#(or that a slightly milder equivalent is)

[catelyngrant]

The thing is, I feel like Roman Roy is someone who’d have a very high tolerance to insanely spicy food and would get some masochistic pleasure out of, like, eating raw peppers or casually snacking on...say...incredibly, dangerously spicy chips.

So something’s up, there’s a war room situation at Waystar, all hands on deck, etc. Everyone’s been there for hours. Gerri’s tired and hungry and irritable, Roman’s making these obnoxious crunching noises while he snacks, and finally she snaps and snatches the bag away from him. 

Before he can stop her, she pops a chip  in her mouth.

I’d say you can imagine what happens next, but the fun part is that you don’t have to!

Except it’s Gerri, not J, so as steam billows out of her ears and sweat pours down her face and she gasps for breath, she’s trying not to be conspicuous or draw attention to herself. Even though she’s literally dying.

Now, if the team is spread out and Roman and Gerri are alone (or mostly alone) in her office, he’d probably be pissing himself with laughter but also trying to help her by, I don’t know, rubbing her back or something equally ineffective, and she’d be able to let go a bit more and gasp for help/water/etc. and just try to keep it together enough so that people can’t tell through the glass walls that she might need an ambulance. 

If, on the other hand, they’re all together in a conference room—Roman, Karolina, Frank, Karl, Kendall, Logan—it’s a different story. I like to think that Roman would have the quick-thinking wherewithal (and mild guilt, even though she stole the bag in the first place) to invent an immediate though clearly fake emergency and get her out of there before the worst of it all kicked in because he knows how much she’d hate for anyone to see her lose her composure so spectacularly. That said...it’s Roman, who is not necessarily known for his practicality and cool head in a crisis, so. 

Short story is that this could play out a lot of different ways but I feel like all of them end up with Gerri forcing Roman to stick a hot pepper up his own ass.

[serpentface]

hello i would love to hear about culturally specific dishes in the blightseed setting. what do the animals taste like hows their fat content... herbs and seasonings and the trades involved perhaps..... hows the salt economy? love your setting and if you have a list of ingredients i will invent meals in my head and be well satisfied... i just love food and cooking in world building it is so important to me :-)

OK this is crazy because I had literally just cooked a Lore Friendly Meal the night before I got this ask.

Since this is a super broad question gonna default to Imperial Wardin since that's what I'm writing in right now and has the most developed food economy. (Sorry.)

This region currently dominates the eastern Inner Seas tradeway so has a very broad access to imported foods and spices, and many of its staples are not originally native to the region. Its regional cuisine is quite diverse and varied, largely owing to its status in the tradeway and a long history of immigration to the region (as well as a wide variety of native regional variations in diet).

For simplicity's sake I'm mostly going to stick to staples that are grown in-region (whether native or not) or commonly imported. Also mostly sticking to domesticated plant life, or very common and easily acquired wild plants. (Also not all these plants/herbs/spices would be 1:1 with real-world equivalents, or would be of unique variants that don't exist irl, but if they're basically the same thing I use the IRL word)

Staple base foods: maize, barley, wheat, and rice (closer to O. glaberrima than O. sativa), red yam (a yam regarded as very delicious), white yam (a hardier but poorer tasting yam, often associated with poverty), cassava, chickpeas, other legumes.

Staple vegetables (regionally varies): Cabbage, lettuce, okra, onions, garlic, chili peppers, celery, peas, kolis (a drought tolerant, cactus-like plant. Young stems are tender and edible), camiche (a tree that produces edible seedpods and young leaves).

Staple fruits: Dates, figs, pomegranates, olives, melons, apples, bitter cherries, kolis fruit, nara (a type of citrus, comparable in flavor and sourness to lime).

Widely used spices/herbs/flavorings: cumin, saffron (VERY expensive but natively grown), coriander, culantro, thyme, fennel, sage, tumeric, cardamom, ginger, firebug (an insect that is dried and crushed, provides a reddish hue and slight acidic flavor), anuje (a tree sap which is the region's most popular sweetener).

Livestock: cattle, horses (the small 3 hooved kind), hogs, ducks, geese, one domesticated species of gazelle, some camelops (rare in this region, imported), one type of small domesticated lacetor, several types of fowl.

Other meat (common wild game, or livestock raised in smaller or more localized capacities): crocodiles, gazelles, aurochs, salutachin (a meat dog breed), doves, nechoi, lacetor, hippegalga, anara (a large semi-aquatic rodent), hespiornis, unkata (a large flightless bird), ibis, pheasants, rabbits and hares, caviar ants.

(Of the fantasy game, most nechoi have a strong, lean gamey meat, but an-nechoi is fattier and milder. Lacetor is generally mild and tough (with a few very fatty cuts) and benefits from slow cooking and heavy spices. Hippegalga is lean and mildly gamey and has a nutty quality. Anara tastes like wild rabbit, but slightly fattier. Unkata kind of just tastes like turkey.)

Alcohol: Wine is very important and is consumed (mostly watered down) on a daily basis. Date wine is most common and least expensive by far; only small parts of the region are ideal for viniculture and grape wine is somewhat uncommon. Other fruit wines are common (bitter cherry and kolis fruit being most popular). A very strong liquor is produced from anuje sap, with sweeter and lower ABV versions available as a kind of dessert wine. Grain-based beers and liquors are widely available, but not as prized as fruit/anuje drinks. Mead is somewhat rare and is mostly seen as inferior to anuje.

Salt economy: this region is a dominant player in the salt trade, having a large area of salt flats and marshes in its south. Salt is widely accessible throughout the region via internal trade routes.

Fishing: The region has a huge fishing industry along its coasts and the diet in the coastal cities is enriched with seafood. Pretty much any edible sea life is eaten. (Dozens of fish species, octopus, squid, clams, urchins, oysters, scallops, crabs, lobster, shrimp, etc etc). The tiny, schooling larval form of yotici are also sometimes eaten.

There's also a 'whaling' industry for leviathans, which have very rich, blubbery meat high in iron (I guess I'd describe it as a fattier, stronger, bloodier version of alligator meat), and uhrwal, which have very tough, gamey meat and are considered an acquired taste, used specifically for delicacy dishes.

Misc lore:

Arthropods are not widely eaten in the region and have stigma as peasant or famine food. Some local exceptions are made for locusts, and the eggs of caviar ants (there is a very small industry of ant farming in Ephennos, brought by White Sea qilik immigrants).

Dogs have been used for meat in this region for hundreds of years (largely in the form of the salutachin, a breed specifically developed for meat), but the practice declined under the 3rd Burri empire (in which context it was seen as an 'unclean' food). Cultural trauma from feral dogs eating the dead (and in turn being eaten by starving civilians) during a siege-induced famine has made it specifically taboo in Godsmouth. Dog is now widely considered a famine/poverty food in most of the region, though corn-fed salutachin is still a delicacy in the city-state of Wardin.

Animals that eat human flesh are taboo to consume in most parts of the region (whether this extends to all/most predators or just obligate scavengers varies).

Eggs of skimmer gulls and ibis are considered delicacies.

The basic diet varies across the region, but a huge proportion of the established cuisine revolves around cumin, onions, and peppers for flavoring.

The majority of the diet for an average person is built on savory grain porridge and mashed legumes.

Dairy products are important to the everyday diet in the eastern 'dairy belt' of the region, but are of lesser significance elsewhere. Horsemilk and cow's milk are both common.

Maize is usually consumed after nixtamalization for greater nutritional content.

Most people (especially in the cities) do not eat meat on a regular basis, as even for self-sustaining farmers and herders, the value of livestock for milk, textiles, labor, sacrifice, and trade means that frequent slaughter is often unsustainable. Most get their everyday protein needs met with legumes, and those in coastal cities have broad access to seafood.

Animal sacrifice is vitally important to the practice of the Imperial Wardi faith, but the meat of sacrifices is not eaten (outside of a few specific rites and festivals) and is instead burned.

Khaitmeat is rarely eaten outside of desperation (or opportunistic slaughter of old/injured animals) due to their great value and a developed taboo around its consumption in some parts of the region.

Hunting is a pastime for the urban upper class and typically forbidden within the territories of the city-states without an expensive 'license' (unless one one's own lands, which also generally requires having big money). Poaching for meat in the outskirts of cities is common among the urban poor.

Hunting is a key part of the diet throughout the rural parts of the region, many rural commoners eat meat more frequently than their urban counterparts on this merit.

Some established dishes (either vaguely conceptualized, or have come up specifically in writing):

Pounded white yam and nothing else (a famine food).

Pounded white yam with whitefish and pepper soup, a hearty common meal in Godsmouth.

Savory cornmeal cakes (cornmeal cooked in vegetable broth, lard or olive oil, peppers, onions, cumin, salt, cheese, wrapped in a corn husk and cooled to be eaten on the go).

Shitty cornmeal cakes (a famine food) (cornmeal with weevils in it, you can't really get the weevils out and it's protein so might as well, salted and cooked in water).

Grain festival beef/horse stew (tough bone-in cuts slowcooked with peppers, onion, garlic, and any other available vegetables. Usually heavily spiced. The resulting broth is used to cook the grain (usually hominy, rice, or barley), the meat and vegetables are served on top, sometimes with cream or cheese).

Hominy porridge with milk and sprinkled cheese.

Wheat porridge with dried dates and anuje.

Reed duck boiled in date wine, flavored with peppers, coriander, cumin, and saffron (VERY fancy).

Pickled kolis stem bulbs.

Fermented kolis stem bulbs and cabbage.

Gannegal soup (made with bull penis, hominy, garlic, onion, cabbage, and chickpeas in a spicy broth, supposed to support fertility)

Raw hippegalga meat, thinly sliced with onion and hot pepper, all marinated and cured with nara and eaten cold atop barley or rice (also supposed to support fertility)

Anaebi soup (made with reed duck, lily bulbs, rice, and okra, supposed to support a healthy pregnancy)

Cow tripe and cabbage soup

Finely chopped meat/fish/shellfish or vegetables with onions, wrapped in dough and fried or baked.

Peledyo (A strong, heavily fermented fish sauce favored in the coastal cities (this is pretty much a garum ripoff), which is mixed with wine, vinegar, honey, etc to form the base of other sauces)

Very spicy shellfish soup with a peledyo, wine, and pepper broth.

Caviar ant eggs marinated with nara, vinegar, chopped onions and cabbage, mixed with rice.

A sweetened bean porridge made with cream and anuje.

