response to message #3
>Now that is seriously cool! From reading the info page, 2-,
>maybe 3-year-old size and what weight the other person can carry on
>their back appears to be the size limitation. Near the bottom of the
>page is a photo of a (presumably) mom kneeling down and hugging an
>excited kid wearing red. The caption above the photo is "Pam". That
>kid appears to me to be bigger than that, but maybe not.

If I had to take a guess, the mom is still wearing her amautik after the kid has graduated from riding in it. (Alternately, there's a baby in the back that we can't see. ;) They sound like really comfy jackets.

Knowing what I know of how heavy a kid that size would be, I certainly wouldn't want all that weight on my shoulders.

>Regardless, I repeat - that is seriously cool :)

Oh yes. VERY nice jackets. I was delighted to be able to find pictures of them.


#20, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by JeanneHedge on Jun-05-14 at 08:44 PM
In response to message #19
>>Regardless, I repeat - that is seriously cool :)
>
>Oh yes. VERY nice jackets. I was delighted to be able to find
>pictures of them.

I find myself with another reason to wish I still lived up in Chicagoland - then I'd (maybe) have an excuse to have one of those to maybe actually wear for a few days every winter. Unfortunately for me, it takes a polar vortex such as last January to get that freaking cold around here.


Jeanne


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.jhedge.com
1st Courier of the Heavenly Prophets for Tianxia
"Never give up, never surrender!"



#21, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Star Ranger4 on Jun-05-14 at 09:54 PM
In response to message #20
You say this like its a BAD thing...

Los Angelenos such as myself would probobly wear one of those the second it got under 50 degrees F.


#22, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by BobSchroeck on Jun-06-14 at 08:41 AM
In response to message #21
LAST EDITED ON Jun-06-14 AT 08:42 AM (EDT)
 
>Los Angelenos such as myself would probobly wear one of those the
>second it got under 50 degrees F.

Every fall I joke to my wife that you can easily tell who the Rutgers freshmen from Southern California are -- they're the ones wearing winter coats in October.

So, yeah. <grin>

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.


#38, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Star Ranger4 on Mar-09-19 at 07:30 PM
In response to message #3
LAST EDITED ON Mar-09-19 AT 08:10 PM (EST) by Gryphon (admin)
 
>>
>>For examples of the amautik:
>>http://amautibaby.com/mombaby/
>>
>>(And boy do I wish I'd known about these when my kid was young enough
>>to fit in one!)

>
Hey Guys? the URL has changed to http://amautibaby.com/index.html; looks like she probably still makes them herself, as she has said she didn't have a sewing machine up to the task of really heavy winter ones or furs.

So, Dunno if you want to go to the effort of editing the annotations to update or not, but thought maybe you'd want to be aware


#39, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Mar-09-19 at 08:10 PM
In response to message #38
>So, Dunno if you want to go to the effort of editing the annotations
>to update or not, but thought maybe you'd want to be aware

Sure, might as well. Thanks for the heads-up.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#5, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Meridias on Jun-01-14 at 09:16 PM
In response to message #0
>[1202] jennamite mine owner -
>Jennamite is a naturally-occurring crystal found in the Earth
>Kingdom, generally around Omashu (though deposits can be found
>elsewhere). It combines properties of a mineral and sugar rock candy,
>both valuable and edible, and has the unique property of growing when
>exposed to a living being's bioelectric field. Nobody is quite sure
>how it does this. Due to the difficulties incurred by mining by hand,
>a productive mine can be a very lucrative operation if managed
>correctly. This mine owner, therefore, combines the properties of a
>diamond mine owner AND a sugar plantation owner!

How, when and why someone decided to try and eat a rock they just mined in order to see if it's edible is beyond me. :)
Although now that I think about it (and my memory fails me to remember specifics), wasn't there a scene in a movie/tv show about making rock soup?


#6, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-01-14 at 09:21 PM
In response to message #5
>How, when and why someone decided to try and eat a rock they just
>mined in order to see if it's edible is beyond me. :)

Old King Bumi of Omashi probably ate actual rocks too, and just randomly noticed that jennamite was tastier than gneiss. Dude was crazy. :)

>Although now that I think about it (and my memory fails me to remember
>specifics), wasn't there a scene in a movie/tv show about making rock
>soup?

