Even rats like to dance.
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/6/19: Pumpkin Cuisine
In the past few years, the American consumer knows that Autumn is here by the number of pumpkin-flavored food items that become available. Starbucks has led the charge with its pumpkin-flavored lattes and now (delicious, trust me) pumpkin frappucinos. There are also pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin cereal, and pumpkin M&Ms. But all this obscures the true nature of the pumpkin: it’s a respectable food on its own merits, never mind the spicing and sweetening.
Looking for a pumpkin flavored dish? Here are some random ones.
Pumpkin Dishes
| New York-style pumpkin chowder
Paella with chicken livers and brown rice cooked in a traditional Peruvian pumpkin pan Stir-fried beef tenderloin and fish in a spicy Szechuan pumpkin sauce Casserole of layered pumpkin and gelatinous sea cucumber Pumpkin noodles topped with ground goat, served in a pistachio nut-pumpkin gravy Basic rolled crepes, filled with breaded, toasted pumpkin Creamy pumpkin cheesecake flavored with red wine syrup Stir-fried duck and clams served with 100-year-old pumpkin Omelet made with mashed beef brisket, pumpkin, and wheatberries Pumpkin-infused turkey prepared whole with fresh cherries Pumpkin and broad bean ice cream Chicken breasts stuffed with bleu cheese and pumpkin, slow-baked in a clay oven Sandwich of thin-sliced prawns on a crusty roll with southwestern pumpkin mustard |
Basic Cooked Pumpkin
Pie pumpkin
Butter or olive oil
Salt
Quarter pumpkin and scoop out seeds and stringy pulp. Place skin side down in a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. In each hollow place a generous pat of butter, or olive oil if you prefer a more savory taste. Sprinkle with salt. Roast at 400 degrees to desired level of softness, using a fork to test. Usually takes 40 minutes.
Pumpkin is a good side dish served hot. You can also make tacos out of it or even use cold and sliced in salads. If mashed for baking use, use butter instead of olive oil.
Skeleton Dreams
What do skeletons dream about when Halloween has passed?
A Night on Bald Mountain parade of damned souls and evil witches, of course!
Halloween 2019
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Worldbuilding Wednesday 10/30/19: Witches!
Still from the silent movie Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, 1922
Witches are a staple of fantasy and horror fiction. In their broad definition, they mean any kind of magic-using female. But for this list I’m going to use a more narrow definition: the Halloween type of witch, evil, cackling, out to do no good. The kind that brews potions in a big black cauldron and has warts on her nose.
Such a witch often has a conventional name, but more often, a name with something off about it, one that is too old fashioned, too hard to pronounce, too ugly on the ear. A classic one is Bellatrix LeStrange from the Harry Potter books. How can a character have a name like that and not be a witch?
Then there are made-up names, like Bavmorda, Azkadelia, and Elphaba… strange to say and, in English, strange to look at on the printed page. Those are the kind of names I generated here.
Witch Names
| Zoralia
Betrezza Malna Chanagri Suvaya Gethga Zija Tatrabella Bezabelle Marifor Luprys |
Solza
Hundrene Murvia Yamba Anguza Ullena Mazubal Mitzra Yezabyl Rozibal Yatra |
Steampunk/Horror Oz
Scarecrow and Tin Man from a 1902 stage production of The Wizard of Oz. I don’t know what makes it more creepy, the old-timey photo or the Scarecrow’s stiff-fingered, Leatherface-like appearance. In its time, though, it was a great success and the first version of Oz to be adapted into a script.
Worldbuilding Wednesday 10/23/19: Torture Devices
The truly horrifying Pear of Anguish.
Medieval England came up with more than its share of punishment devices. Take the Pear of Anguish pictured above. It’s a speculum, basically, with an extendable pointy thing in the middle which may or may not have been spring-shot. It was inserted in any of the victim’s orifices and splayed them open. The spike then shot out and… you get the idea.
Other instruments had picturesque names like the Scavenger’s Daughter, the Spanish Donkey, the Judas Cradle, the Catherine Wheel… and of course the Iron Maiden.
If they survived, victims were maimed for life.
If you’re looking for an imaginary torture device for your work, you can do no better than the randomgenned list below. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what they did.
Torture Devices
| Gamropers
Weasel-ganger The Wife Humbler Gorgon spanker Tight-steamer Belly irons Noggintongs Herring crusher Royal Stone Shagger Button piercer Thigh-tamer Footsnag The Scarlet Madame Earcrimpers Rusty kilt The Heel Tanner Sir Toothy |
Toad-plugger
Toebinder The Pale Flattener Collar-tightener Jolly Mangler Barrel Scalder Loinstretcher The Carousel of Punishment Barrel Weights The Weeping Monk Hand Lancer Skulldimpler Shinmangler Panty-ripper Five-pound stockings Bronze tormenter Scarlet coffin |
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