Hummus-esque spread made with chickpeas, garlic, onion, peppers, and olive oil, usually eaten with bread.

Whole spitroasted horse

A type of root vegetable sausage (intestine casing stuffed with mashed cassava or yam, onions, garlic & cumin seeds which have been cooked down in lard, sometimes with minced meat/offal. Boiled all together.)

Blood sausage (usually horse or cattle)

A kind of donut fried in oil and then soaked in anuje and fruit syrup.

Roasted peppers and onions sauteed in heavy cream, usually served atop grain or a grain porridge.

Toasted locusts, locusts fried with rice or barley, pounded white yam stuffed with fried locust and onions (opportunistic meals during locust plagues)

Fried sprats with pepper and onion sauce

Crab stock soup with onions, peppers, crab meat or whole softshell crabs, and crab roe (sometimes with cream)

Squid ink soups (variety of seafood or seafood-stock soups, blackened by squid ink)

A simple 'trail mix' made with dried camiche seeds and hominy

Dessert bread glazed with fruit syrup or anuje, covered in dried dates

Raw minced lacetor with peledyo, garlic powder, cardamom, coriander. Used to top grains or to be eaten with pounded yam.

Thinly sliced uhrwal flank simmered with date wine and vinegar.

Fatty cuts of an-nechoi belly, usually slow cooked and eaten in soups.

Minced kolis stalk, onion, and pepper, salted and marinated with nara or vinegar

Roasted figs with cheese

Also here's the lore friendly meal I cooked, the grain festival beef stew. Here served in only the lore friendliest of dollar store paper bowls

This specific dish is eaten as a part of yearly grain festivals celebrating the end of the harvest. In most contexts it's an agricultural community event with each family contributing whatever vegetables and spices are on hand, and each donating some of their harvested grain. It's cooked in a huge pot and usually serves dozens of people.

The exact vegetable/herb/spice components would vary wildly within the region, timing, and by the success of the various harvests, but will generally be farmed (rather than foraged) due to the nature of the festival as an agricultural celebration and thanks-giving. Cumin, peppers, and onions are considered the absolute bare minimum necessity. The grain will usually be maize, barley or rice, and may be mashed into a savory porridge instead of eaten whole.

This will usually be one of few times a year where meat is eaten in abundance in the agricultural context. The meat is almost always beef or horse, usually tougher bone-in cuts are chosen for this specific dish. These animals will have been slaughtered specifically for this festival, with the best cut of meat from each being burnt in an offering of gratitude to Ganmache and Anaemache (ox-face and river-face of God, both of which are associated with agriculture and harvests), at the base of what will become the cooking fire.

The meat and vegetables are cooked on low heat in water until the meat is soft and tender and a broth is formed (which should be very strong and spicy, as it will be used to flavor the grain). Some of the broth is drained and used to cook the grain, which is then served with the meat, vegetables, and a few spoonfuls of broth on top. In the eastern dairy belt, milk/cream may be added to the broth, and/or it may be topped with crumbled cheese or sour cream. This is next to heresy in the west.

---

For my easily accessible grocery store equivalent, I used a beef shank, 2 onions, 2 jalepeños, one habanero, a bunch of garlic, okra, and cabbage. Seasoned with cumin seeds and tumeric (very lore friendly) and a sazon packet because I had it (most of the spices involved are at least passably lore friendly). Also jasmine rice (not lore friendly but it's what I had).

I first toasted cumin seeds in olive oil, then added the vegetables and stirred until they were cooked down. The meat and vegetables/spices were cooked in water on low heat for ~5 hours and seasoned to taste. Some of the broth was then removed to cook the rice. Meat + vegetables are spooned on top of the rice, along with some broth.

Results: It's preddy good. Might be a little better with roasted or sauteed rather than heavily cooked down vegetables, but the latter is how it would be eaten. I also had a sore throat at the time and ended up just drinking the rest of the broth. It felt amazing. 6.5/10.

[o-wise-corvid]

Dathomir Daily

Gonloc’chē (pr: gon-lock-chee):

-The dathomiri equivalent of cheese

-It isn’t dairy based but it is a great source of protein

-Made by gathering baneback spider silk, dissolving the silk in salted, boiling water, which is then reduced and set in a cold and dark place to solidify

-Flavorings and solid ingredients such as peppers can be added at this time

-Once solid, the cheese is cut into blocks, wrapped in more spider silk, and allowed to form a rind

-A basic cheese has a slightly tangy, milder bleu cheese flavor

-Reboiling the cheese however produces a more mellow flavor along the lines of mozzerella

Tag list: @alexeithegoat @thesitharts @crc-jedi-knight-serushna @hotshot9 @smoooothbrain @gran-maul-seizure @foreverchangingfandomsao3 @herbalinz-of-yesteryear @justalittletomato @stardustbee @storm89 @id-rather-be-a-druid @ohboi @and-claudia @eloquentmoon @dukeoftheblackstar

[ukfrislandembassy]

Frislandic Dialectal Phonology

OK, let's tackle this dialectal business. I'll talk about the phonology because that's what I have clear and concreate thoughts on, but obviously there's other differences too in morphology and lexicon that will be explored some other time. This isn't a post about features of contermporary colloquial Frislandic speech.

I will try and make a map of Frisland at some point to make the actual geography more transparent but for now if you need a geographic reference the Mercator Map (below) should suffice (noting of course that the forms of the names I'm using here are different from how they're represented on the map.

(If you need reminding the histroical phonology post is here).

Traditional Frislandic dialectology is multi-polar, reflecting the somewhat de-centralised nature of Frislandic governance. Each æl (kinda equivalent to 'burg' or 'polis') is seen as the centre of its own dialectal region, and so phonological variation is often characterised as revolving around this. Of course in practice administrative boundaries and linguistic isoglosses don't ever line up neatly, but for the most part this does work as a model of how the variation is distributed.

Geography naturally plays a large part in this. Frisland shows a marked geographic cline running from east to west, with the western half being substantially more rugged and mountainous compared with the relatively low-lying (though still definitely not flat) eastern half. This has several effects. Firstly, population density is by and large concentrated in the eastern half of the country, where the climate is milder and the land can better support agriculture. Secondly, and on the flipside to this, there is a greater degree of dialect diversity in the west than in the east. In particular, the ælu of Bondeduo (B) and Sændetoll (S), which sit at the heart of the two great bays that characterise Frisland's western coast, each boast traditional dialects which are both singificantly different from the standard (based partly on the varieties of the capital Ojbar and the religious centre of Dorsiðes) and from each other. By contrast, the western ælu of Ojbar (O), Guoðvakk (G), Dorsiðes (D), Eran (R) and Kamba (K) sit along what is in effect a dialect continuum, though traditional authors would still maintain these as fully distinct varieties, in spite of continuing

There are also 'insular' varities (not an actual group linguistically of course) on the various islands off the Frislandic coast. The most distinctive is that of Llæðuju (L) and sister island Llovu, which are noticeably distinct from the varity of the nearest settlement of Sændetoll (where this variety differs from S standards will be noted but otherwise left unremarked upon). The other large islands of Dojllo, Iben and Særm have varieties which generally can be grouped (as they are administratively) with the ælu of Kamba, Eran, and Guoðvakk respectively, while the island of Manko, having historically been largely inhabited by monks and close to the capital Ojbar is generally lacking in local dialect features.

So what does actually differ between these dialects? Let's start with single consonants. A key isogloss dividing the northern varieties (KRB) and S from the rest of the country is the retention of an overt reflex of lenited *k, usually a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]. The traditional variety of Dorsiðes also retains a slightly weaker consonant [ɦ] in stressed syllables.

There is also some regional variation in the reflexes of lenites *t, standard [ð]. While the eastern varieties do generally maintain a dental fricative, in Bondeduo we instead find [ɾ] (not kerging with *r or lenited *ʃ, see below), while a commonly-cited shibboleth of Sændetoll is the [l] reflex of the same, which counter-feeds an additional shift where *l in lenition environments (except as part of a *Cl cluster) shifts to [j]~[i̯] after a front vowel and [β]~[u̯] otherwise. Meanwhile, colloquial varieties in the southeast (OG) frequently delete lenited *t entirely.

Another key northern (KRB) feature is the retroflex articulation of the reflexes of *ʃ and *r, the former being either [ʂ] or [ʐ]~[ɻ] depending on lenition and the latter [ʐ]~[ɻ]. These cause retroflexion of a following coronal, thus e.g. standard /rt/, /st/ correeponds to [ʈ], [ʰʈ]~[ʂʈ] in these varieties. In B additionally there is a retroflex affricate [ʈʂ] from original *tr, while *tʰr merges with *ʃ as [ʂ], though metathesis of cluster *r continues as normal, resulting in apparent retroflex spreading/harmony.

These also are the regions where reflexes of *c tend towards palatal [t͡sʲ] (R) or [t͡ɕ] (K, B). Some village varieties otherwise grouped with B are claimed to distinguish reflexes of palatalised *t from other *c, but this is not found in B proper.

As established before, in standard Frislandic *n does not lenite. However this is not universal cross-dialectally. Notably in a S *n in lenition environments is lost leaving nasalisation of an adjacent vowel. This includes *n as the first member of a cluster undergoing metathesis.

The treatment of nasal + stop clusters forms an curious pair of isoglosses, in that S along with KR lost the nasal and nasalised the preceding vowel. In KR this was also accompanied by lengthening of the vowel. Meanwhile, in B (and also L) the lenghtening and deletion occurred but nasalisation was either lost or never arose to begin with. Note that these varieties (except S) thus lack [ŋ], instead having [k]~[ɡ] (noncontrastively voiced due to position) or [ɣ] and a nasal vowel preceding (S has [k]~[g] [ŋ]). Vowels before nasals in general are more strongly nasalised in these varieties.

Finally, a notable shibboleth of B and L is the retention of an over reflex of *pʰ, which is [h] in B and [f] in L. This merges with *p in lenition environments as [β]~[u].

In terms of vowels, the basic reflexes are usually somewhat similar, but there are some differences. In BKR the raising and fronting of *o, *u respectively did not take place, at least in stressed syllables, though there was subsequent to the Proto-Frislandic period a raising of new unstressed *o from combinations of schwa plus lenited labial consonant, paralleled by the [i] reflex of unstressed combinations of schwa plus palatal.