"Stone soup" is a classic fable about cooperation and community-building; it's presumably been retold and repackaged a million times in modern popular culture.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#7, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by JeanneHedge on Jun-01-14 at 10:16 PM
In response to message #5
LAST EDITED ON Jun-01-14 AT 10:17 PM (EDT)
 
>How, when and why someone decided to try and eat a rock they just
>mined in order to see if it's edible is beyond me. :)

Ever hear of rock candy? 0:)


Jeanne


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.jhedge.com
1st Courier of the Heavenly Prophets for Tianxia
"Never give up, never surrender!"



#8, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by ebony14 on Jun-02-14 at 08:26 AM
In response to message #0
>[1202] jennamite mine owner -
>Jennamite is a naturally-occurring crystal found in the Earth
>Kingdom, generally around Omashu (though deposits can be found
>elsewhere). It combines properties of a mineral and sugar rock candy,
>both valuable and edible, and has the unique property of growing when
>exposed to a living being's bioelectric field. Nobody is quite sure
>how it does this. Due to the difficulties incurred by mining by hand,
>a productive mine can be a very lucrative operation if managed
>correctly. This mine owner, therefore, combines the properties of a
>diamond mine owner AND a sugar plantation owner!

Without, one would hope, the corruption and worker mistreatement historically seen in both industries....

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."


#9, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-02-14 at 08:39 AM
In response to message #8
>>This mine owner, therefore, combines the properties of a
>>diamond mine owner AND a sugar plantation owner!

>
>Without, one would hope, the corruption and worker mistreatement
>historically seen in both industries....

Well, hey, you know us, we're all about the blood diamond trade and Caribbean slavery references around here.

--G.
FFS
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#10, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by The Traitor on Jun-02-14 at 04:08 PM
In response to message #0
>[2860] cider beverage - South Pole cider is made
>from the juice of the earthapple, also known as the appletato, which
>is hardy enough to be grown in a few coastal parts of the country.

I now have the image of less than entirely worldly United Republic tourists falling prey to the local version of the American Cider Misconception (sorry chaps, it is mostly you) and giving their kids some traditional earthapple cider sold from the side of a road by some nonagenarian terrifying owl-person from the Southern Water Tribe's equivalent of the West Country and wondering why they got pissed. I've seen it happen. It's brilliant.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

I have never seen a checkout girl look more horrified than when a large woman from Tennessee dragged a brace of three-litre bottles of White Lightning out of her trolley and said, in a reassuring manner, that it was for her kids.


#11, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-02-14 at 04:22 PM
In response to message #10
>I now have the image of less than entirely worldly United Republic
>tourists falling prey to the local version of the American Cider
>Misconception (sorry chaps, it is mostly you)

We do have fermented apple cider here; it's just that we have a specific term for it ("hard cider"), to differentiate it from the kind that's just chunky apple juice. If anybody's mislabeled the product here, I'd have to say it's you folks, for not bothering to indicate an important thing like the alcohol content anywhere in the name. :)

>and giving their kids
>some traditional earthapple cider sold from the side of a road

There aren't a lot of roads in the South Pole, but the rest of the scenario is entirely conceivable. :)

>the Southern Water Tribe's equivalent of the West Country

I'm just going to pause for a moment and consider how much better TLOK Book 2 would have been if Unalaq had been voiced by the guy who did Wheatley in Portal 2. That would have been epic. (It also might have been less painfully obvious from Second One that he was the villain of the piece. It's hard to find someone with that accent threatening. That's why they didn't let Dave Prowse voice Darth Vader. Bill Bailey used to do a great little routine about what that would have sounded like. :)

>I have never seen a checkout girl look more horrified than when a
>large woman from Tennessee dragged a brace of three-litre bottles of
>White Lightning out of her trolley and said, in a reassuring manner,
>that it was for her kids.

Hah!

Conversely, I once saw an English gent utterly flummox first the cashier, then himself, at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in greater Boston by ordering a half-dozen biscuits and specifying that they were for dessert.

--G.
"Can I help you?" "Yes, I'd like a kitten, please." "What color? We have grey, black, tabby, or calico." "Oh, it doesn't matter - it's for the python."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#12, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Bushido on Jun-02-14 at 05:20 PM
In response to message #11
FYI, Wheatley is voiced by Stephen Merchant. He does more writing and directing than acting, and is probably best known as the Co-creator/writer/director of The Office (original British version, was an executive producer on the American version) and as the co-host of The Ricky Gervais Show.

#13, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-02-14 at 05:23 PM
In response to message #12
>FYI, Wheatley is voiced by Stephen Merchant.

Man, you can't win for losing in a situation like this. If I'd said "Stephen Merchant", someone else would've been all, "Who?" and so on. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#14, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by The Traitor on Jun-02-14 at 05:26 PM
In response to message #11
>>I now have the image of less than entirely worldly United Republic
>>tourists falling prey to the local version of the American Cider
>>Misconception (sorry chaps, it is mostly you)
>
>We do have fermented apple cider here; it's just that we have a
>specific term for it ("hard cider"), to differentiate it from the kind
>that's just chunky apple juice. If anybody's mislabeled the product
>here, I'd have to say it's you folks, for not bothering to indicate an
>important thing like the alcohol content anywhere in the name. :)

That's... not strictly speaking the case. Up until the '20s, there was no distinction; hard cider was cider and soft cider (for want of a better term) was just another way of making apple juice. Then Prohibition happened and, well, yeah. We never did that on our cider the pond.

Haaaaaaaaaa.

>I'm just going to pause for a moment and consider how much better TLOK
>Book 2 would have been if Unalaq had been voiced by the guy who did
>Wheatley in Portal 2. That would have been epic. (It
>also might have been less painfully obvious from Second One that he
>was the villain of the piece. It's hard to find someone with that
>accent threatening. That's why they didn't let Dave Prowse voice
>Darth Vader. Bill Bailey used to do a great little routine about what
>that would have sounded like. :)

I will now lobby extensively for an appearance in UF of a West Country-accented ciderbender. Possibly called Unayaarp.

>>I have never seen a checkout girl look more horrified than when a
>>large woman from Tennessee dragged a brace of three-litre bottles of
>>White Lightning out of her trolley and said, in a reassuring manner,
>>that it was for her kids.

>
>Hah!
>
>Conversely, I once saw an English gent utterly flummox first the
>cashier, then himself, at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in greater Boston
>by ordering a half-dozen biscuits and specifying that they were for
>dessert.

Heehee. Our nation's not good for much any more, but we can do a damned fine flummoxed. Martin Freeman's made a very profitable career out of it.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.


#15, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by SpottedKitty on Jun-02-14 at 08:38 PM
In response to message #11
>Conversely, I once saw an English gent utterly flummox first the
>cashier, then himself, at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in greater Boston
>by ordering a half-dozen biscuits and specifying that they were for
>dessert.

Try being a brand new Heinlein fan just discovering his teen adventure yarns - I must have been about twelve at the most - wondering why those crazy Americans would put gravy on their biscuits. And then eat them. I went through most of my school years convinced everyone on your side of the Pond had a downright warped sense of taste. ;)

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.


#16, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by The Traitor on Jun-03-14 at 06:05 AM
In response to message #15
Iunno, this is the country that invented spray-on cheese...

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But
I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.


#17, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by ebony14 on Jun-03-14 at 08:41 AM
In response to message #16
>Iunno, this is the country that invented spray-on cheese...

Says a man from the country that thinks marmite is something edible.

Ebony the Black Dragon

I'm not saying that spray-on cheese is a viable food product; just that you've got your own culinary shame on that side of the Pond to worry about.

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."


#18, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-03-14 at 10:41 AM
In response to message #16
>Iunno, this is the country that invented spray-on cheese...

M-x graham-chapman-mode

There's nowt wrong wi' spray-on cheese, lass! I've 'ad more spray-on cheese than you've 'ad 'ot dinners!

--G.
That might literally be true. You're very young. And I've had a lot of cheese.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#23, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-22-14 at 09:04 PM
In response to message #0
Just for laughs, I decided to try and make the dish I made up for the Falling Dark Festival and see if it's actually any good.

Hen: check.
Tubers: check.
Hot sauce: check.
Paper cone: check.