In terms of the long vowels, many varieties have differing reflexes. Firstly, while breaking of the mid vowels *eː, *oː is universal (with the exception of S), in KRD the result is [ea̯], [oa̯]. Meanwhile, the central varieties of RDG share a raising and rounding of *aː to [ɔ] or [o]. In the case of R this vowel merges with the [o] from *o. S, meanwhile, retains the length contrast in vowels as such, with no breaking at all.

With regards to umlaut, B notably has extended this to the back rounded vowels, expanding the vowel system significantly, with *o, *oː, *u, *uː giving [ø], [yɵ̯], [y], [øy̯] respectively when umlauted. This extends into something resembling a basic vowel harmony system in the animate plural, where the choice of [u] vs. [y] is determined by whether the vowel of the root is front. Meanwhile, in S, umlaut, while restricted to the low vowels as in O, behaved differently, to the extent that *e, *a merged in umlaut environments as [e], rather than umlauted *a giving [æ]. Otherwise these vowels remain distinct as [æ], [ɑ] respectively. Note that this is also true of the long vowels *eː, *aː as well, though with the caveat that *eː did not undergo lowering, thus is also reflected as [eː].

In terms of the diphthongs, there is a wide array of mergers and variability. Standard Frislandic has a frankly ridiculous quantity of diphthongs, and basically none of the dialects (even O) actually maintain this. For those that break *iː, *uː into a glide-final dipthong, the result of this breaking frequently merges with one of the secondary diphthongs formed through lenition of *c, *cʰ and *p, *m respectively. In O the result is [æi̯], [ɑu̯], in G [ei̯], [ou̯] and in D [ei̯], [eu̯], and smaller settlements inbetween these ælu frequently have their own variants. Meanwhile, in KR *iː, *uː break as [iə̯], [uə̯]. B shows an additional wrinkle due to umlaut, as while *iː shows by default as [ei̯], *uː splits into [øy̯], [ou̯] depending on umlaut.

Furthermore, of the 'secondary' diphthongs (those formed through consonant lenition), many varieties have various vowels mergers in this case too. Firstly, in RDG, because of the raising of *aː, this vowel merges with the reflexes of *oː in diphthongs, when not umlauted, with both being found as [oi̯], [ou̯] (the latter in G of course also merging with the primary reflex of *uː). Reflexes of umlauted *aː in the same contexts show backing to [ai̯], [au̯].

On the flipside, in S, due to the differing distribution of umlauted vowel mentioned above, the diphthong reflexes of umlauted *aː are [ei̯], [eu̯] (note also that the long vowel shortens here, despite S otherwise retaining vowel length). K instead we have a likely Duke-of-York change, where umlaut happens to *aː but in secondary diphthongs the vowels merge again, giving [ai̯], [au̯]. In KR the reflexes of long *iː, *uː in diphthongs are also different, as these undergo lowering, giving [ei̯], [eu̯], [oi̯], [ou̯], merging with the reflexes of *eː, *oː in these contexts.

B meanwhile shows some significant rejigging of the secondary diphthongs due to and in spite of umlaut, with a particular split between palatal and labial consonants. Palatal consonants co-occur with fronted vowels while back and/or rounded vowels co-occur with labials. As in KR long *iː, *uː merge with *eː, *oː. So *iː, *eː give [ei̯], [øy̯] while *oː, *uː give [øy̯], [ou̯]. The same applies with the reflexes of *aː, which gives [æi̯], [ɑu̯].

Finally, with regards to the treatment of schwa, in Os and to some extent also in G it is common to extend the pattern of schwa deletion between single consonants surrounded by vowels to include word boundaries, particularly with conjunctions such as æn 'and'. Note however that this does not apply to word-final schwas that arise from lenited and deleted *t, *k. In S this is also applied to the definite article ne, to the extent that when a vowel-final word precedes it encliticises onto that word as nasalisation of the vowel.

To conclude, here is a short text with phonetic transcriptions with the accents of each of the most significant dialects (OSBK). Of course a true dialect translation would also include lexical and grammatical differences (a couple of which are reflected here but will be discussed properly elsewhere as part of the discussion of dialectal morphology), but this kind of style suffices to show the phonological variation, and is reflective of practices of dialect representation in Frislandic media (text from this post, though amended slightly to reflect my now clearing thoughts about alignment, which is still kinda a mess).

Nie ijð Gæjlkud æn Ængelkud. Gæjlkud setuole kud. Gæjle bivlræju sedsonte ne Zaðudes æn kolovi wndreðeð Gæjle kongu kujnle tozlend ge ni irad otteseð. Æn sasan, n'ængle konguj Gæjlkude nudeneð sie gæjle dærnuj æjnd, æn er iel Irijkudeð gæjlle ijð eniðen. Nivi llutto kald Gæjlkude llærdurne deseð sad 20i balg morsj.

O: [ˈniə æi̯ ˈkæi̯lkʰyd æn͜ ˈæŋəlˌkʰyt | ˈkæi̯lkʰyt seˈtʰuə̯le ˈkʰyt | ˈkæi̯le ˈpiu̯lɾæjy setˈsuntʰe nə ˈt͡sɑ.yts æn͜ ˈkʰuluβi ˈɑu̯ndrə ˈkæi̯le ˈkʰuŋy ˈkʰøy̯nle ˈtʰut͡slən gə͜ ni ˈɾɑd uˈʰtesə | æn͜ ˈsɑsɑn ˈnæŋle ˈkʰuŋøy̯ ˈkæi̯lkʰyde ˈnydnə ˈsiə̯ ˈkæi̯le ˈtærnøy̯ ˈæi̯nt æn͜ eɾ͜ iə̯l ˈiræi̯ˌkʰydə ˈkæi̯ɬə æi̯ ˈnin | ˈniβi ˈɬyʰtu ˈkʰɑlt ˈkæi̯lkʰyde ˈɬærdyrne ˈtesə ˈsɑt ˈnæi̯ ˈpɑlk murɕ]

S: [ˈneːɣ iːl ˈkei̯kʰyd ẽn͜ ˈẽguˌkʰyt | ˈkei̯kʰyt seˈtʰuːβe ˈkʰyt | ˈkeje ˈpiu̯ɾeju setˈsũtʰẽ ˈt͡sɑlyts ẽn͜ ˈkʰuluβi ˈũːdɾəl ˈkeje ˈkʰũŋu ˈkʰø̃ỹ̯nuɣe ˈtʰut͡sũl gĩː ˈrɑd uˈʰtesəl | ẽ͜ ˈsɑsɑːɣən ˈnẽgβe ˈkʰũŋøy̯ ˈkei̯kʰyde ˈnydə̃l ˈseː ˈkeje ˈtẽrnøy̯ ˈẽĩ̯t ẽn͜ eɾ͜ ei̯ ˈiriːˌkʰydəl ˈkei̯ɬəɣ iːl ˈĩlə̃ | ˈniβi ˈɬyʰtu ˈkʰɑlt ˈkei̯kʰyde ˈɬeɾdyrne ˈtesəl ˈsɑt ˈnei̯ ˈpalk murɕ]

B: [ˈniə̯ɣ hei̯ɾ ˈkæi̯lkʰud æn͜ ˈæːgəlˌkʰut | ˈkæi̯lkʰut ʂeˈtʰuə̯li ˈkʰut | ˈkæi̯li ˈpøy̯lhæɻy ʂeʈˈʂuːtʰe nə ˈt͡ɕæɾydəs æn͜ ˈkʰoloβi ˈou̯ɖɚ ˈkæi̯li ˈkʰoːgu ˈkøy̯lɣi ˈtʰot͡ɕlənt kə͜ niː ˈɻɑd yˈʰtesəɾ | æː͜ ˈʂɑʂɑɣə ˈnæːgli ˈkʰoːgu ˈkæi̯lkʰudi ˈnudənəɾ ˈʂiə̯ ˈkæi̯li ˈt͡ʂæɳøy̯ ˈhæi̯t æn͜ ɚ ͜ hiə̯l ˈhirei̯ˌkʰudəɾ ˈkæi̯ɬəɣ hei̯ɾ əˈniɾə | ˈnøβi ˈɬuʰtu ˈkʰɑlt ˈkæi̯lkʰudi ˈɬæɖyɳi ˈtesəɾ ˈʂɑt ˈnæi̯ ˈpɑlk moʂ]

K: [ˈnea̯ɣ iə̯ð ˈkai̯lkʰud æ̃n͜ ˈæ̃ːgəlˌkʰut | ˈkai̯lkʰut ʂeˈtʰoa̯li ˈkʰut | ˈkai̯li ˈpeu̯ɭæju ʂeʈˈʂũːtʰe nə t͡ɕɑðudəs æ̃ː͜ ˈkʰoloβi ˈũə̯̃ɖəð ˈkai̯li ˈkʰõːgu ˈkʰõĩ̯lɣi ˈtʰot͡ɕlə̃ð kə͜ niː ˈɻɑd uˈʰtesəð | æ̃ː͜ ˈʂɑʂɑɣə̃ ˈnæ̃ːgli ˈkʰõːgu ˈkai̯lkʰudi ˈnudə̃nəð ˈʂea̯ ˈkai̯li ˈtæ̃ɳoi̯ ˈãĩ̯t æn͜ eɻ͜ ea̯l ˈirei̯ˌkʰudəð ˈkai̯ɬəɣ iə̯ð ə̃ˈniðə̃n | ˈneβi ˈɬuʰtu ˈkʰalt ˈkai̯lkʰudi ˈɬæɖuɳi ˈtesəð ˈʂɑt ˈnai̯ ˈpɑlk moʂ]

[4denthusiast]

Colourblindness and the Social Model

I don't know if there are standard names for these categories, but the consequences disabilities have can be roughly categorised in two groups: the social consequences, which arise as a result of the way society treats disability and fails to accommodate it, and objective, which are simply a direct result of the disability, and occur regardless of what anyone else is doing.

People sometimes advocate for the social model of disability, the absurdly extreme view that only social consequences exist. I have three conditions which, while probably not severe enough to really count as disabilities, are basically milder versions of the same sort of thing, and for two of them, the consequences are almost entirely of the objective kind, but for the third, colourblindness, for all that the social model annoys me in general, it is actually not that terrible a fit.

To be more precise, I have deuteranomaly (or possibly protanomaly, the two conditions are nearly indistinguishable), the most common and rather mild form of colourblindness which means I am less sensitive than usual to differences in colour along the red-green axis, but still do have some ability to make this distinction. There are three problems I tend to encounter as a result of this.