Eaten with chop sticks: check.

It's not bad! It's not very complicated, either, admittedly; just chicken stir-fried in garlic/ginger oil, tossed with some Mini Tater Tots, shoveled into a cone made of wax paper, and drizzled with sriracha. But still. For a fictional food item, it does what it's supposed to; I could totally see myself eating this at an outdoor winter occasion. And presumably if it was prepared by professionals, they'd have used the right kind of paper and constructed the cone more competently. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#24, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by McFortner on Jun-23-14 at 01:24 AM
In response to message #23
Out of curiosity, did you cook the tater tots first or stir fried them frozen?

Michael C. Fortner
"Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".


#25, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-23-14 at 01:35 AM
In response to message #24
>Out of curiosity, did you cook the tater tots first or stir fried them
>frozen?

I cooked them in the oven, as directed, while I was stir-frying the chicken on top. I might try stir-frying some, though, just to see what happens. It never occurred to me.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#26, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Terminus Est on Jun-23-14 at 04:28 AM
In response to message #25
If my experiences with tater tots are anything to go by, they'll fall apart. Frequent stirring doesn't seem to be conducive to their continued coherency.

Then again, I think the last time I cooked them was a decade ago, so... grain of salt, etc.


#27, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by zwol on Jun-23-14 at 09:43 AM
In response to message #26
They've already BEEN fried, at the factory; baking just heats them up again.

What might make sense instead is to take a fresh potato or two, peel and cut into chunks of comparable size to the chicken, apply breading to both, then stir-fry together with garlic and ginger. I think they'd take about the same amount of time to cook.

In terms of what it should taste like, tempura batter seems like the Right Thing, but I think that's for deep frying and wouldn't stay stuck to the ingredients if you tried to stir-fry it.


#29, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Pasha on Jun-29-14 at 00:59 AM
In response to message #27
>They've already BEEN fried, at the factory; baking just heats them up
>again.
>
>What might make sense instead is to take a fresh potato or two, peel
>and cut into chunks of comparable size to the chicken, apply breading
>to both, then stir-fry together with garlic and ginger. I think
>they'd take about the same amount of time to cook.

I wouldn't bother breading the potato, it doesn't exactly need more starch ("I know, let's bread the bread before deepfrying!". Also, they'd probably take a bit longer than chicken to cook the whole way through, so you'd want to start with them.

>In terms of what it should taste like, tempura batter seems like the
>Right Thing, but I think that's for deep frying and wouldn't
>stay stuck to the ingredients if you tried to stir-fry it.

Panko breading on the chicken, leave the potato breading off (you're basically making Chips.)

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."


#30, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by zwol on Jun-29-14 at 10:14 AM
In response to message #29
>I wouldn't bother breading the potato, it doesn't exactly need more
>starch ("I know, let's bread the bread before deepfrying!".

You would think so? But in fact one effective way to make fried potatoes more interesting, as demonstrated by my local burger joint, is to bread them.
It's a very thin layer of breading and I think it's more of a delivery vector for some sort of spice mixture (heavy on the garlic, little bit of chili, probably other things as well) than anything else, but it works.

>Also, they'd probably take a bit longer than chicken to cook the
>whole way through, so you'd want to start with them.

Yah, point.


#28, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by The Traitor on Jun-23-14 at 09:53 AM
In response to message #25
"NO! You don't stir-fry chips!"
-- Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.


#31, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-14-18 at 01:38 AM
In response to message #0
I'm not sure if I didn't mention this in the notes at the time because I was saving it for some other time, or I just forgot, or what, but:

I'm working on my commercial certificate now - Most pro benders, even the ones who are successful at the top level, still have day jobs, or at least side gigs they do to occupy the off-season and keep their options open for when they get out of the game. Azana's (more the former than the latter) we've seen, working the desk at the Phoenix House. She doesn't really need to keep doing that job now that she's on a championship-grade major-league team, but she likes the work and feels a certain loyalty to the place, so she stays.