Natural colours

This is entirely an objective problem. Sometimes I need to distinguish naturally occurring colours from each other. This doesn't happen very often, and the one case that I do run into with some regularity is trying to tell how ripe fruit is.

Colour coding

When the colours are deliberately chosen to convey information, it becomes more of a social problem, but there is still an aspect of objective here in that the limit on how many colours a colour coding scheme can contain is lower for someone colourblind than someone with normal colour vision. Of course, people sometimes choose suboptimal colour schemes even before reaching this limit and this is a social problem, but it's a well known one and not the main thing I want to discuss.

Colour names

This is the problem that tends to bother me most often, and is entirely a social problem. The names of colours do not match my perception.

I have often worried about what I would do if I accidentally left my jacket somewhere (not for a related reason, just because I'm a somewhat anxious person). I would run through in my mind the solution to this: I go back to where I lost it and ask the staff if there was a jacket left behind. I tell them its shape and size and so on, and I try to tell them its colour, but this is difficult, because there is no name in English for the colour of my jacket (at least not a common one, but I don't know an uncommon one if it exists).

Explaining what I mean by this will take a little while. There is nothing peculiar about my jacket in itself. "Colour" can mean a lot of slightly different things, but the definition I am using here is an equivalence class of spectra of light under visual indistinguishability. That is to say, a colour is a set of spectra of light, and two spectra count as the same colour if light with these spectra looks identical. (I will be conflating spectra of light and reflectance spectra because the difference is not relevant here.)

For example, these three spectra, despite looking very different in a diagram like this, would look the same to everyone as actual light. (All the spectra in this post are of course rough sketches. It would take more effort than it's worth to make them actually precise.)

These would all look like a slightly desaturated yellow. Human eyes cannot distinguish them, because all of them activate the M and L cones (which detect mainly green and red light) about equally, and the S cones (which detect mainly blue light) slightly. Because you need a specialised instrument to distinguish light of these spectra, they don't have separate names. The exact colour that contains all of these spectra might be called something like Pantone 13-0647 or #fe1, and this colour is part of a larger category of colours all called "yellow".

This concept of a colour inherently depends on the visual system used to determine what looks identical. To a shrimp, these spectra would probably look quite different. To a colourblind person, they'd probably still look the same, but a wider range of spectra would also be included in the same category. This means that, at least for this (slightly idiosyncratic) definition of "colour", the first of these spectra is a different colour from the point of view of a shrimp, a normal human, me, and a human with a different variety of colourblindness.

Because my colour vision is less precise than that of a normal person, each of my colours corresponds to a range of their colours. My problem with colour names arises when the different normal-person-colours that are subsets of the same one of my colours have different names.

These two spectra are brown and dark green to a normal person, and the same colour to me (again, the exact spectra are guesses). This colour is approximately the colour of my jacket, and it does not have a name, because it is not a colour that many people see.

I'm not claiming that this is a major problem. I'm aware that I can just use the phrase "either brown or dark green" for this colour, but it does slightly bother me that it is implied by me using such a phrase that I don't know what colour such a thing is. I don't know what colour such a thing is to a normal person, but I do know what colour it is to me. Nobody knows the full spectrum of anything unless they use a spectrometer anyway, the only claim normal-human colours have to being more objective is that they're more common.

An aside

I don't know whether this is actually the case, but it is theoretically possible that some spectra are distinguishable to someone with deuteranomaly that are not distinguishable to someone with normal colour vision. Deuteranomaly is caused by a mutation that slightly alters the spectrum of sensitivity of the M cone, making it more similar to the L cone (and protanomaly is the reverse, L shifted towards M). The fact that the mutant M cone M' is less distinct from L is what makes someone with deuteranomaly less sensitive to the red vs green distinction, because the degree of activation of these cones will always be similar. It is still technically the case however that we have a kind of cone normal people don't.

This affects the balance of how monochromatic yellow light compares to mixed red and green light. The leftmost spectrum here might look identical to the middle spectrum to someone with normal eyes, but look like the right spectrum with a little more green instead to someone with deuteranomaly. If the two red+green spectra are far enough apart, they might be distinguishable from each other, which would mean that I could distinguish the left and middle spectra and a normal person couldn't.

This is just theoretical, and I don't know whether the effect is actually large enough to be observable in real life. Even if it is, it's probably only under ideal conditions. Still, if this is correct, what I said earlier about my colours being a range of normal person colours is not quite true. Our colours would overlap in more complicated ways, not just as subsets. This diagram illustrates this sort of overlap. The red ellipses represent normal colours, and the blue ellipses represent deuteranomolous colours. It shows only a certain slice of colour space, and is not to scale. Even if this is true, there are still far more spectra they can distinguish that I can't, so it's a rather meager consolation prize, I just think it's interesting.

[liskantope]

In the replies, I wrote:

Now I feel we're on the same page and think you made a really really good point in there particularly about "living intentionally". But I also kind of feel like you've backed off the absolutist-sounding thesis from your earlier post, in engaging with the thrust of some common rebuttal. Which I appreciate, because my main complaint is that a ton of people in this subculture are simply refusing to do this kind of engagement with the underlying assumption.

(To clarify: the "original post" I referred to was this one in which "such-and-such list of behaviors are considered abusive between adults; therefore they should be considered abusive when done to children" is pretty much explicitly the whole argument of the post. At the time I was first responding to it -- in fact maybe even when I wrote the above reply, I don't remember -- I hadn't even seen the unrebloggable post that apparently started up the whole discussion.)

@max1461 replied:

I don't think my claims were ever absolutist, I believe you read that into them but if you go back to them you will notice that they don't contradict or even apparently contradict anything I've said here

I think I did intend "absolutist-sounding" to mean "implying something absolutist", but this was still a bit of a sloppy way to write. In replies I tend to be terse and err on the side of sloppiness, which is why I'm doing a proper reblog now rather than continuing a back-and-forth in the replies.

But again, in the post I was referring to, you very strongly implied if not outright stated that to your view, any behavior X that's considered abusive between adults is therefore automatically a form of abuse when done to children (and someone else may hold a different view, but then they are making an "ad hoc exception" and should admit it, while you are not). The perhaps slightly milder implication there is that if X is wrong to do to another adult, it's wrong to do as a child. (And the typical assumption behind that, which you may or may not have held but I don't think I was wrong to find quite plausible though not certain that you held, is that this is because children are equivalent to adults in terms of natural "day-to-day-type" rights.) All of these are statements that I find rather absolutist.

Then in the OP to this reblog, you seemed to back down from this enough to suggest that sometimes Behavior X (e.g. setting and enforcing a regular bedtime) which is unacceptable between adults is okay towards children, and then made the excellent point that we have to be super careful to do this "with intention" (understanding that it is okay in this situation because of Y or Z about the child's level of development and that things will change as the child further develops), otherwise we'll slip into a default habit that may affect our power dynamic with the child/adolescent/youth/adult much later. I may have misunderstood one or another part of this, but I hope it's somewhat understandable why this seemed to me like a contradiction to an earlier "if Behavior X is wrong towards an adult, it's automatically wrong towards a child" implied assumption.

I apologize if I really did misinterpret you somewhere along the line. I do think (as you and others have noted) there's an issue in this discussion with myself and others partially lumping you in with a typical Tumblr style of moral crusader / "everyone who does any kind of abuse is an evil monster" rhetoric, and I'll try to be more careful about not doing that.

Also consider this: when you get used to behaving in a particular way, it is hard to shift gears. I know this about myself. We grow up doing one thing and just keep doing it. This is a reason for extending people, as I've mentioned before, a significant amount of grace for wrongdoing that is culturally normalized. It takes time, effort, and information to live intentionally, to really choose how you will behave, and we all have limited access to time, effort, and information.

But one consequence of this is that someone who is a controlling parent when their kids are kids will often continue to be controlling when their kids are grown. And even if you defend a straightforwardly different standard of abuse when it comes to child-adult relationships than when it comes to adult-adult relationships, by normalizing certain kinds of controlling behaviors on the part of parents you are also, I suspect, increasing the risk of controlling relationships between a parent and their adult or young adult children.

You can caricature the child liberation stuff as like, "they want to abolish bedtime". I don't think it's abusive if a parent like, sets a bedtime for their 3 year old or whatever. You know, young kids need regular sleeping routines and so on. But if you're not thinking intentionally about parenting, and about the moral imperative to respect your children's autonomy, then bedtime for your 3 year old becomes a bedtime for your 10 year old becomes a curfew for your 17 year old, etc. etc. Because as a parent you have all the power, and so you are the one who must decide to stop, you are the one who must actively decide to relinquish control when the proper age is reached. And people hate relinquishing control.

I contend that many of the most normalized forms of child abuse occur when behaviors that are appropriate for a young child, who truly needs a more active and involved caretaker, are thoughtlessly extended (or indeed extended out of anxiety) to older ages when a young person has started need and to express their need for autonomy.

[ceylonmoon]

a quiet sliver of time

G | Genshin Impact | Capitano/Scaramouche

Word Count: 1,069

Tags: Plotless, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Rain, Cuddling, Established Relationship

ao3 link:

Fic Continued Below:

The torrent doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.

It paints translucent little rivers against the window-panes, pittering down from the roiling grey mist swirling above. A faint tapping trickles in from the branches of stray trees knocking on the walls and mortar; by the next cycle of the sun, one or more of them was certain to be uprooted. The wanderer faintly wonders about what could have upset his mother this time.

“Any chance that we won’t need to delay our grocery trip for the fifth time?”

Beside him, Capitano stirs. “The tempest will not quiet until tomorrow,” he murmurs after a moment. As usual, he doesn’t bother taking a glance out of the window, the knowledge inherent from within somewhere the wanderer hasn’t puzzled out yet.

So effectively, the wanderer thinks as he stares out the window next to their bed, monsoon season has yet again gotten the best of mortal forethought. He and Capitano would scarcely mind going out in such weather— even Sumeru’s most temperamental rainstorms still couldn’t hope to match up to one of the Tsaritsa’s milder frenzies— and Nahida would probably revel in the rain more likely than not. God of Dendro idiosyncrasies, he supposes. But the vendors had hardly appreciated their stock being waterlogged before the customers could even have a chance of bartering, and so the majority of them had packed away their goods for another day. The more weather-wary ones hadn’t bothered to come at all. So it would have bore no fruit to trek out to the bazaar in this state, even on the off chance there were still merchants at their stalls.

The benefit, at least, was that he would get to spend his break indoors. Though he could certainly tolerate the rain, it wasn’t as if he actively enjoyed feeling like a drenched cat every time he stepped outside.

Hm. Speaking of cats.

In a deviation from the usual routine, he finds his lap occupied with both the normal manila folder of assignments to tear apart and the less common undulating oil-slick of Capitano’s hair as he lays— not quite asleep, but in whatever purgatory he found himself in whenever the urge or need struck.

Strangely enough, the urge has been striking Capitano more frequently lately, judging by how the wanderer found his side more accompanied the past few weeks. His running theory is that this sudden onslaught of clinginess likely has to do with the rain and the natural dendro aura of the landscape; something about the inherent concentrated energy soothing over the leylines just enough that it trickled into the abyss, consequently turning Capitano into the equivalent of a cat that indulged in too much cream. The thought nearly causes a smile to spread across his lips because Capitano would absolutely abhor that description, had he known.

Well. He isn’t complaining— in the depths of spring and the emerging traces of summer, the glacial temperatures that Capitano emanated were more than welcome, especially in Sumeru’s heat waves.

Idle, the wanderer wraps a particularly unruly lock of Capitano’s hair around his index. The tendril burbles slightly at him before smoothing down again into its almost-usual form.

“Your hair is getting wavy,” the wanderer notes, absent. “I was under the impression it disliked straying from your usual style.”

One of Capitano’s eyes blinks open. He’s been also forgoing the helmet more often than not as of late, so the void of his face and the innumerable eyes marring it are on display. The wanderer is nearly alarmed by how much more…emotive he is, though he doubts anyone else would be able to tell, the stoic bastard.

“The humidity,” Capitano explains, peering up at the wanderer. Then, with decidedly more amusement in his voice, “It is not that it dislikes new forms. Rather it is simply a matter of…retaining propriety.”

“Hm. So you don’t bother being proper around me? How disrespectful,” the wanderer taunts.

As if faced with a terrible affront, Capitano’s hair tightens around his finger, ripples, and begins straightening at the ends to prove a point.

“You would find it more insulting if I were to act with propriety towards you,” Capitano says, underpinned with something resembling teasing accusation.

The wanderer snickers. “Perhaps I would.” Mollified, Capitano’s hair begins curling into the spaces between his fingers, attempting to draw ever closer.

“The revered Captain,” the wanderer murmurs, brushing a strand of hair out of the abyss that composed Capitano’s face, “Look how far you have fallen. Clinging onto a divine being like this.”

His eye has almost fully shut again at this point, blinking slow and languid. “If you constitute a divine being, then perhaps I may ascend to Celestia yet,” Capitano responds mildly.

“...Maybe you had a point,” the wanderer concedes, abruptly, horribly filled with something like fondness, godforbid. In the back of his mind, he notes that his cheeks are starting to ache. “You’d be much less entertaining if you were dignified.”

Capitano graces them with a breath that could be interpreted as laughter, settling back into something strangely placid. Content, even. “Do you view me as something akin to a circus animal?”

“You were the first of the fools for a reason, I’d assume.”

“I surrender the issue.” Capitano lets out one of his half-breath, half-laughs as his eye shuts fully, dissipating and melding back into the twilight.

“Coward,” the wanderer says, half-hearted, “you just want to go back to sleep.”

No answer this time around, save for a pull at his wrist down towards the bed.

Hm. He has been done for a while anyways. The wanderer sets the envelope aside on the nightstand and extinguishes the lantern with a flick of his wrist. In the meantime, Capitano holds the covers open as an offering, insistently waiting for him to finish up.

“Hah. You really are getting clingy,” the wanderer tells him as he slips underneath the blankets. Behind Capitano, a glancing strike of lightning illuminates the room in a flash, reflecting silver off of his helm sitting faithfully on his side and the infinitesimal constellations spiralling within the chasm and threading through the gloss of his hair. Maybe the blame goes to both of them then, when their limbs end up intertwined immediately, a gravitational tug into orbit.

The wanderer shuts his eyes. He has time to kill.

The torrent doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon, after all.

[adventuresofalgy]

Algy was thrilled by his friend @themazette‘s kind comment on his previous post, and the mélomane found that once he had started to sing it was really very difficult to stop...

However, since the thaw a couple of days ago, the wild Atlantic wind which had brought the milder weather had been regaining its usual force, and it was threatening to blow up into a regular gale. So, to avoid being battered too severely by the dry twigs of the hydrangea in which he had started to sing, Algy retreated to a slightly more sheltered and comfortable spot. There he continued his personal rendition of selections from Donizetti’s comic opera La fille du régiment. Of course this particularly happy song was intended for a blend of three separate voices (as you can discover from the link at the foot of this post), but as there were no other voices available except those of his twittering wee fluffy cousins in the bushes around him - who he suspected could probably not carry a tune - Algy tried to take all three parts himself, imagining that the three participants were himself, his assistant, and a chorus of his Tumblr friends all singing as one...

Luckily, the sound of Algy’s multipart performance was rapidly carried away on the wind, but for those close enough to listen, this is what they heard:

Tous les trois réunis, Quel plaisir, mes amis ! Quel bonheur, quelle ivresse ! Doux instants de tendresse ! Nous voilà réunis.

[Algy’s translation: The three of us reunited Such pleasure, my friends! Such happiness, such delight! Sweet moments of tenderness! Here we are reunited.]

A rather more conventional presentation of this particular exerpt from Donizetti’s opera can be experienced at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBXPbpIsd4M

p.s. Algy notes that ivresse - which seems to occur a lot in French language opera, probably because it rhymes with tendresse and jeunesse - is a particularly difficult word to translate into English, where it has no real equivalent when used in this sort of context. It is usually translated as “intoxication” (either literal or metaphorical) but is really better left in the original French 😀

[catihere]

Oh, really? 😮 Well, good for me! I get to teach people swear words! Without further ado…

Your pocket guide to Romanian swear words! Starting from the milder ones, down to the outright crass ones. (Disclaimer: this gets very, very vulgar)

Ce naiba - an exclamation or a question, probably the nicest way to say “What the fuck”. It’s pretty mild and gets thrown around a lot. Sidenote: “naiba” is slang for the devil and it can be used in almost any phrase.

Ce dracu - similar to the first one, except it’s much harsher. “Drac” also means devil.

Ce puii mei - my favorite way to say “What the fuck”. Not slang for the devil this time, instead it literally translates to “What in my chickens”.

Mă-ta - it means “your mom”. Can be used in a variety of contexts. I personally use it every time someone tells me something stupid.

Rahat - Shit or crap. Be careful with this one, because it’s not always used as a swear word. Sometimes it’s just used to refer to a type of candy.

De rahat - “shitty” or “crappy”. Used as an adjective.

Cur - “ass”.

Să te fut - the equivalent of “Fuck you”.

Du-te dracu/naibii - another way to say “Fuck you”.

Căcama-și - a very vulgar exclamation, literally meaning “to shit myself”. People usually use it when they make a mistake.

Du-te în pizda mă-tii - probably one of the rudest things that you can tell someone. It basically means “Go back to your mother’s p*ssy”. Yeah, us Romanians are pretty creative when it comes to insults…

Some insults that you can call people! (Please don’t, these are pretty rude)

Prostule (masculine variant)/Proasto (feminine variant) - used to refer to dumb people; it can mean “idiot” or “moron”.

Bou - it just means “bull” and it’s used as an insult to pretty much any man that acts impolite.

Nesimțit (masculine variant) /Nesimțită (feminine variant) - it doesn’t have a translation, but it’s generally used as a noun or adjective to describe people who are unaware or ignorant. It’s pretty mild, my mother calls me that every single day lmao

These are the most used ones! They may vary slightly depending on region, but overall this is a pretty good list. Is it useful? Not at all. But I guess these are good to know 🤷‍♀️

Someone please hand me a small child that I can teach Romanian swear words to

[kunoichi-ume]

Fictober Day 26

Prompt List

Fandom: Swtor

Characters/ship: Leena Jiin and Felix Iresso

Prompt: “But if you cannot see it, is it really there?”

A/N: I learned this morning that I don’t have any good shots of these two, which is a terrible shame. I might just need to remake her to get some....

Felix had been quiet ever since listening to Dr. Fray’s message and as much as Leena wanted to check on him, she had to respect his wishes for privacy. Honestly, she needed some time herself to digest the information that had been dumped on them.

A Sith holocron, in his head. It didn’t seem possible. Everything Leena knew about holocrons said that was impossible to store that kind of data in a person’s mind but somehow, she knew it was true. Like the Force was confirming her fears.

While she was waiting for him to be ready to talk Leena tried to keep herself busy. She found herself sitting down at her keybed as she usually did when she was stressed. Her fingers danced across the black, green and white keys as she played the melody by memory. She played through the song once before she returned to the beginning. This time she sang as she started to play.

“We met across a great divide,” she sang, her voice lilting gently along with the tune. “Took a running start and watched our stars collide. You shine the brightest for me.” Leena continued to sing, about falling in love under champagne sunsets and chasing forever with the love of her life. With Felix.

She was so absorbed in her music that she didn’t notice the man she was singing for enter the room behind her. Felix had been drawn out of the cockpit, and his thoughts, but the sound of music. It had been a while since Leena had the time to sit and play. He hadn’t realized until now how much he missed hearing her music. Even with the dark thoughts plaguing his mind now, the sound of her voice eased his troubles some.

As much as learning the truth about what happened when he was captured horrified him, part of him knew he wouldn’t have met Leena if the military hadn’t doubted his loyalty after his imprisonment. Even with how much he hated the idea of what was inside his head he much preferred being with her.

When she sang the last few bars of the song, Felix hugged her from behind. He felt her jump slightly in surprise before relaxing back against his chest.

“That was beautiful,” he said, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“Thank you,” Leena said before turning in his arms to face him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a searching look, trying to gauge his mood. “How are you?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. It’s hard to imagine there being a Sith library in my head, you know?”

Leena nodded, “it does sound like something out of a holovid.”

Felix smiled, it was just crazy enough that she was right, before letting go when she moved to get up. She moved toward the door before looking at him over her shoulder, “I’m going to make some tea, would you like to join me?”

He agreed and followed her to the kitchen. Tea had never been his thing, on Hoth caff was the only thing that kept his spirits up most days, but the milder beverage was starting to grow on him. He wasn’t sure if that was her personal tastes maturing, or because it was Leena making it for him. He sat the little table in the kitchen and watched her flit about as she heated the water and prepared the pot. It wasn’t long before she was pouring a steaming cup of tea for each of them and slipping into the chair across from him.