Karana's, we never really have a chance to see on-screen: she works for Western Imperial Airways, the airline widely regarded as Dìqiú's most prestigious. (Think of the likes of Pan American or TWA in the days when commercial air travel was still glamorous, and you won't be too far wrong.) In the pro bending off-season, she's a flight attendant, doubling (as quite a few cabin crew members in the United Republic do) as a United Aviation Authority air marshal. She's working on her commercial pilot's license with the intention that, when the time comes to hang up the bending game, she'll have the credentials she needs to make the jump from the cabin to the flight deck.

In the meantime, it's good money, the hours are flexible, and (not entirely unlike Azana in her side job) she gets to wear a cool uniform and meet all sorts of interesting people. The company is very accommodating of her other commitments, and the employee discount comes in super handy with all those road games to get to during the season.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#32, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by jhosmer1 on Jun-14-18 at 08:36 AM
In response to message #31
>The company is very
>accommodating of her other commitments, and the employee discount
>comes in super handy with all those road games to get to during the
>season.

I don't know if Pro Benders have to deal with it, but I heard an article on the radio a few months back about the problems pro-athletes have with road games and taxes. Some athletes apparently have to pay State income taxes for sixteen States, as playing a game in a different State counts as earning income in that State for tax purposes.

I don't even want to know what Utena and Anthy's taxes look like.

"Let's see... we have to pay this to Cephiro, and there's Asgardian property tax... HIMEMIYA! Why does Chu Chu list us as his dependents?!"


#33, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Star Ranger4 on Jun-14-18 at 09:59 AM
In response to message #32
>HIMEMIYA! Why does Chu Chu list us as
>his dependents?!"

"I talked us out of listing us as his 'staff' though"


#34, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by SpottedKitty on Jun-14-18 at 11:37 AM
In response to message #32
>I don't even want to know what Utena and Anthy's taxes look like.

The paperwork probably has at least one procedure flowchart you can only read if you're wearing 3D glasses.

(Circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one optional.)

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.


#35, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Jun-14-18 at 11:48 AM
In response to message #32
>I don't even want to know what Utena and Anthy's taxes look like.

This is not something I have ever considered.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#36, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by ejheckathorn on Jun-14-18 at 12:16 PM
In response to message #35
>This is not something I have ever considered.


Strangely, I’m okay with that.


#37, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Peter Eng on Jun-14-18 at 12:59 PM
In response to message #32
>>The company is very
>>
>"Let's see... we have to pay this to Cephiro, and there's Asgardian
>property tax... HIMEMIYA! Why does Chu Chu list us as
>his dependents?!"
>

"I don't know why you insist on trying to do this yourself every year, dear," Anthy said as she ushered in their newly-arrived guest. "Let's just do what we always do."

(Thirteen minutes, fifty-four seconds later)

"Done," Miki said. "You're paying 2,214 credits to Zeta Cygni, but you're getting a refund of 154 yuan in the United Republic."

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#40, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Zemyla on Mar-10-19 at 10:11 AM
In response to message #0
>[436] "What would Aang do?" -
>Also a line of popular tee-shirts in the more holistically-oriented
>youth culture in the United Republic. ("What Would Korra Do?" shirts
>are more for the extreme-sports set.)

I'm far more worried about the sort of people who wear "What Would Kyoshi Do?" shirts.


#41, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Gryphon on Mar-10-19 at 11:53 AM
In response to message #40
>>[436] "What would Aang do?" -
>>Also a line of popular tee-shirts in the more holistically-oriented
>>youth culture in the United Republic. ("What Would Korra Do?" shirts
>>are more for the extreme-sports set.)

>
>I'm far more worried about the sort of people who wear "What Would
>Kyoshi Do?" shirts.

I suspect these are the same sort of people who, in the Big Universe, have T-shirts/bumper stickers/signs in their homes and/or places of business that say Security by Smith & Wesson.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#42, RE: (S71) S5DS04 Familiar Spirits
Posted by Star Ranger4 on Mar-11-19 at 10:15 PM
In response to message #41
>I suspect these are the same sort of people who, in the Big Universe,
>have T-shirts/bumper stickers/signs in their homes and/or places of
>business that say Security by Smith & Wesson.
>
Don't forget their cousins. The ones who's shirt or sign says "This Business protected by a gun 3 days a week. You guess which three."

I've also seen variants of it that include Inspector Callahan's quote about luck.