Leena blew on her tea and took a careful sip while Felix just twisted the cup in his hands. She set her cup down and reached across the table to pay her hand on his. “If you want to talk about it, I’m here.”

He sighed and looked up to meet her gaze. “It’s just so hard to wrap my head around. I just wish there was a way to know for sure if she was telling the truth.” Felix’s eyes widened as he was struck with an idea, “could you sense it with your Force powers?”

Leena’s brow furrowed as she considered his request. “I could try,” she said carefully, “but I cannot guarantee I will be able to sense it. I’ve never reached into your mind before, but I’ve never sensed anything dark about you.”

“I know this might not work, but,” he shrugged and shook his head, “it’s worth a shot.”

Moving to sit next to him, Leena placed her hands on either side of his head and closed her eyes. Reaching out to the Force she took a moment to take in the room round them before gently focusing her attention on his mind. The last thing Leena wanted to do was hurt him or make him feel uncomfortable with her presence in his head. Carefully she slid through his thoughts, sensing his emotions as he felt them. Felix’s worry and fears surrounded her but underneath that she could feel his trust and love for her.

Moving past his emotions she pressed on into the other corners of his mind, searching for any hint of the holocron. Eventually she pulled away, gently retreating from his mind to return to her own. She opened her eyes, dropping her hands, to find Felix looking at her expectantly and shook her head.

“I’m sorry Felix, if it is there I cannot find it.” Leena took one of his hands in hers and interlaced their fingers, “I sense no darkness in you.”

“So, she was lying?”

His hopeful tone almost made Leena wince. She wanted that to be true, but despite not finding the holocron she still believed Dr. Fray’s words. “We don’t know that for sure.”

Felix frowned, “you were in my head, I could feel you there and you didn’t find it. If you cannot see it, is it really there?”

“This is unprecedented and without knowing how they put the holocron in your mind it may be impossible to locate it.” She leaned forward and laid her free hand on the side of her face, “either way I don’t believe you are in danger from this. It’s been years and nothing has gone wrong.”

Felix smiled, leaning into her touch, “that’s true, and where better for me to be than with you just in case right?”

“Yes,” she said, happy to see his smile. “Whatever the future holds, we will face it together. I love you Felix.”

“I love you too,” Felix said before pulling her into a kiss.

As she leaned into his kiss Leena made a silent promise to herself. A promise to do whatever she could to protect him and may the Force help Darth Ouzal if they ever met.

It would be a very bad day for him.

Note: a keybed is an instrument similar to a piano, I am picturing her here with the SW equivalent of an electric keyboard. The song is plays is My Good Days by Beth Crowley.

[vapensmoke]

Past Of Aventura, FL

A suburban city in the northeastern Miami-Dade County of Florida, United States of America, Aventura is 17 miles north of the city of Miami and is part of the Miami metropolitan area. The city is especially well known for the Aventura Mall, the fifth largest mall in the United States of America and the largest mall in Florida. Aventura gets its name from the Spanish word for "adventure." It was named after the developers of the original group of condos in the area.

Geography And Climate Of Aventura

The city of Aventura has an area of about 3.5 square miles, including 2.7 square miles of land and 0.8 square miles (23.08%) of water. Aventura has a tropical monsoon climate which means that it features hot and humid summers and short, warm winters. Aventura experiences its "wet season" during the summer, where the city sees the majority of its rain and is also typically hot and humid. This season typically lasts from May to September before giving way to the dry season, which features slightly milder temperatures and the occasional invasions of colder air. Little rain is experienced during the dry season. Additionally, the hurricane season coincides with the earlier wet season.

A typical summer day in Aventura does not see temperatures below 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) and temperatures are often in the high 80s-low 90s (30-35 Celsius.) These high temperatures are frequently relieved by afternoon thunderstorms as well as see breezes which develop off the Atlantic Ocean. These reliefs allow lower temperatures; however, conditions continue to remain very muggy. During winter, Aventura often experiences colder temperatures. The average minimum temperature during the winter is around 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) and rarely dripping below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius)

Hurricane season begins on June 1st and is officially over on November 30th. In October 2005, Aventura was severely hit by Hurricane Wilma, and was continuously undergoing recovery as of November 2011. The library had been destroyed and has since been rebuilt.

During winter, humidity is significantly lower, allowing for cooler weather to develop. Average minimum temperatures during that time are around 59 °F (15 °C), rarely dipping below 40 °F (4 °C), and the equivalent maxima usually range between 65 and 75 °F (18 and 24 °C).

The Population Of Aventura

As of the 2020 census, Aventura's population was 40,242 including 18,035 households and 9,370 families residing in the city. The 2020 United States of America census suggested that the composition of Aventura is as follows: 49.45% of the population is White/Caucasian, 2.74% Black or African American, 0.05% Native American or Alaskan Native, 2.06% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.81% Some Other Race, Mixed/Multi-Racial 4.56%, Hispanic or Latino 40.32%.

Language And Culture Of Aventura

As of 2000, speakers of English as a First Language made up 59.92% of the population. Spanish accounted for 22.63% of the residents, Hebrew and Yiddish comprised 3.66% and 2.78% of the language, respectively. Other languages spoken include Portuguese (2.65%), French (2.40%), Russian (1.75%), and German (1.46%)

Aventura also had the seventeenth-highest percentage of Brazilian residents in the United States of America as of 2000, with 1.9% of the United States' populace, the thirteenth-highest percentage of Colombian residents in the United States, at 4.25% of the city's population.

Aventura also had the twelfth-highest number of Israelis in the US, at 2.4% of the city population. Aventura's Russian community had the twenty-fifth-highest percentage of residents, at 12.4%. The Economy Of Aventura The average income of an Aventura resident is $43,109 a year, and the median household income of $62,882 a year. Aventura has an unemployment rate of 7.0%, whereas the figure is 6.0% for the country.

Aventura, FL Local Services/Resources

Vapes N Smoke is the Best Smoke Shop in Aventura, FL

We are located in Aventura, Florida, just minutes from Miami and Biscayne Boulevard. We have been serving our customers and have built a reputation for quality, service and selection. Our wide variety of e-cigarettes, e-liquids and accessories make us one of the most diverse shops on the market today.

Our goal is to provide our customers with the best product selection possible at affordable prices in our vape store. We offer you the best vaping experience that you can find anywhere!

We are here to help you with all your vaping needs whether you need help choosing an e-cigarette or want to learn more about vaping in general. If you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to contact us

Vapes N Smoke 20802 Biscayne Blvd, Aventura, FL, 33180 (305) 974–4171 https://vapeshopbiscayne.com/

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[jerusalemstraycat]

Climate, Flora, Fauna (Founding February week 1)

The main world is essentially an alternate Earth, because I did not want to put in the effort to make it substantially different. It has one sun, one moon, an oxygen-rich atmosphere and water oceans, diverse but familiar (to Earthlings, anyway) climates, and various artificial constructs such as buildings, roads, and bridges (more on that in the following weeks). The most noticeable differences would be in the length of the day and year, both of which are slightly shorter than their Earth equivalents, and the milder seasonal changes, due to the planet’s smaller axial tilt.

The creatures that inhabit this world would also be familiar to us - on a short walk through the woods (say, a deciduous broadleaf forest, common on this planet’s temperate areas as on ours), one may find all five classes of vertebrates as well as innumerable insects and other arthropods, worms in the ground and snails in the water, plants and fungi large and small, and an array of microorganisms. Hike out to rocky, windswept Kaidel, and you will find gulls nesting on the gravel beaches and eating mussels. Take a trip to the sprawling capital city of Masa, and you will find mice skittering in the gutters and finches perching in maple trees. Centuries ago, you may have found leopards and herds of gazelles roaming the plain destined to be engulfed by the glass and concrete of the city.

There are some strange and unfamiliar creatures on this world as well, such as bioluminescent birds and arboreal kangaroo-like animals with prehensile tails, but the real weirdness is offworld, accessible by the portals through which the caras came.

The caras are a species of bipedal sapients, smaller than humans, nicknamed after the flexible carapaces that cover their bodies and give them an insectoid appearance. Several dozen millennia ago, the caras started to arrive through an interdimensional portal system with a pre-existing link on the planet. Where did it come from? Who installed it? Who built the surrounding temple-like structure carved with strange symbols? Nobody knows. However, the caras have a hunch that the portals and the temple share a common origin with their own homeworlds, a system of miniscule and highly arid artificial asteroids orbiting a sunless gas giant. The asteroids resemble large fractal structures, like infinite cathedrals held together with stone bridges between the spires. Whoever constructed the asteroids, temple, and the link between them is long gone, as no other lifeforms exist on the caras’ homeworlds. In the surrounding interstellar space, however, monsters beyond mortal comprehension drift and dream. They cause no problems except to the occasional reckless or unfortunate cara in very specific circumstances (must be in a certain location on certain asteroids facing a certain way at a certain time of day...).

The caras on the planet live alongside the Bura, the native sapient species. They are bipedal relatives of leporids that have spread over most of the world from the steppes where they evolved. The caras form colonies almost exclusively in the arid areas to which they are adapted, while the more cosmopolitan Bura have established themselves just about everywhere else.

[parakaryote]

The Planet of Andanos

(Repost with some edits)

GENERAL CONDITIONS:

Andanos is the equivalent of Earth in its universe. It’s approximately the same size & mass as Earth, and has generally similar conditions (atmospheric composition, etc.). Also like Earth, it orbits a G-class (yellow dwarf) star and has a single moon.

Three differences between Andanos and Earth:

• Surface temperature: Andanos’ average surface temperature is a few degrees higher than Earth’s - 17 degrees Celsius instead of 14.

• Axial tilt: Andanos has an axial tilt of only 10 degrees, which causes it to have milder seasons than Earth. (Additionally, because of the aforementioned higher temperatures, most of the planet is more “dry season / wet season” than “summer / autumn / winter / spring”.)

• Orbital period: Andanos is slightly closer to its sun than Earth is, so the orbital period is 360 days rather than 365. (The rotational period, and therefore day length, is identical to Earth’s.)

GEOGRAPHY:

Andanos has a single vast supercontinent, Telluria. It covers an area of ~105 million square kilometres, making it larger than the real-life Afroeurasia. Most of the continent has a tropical or subtropical climate, turning temperate at its northern and southern ends (more so in the north, since it extends further into the northern hemisphere than the southern). Telluria is bisected by a harsh equatorial desert, the Maru, and the coastal areas are subjected to harsh monsoons, particularly along the western side of the continent.

The superocean that surrounds Telluria is formally called Omnithalassa, although most people just refer to it as “the ocean” since there’s no real need for specification. (Similarly, Telluria is sometimes referred to as just “the mainland” or “the continent”.) Omnithalassa contains several large islands and thousands of small ones, many of them inhabited. Since the appearance of marine humans, partially or entirely undersea settlements have also become common.

LIFE:

The state of eukaryotic life on Andanos has recently been radically changed by a mysterious mutagenic phenomenon known as the “Tachytely”. This phenomenon has caused countless new species and clades to come into existence, giving Andanos a very chaotic biosphere.

Before the Tachytely, Andanos had all the same life-forms that Earth does.

GENERAL STATE OF HUMANITY:

Humans live all over Andanos, with the planet having roughly the same population as Earth (seven billion or so). On average, about 30% of the human population is altered by the Tachytely although the percentages can be higher or lower depending on the region.

[marybromley]

Brian Minter: Our long gardening season has just begun

Well, this is it — the May long weekend — when, traditionally, most Canadian gardeners plant the majority of their food crops. It’s quite uncanny how similar the high and low temperatures are across our country, even as we look north.

Thanks to the April warm spell, many folks in southern B.C. already have their gardens in. Whether resulting from the early mild temperatures or the COVID-19 pandemic, or both, the demand for heat-loving tomatoes and peppers is through the roof. It makes me chuckle a bit because the intensity has been equivalent to the toilet paper rush of a year ago.

As someone who never plants his garden until late June, let me assure you, we have a long season ahead, and there is time for everything to thrive and mature. Both seeds and transplants will grow far more quickly with longer daylight hours and warmer day and night temperatures.

As for the availability of seeds and plants, there is a reasonable supply in garden stores across the province. Because of the high demand, seed companies are currently restocking seed racks and vegetable growers are producing second and third crops of starter plants. If you can’t find your preferred variety, there are lots of great alternatives.

Let’s start with the big three heat-loving veggies.

Tomatoes are certainly the No. 1 favourites, and they fall into four categories. Among the early-ripening group Early Girl and Ultra Girl (Stokes Seeds) are among the best. As transplants, they mature in about 60 days and are the first to ripen in July. Super Fantastic, Celebrity and Champion are great alternatives. For the best flavour, make sure they are fully ripe before harvesting.

Cherry tomatoes rank next in popularity. Tall-growing Sweet 100 and Sweet Million produce large quantities of bite-size fruits that mature in approximately 60 to 65 days, followed closely by Sun Sugar, Sun Gold and Sweet Gold, three very flavourful yellow varieties. Grape tomatoes have also jumped in popularity. The grape-shaped fruits of Red Grape and Juliet mature in 65 days.

The demand for larger slicing tomatoes is still huge. While everyone knows the name Beefsteak, the improved spinoff varieties, like Big Beef, Beefmaster, Better Boy and Big Boy, are wonderful large slicing varieties.

Over the past few years, interest in growing tomatoes in containers has grown exponentially. The spillover varieties, such as Tumbler, Tumbling Tom Red and Tumbling Tom Yellow, are, by far, the leaders for hanging baskets and pots.

Today, there are literally over 100 tomato varieties, including La Roma and San Marzano paste varieties and the many long season, flavour-packed heritage tomatoes. So, you clearly have a wide range of choices.

Peppers are right on the heels of tomatoes in terms of popularity. Although hot peppers are trending, sweet bell types (green, red, orange, yellow and chocolate) are still No. 1. Sweet Hungarian peppers are not only sweet but also incredibly versatile for preserving.

Among the hots, jalapenos are the best known, but the slightly milder Anaheim, Ancho and Poblano are becoming very popular.  The slightly hotter Serrano types also fall within the comfortably hot range. They all ripen in 70 to 80 days.

Interest is growing in super hot peppers, like Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Ghost Chili, Caribbean Red and Carolina Reaper. They all take far longer — approximately 120 days — to mature. You must be very careful when handling these incredibly hot varieties, especially if you have children.

Like tomatoes, there are over 100 varieties of peppers. Many are unique, and all have varying heat levels. To find out which ones are best suited to your tastes, Google the Scoville Scale, a system measuring the heat of various peppers.

Cucumbers round out the top three heat-lovers, and I break them down into four of the most popular categories. For simple slicing varieties, the old Marketmore types are just fine, but there have been some huge improvements. Bitter-free varieties, like Sweet Success and Slice More are burpless types.

English Telegraph and other so-called long English types of burpless cucumbers are well loved, but quite frankly, the Japanese burpless varieties, because of their easy-to-grow and super tasty fruits, have really taken over this niche, particularly varieties like Tasty Green, Burpless Supreme and Burpless 26.

Today, there are so many great pickling varieties. Cross Country, Pioneer and Homemade Pickles are some of the old reliables, but the new gherkins are bitter-free. With pickling varieties, this is less of an issue.

Cucumbers for growing in containers are very much in demand, and Spacemaster, Patio Snacker and Bush Pickle are ideal candidates. Fast-growing and early-maturing, they perform nicely in containers, especially if they are trellised.

And then there are the specialty cucumbers, like Perseus and Picolino, two short, burpless gourmet types and the older, Middle Eastern sweet varieties, such as Ishtar and Babylon that have quite a following.

If you have lots of space, you might want to try the bite-sized cucamelons that look like miniature watermelons. They are nice for eating on their own or in a salad but watch out — the plants tend to muscle in and take over more than their fair share of territory.

As temperatures continue to warm up, it will soon be time to plant out the serious heat lovers, like eggplants, squash and melons.  Eggplants are growing in popularity as we begin to expand our appreciation of dishes from around the world. With squash, there are both summer types, like zucchini, and winter types, like buttercup, acorn and butternut.

Because they need a long growing season (80 plus days), start melons in containers to grow them quite large before setting them out. In a very hot spot, we can grow great cantaloupe, honeydews and baby watermelons.

All these heat-loving, summertime plants first need to be acclimatized outdoors. For a few days, place them in a spot that is out of the sun and wind. This will help then tolerate any variable weather conditions.

There’s still lots of time over the next two to three weeks to plant these garden favourites, and there continues to be good availability in most garden stores.  So, folks, it’s time to get planting.

Brian Minter: Our long gardening season has just begun published first on https://weedkillerguide.tumblr.com/

[dailynewswebsite]

Coronavirus mutations: what we’ve learned so far

ImageFlow/Shutterstock

In early January, the primary genome sequence of Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – was launched below the moniker “Wuhan-1”. This string of 30,000 letters (the A, T, C and Gs of the genetic code) marked day one within the race to know the genetics of this newly found coronavirus. Now, an extra 100,000 coronavirus genomes sampled from COVID-19 sufferers in over 100 nations have joined Wuhan-1. Geneticists all over the world are mining the information for solutions. The place did Sars-CoV-2 come from? When did it begin infecting people? How is the virus mutating – and does it matter? Sars-CoV-2 genomics, very similar to the virus itself, went huge and went world.

The time period mutation tends to conjure up photographs of harmful new viruses with enhanced talents sweeping throughout the planet. And whereas mutations consistently emerge and generally sweep – early mutations in Sars-CoV-2 have made their manner all over the world because the virus unfold nearly unnoticed – mutations are a wonderfully pure a part of any organism, together with viruses. The overwhelming majority haven’t any influence on a virus’s capability to transmit or trigger illness.

A mutation simply means a distinction; a letter change within the genome. Whereas the Sars-CoV-2 inhabitants was genetically primarily invariant when it jumped into its first human host in late 2019, over 13,000 of those adjustments at the moment are discovered within the 100,000 Sars-CoV-2 sequenced so far. But any two viruses from any two sufferers wherever on the earth differ on common by solely ten letters. This can be a tiny fraction of the whole 30,000 characters within the virus’s genetic code and implies that all Sars-CoV-2 in circulation may be thought-about a part of a single clonal lineage.

Slowly mutating

It would take a while for the virus to accumulate substantial genetic range. Sars-CoV-2 mutates pretty slowly for a virus, with any lineage buying a few adjustments each month; two to six-fold decrease than the variety of mutations acquired by influenza viruses over the identical interval.

Nonetheless, mutations are the bedrock on which pure choice can act. Mostly mutations will render a virus non-functional or haven’t any impact by any means. But the potential for mutations to have an effect on transmissibility of Sars-CoV-2 in its new human hosts exists. Consequently, there have been intense efforts to find out which, if any, of the mutations identifiable because the first Sars-CoV-2 genome was sequenced in Wuhan could considerably alter viral operate.

An notorious mutation on this context is an amino acid change within the Sars-CoV-2 spike protein, the protein that offers coronaviruses their attribute crown-like projections and permits it to connect to host cells. This single character change within the viral genome – termed D614G – has been proven to extend virus infectivity in cells grown within the lab, although with no measurable influence on illness severity. Though this mutation can be close to systematically discovered with three different mutations, and all 4 at the moment are present in about 80% of sequenced Sars-CoV-2 making it probably the most frequent set of mutations in circulation.

The problem with D614G, as with different mutations, is disentangling whether or not they have risen in frequency as a result of they occurred to be current in viruses answerable for seeding early profitable outbreaks, or whether or not they actually confer a bonus to their carriers. Whereas genomics work on a UK dataset suggests a delicate function of D614G in rising the expansion charge of lineages carrying it, our personal work might discover no measurable influence on transmission.

Merely carried alongside

D614G just isn’t the one mutation discovered at excessive frequency. A string of three mutations within the protein shell of Sars-CoV-2 are additionally more and more showing in sequencing knowledge and at the moment are present in a 3rd of viruses. A single change at place 57 of the Orf3a protein, a identified immunogenic area, happens in 1 / 4. Different mutations exist within the spike protein whereas myriad others appear induced by the exercise of our personal immune response. On the similar time, there stays no consensus that these, or any others, are considerably altering virus transmissibility or virulence. Most mutations are merely carried alongside as Sars-CoV-2 continues to efficiently unfold.

However replacements aren’t the one small edits which will have an effect on Sars-CoV-2. Deletions within the Sars-CoV-2 accent genes Orf7b/Orf8 have been proven to cut back the virulence of Sars-CoV-2, probably eliciting milder infections in sufferers. The same deletion could have behaved in the identical manner in Sars-CoV-1, the associated coronavirus answerable for the Sars outbreak in 2002-04. Development in the direction of a much less virulent Sars-CoV-2 could be welcome information, although deletions in Orf8 have been current from the early days of the pandemic and don’t appear to be rising in frequency.

Whereas adaptive adjustments could but happen, all of the accessible knowledge at this stage suggests we’re going through the identical virus because the begin of the pandemic. Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, was proper to pour chilly water on the concept that the virus has mutated into one thing milder than the one which precipitated the UK to impose a lockdown in March. Doable decreases in symptom severity seen over the summer time are in all probability a results of youthful folks being contaminated, containment measures (equivalent to social distancing) and improved remedy slightly than adjustments within the virus itself. Nevertheless, whereas Sars-CoV-2 has not considerably modified so far, we proceed to increase our instruments to trace and hint its evolution, able to hold tempo.

Lucy van Dorp doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that might profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/coronavirus-mutations-what-weve-learned-so-far/ via https://growthnews.in

[jkcookbook]

Guide: Italian Flour

Source:

https://jennyblogs.com/blog/2019/5/14/navigating-the-italian-flour-section-farina

Farina in Italia

You’ve recently moved to Italy, still walking around completely starry-eyed from the beauty of the country, and are about to go grocery shopping because you realize, unfortunately, you can’t order pizza every night.  So you decide to make it at home, crust and all.  (Sneaky, aren’t you?)  When you arrive in the flour section, you realize that it’s going to be a touch more than just translating “flour” to “farina” and trying to figure out which ones are all-purpose, cake flour, and bread flour.  Instead, you find not only types of flour, but numbers to boot.  What does it all mean?  How are you supposed to use flour in Italy?  

Or maybe you’ve lived in Italy for awhile and have been experimenting with the different flours with results ranging from baked goods turning out great, turning out awful, or turning out…different.  This was me the first year of my life in Italy.  Add on top of that ovens that don’t have temperature gauges, are strange sizes, or only cook from the bottom, you get some interesting results.  Can’t I just buy a dang bag of all-purpose flour without having to figure out all the factors in this Italy baking equation?!?  No, Jenny.  No you cannot.  

After talking to people (is there therapy for bakers? Can that be a thing?) and other expats here, reading many articles online, and of course my own many trials and error, hopefully this post will help demystify the flour section a bit for you!  Reading this blog post, which is part 2, on the six categories of wheat will also help you, as some of that will then be helpful to understand (or translate) in Italian.  Let’s start with a quick Italian flour cheat sheet, then keep reading to understand the properties of the Italian flour better.  

Italian Flour Baking Cheat Sheet

For cookies, bars, cakes/cupcakes, biscuits, scones, or anything that needs a tender crumb, use Farina di grano tenero, 00.  This is your “cake flour.”  Nobody wants a chewy cake.

For bread, I recommend starting off with Farina di Manitoba, grano tenero, 0; this is similar to standard American bread flour.  As you progress, you can start to add in Farina di grano duro, or Semola Rimacinata di grano duro.  These flours will have a different feel and look to them as you knead your bread and in the final product, which is why I recommend starting out with just a small portion, around 25% of the total flour, in your recipes until you know how they act.  

For every day needs you can buy one bag of Farina di grano tenero, 00 and one bag of Farina di Manitoba, grano tenero, 0 or Farina di grano duro and mix them together to make your own homemade all-purpose flour.  

Farina Explained

Grano Duro and Grano Tenero

Hard wheat and soft wheat, or as they are known here in Italy,  grano duro and grano tenero, will be written on just about every bag of standard flour.  

Breads and pastas usually use grano duro, or hard wheat, because of the higher gluten content.  Most sweets and cakes use soft flour or grano tenero.  Keep in mind however that there are some breads made with soft flour, as you will find in the bakery section at your local grocery store, or a combo of both soft and hard flour.  

Flour Grinds: 00, 0, 1, 2

This is pretty straightforward: The smaller the number, the finer the flour.  And in your local grocery store, 00 and 0 will be the most common by far.  They don’t have every variety of flour in every grind, so the work is mostly already done for you.  If you know you want a soft/grano tenero, you’ll probably find only 0 and 00.  You won’t have to decide between a soft/grano tenero 00, 0, 1, or 2.  

Semola and Semola Rimacinata

Semola, also know as pasta flour or sometimes semolina in the States, comes from durum wheat and has a yellowish hue.  It is usually grown in the spring and is the hardest of all wheat, which makes it ideal for pasta and bread making.  In Italy it comes in two primary forms: Semola and Semola Rimacinata (reground, or twice ground, making it finer).  Semola is used for eggless pasta and Semola Rimacinata is used for egg pasta.  

Farina di Manitoba

Named after the Canadian province of Manitoba, this is the “bread flour” of Italy.  This one always threw me for a loop, because it is a grano tenero, yet has a high gluten content.  Because of its unusual characteristics, it is often categorized as a “special” flour.  It is often used in the fine grind of 0 and is great for breads that require long-leavening periods, such as French Baguettes, pizza, and breads that use natural yeast or madre lievito.  Read more about Manitoba Flour here.

Farina per Pizza, Pasta, etc.

Because Italy is the land of pizza, pasta, and bread, you will find plenty of bags of pre-mixed wheat varieties that are supposed to be perfect for rustic breads, or focaccia, or pizza, or pasta.  I’ve never bought any of these because I’ve been preoccupied with figuring out how to use all the other flours, but I’m sure they’re great for their specific purposes!

Farina e Lievito

This would be the equivalent of the self-raising flour in the States.  I don’t use this in the States nor in Italy, but I’ve read that it works well here!  You could also make your own, adding 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt per cup (120g) of flour.  (I recommend using baking powder from the States as I’ve heard that the Italian baking powder/lievito in polvere does strange things.)  I would use farina di grano tenero 00 if you’re planning on making biscuits or cookies.  

Specialty Flours

There are also many specialty flours here to inspire your baking or aid your gluten-free needs.  Some worth noting are saraceno (buckwheat), farina di riso (rice flour), farina di mais (cornmeal), farina d’avena (oat flour), teff, farina di ceci (chickpea/garbanzo bean flour), among others.  

Happy baking and good luck with the farina Italiana and finicky ovens!  

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All About that Wheat Flour - FARINA part 2

If you’re reading this, you have probably have some form of wheat flour in your home.  Even the person nearest to you, who is most likely not reading this, probably has some kind of wheat flour in their home.  It almost sounds funny to say wheat flour because it is universally known as just flour.  Flour refers to wheat flour, and only the other types of flour need to differentiate themselves.  Rice flour is no less a flour, but we need to say “rice” in front of “flour” otherwise it will be assumed we are talking about flour; that is, wheat flour.

All-purpose, bread, cake, pastry, self-raising, strong, durum, semolina, whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, and graham are just some of the names for wheat flour types…what do you always have on hand?  Besides maybe the price and brand of your flour, what else do you know about the substance that goes into so many hundreds of recipes?  Should you care?  It may not make a life or death difference, but if you enjoy cooking and baking, or generally like learning, then learning to understand wheat flour varieties and how best to use them can take the food you make to a whole new level!  

If you’d like to read Part 1 and learn how flour is used in Italy, click here.

The Six Categories of Wheat

In your American pantry you probably have an all-purpose flour, a bread flour, maybe a cake flour, maybe a self-raising, possibly a few others.  If you know when and how to use these flours (or just follow a recipe), you might not need to know where or what kind of wheat is actually grown and ground to make these.  But once you become familiar with the types of wheat, their properties and best uses, you can make more educated choices about your baking and end up with a superior result.  Even the most nominal baker will eventually come across recipes that call for cake flour or bread flour, and knowing more about the wheat characteristics and which kinds are used to make these flours will help you understand if you can substitute say, all-purpose flour, and the results if you do so.  

The first thing to know is that wheat can be defined by these six characteristics: 

Soft wheat has a higher moisture content and less gluten, suitable for making cake and cookies and more delicate baked goods

Hard wheat has a lower moisture content and higher protein/gluten* content, usually between 12-14%, suitable for bread making

Red wheat has a slightly higher protein than white and a bolder taste

White wheat is milder in taste even if the color is not so different from red once milled into flour

Winter wheat is usually planted in the fall and harvested in the summer, with the exception of countries that have too harsh of winters, such as Canada where it is planted in the spring

Spring wheat is usually planted in the spring and harvested in the fall, with the exception of countries that have too hot and dry of summers, such as California in which case it is planted in the fall.  You can read more about winter and spring wheat here.

L TO R: DURUM WHEAT (SEMOLA), SOFT WHEAT FOR SWEETS, SOFT WHEAT (MANITOBA) FOR BREAD

*Many use the terms protein and gluten in wheat flour interchangeably.  This is because gluten is a type of protein found in wheat, the kind that is “developed” when you knead bread and gives it the elastic/chewy quality.  In most cases, the higher the protein content, the higher the gluten.  It is important to note that all gluten is protein, but not all protein is gluten, as your celiac friends should be able to tell you.  Also, all wheat contains gluten, but not all gluten comes from wheat.  Make sense?  You can read more here or here for better understanding gluten in the light of gluten allergies, or here for a good explanation of gluten.  For my purposes today, and baking in general, if someone says a flour is high in protein, and someone else says a flour has a high gluten content, they mean the same thing.  And they both mean the flour is good for bread making.  

There are thousands of varieties of wheat grown around the world, but chaos can be brought to order with the following six principle categories, using the characteristics we reviewed above:

Hard Red Winter Wheat (HRW)

Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRS)

Soft Red Winter Wheat (SRW)

Hard White Wheat (HW)

Soft White Wheat (SW)

Durum Wheat (DW) is the hardest of all wheat, used for pasta making

The flour you buy from the store will most likely fall into one of these six categories.  The bread flour in your pantry is most likely a hard red or white spring wheat; your cake flour is probably milled from a soft white wheat; all-purpose is usually a mixture of hard and soft wheat.  You’d know now, for example, that baking a loaf of bread with all-purpose or cake flour will not yield a wonderfully chewy loaf like using bread flour would; they don’t have the gluten required to achieve the chewiness.  

If you’d like to start experimenting with flour varieties, check your area for a local mill.  If you live in the States and are not fortunate enough to have a mill near you, check out Bob’s Red Mill, in store or online.  They have some clearly labeled high-quality flours.  You could buy some of their whole-wheat hard red flour and whole-wheat hard white flour and make some simple bread loaves, trying the two wheat varieties side by side.  

Happy baking!